Evil MP3 Tags

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So I got a digital music player (I really like my Sansa e280R player, and it's cheaper and much more versatile than an iPod) for my birthday in October and I've been having fun loading it up with tunes. The trouble is, all the tunes I've had for years aren't exactly organized like one would expect of someone as anal as me. The tags (the info on artist, album, genre, etc.) are all messed up. I have no idea how it happened, but many of them have really wacky genres (apparently it isn't good enough to have only like 5-10 genres in the great Internet DB of music; there are more like 100+). So I have country tunes with "Blues" and so on. Thus I found myself spending time fixing many of them (which I'm only too sure I've done previously only to have them messed up again).

Then I got to working with my ratings (you know, the little stars that accompany each track). Though I'm sure I've fixed them before, too, many are goofed up. (RealPlayer support folks told me a while back that my ratings could not be exported from their player, and that there's no way to back them up, which I think is a) untrue and b) one of the stupidest help-desk responses I've received all year!) What really gets me--and the reason for this post--is that the activity of organizing my tunes is entirely addictive. Why, I don't know. Listening to them should be more addictive than organizing them. And yet... So the other night I came down to work on some stuff and wound up spending a couple hours just organizing my music library. Afterall, it's really important that all those ratings are accurate, right? Actually, I use the genres and ratings to build automatic playlists, so I think there's actually a valid reason for my obsessive-compulsive tenancy!

I'm sure there's some medical name for this dysfunction, and there's very likely a support group I could join to help address this malady.

Sounds to me like another conspiracy; this one by the music industry to force me into buying new copies of my tunes! (I'll be sure to share many more of my sure-to-be-true conspiracy theories in coming posts!)

UPDATE 11/29/07: Kevin provided me with a nifty program that is sure to cure my dysfunction. It will retag my songs. See http://www.softpointer.com/tr.htm
I like to share what I learn, and I like to learn from others.

Comments

Jolayne said…
I think the dysfunction you are thinking of is commonly known as OCD.
November 27, 2007 at 8:35 PM
Jenn said…
Someday I'll get one of those fancy MP3-playing-ma-jigs. I fear real palyer though, I had rotten luck with them and their customer service once upon a time. You know what you should blog about? Camcorders and digital cameras- we're in the market for new ones:).
November 28, 2007 at 10:37 AM
Lori said…
I'm with jo on this one. Though I also enjoy well-sorted music- I'd probably just re-rip all of my music so it was properly labeled or find some program to do it for me before going through and labeling them all on my own. But whatever floats your boat :)
November 28, 2007 at 11:21 AM
Becky said…
I completely relate. Except mine is spending hours sorting digi scrap supplies. Makes no difference to anyone but me, but I LOVE it and could spend hours making sure its all correct. I like my OCD tendencies.
November 28, 2007 at 12:45 PM
kevandcan said…
A friend of mine introduced me to a piece of software that automatically tags your music for you...it reads the title, analyzes the tune, and tags them all. BEAUTIFUL technology.
November 28, 2007 at 6:32 PM
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