Methods of Organizing Your World Music CD Collection

Organized by Genre

This method is probably the simplest and most basic for organizing a world music CD collection. calypso on one shelf, klezmer on another, and so on.

Pros: It's pretty logical - when you want reggae, you reach for reggae. No confusion there.
Cons: There are a lot of bands and artists that don't fit comfortably into any sort of genre classification. Manu Chao comes to mind - should we put him in reggae, Latin, rock, or what?

Organized by Country or Region

This method seems to work fairly well. Break CDs down by African music, Irish music, and so forth, and then sub-categorize them until you're satisfied.

Pros: It solves the problem of musicians who can't be categorized by genre - they can just go in with their compatriots, regardless of genre.
Cons: What does one do with multi-ethnic bands or crossover compilations? Also, where do you put bands who play music from outside of their own ethnic tradition?

In Alphabetical Order

This is, as far as methods go, a fairly easy one. It requires a basic knowledge of the order of the alphabet, and not much creative thought.

Pros: Alphabetization makes it very easy to find the CD you're looking for, very quickly.
Cons: Alphabetization also makes it very easy to completely forget the existence of certain obscure CDs, because you always have to know what you're looking for. Also, sometimes alphabetization can be harder than it sounds - do you put Bob Marley and the Wailers under "M" or "W"?

In Chronological Order

Organized by either original release date or original recording date, chronological sorting is actually surprisingly popular among record collectors.

Pros: For real record-geek types, it allows visual analysis of influences, and it's fairly easy to find what you're looking for, as long as you are highly familiar with your own collection.
Cons: If you can't remember when Edith Piaf originally recorded "La Vie en Rose", it can be pretty difficult to find.

Organized by Mood or Feeling

Upbeat and bright? Mellow and relaxed? Bluesy and intense? Organization by mood or feeling works well if you enjoy pairing your music with your current attitude.

Pros: Finding just the right thing for the right moment becomes insanely easy with this method.
Cons: The actual organization task is a nightmare. First, you have to pick your mood categories, and then you have to decide what goes where, which presents a number of potential challenges.

Organized by Frequency

Putting your CDs in order based on how often you listen to them likely won't appeal to your inner librarian, but it can be extremely practical nevertheless.

Pros: We all have our favorites, those CDs that get way more airplay than any of the others, and keeping them grouped together makes them very easy to find.
Cons: Unless you've done a great job subcategorizing, it can be very difficult to find a CD that you don't listen to very often.

In Critical Order

I have an indie rock loving friend who organizes his albums by how much he actually likes them. He says he does it because he buys a lot of records without listening to them (especially vintage ones), which a lot of world music fans (including myself) do as well.

Pros: It saves you the trouble of listening to things that you don't actually love that much, even if you insist on hoarding the CDs, and you know that anything you grab off the "good" shelf is worth listening to.
Cons: First of all, you actually have to critique everything you own and put it in order as such. Ouch. Also, it can be very difficult to find a specific album or song, especially if your collection is large.

In Chromatic Order

Sometimes aesthetics matter more than anything. Sorting CDs by color can create a really remarkable piece of wall art, especially if the collection is large.

Pros: If your music collection is already digitized, and you're only holding onto your CDs as a backup, creating a giant rainbow of them on your living room wall might be the most visually appealing way of storing them.
Cons: Unless you have a crazy visual memory, you're never going to be able to find anything.

In Autobiographical Order

The organizational method of choice for John Cusack's character in High Fidelity, the "autobiographical" method involves putting records in the order in which you purchased them.

Pros: It can be a very personal way of looking at your CDs, and creates a sort of soundtrack of your life.
Cons: It's totally absurd, and would be a total nightmare to get organized, to find anything, to re-shelf... Mostly, it's more fun to think about than to actually do.

Completely Random

Not to be confused with the ever-popular "floor" method of organization, intentionally allowing your CDs to get into a randomized order is something like pushing "shuffle" on your MP3 player. Some people claim to even go so far as to intentionally put CDs back in the wrong cases, so it's a real surprise every time they pull something out.

Pros: If you like suprises, and you genuinely love every piece of recorded music that you own, this method might actually be for you.
Cons: If you ever want to find something, you've got some serious work on your hands.