by Ken Smauthi

Created on: March 17, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

The explosion in the popularity of digital music players in recent years has lead to a related increase in the number of digital audio files cluttering up our computers. Many people have a large collection of MP3 files, sometimes scattered all over their hard drives.

Managing all these files so that you can access the songs you want when you want them can be quite a chore. Fortunately, there are a few simple things that you can do in order to make things much easier on yourself.

First, you should make sure all your MP3 files are all collected in one directory. You can have sub-directories for albums and such. Making sure that all your music files are together will help you to at least have a general idea of where everything is. You can do a search for all your MP3 files to make them easier to find.

Once you've got all your files together, you're going to want to organize them somehow. Many audio player programs have the ability for you to manage playlists, sometimes in creative ways. You may be satisfied with that. However, if you're looking to go really in depth in managing your music collection you should look into a program to help you manage it.

There are several programs on the market that will help you organize your media files. This article will look at 3 popular programs that show a great deal of promise:

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*MEDIA MONKEY
http://www.mediamonkey.com/index.htm
Media Monkey is an excellent program for organizing your music collection. You can organize and browse your files by title, artist, album, and genre. You edit just about any aspect of the file information, and you can link up to your digital audio player or burn a CD.

*ZORTAM MP3 MEDIA STUDIO
http://www.zortam.com/index.php
Zortam is an MP3 organizer with a very interesting interface. It is made up of smaller windows that can be dragged and re-arranged or made to float. So you really get to customize how you want the application to look and feel. Zortam proves to be quite slow at scanning for MP3 files, but once that task is done it is fully capable of helping you organize them.

*MEDIA CATALOG STUDIO
http://www.maniactools.com/soft/media_catalog_ studio/index.shtml
Media Catalog Studio is a very handy program with a well organized interface. The editing features are particularly well done, giving you the ability to not only edit the normal information such as Title, Artist, and Genre. They also give you additional fields like Mood, Tempo, and Category. You can set this data and browse your files using those conditions.

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If you have very specific requirements, make sure to look for a media organization program that fits your needs. Try out the ones mentioned here or look for ones on your own. Use trusted downloading directories such as download.com or softpedia.com in order to make sure you're getting a reputable product.

And be sure to back up your MP3 collection every once in a while in case of a hard drive malfunction. You've pur a lot of effort into your collection, you don't want to have it all disappear on you.

So try out these programs and keep your media organized. It only adds to your enjoyment of a song when things become easier.

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