# How do you organize/listen to music?



## Jogaga (Nov 24, 2021)

Hello everybody,

I wonder how you organise your playlist or CDs. Do you listen to just one artist all the time or a best of or even a mix from the era?

I have 3 methods:

By era - disadvantage: way too many tracks and you can't enjoy the playlist.

By mood - a "sad", "happy" playlist - disadvantage: usually some composers are excluded, e.g. Bach in a happy playlist?

Individual mix? 

How do you do it?


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

I select a period and work through it as I'm doing here. I also select from works premiered on this day in history. Sometimes I listen to them all, sometimes just the ones that take my fancy given the time I have.

Then there's the String Quartet of the Week, the Saturday Symphony, and a few others including listening to a few pieces listed in the games if I've not heard them before.

I know that isn't to everyone's taste. It works for me. If left to my own devices without a plan, I'd listen to the same stuff over and over.

As for playlists, I have a folder "Classical Composers" that includes 52 folders, one per week following classical music from medieval to contemporary, with a playlist for each work or podcast, and a folder "Classical Year" that includes 12 folders, one for each month, with a playlist for each day.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I'm a bit of an oddball in this. For a few years already my classical music listening has been dictated for 90% or so by my decision to re-listen to all my CD's, cataloging them, and filing them physically in a way I can find them easily. I'm doing that alphabetically per (main) composer on the CD. Currently at "S", mixing it up by playing CD's from Schubert to Sibelius, which given the presence of some heavy hitters will take a few months before I move on beyond Sibelius.

In addition to S composers, you will also see Mahler pop up frequently in my Current Listening posts, because I did not want to overdose on him (200+ CD's) so I spread listening to his CD's time wise over a few years.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

99% random for me, what I feel like when I feel like it. The only and very occasional exceptions are if I'm preparing for a performance and want to check some detail or other in the music that I might be puzzling over for some reason.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

My cd's are all over the house in random order. I just pick up a bunch and decide which to play.


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Utterly chaotic here. Random YT surfin'. Symphonies on a whim. Concertos for lunch. Genre hopping within seconds sometimes. Long live surfin' serendipity. At other times, utterly focused concentration, often with a score. My CD collection is tightly organised as small square things containing discs in a rack array barely clinging to what one might describe as alphabetical order.
I blame the internet.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Animal the Drummer said:


> 99% random for me, what I feel like when I feel like it. The only and very occasional exceptions are if I'm preparing for a performance and want to check some detail or other in the music that I might be puzzling over for some reason.


Mine are all ripped. The indexing is primarily by composer. I often don't know exactly what piece I want to hear, but I generally know the composer.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

I pull threads.

If I'm listening to a band, I might next pull out solo albums from the members, followed by other bands they were in, followed by other bands on the same label, followed by another production from the same producer...

In classical, I might listen to a composer then move on to other recordings by the same performer followed by another composer from the same city & time followed by....

You get the idea.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I have certain music I listen to most of the time but deep dives into specific less well traveled areas from time to time. But it is mostly what I feel like hearing at the moment.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Bulldog said:


> My cd's are all over the house in random order. I just pick up a bunch and decide which to play.


Same here, mostly. About half of my collection is shelved in some sort of order, but the other half is in various unorganized stacks. I periodically peruse those stacks to find something that I feel like listening to. About once a week, I check out Spotify new releases and sample some of those - like the Modigliani Quartet's Schubert set that popped up today.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

My CDs are all organised alphabetically by composer using the Penguin Guide way of organisation. First it's the composer name by alphabetical order. I file orchestral music first, alphabetically according to the type of piece (eg. a concerto comes before a symphony and a piano concerto comes before a violin concerto) . After the orchestral music is chamber music, then music for solo instruments and lastly vocal music (do you have any, Merl?) . If the disc has more than one composer it's filed by the composer of the piece I like or play the most or by the composer of the main or longest piece on the CD. Works for me and I usually find what I'm looking for really quickly. They actually need sorting on my next holidays as a few have got out of order and it annoys me. Lol. My hard drives are organised similarly but a bit more chaotically. I still have composer folders alphabetically and within them complete symphony cycles / SQ cycles in subfolders. The rest is a bit messy but I'll sort it soon. I have a few duplicated files that need sorting and some that need deleting, plus I have some retagging to do. I know you shouldn't organise digital files like this but until I get a good 2 weeks at this it won't get sorted.


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Just loosely alphabetical by composer name, the cd's with more than one composer go by genre (orchestral - chamber - solo - vocal - choir). Cd boxes are separated from individual cd's.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Jogaga said:


> Hello everybody,
> 
> I wonder how you organise your playlist or CDs. Do you listen to just one artist all the time or a best of or even a mix from the era?
> 
> ...


I took this post to mean, how do I organize my daily playlist but the replies seem more to speak to how they organize their music collection.

My playlists, I have but a few of them, are mostly mood based. My daily playlists which I do not retain are like everything in my life, eclectic. As my postings in the listening to thread shows, I can go from Gregorian Chant to minimal in schizophrenia fashion.

My CD's are "lightly" organized. I keep all my SACDs together but keep all Philip Glass together, SACD or not. After that, it's part era, part category, choral, symphony.... In other words, only I can find something in my collection.

As to my digital music, all is kept by release date. I very much enjoy being chronologically aware of releases. However, as all is tagged I can pull up music about any way I like.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

CDs. Chronologically, by the date of the composer's birth, first, then from solo, to chamber, to concerted, to orchestral and lastly liturgical.

I have no explanation why I do it this way other that I love music history.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

My vinyl records of all genres are haphazardly filed on shelves in no order whatsoever. After recording them in Hi-Res and cleaning up the surface noise, those Flac files along with downloads from Presto Classical and the like are more organized. By composer/band, then by work/album in alphabetical order. That follows the alphanumeric order in which computers and digital players list files. My CDs, which I haven't touched in years since ripping them all in Flac are filed by band, then album by release date. I don't own many classical CDs, so there's not much to organize.


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

I have most all of my music stored on NASes (save for my multi-channel SACDs and some blu-rays/DVDs) that I playback using JRiver and/or my Oppo player. As for the SACDs they're categorized by composers' last names. I have my music categorized into three main folders of "classical," "jazz," and "pop." Within classical I mostly have folders for composers, but I also have separate folders for the handful of performers whose work I've bothered to collect (Richter, Karajan, Heifetz, etc.), as well as a folder for "labels" for the handful of massive box sets I've bought that sample many of the best releases from a label, like DG's "101" collections. As far as listening, I will tend to organize playlists of whatever I'm in the mood to explore at the time. That might be pop, jazz, classical, or a mix. I will generally put enough music on there to last me a month or more, which is usually about 4-6 days worth (in terms of total hours). I'll usually listen to this music while working, and I'll make mental notes of favorites to listen to again (and maybe again and again) in my free time.


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

I ripped all my music (except LPs) onto a harddisk, organised them in a library so that, I can either 1) browse or 2) search (by composer, work, performer, year etc.) for what I want to listen to, drag it to my media player and hit the play button.

Additionally I maintain a dynamic set of playlists that are similar to the kind that the OP described. Currently, for classical music, I have three playlists: 

"Now Playing - Classical New" - recently bought recordings.
"Now Playing - Glazunov" - Serebrier, Polyansky and Mravinsky's symphony recordings.
"Now Playing - Piazzolla Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas" - my recent obsession.

This is a dynamic list. I create and delete playlists from time to time. It all depends on needs. 

Naturally I use the "Now Playing - Classical New" playlist a lot, and its contents keep getting updated. The others could be gone in a month's time, and new ones may be created.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Art Rock said:


> *I'm a bit of an oddball in this.* For a few years already my classical music listening has been dictated for 90% or so by my decision to re-listen to all my CD's, cataloging them, and filing them physically in a way I can find them easily. I'm doing that alphabetically per (main) composer on the CD. Currently at "S", mixing it up by playing CD's from Schubert to Sibelius, which given the presence of some heavy hitters will take a few months before I move on beyond Sibelius.
> 
> In addition to S composers, you will also see Mahler pop up frequently in my Current Listening posts, because I did not want to overdose on him (200+ CD's) so I spread listening to his CD's time wise over a few years.


Nothing "oddball" about this at all. Nothing. Not a thing.

You are as sane as I am, madman though I be.

----

I generally compile a "listening session" purely by mood at the moment, often spurred by something I read, often now on this very Forum. (If, say, Mahler's Third is mentioned in a provocative post, I may assign it for a listening session. Or if something unfamiliar is mentioned, I may look through my collection to see if it's there and then schedule it for a listen.)

I utilize celebration days (composer birthdays, holidays associated with certain works) at times, but generally I will pick something at random I haven't listened to in a while and give it a spin. (The Bartok quartets is an example of that recently.)

My CD collection is rather alphabetical by composer (though since I moved a while back and had to pack everything in boxes I have not gotten to putting up everything yet, so I have limited access to my current stock of discs.) I do have several sections arranged by labels (the complete Vienna Modern Masters, the Hyperion Romantic Piano, Violin, and Cello Concertos, the Karel Ancerl Gold Edition collection, the Vaclav Talich Special Edition collection, the col legno/NEOS Donaueschinger Musiktage collection, etc. etc.).

My LPs are still in boxes (for the most part -- I have shelved a couple hundred) arranged by label. I sort through one of these boxes every so often to cull out the "good" stuff (which will remain with me) and separate it from the "cast offs", which I'll look to dump with a local record seller. But with thousands of LPs, this process will take time. Meanwhile, I enjoy listening to a lot of music.

I have spent the last couple of years cataloguing my discs using Discogs. It has proven handy to help me keep track of what I have, so I won't spend on purchasing a duplicate disc already in my collection. (I've done that in the past, though not too often, thankfully.)

Each time I play something now I think it may be for the last time. A sad thought, but a realistic one. Still, I'm convinced that I cannot live long enough to hear every disc I currently have, even if I spend most of the day listening to music. So I try to choose wisely. I still select a lot of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and other "old favorites" as well as continue on exploring "new music" which is often still in shrinkwrap in one of the boxes. Always an adventure at hand.

I've long thought of listening to music as equivalent to travelling and visiting foreign countries and exotic locales. Through music I've been everywhere. Ralph Vaughan Williams by way of André Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra have even taken me to Antarctica, just this morning. Fascinatingly, the journey was not "chilly" at all.

So ... no oddness here, either.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

10 or 15 years ago I changed from alphabetical to chronological by composer''s birthday. Some things take a bit longer to find because I don'the know the year by heart but some collections can be filed along the composers. For anthologies I have a different shelf alphabetically by artist. All but one shelf is in one room. Within composers sections the genres are usually like in HWV and BWV: secular vocal, sacred vocal, orchestral, chamber, keyboard. 
Then again alphabetically by artist. E.g. Beethoven's sonatas with Arrau, then Backhaus, Fischer, Gulda etc.


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## 4chamberedklavier (12 mo ago)

I mostly listen to music through Youtube, but some I download. I don't want to deal with Spotify because the application is so very slow.

I keep lists & separate songs & pieces into two categories:
1) those that I can enjoy & appreciate to some extent
2) my 'favorites', the ones that elicit a strong reaction from me & don't get boring after repeated listens.


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## gnail (Jan 5, 2021)

My cds are sorted for the major composers by era and region. So I have sections for baroque, classical, early romantics, late romantics and then followed by sections devoted to russian, scandinavian, french, uk, usa and americans composers. 

And I will file the rest of the other composers or artist box sets separately using alphabetically order. 

Perhaps my collection is not as huge as some of you but this works for me so far and I have no problem locating any cd and can similarly quickly zoom into a particular category of music to suit my mood for the listening session.


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## Tero (Jun 2, 2012)

Rock: alphabetical, by performer. Jethro Tull goes under J.
Classical by eras and a few composers get a good size section of their own. Sibelius, Mozart.

Mp3's: Badly organized burned CDs and the current stuff as mp3 on laptop.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Just alphabetical and CD'S lets say from singers also on alphabet . CD'D with more the on composer goes on the performer name .


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Jogaga said:


> Hello everybody,
> 
> I wonder how you organise your playlist or CDs. Do you listen to just one artist all the time or a best of or even a mix from the era?
> 
> ...


Let's try to get this thread back to the OP's question above. It is not about how we store CD's or organize files on the computer, but it is about how do you determine what you will be listening to.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

I select CDs for listening randomly, according to whatever I fancy at the time (mixed classical, pop, rock, indie etc).

Most of my CDs are ripped to my PC and stored alphabetically by artist, then copied to my android phone.

I listen on my phone using Poweramp.

I don't use playlists, but choose an album at random. Occasionally, I listen to one 'song' then let my phone continue alpabetically - it throws up some interesting combinations.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

To answer the OP's question. 
Mostly randomly. Often influenced by threads on the forum, and occasionally I'll decide upon a theme for an evening - an example being this evening I've gone with recordings featuring Boulez as conductor.

A very high proportion of listening is to physical discs from my collection with maybe 10% via streaming.


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

I listen to music as a reaponse to different needs:

Relaxation
Comfort
Inspiration
Something new
Different Worlds
Profound Stuff
Epic Stuff
Feeling of nature
Pure aesthetic soundscapes
Modern stuff as a contrast
Rock music playlist when I clean the house
Project of expanding my listening repertoire
I love the cello
I love the viola
I love the bass clarinet
I love piano with strings
I love the choir sound
Something joyful
Something mournful
I feel like Brendel
I feel like Arrau
I feel like Berglund
I feel like Karajan
I feel like Argerich

ETC.

So I ask myself, what do I want now and then go for it.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Waehnen said:


> I love the bass clarinet


Contrabassoon for me. Can't get enough of it!


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

My CDs are on shelves alphabetically by Composer. The problem of course is multi composer discs. Still it bets trying to find your CDs after burning them a hard drive, as most music catalog systems work badly for organizing Classical Music


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

I guess my filing system is unique. I file the CDs by artist (mostly). Concert pianists are grouped together: Gould, Horowitz, Serkin, Earl Wild, Emil Gilels, Richter, Yuja Wang, ect. The next group: concert violinists: Menuhin, Stern, Heifetz, Mutter, etc.; Then cellist, Rostropovich, Ma; and then viola, guitar, followed by brass and wind which can be grouped together. Then comes chamber music; Then the great conductors. I've got about 150 CDs by Leonard Bernstein alone and I find that I can find what I want by grouping into sets and sub-sets: DG recordings, Columbia's _Bernstein Century_ and _Royal Collection_. Then there is Ormandy, Reiner, Walter, Stokowski, etc. Karajan is a large section with about 50 or 60 CDs. All my NAXOS CDs are in one area; with a special place for the wonderful _American Classics_ line. Opera, choral, and box sets are on shelves where they can be displayed for cover art.

Since I go through phases such with different conductors and concert musicians, I find it's easier this way, because after pulling out the things I want to listen to, it's easier to put them back into place afterwards if I don't have to find the exact spot where they are supposed to go; just the group. Because there is some overlap: Bach's _Piano Concerto #1_ with Glenn Gould and Leonard Bernstein (where do I put it, with Gould or Bernstein?); but usually I can remember and if not it won't take me long to check both groupings.

There are a couple hundred CDs that don't fir or warrant a category of artist so those are arranged in another place by alphabetically by composer.

I guess it sounds a bit wacky but it works for me.

When my youngest son was little he used to play with Hot Wheels cars and he had a collection of about 200 of them. He would even go to sleep in his bed with one car in each hand. And while you wouldn't think that a three year old could keep track of that many cars, he COULD. If the ice cream truck, the police car, the red racer, or whatever was missing, he'd know it. So I'm sort of that way with my record and CD collection.

With streaming and spotify (which I don't even know how to use) I imagine that my LP and CD collection is of very little value to anyone except me and even my kids told me that the collection will be worthless to them and, probably, anyone else. So if this collection of LPS and CDs that I have so meticulously have maintained from age 14 to 54 (and counting!) doesn't end up selling for $1 a piece at some thrift store, it will probably fall into the trash bin.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Let's try again, in bigger font...

*Let's try to get this thread back to the OP's question. It is not about how we store CD's or organize files on the computer, but it is about how do you determine what you will be listening to. *

:tiphat:


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Art Rock said:


> Let's try again, in bigger font...
> 
> *Let's try to get this thread back to the OP's question. It is not about how we store CD's or organize files on the computer, but it is about how do you determine what you will be listening to. *
> 
> :tiphat:


To be fair, the OP was not very clear in what he was asking. At least not to me. I answered both ways as a result.

Peace


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

IMO only the first sentence is not fully clear, but I think the rest of the post shows what the intention is.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

Art Rock said:


> Let's try again, in bigger font...
> 
> *Let's try to get this thread back to the OP's question. It is not about how we store CD's or organize files on the computer, but it is about how do you determine what you will be listening to. *
> 
> :tiphat:


Mozart in the morning. Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, or Sibelius when the weather is cold. The rest of the time I go through phases by composer or even concert artist or conductor. I wonder if we each have a built-in algorithm to which even we ourselves are not aware?


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## Oistrakh The King (12 mo ago)

Jogaga said:


> Hello everybody,
> 
> I wonder how you organise your playlist or CDs. Do you listen to just one artist all the time or a best of or even a mix from the era?
> 
> ...


I classify the music based on the composers. I don't think this is a good way, however, because a same composer can compose works with great variety. For example, Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 and No. 9 are so different that they sound like composed by two different composers during two different eras.


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## Jogaga (Nov 24, 2021)

I love the idea : "A journey through classical music from medieval to contemporary"

I still have to find out how this "String Quartet of the Week" works.

Really nice ideas everybody!


Sorry for the misunderstanding! 
Yes it's how do you determine what you will be listening to. ( Thank you Art Rock)
(Of course it's also interesting to know how to organise that, but thats secondary)


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

Art Rock said:


> Let's try again, in bigger font...
> 
> *Let's try to get this thread back to the OP's question. It is not about how we store CD's or organize files on the computer, but it is about how do you determine what you will be listening to. *
> 
> :tiphat:


I determine what I will be listening to based entirely on my mood and/or whatever is next on my playlist.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

While listening to my FiioX3 MKIII player on the train to and from work, whatever comes next alphanumerically on the SD card is what gets played next. It plays through form one album to the next, without any user intervention.


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

wkasimer said:


> Same here, mostly. About half of my collection is shelved in some sort of order, but the other half is in various unorganized stacks.


My situation too. Five years ago I mooved to another appartment, and at the same time I organized my CD collection. But what I have acquired since is at the moment unorganized, mainly because of lack of space.

I have no systematic organization of what I listen to. Sometimes I listen to complete collections (WTC eg.), sometimes only parts of these (some Beethoven piano sonatas eg.), and sometimes I listen to different recordings of the same work depending upon my mood at the given time.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Art Rock said:


> Let's try again, in bigger font...
> 
> *Let's try to get this thread back to the OP's question. It is not about how we store CD's or organize files on the computer, but it is about how do you determine what you will be listening to. *
> 
> :tiphat:


Lol, apologies to everyone and especially the OP for not reading the thread properly. My listening is two-fold.

1) Totally random. Whatever I'm in the mood for and I either drag out of the CD racks, select from the car USB or stream via Spotify. Sometimes it can be prompted by a recommendations or a casual mention of something I've not played for a while, too.
2) I'm saturation-listening to numerous recordings of the same piece by many ensembles for one of my comparative blog reviews.

I rarely have time to plan listening in between those two modes and I'm OK with that.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Eva Yojimbo said:


> I determine what I will be listening to based entirely on my mood and/or whatever is next on my playlist.


May I join you in this, different music that is but your system.


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## vnc3r (6 mo ago)

Super-interesting thread, and precisely what I'm working on at the moment (more on that below)!

When on "discovery mode", I pick whole albums from an artist, usually by order of release year, and listen to them from start to finish. When on "random" mode, I just put my playlists or mixes on.

Now, I had long lists of things I wanted to listen some time, but it turned out chaotic. Also, I didn't have a good way to organize things I've listened to, so I set out to build a site in which I can better organize my "Want to Listen", "Listened" and "Liked" lists, easily order them by date, search in them, tag them and share them with friends. For more info, refer to this post!


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

By height of composer.


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## justekaia (Jan 2, 2022)

i have 800 composers in my collection (400 pre ww II and 400 after wwII) with all the available works and they are properly archived. Unfortunately they are in 3 different countries and in different rooms. so access and hearing choices are partly dependent on that.I listen 90 % of the time with my headphones from my disc collection, but discover novelties mainly from yt. spotify is good to facilitate listening to a full cd or even letting yourself go to their choices which take your taste in account anyway. that being said as i know the classic repertoire and am mainly interested by new music i devote 30 % of my time to exploring unheard new music, 20 % to known new music, 20 % to new versions of existing classical and the rest is made of spurs of the moment, like listening to bizet's symphony which i love since i am born (nearly true). Then i can also go on a binge and listen to rheingold in the morning and tristan in the afternoon, because it is so long i have not been able to do that. So there is a pattern 50 % new music, 20 % new versions of classical , 30 % random. Famous performers are also playing a role as they are classified in my collection. So i can take a day out to listen to nelson freire or martha argerich. Average listening time per day is 6 to 8 hours.


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## golfer72 (Jan 27, 2018)

I usually concentrate on certain composers for awhile . Recently I worked through all the Schubert sonatas. Currently going through Medtners solo piano works. Been listening a lot to Mahler 7 also , spurred on by a few threads here on Mahler. My favorite genre is solo piano so that is most of my listening.


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