Music

Music has the ability to make any task or chore a little better. It can brighten your mood, energize you, speak to your emotional side, and even help to relax you and alleviate stress. It’s really no wonder that people turn to music throughout their day, as it often provides that much needed escape or emotional connection. With all this in mind, it has led many people to build rather robust digital music collections. Digital music collections make it possible for people to download not just albums but specific songs and really build a customized catalog.

If you’ve been building up your own digital music catalog for some time now and it’s getting a little out of control or disorganized, we’ve got some tips you can use. These will help ensure you get the very most out of your music collection and that albums, songs, and artists don’t get forgotten about.

Keep All Music in One Central Location

The first tip focuses on convenience. You don’t want to have to switch between devices, apps, platforms, or software just to access your favorite music. Everything needs to be in one central location so you aren’t jumping through hoops to access it. For some people, one of the challenges to making sure all their music is in one spot is that they may need to deal with file conversion.

This file conversion issues seems to be a problem that Mac users in particular have. The issue of converting an M4A to an MP3 iTunes file can exist. Figuring out how to convert these files doesn’t have to be confusing, and once you figure it out, then you’ll be able to create that central library of content. One really simple solution is to make use of the free trial of Setapp and use the Permute media converter to easily do the conversion. Setapp features over 190 Mac apps in all different categories, including the Elmedia Player which can also tackle the conversion for you. For more information, check this blog on how to convert M4A to MP3.

Using these options will be much more straightforward over trying to do the audio conversion yourself. If you’re a relatively new Mac user, or you just don’t find yourself to be computer-savvy, it’s all the more reason to use tools like these.

Get Rid of Content You No Longer Want

Now that you’ve got everything in one central location, it’s time to do a major clean-up. This means getting rid of any music you no longer want or are interested in. You may be surprised at just how many tunes you’ve got stored, and that a portion of that music no longer fits with your musical styling and interests.

Sub-Folders Can Help to Streamline Content

Just as you would organize word files on your computer using folders and sub-folders, you can do the same with your music. This is a huge step towards a more organized and cohesive collection that makes sense and is user-friendly.

As for how to sort the music in your folders, typically people will sort the content by genre, artist/band, and album. Your music management program will likely do this for you, but you may choose to create your own rankings or sorting techniques instead.

Playlists Will Prove to Be the Best Tip

This brings us to your playlists, which are arguably one of the best and most effective ways to organize your music. Because a playlist is created by you, it gives you a chance to truly customize your digital music library and make it work for you.

You may want to build these playlists around an activity such as workout music, relaxation music, home entertaining music, and so forth, or it could be more specific and focus on favorite music from a particular genre, artist, or time period. Depending on the music management platform you are using, sometimes they create their own lists too of recently listened to music, favorites, and so forth. The idea is that you can really play around with your playlists, customizing them as you see fit. Music can always be added or deleted off these lists at any time.

Now It’s Time to Add More to Your Library

Once you have taken all the necessary steps to get your digital music library under control and organized, it’s time to start adding more music to it. Moving forward, you want to be sure to stick to your organizational tips so that it doesn’t get out of hand again.

It can also be helpful to do a music purge every few months just to ensure the content you have is the music you want to listen to. A good rule to stick to when deleting music is to view when it was last played and if it’s more than two years ago, chances are you wouldn’t miss it. Sure, this may seem a bit cutthroat, but this helps to keep your music library organized and relevant to your personal taste.

If you’re the type that hears a song or hears one mentioned that you want to remember to download at a later date, you can also start a note, file, or list on your smartphone where you can essentially keep track of songs to download. When you get a chance to download more music, you can then refer to your list and not worry about forgetting anything.

Consider Sharing Your Playlist

The final tip is to consider sharing your playlists with others, and then checking out what other people are listening to. This can be a great way to expand your musical preferences and find new favorites that you can download for your own library.

An Organized Digital Library Makes for Good Listening

The fact is that once you’re able to organize your digital music collection, it will be much easier to use and you’ll get a more customized experience. It can also help to reacquaint you with music you forgot you had, so you can fall in love with the tunes all over again. Spending a little time organizing your collection will be well worth the effort.

 

Something which I have always done is been in bands, with friends and with colleagues, ever since I was in high school. As a guitar player I have never been on my way to stardom, but I have always enjoyed playing with people and in front of people. This is something which many musicians, amateur musicians at least, are a little fearful of, but the benefits are just so great that you should do all you can to try and join a band, regardless of how good or bad you think you are. Currently I am in a cool little rockabilly trip called the Owen Group ( because there are 2 Owens in the band) and we have a great time each week playing in a local bar. If you aren’t sure whether or not this is for you, here is why I’d recommend that you make a band with your friends or people you know.

Improvement

It is all well and good sitting in your room practicing the bass guitar or the drums, but the truth is that you don’t know how good you really are until you start practicing with other people. n fat I have alway preferred playing with people who are better than myself, because as uncomfortable as it can feel, you improve greatly when you do so. Playing with people gives you a far better understanding of how to play a song, how to manage timing and how to read the cues which others give you. I am most certainly a better guitar player when I play in a group with others.

New Music

Normally when I join bands there is a group of people with different musical tastes and we generally try to play songs which everyone in the band likes. This is something which I really enjoy and learning to play new genres and styles can really add something to your playing. In fact I have discovered many bands that I love to listen to because my bandmates have suggested that we play a song by them.

Camaraderie

There is a very special feeling about being in a band and you feel like this united team, something which I have always really enjoyed. If you are in a band with friends then you will certainly become better friends as a result, despite the occasional in-band fight. If you aren’t friends with those who you are playing with then it will not take long before you are, and this is a great way to bond with people.

Play More Music

When I am not in a band I find that I play much less than when I am in the band, and in truth this is one of the reasons why I dislike being out of a band for any period of time.

If you love music and you love playing your instrument, I would urge you to get involved in a band and just see what you can do.

 

I always felt as though my music taste was pretty eclectic but when I met Bogoljub Karic at college I realized what eclectic really meant. We bonded over music and then he started to introduce me to all kinds of music from French rappers to Indian bangra music. Thanks to his influence I now listen to a wide range of music from around the world and whilst some are put off by the foreign language in the lyrics, here is why you should ignore that and give some world music a try.

Only the Half of It

We all love a lyric which we can sing along to but it is important to remember that music isn’t just about the lyrics. The thing that makes us feel good about the music is the rhythm, the melody and the musicianship of the song, not always the lyrics. It is after all why many people like electronic music, which focus on the musicality of it rather than the lyrics. It is for this reason that you don’t always need to know what they are saying in the lyrics, you can still enjoy a song without them.

Learning

Music from around the world uses different styles and different instruments which can really help you to develop a deeper understanding of music. For example many African styles are heavy on the drums and the bass sounds, they use the voices in many different ways, completely different to what we hear on the radio. The same goes for Indian music, many strange instruments and vocal sounds which can open your ears and mind up to new ways of making music. If you take something like Graceland by Paul Simon, one of the world’s most famous albums, he heavily used the African influence and although people had no idea what Ladysmith Black Mambazo were saying, they still dug it because it sounded great. Even going back to the Beatles, they were heavily influenced by many different pieces of world music which they incorporated into their own music.

Accessible

The thing which you have to remember is that world music is more accessible than ever before. You can get straight online and find music from Korea, Zimbabwe, Poland, Ecuador and just about every nation in the world. You don’t need to spend money on this as you can watch videos on YouTube or listen on sites like Spotify. The key is that you give it a try and see what you like and what you don’t.

For many years the world has been listening to heavily rotated English language music, and they have fallen in love with many bands. There is no reason therefore that you are not going to fall in love with a band from another country, it is the same situation in reverse. Give it a try, open your mind and you will be pleased with what you find.