Does alphabetising on "bin" make sense? I thought "bin" essentially meant "son of". You wouldn't put "Gimli, Son of Gloin" under 'S' for son, would you?

I use pretty much the same rules you do. (I only wish the stupid computer did so too. Why are my Nick Cave and Neil Young files stored near each other?) Within an artists section, I then file in chronological order of release. For example: in the Bob Dylan section, Highway 61 Revisited comes before Blonde on Blonde, which comes before Blood on the Tracks, etc.

As for Umar bin Hussan, doesn't "bin" mean "son of"? You could go with Umar or Hussan, but bin would seem to be right out.

Our rules are similar to yours. Don't forget that after alphabetical by band, albums are sorted chronologically by the year of first release.

Unfortunately, our MP3s refuse to cooperate, and I always forget to look for "The Flaming Lips" under T.

Beck is filed under B. All Neil Young albums are filed under Y, even the ones with Crazy Horse.

On preview, bmarkey and I are comment twins.

GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!

I think I have the same rules as you. An additional one is that mixes are filed by the name of the person who made them for me. (And my current sad state of affairs is that all my CDs are currently jumbled in a box underneath my bookshelf. I need a media shelf!!!)

The "bin" thing reminded me of dissolving into giggles when I saw that my roommate had filed Camper Van Beethoven under V. Heh.

Oh, I forgot to mention that compilations (other than "greatest hits") are file on the bottom shelf, by title.

The argument for Bin follows from my girlfriend's library degree. Things are to be filed in this order:
By name most commonly known; by name most commonly referenced; by known personal preference; by naming convention in native country. Since Umar's an American, and we don't know his personal preference (and there don't seem to be any good last-name references out there, really), we were going under the theory that he'd be Bin Hussan on his driver's license (like Bin Laden).

Everything is converted to mp3 and stored in my own hand-coded database.

Divided first by format, then alpha by artist. Ditto on most of the other stuff. Various-artists stuff at the end, except for various-artist soundtracks, which are filed by title. DJ mixes kinda depend on the amount of actual mixing the DJ's doing, but are filed either in various-artists or under the DJ's name.

Within individual artists, first studio releases, chronological by recording date, then live albums, chronological again, then greatest-hits and other compilations, chronological by release.

All of this, though, is more of an ideal to aspire toward than, y'know, something I actually maintain in practice. I'm pretty much happy as long as I can find the stuff.

Comment for klang: If it were me, I'd strongly consider putting Umar Bin Hassan next to the Last Poets.

That said, 'Bin Hassan, Umar' is the authority form.

As box points out, the main thing is that you're able to find it when you need it. 'Bin Hassan, Umar' is as good as anything else, as long as you stick with it every time you refile.

I'm kinda conflicted and waffly--on the one hand, the main goal is to be able to find what I'm looking for. On the other hand, I'd like to have my collection organized in a way that rewards browsing and encourages serendipity.

(Also, here's a LiveJournal post (with poll) I made on this topic a while back.)

*favorites matthewr's comment in an imaginary kind of way*

I remove the 'the's' except for The Who and The Band in iTunes. and I generally keep everything filed by 'Date Added' to encourage serendipity. As for my physical media, I've ben short on shelf space for a while, so they're kind of helter-skelter at the moment.

We moved halfway across the world a scant two years back, and haven't really settled the office area out, although that's next.

I could frankly give a flying fuck about how things are filed, as long as I don't have to do it.

I always forget to look for "The Flaming Lips" under T.
You need to tag the files as "Flaming Lips, The" - that will force them to obey your will.

I file all artists/bands by their name as a whole, which goes against my filing nazi grain, but I treat however the artist describes him/her/themself as a kind of "trading name" and file accordingly. Albums by the same artist are filed by alphabetical order, ignoring any "the" or "a" at the start of the title. The only mixes I have are from MefiSwap, so they are filed under "M" and compilations are filed on a separate set of shelves at the bottom of the CD racks in their own alphabetical order.

Nobody else in the household cares about what order things are in, so they are under strict instructions not to put any CD back, but to leave them on the cabinet beside the shelves for me to replace.

I'm not sure whether to be comforted or appalled at the consistent anal tendencies shown here. I'm leaning towards comforted, though :-)

"I remove the 'the's' except for The Who and The Band in iTunes. and I generally keep everything filed by 'Date Added' to encourage serendipity. As for my physical media, I've ben short on shelf space for a while, so they're kind of helter-skelter at the moment."

Oh, yeah, it's always Date Added on iTunes. But we're going with Bin Hassan, Umar. And will therefor go with Son of Gloin, Gimli. (Except that in his native land, he'd be filed under Gimli. Or maybe just Gimli Gloin/Gloinson).