After burning all my CDs to my hard drive back in ‘97, I was really disappointed with the way Windows Media Player organized all my music. See, back then I was the owner of about 9,000 songs in digital format and W(i)MP was not the tagging software I needed. I’m one of those compulsive organizers who has avoided being shut away into a padded room long enough to know that if and when one has the time, one should organize their music (or books if I can ever stay living at any place for more than a year). This is not to say that I’m a neat-freak. Far from it. My fiancee’s the one always following me around putting things away, cursing under her breath.

But when it comes to music files, I NEED organization. How in the hell else am I going to find a mix of classical music songs that are all below 120 bpm (beats per minute for you non-musical heathens), and are good background music for a nice dinner? Or music that’s really fast and angry so I can keep jogging and get that six-pack to entice my fiancee to stay with me another night?

“iTunes!” I hear a load of bespeckled funky-haired indie rockers saying in my head. Well, that’s nice, Mr. snobby Pitchfork reader, but I had a nasty fight with the Apple empire around the same time I was fighting WMP. I downloaded iTunes and rated everything.

Life was grand.

At least now I had everything bad (like disco –
don’t ask) rated low, and everything good (like the Dead Kennedys) rated high. Then after a prompting from the “upright and most holy” Steve Jobs, I upgraded iTunes to the newest version.

Everything was gone. Ratings, mood settings,
rankings, playlists, everything. My war face cometh.

That, and I’m not a huge fan of not being able
to play downloads that I paid for with other programs. That’s a little Microsofty and Dr. No-ish for me.

So, I started searching around on the net, or as
we called it back then, “that new free porn place.” I came across a few nice programs like mp3tagger, maintained by the almost god-like Stephen Ostermiller, but it didn’t have a nice interactive GUI like iTunes or even the horrific Media Player.

I don’t remember where I first heard of it. It may have been from my friend who’s a recording agent in LA now, or from one of those dreadful banner ads in the mid-to late-90s. No matter where it came from, Media Monkey changed my life for the better. Not only is it an awesome music player, the best organizer and tagger out there, but it’s also extremely versatile. You can download almost any kind of script from their forum and expand your music listening to an almost orgasmic experience.

There are scripts to show what music is on your frequent rotation by the week, month or year, ones to find all the inconsistencies in your tags, ones to choose what information will be exported to an Excel file, and ones that find other albums by artists you already have in the library. Hell, even update thousands of mp3s so they have the right lyrics. All at the same time! The greatest thing about MM is that the great community will help you create a new script if you can’t figure out how to do it. And the vast majority will do it for free.

The Monkey saved my life. I can turn it on and make playlists with an almost limitless group of criteria. Almost to the point of ridiculousness. For example, I think that at some point I may want some techno style music that’s good for lounging. So I just have to tag my appropriate techno music “lounging,” and create an autoplaylist looking for those conditions, plus maybe anything below 120 bpm so it’s not too fast.

Are you on Last.fm Why the hell not?  I thought if you were reading this far you’d already know about that. Well, get on and make an account! Download the scrobbler and start listening to music! Sheesh.

Last.fm is awesome for getting in touch with
others of your same musical taste, which in truth is next to godliness. It’s also great for finding out about new music, or to get notifications on when some band you like is coming to your favorite venue.

Last.fm is free for the most part, and the extended version gives you a realtime radio with new free music to listen to.

After you get all the Last.fm info, go to the Media Monkey forum and find Teknojnky’s
LastFM Node, which will find you more music that is similar to your favorite artist – all from ratings by Last.fm users.

Yeah, I’m a freak, but with my 20,000 mp3s (and
growing), there’s nothing else I’d ever use for music ever again. Try it, and be happier than Happy Cat.