Getting My Old Music Library in Order
So, I was just browsing around online earlier, you know how it is, clicking links, seeing what’s buzzing. Saw some stuff about Mariah Carey trending, seemed like the usual internet noise. Didn’t really pay it much mind, but it kinda reminded me of how cluttered things can get, not just online, but like, my own stuff. My digital junk drawer.
That actually kicked me into gear. Decided, right then and there, I was gonna finally sort out my ancient music collection. It’s been sitting on this old external hard drive, probably haven’t seriously looked at it in maybe five, six years? Maybe longer. Seriously neglected.
First step was digging out that old drive and finding the right cable. Always a challenge, right? Found it eventually, plugged it in. Computer took a minute to even recognize the thing, thought it might be dead. But nope, it spun up. Success!
Then the real work started. Opening folders… wow. It was a mess. Like, digital archaeology. Folders inside folders inside folders. Tracks named weird things like ‘*3’ or just random numbers. So much junk I’d downloaded ages ago.
Here’s basically what I did:
- Went folder by folder, artist by artist.
- Listened to a few seconds of tracks I didn’t recognize. So much stuff I forgot I even had.
- Deleted obvious duplicates. Found like five versions of the same song sometimes, all different quality. Kept the best one, tossed the rest.
- Tried to standardize naming. Artist – Album – Track Number – Title. Took forever.
- Made new top-level folders, like ‘Rock’, ‘Pop’, ’90s Hip Hop’. Just basic stuff.
- Found a bunch of corrupted files that wouldn’t even play. Straight to the trash bin.
It took pretty much the whole afternoon. My wrist started hurting from all the clicking and dragging. Felt like real manual labor almost. But honestly? It felt good. Like cleaning out a real closet.
Looking back, it’s crazy how much time I must have spent downloading all that back in the day, often low-quality stuff too. Now everything’s streaming, right? But still, nice to have my own curated little library sorted out. Less digital noise, feels a bit calmer. Anyway, that was my big project for the day, all sparked by some random internet headline. Funny how things work out.
