How to Organize Your Music Library Like a Pro | Foobar2000 File Operations and Conversions Tutorial

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This topic may not be that riveting, but... wait, YES IT IS. Breaking away from the corporate algorithms and being the master of your own music is sexy as hell... so let's learn how to organize that music folder. First, get this stuff:
Foobar2000: www.foobar2000.org (you don't have to use this to play your music, but it's still the easiest tool to organize things)
Foobar2000 Free Encoder Pack: www.foobar2000.org/encoderpack
Here is my magic thing from the video:
%album artist%/[%date% - ]%album%/[%tracknumber%. ]%title%
If you want to use my foobar theme, see this video:
• My Foobar2000 2.0 2024...
OR, if you are not into work, you can cheat and just drag and drop this into your foobar folder:
mega.nz/folder/9UhUmJwa#yMEux...
-----------------------------
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Twitter: / teksyndicate
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[@christopherrocky]

Great tutorial mate! gonna give this a go

[@alan_core]

Great video Logan 👌

[@abowers]

Thank you for putting these great music content and foobar videos out !!

[@ThanhHoang-og6eg]

I have been looking for this long time ago. 🎉

[@Heikken]

I've never really taken a peek under the hood of Foobar2000 so the file operations and conversions is very new to me. Insanely powerful stuff. Thanks for the tips! I've got a question though: does anybody know how to sort songs by disc number in the library tree? I have a lot of multi-disc albums in my library and they come up as song 1 of album 1 and then followed by song 1 of album 2 and so on. Is there way to set a specific rule to all albums?

[@fffrrraannkk]

Just curious how you keep your media files backed up. Do you use something like a RAID setup, or just have multiple copies on different media?

[@teksyndicate]

Nas with redundancy... Then I automatically back that up to another drive

[@Scootermagoo]

I have a drive installed for music and a backup drive for it I keep in the shipping box inside the static bag. But to each their own. When I build my next pc I'm going to have 4 8tb drives and do a raid 1 probably and 2 drives for backups.and keep the music drive single in it's box.

[@Borunzio]

I'm setting up my theme here. How do you keep the music selection by one click in your current selection playlist and a "now playing" playlist tab at the same time? My playing album keeps disappearing whan I select something else.

[@Ljosi]

I miss times when you organized epic events like that mountain trip and that huge LAN event... is that type of content ever coming back or did you retire to desk videos for good?

[@teksyndicate]

I still have some of that in me... but probably not with the tech KZbin crowd... maybe a few of them... but I'd probably talk to indie devs and gaming youtubers this time.

[@lary90210]

Trying some conversions from flac to opus 256kbps.... can't tell a difference....

[@erikahuxley]

I despise apps that don't support music library by folder structure (see: Apple). Yes I do ID3 tag all songs, but still on Android I use Pulsar app and sort by folder structure. I do think foobar2000 is one of the best app for mass ID3 tagging. For listening to music though I prefer Strawberry player, it's less hidef but I like the simplicity.

[@youpoop9755]

One question thou. I know a lot of people doing this, but what´s actually the benefit of having the artist as the main folder and then their Albums on the subfolders? Sure, it´s organized. But the artist are already in the id3 Tag. It makes even more problems when it comes to compilations with different artists for an album. To me a Folder Structure like this makes way more sense: Seeing that you like Game Soundtracks, i´ll give you an example with Zelda Music. First off there is the Main Folder (like "The Legend of Zelda"), then in this Main Folder are Sub Folders that may lead to a specific Album or even Movie (which is also subfoldered with different Albums for that Game). Here´s an example of what i mean: The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time > Arrangement Soundtrack > Music Files The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time > Original Soundtrack > Disc 1 > Music Files The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time > Original Soundtrack > Disc 2 > Music Files

[@AlbedoAtoned]

Most of this is resolved by naming based on Album artist over what is listed in artist. Doing this keeps the folder structure clean and makes it way easier when you ever need to do file management or if you are left needing to play music without the use of a music library feature. Back when I first starrted using foobar I had previously tried windows media player and itunes. The former began slowing down as I bought more music, and the latter I found was very destructive towards not only the folder structure but also the very ID3 tags. It basically overwrote a large portion of the tags with very incorrect information, then moved it into a basic artist/song folder structure that made finding the song I wanted nearly impossible. I see what you mean about soundtracks, which is why I personally organize them outside of the normal music. I don't even include them in my Foobar library, rather I use a component meant for columns ui that adds a file tree to the one of the panels and makes it so I can add music from my misc folder from within foobar without it clogging up my artist list with various artists that only have one or two songs or "various artists" which is what a lot of soundtracks tend to put in their album artist. Because of my experiences with Itunes and finding out that the only music player on linux that I could quickly listen to music with without it choking on my music library was a program called Audacious, I realized that the best organization for me was 4 base folders, Music # - G, Music H - P, Music Q - Z, Misc Music. Then in the first three folders, I sort by Album Artist/Album. In Misc, I group music by at least series, I do subgroups if I need to. Even with it grouped as neatly, I am glad it isn't piled into a main folder because it just looks much worse and it's easier to find things this way. When I want to listen to music on my phone, I first create the base 4 folders. Then copy album artists I want to listen to on the phone. I use hybrid lossy format for my music so I try to not copy the lossless correction files to the phone to save space. For misc music, I copy whatever I am interested in at the time on the device or by plugging it into my PC. if I need more, it is easy to add or delete music because it is organized and can be done from any file manager. It allso makes backups simpler. And because my music is organized, I can even get to music quicker on my phone by browsing the folder structure than by using the music library.

[@youpoop9755]

@@AlbedoAtoned Finally someone responding. Very well explained. Thanks very much for the information. One question thou. Can you maybe give me an example how your directory structure would look like how from my example above (the Zelda one)? And maybe for a regular Music Album, let´s say Micheal Jackson or whatever.

[@AlbedoAtoned]

@@youpoop9755 For a normal album by Michael Jackson, I would start by making a folder in the Music H - P folder titled Michael Jackson, then the album name for example "Invincible" then the songs in there. If there is more than one disc, I put them in folders CD1, CD2 and so on. For zelda music, I start by going to the Misc Music folder, I would make a folder titled Zelda music. Depending on how much music there is, I might put all Zelda music in there separated by folders. But if there is a lot, I would typically separate the folders by which game it was relevant to. An example of one of the more complex folders is my folder for Persona music. I have folders for each of the games, then music for said game in that folder in separate folders based on album name. For the later entries I even keep the anime OSTs in a subdirectory for said game.

[@helloimatapir]

Great video. My only suggestion would be to embed the album art in the music file. Also, as I am sure you know, Opus is the successor to Vorbis. There is no reason to consider the latter anymore.

[@teksyndicate]

It's basically a compatibility thing. While working in unity on an indie game... opus files wouldn't work even if in the ogg container. So that was annoying, but ogg files were the default.

[@helloimatapir]

@@teksyndicate Didn't think of that. Apple's default apps are the only ones I know who won't support it, because... Apple.

[@beige6620]

I'm curious what use-case you have for embedded album art. It takes up more space than a single album artwork file since it has to append the artwork to each file, which is marginal across a few hundred albums, but at a larger scale can get quite excessive.

[@mattmisanthropy.]

Can someone please tell me how to make JSPlaylist always display 'now playing' in the default playlist? I hate having to manually right click and select 'Show Now Playing Track' every time

[@TheIsolatedGamerz]

Is there any way I can separate the stems on a n64 track, I have foobar2000 with .UFC player installed, I can play the tracks fine. I was wondering if there is method so i can separate the channels? Layers. If thats the correct thermology

[@Wierie_]

Any tips for playing music on 432hz?

[@fenexj]

Yo i've not been here for a few years, but this video seemed interesting, one questions, is this logan? He looks and sounds different to what I remember

[@bwmxxxxx]

Yes, this is Logan. He now has long hair and is just chillin being himself.

[@fenexj]

@@bwmxxxxx Thanks, apologies to logan, didn't mean to appear disrespectful

[@agentskazzers3482]

I guess i need to look up OPUS not sure what it is.

[@TheSolidSnakeOil]

My music is organized to a scary OCD level.

[@Scootermagoo]

How ocd shall we measure... ahem meta data and naming? Z:Music\Artist\Year - Album\CD Number\Artist - Title - Track Number as i get them I add the album information aka (Warner Brothers 7256....)(US) to the album name. And I did this for nearly 300k songs.

[@TheSolidSnakeOil]

@@Scootermagoo Eww, you use spaces. Every folder is like this and if the album has multiple CDs, the tree breaks down even further. I used very specific naming practices for searching and scripting witch means no spaces or special characters. They can make posix scripts go nuts if something isn't escaped properly, so I avoid them. ├── at_the_drive_in/ │ ├── 1996-acrobatic_tenement/ │ │ ├── 101-star_slight.lyrics │ │ ├── 101-star_slight.opus │ │ ├── 102-schaffino.lyrics │ │ ├── 102-schaffino.opus │ │ ├── 103-embroglio.lyrics │ │ ├── 103-embroglio.opus │ │ ├── 104-initiation.lyrics │ │ ├── 104-initiation.opus │ │ ├── 105-communication_drive_in.lyrics │ │ ├── 105-communication_drive_in.opus │ │ ├── 106-skips_on_the_record.lyrics │ │ ├── 106-skips_on_the_record.opus │ │ ├── 107-paid_vacation_time.lyrics │ │ ├── 107-paid_vacation_time.opus │ │ ├── 108-ticklish.lyrics │ │ ├── 108-ticklish.opus │ │ ├── 109-blue_tag.lyrics │ │ ├── 109-blue_tag.opus │ │ ├── 110-coating_of_arms.lyrics │ │ ├── 110-coating_of_arms.opus │ │ ├── 111-porfirio_diaz.lyrics │ │ ├── 111-porfirio_diaz.opus │ │ └── cd.jpg │ │ └── folder.jpg │ ├── 1996-acrobatic_tenement.m3u8 │ ├── 1998-in_casino_out.m3u8 │ ├── 2000-relationship_in_command.m3u8 │ ├── artist.jpg │ ├── folder.jpg │ ├── thumb.jpg

[@axxelanderking]

i would realy need something like foobar but for my downloaded shows and movies

[@rassbabbo3285]

That's called Kodi

[@kitoxx88]

PLEX

[@fffrrraannkk]

Yes Kodi. It's amazing. It was originally called Xbox Media Center for modded Xbox's. Back then it was ahead of its time. It's been in development since 2002/2003 and can do pretty much whatever you want it to. Argueably the best media center and will continue to be for a long time.

[@axxelanderking]

@@rassbabbo3285 works great thanks

[@teksyndicate]

It's Jellyfin. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqvad4CnpcSVlcU

[@LjubomirTesic]

Hi, I'm new with foobar. I have one question for you. Is there any solution to display playlist with various artist as simple list like this: 01. Artist - Song (alphabetical sorting of artists) 02. Artist - Song 03. Artist - Song 04. Artist - Song ....etc I want to avoid this: Cover - Album Artist Song number in that album 11 - Song name Cover - Album Artist Song number in that album 7 - Song name ...etc

[@1chiTheKiller]

Just curious why you don't use AAC anymore and rely on Ogg or Opus files. I know Ogg files of course, but I haven't heard anything about Opus. Is there a downside to using AAC? Why is Ogg or Opus better than AAC instead?

[@teksyndicate]

Opus is basically ogg 2.0. it's totally open and significantly better than any other lossy format. So aac is obsolete now. It's still probably #2 or 3 on the list for quality, but I just use opus. If you have any compatibility issues, you can just change the .opus to .ogg and it should work.

[@1chiTheKiller]

@@teksyndicate I've been using AAC (which all my files turn out as m4a format) for years and it does clearly sound better at similar bitrates than mp3. I just have enough music I've taken from my CDs that I don't really feel like redoing all that work digitizing them all again unless there was a noticeable size/quality difference. Would I notice a difference in file size/sound quality redigitizing a CD if I've already got it in great sounding m4a (AAC)? Would it be worth it, or should I just start using the new format for new CDs I buy from here on?

[@erikahuxley]

@@1chiTheKiller It's down to the argument about open source software. AAC is closed source proprietary tech, manufacturer and developers have to patent licensing and there is a per unit fee. Though yes there are open source implementation of their encoders, some argue it is not good as the original. As for if you can perceive difference in quality between two formats at the same bitrate, the argument is that Opus is superior to MP3 and AAC for lossy compression. The main point about lossy compression (according to me) is to retain the most data in the smallest amount of memory, in this case you want to compare them at lower bitrate and see if opus makes a bigger difference for you. But it still depends on your ears and listening equipment at the end of the day. I personally rip my cds into FLAC or buy music as FLAC, then convert it to lossy format because apparently there isn't enough space in my 128gb phone, once 256gb is the affordable norm I'll just go straight up FLAC probably. The argument for sticking with AAC is that everyone uses it and sometimes you want to send a song to a friend, their Crapple doesn't like supporting open source audio formats.

[@mbsfaridi]

@@1chiTheKillerYou can run a batch (windows) or shell (linux) script with ffmpeg to automate the process.

[@Scootermagoo]

I stick to flac when I can, I'd rather keep music at the bitrate it came off the cd or as close as possible so artifacts are not introduced going back to a cd for example, I've tested my hearing and wav sounds better then flac generally but has 30-50% more file size vrs the cd's original, and in back to back I can hear the difference in mp3 192 and 320, if I spend time with mp3 I prefer using vbr 0 as a format. It depends on your hearing and needs, I am intrigued about the opus sound format, I am going to use some of my 24/96 flac's and do a little sound testing and find my point, and I might convert my library to it is the audio testing works out. And i utterly hate apple sound format's not because they are anything special, as alac is basically flac with a garbage header format, and aac has the same issues with foobar and padded numbers and things, which is another reason I stick to flac/mp3.

[@watrobkasmaczna1]

How to make my own music streaming server?

[@-ver6459]

Watching this as I convert my entire library to AAC.... (I've tried OPUS before and now I'm just trying out stuff)

[@teksyndicate]

You probably won't be able to tell the difference... But why that instead of opus? I run a script to rename .opus to .ogg if any programs give me issues

[@-ver6459]

@@teksyndicate I recently switched to a lower capacity SD card (128GB) for testing so I had to convert everything from my 512GB card to lossy. I don't wanna go MP3 and I have tried OPUS sooo why not try another format? I'm just exploring at this point.

[@Scootermagoo]

I do have 1 complaint.. I absolutely hate the apple naming convention, number then title... mix up a buncha files into a folder without an artist name... go ahead... So I do it differently because I've tried apple music in the past and I hate the damned thing, I do not want my bands music files in 1 folder, and I have more music then most cities, and use foobar so i go Drive:\Artist\Year - Album(with cd info if found)\Disc Number(Padded)\Artist - Title - Track Number(padded). I do this because of the aforementioned apple music years ago, breaking my file names on about 20k songs and sticking them in the same folder... Never again... But your opus codec might be entertaining to try and save some file space, I just have to ask how bad is the compression artifacts going back to cd? Typically I use flac in native bitrate aka 16/44100 and vbr0 mp3. Also unlike you I use album artist for the actual artist's if it's not the original band or a added person or the person who remoxed it, it's far easier to keep music organized that way and file names consistent. Your method seems a little chaotic to me.

[@DolphLundgrensDolphinDungeon]

Haha, I'm still using winamp with a collection of over 100,000 mp3s and Flac files ripped from cds over 20 years which have all been named and structured properly. Don't need to watch a video on it

[@goodchildmusic0]

Ubuntu and Clementine FOR THE WIN :D Anyone?

[@teksyndicate]

I tried for a long time with that and deadbeef... But ended up back here. I wish foobar was open source. That's the single worst thing about it

[@goodchildmusic0]

@@teksyndicate Why I stopped using Windows. I am a absolute simp for Linux. I am running 2012 hardware that I built in 2015. In 2018, I went to update my Windows License. The nightmare of blue screens was FUDGING crazy. I decided that day, FUDGE it, I'm moving to Linux. I wish foobar was open source as well, but there are so MANY better alternatives.

[@erikahuxley]

@@goodchildmusic0 Clementine does get update anymore, use Strawberry music player.

[@mbsfaridi]

I use clear linux. What is clementine?

[@erikahuxley]

@@mbsfaridi Clementine is a light version of RhythmBox but it is no longer updated, Strawberry music player is the continuation of it.

[@kitoxx88]

plexamp

[@gintokisakata7490]

Dont convert your FLAC to OGG or OPUS (or MP3 or AAC)! You will distroy the good quality of the FLAC data forever! Filesize? Who cars about that anymore in 2024 for music? You can buy huge data drives where you can put hundreds of thousands FLAC on it for a good prize, even on SSD. No need to cripple down your precious music anymore.

[@battragon]

Noooooooo "organizing music". Argh.

[@Scootermagoo]

*Laughs evilly*

[@basshead.]

It's easier just to listen to music on YT. Plus you don't need to waste your HDD/SSD space.

[@tonyvillalobos7940]

lolololo have fun bro :)

[@AlbedoAtoned]

1,:Lower quality, It's not even close. There's a cover artist on youtube that used to post all of his covers on patreon in wav format, and compared to the low bitrate quality you can get from youtube, it was a night and day difference. 2. Not everything is on KZbin, especially not in an organized manner. If I want to listen to an album it would be pretty rare to find all of the songs on it on youtube, typically it would just be some here or there that had music videos. 3. Things that are on youtube can be removed through copyright claims. Playlists I have made frequently end up with removed vidoes. 4. Need online connection while listening, may be data capped if on the go. 5. Storage space is dirt cheap. Even a cheap micro sd card can store a lot of music. Music doesn't take up much space, and since you seem to be okay with low youtube quality, you can store even more music in lossy formats AND still have a better quality sound by a long shot.

[@metalmike1259]

fubar2000 just erased all my music so its junk