Best Ways to Organize a Classical Record LP Collection ?

Is anyone using one of these websites/software to catalog organize their LP collection ?

Collectorz.com

http://www.collectorz.com/music/?from=google&keyword=music%20collector%20pro&gclid=CO3c4MuX-...

KIX

http://www.kixsoftware.com/

Any other sites that you have used ?
thanks for any info. 

Discogs

https://www.discogs.com/

I have looked up album info on Discogs a lot. But have always just entered album info manually. I could just do this in an Excel spreadsheet. Is there any software that would allow me to scan the album label with my phone, it grabs the info and puts it into a database direct ?

Also, outside of those records that you keep in special areas i.e. frequent plays, the Chronological Idea that a few have mentioned here is sounding good to me.

I organize by composer's birthday. That way I have a progression that goes by music period *and* composer simultaneously--renaissance, baroque, rococo, classical, romantic, impressionist, 20th century, and contemporary.
The only problem is the collections that might have multiple composers or even artists as well. For those I have a separate block of albums generally organized alphabetically by primary artist.

Yes, definitely organize by birth year of the composer. That way you can get a visual feel of the progression of centuries of music, and understand which composers wrote during the same period, and which ones influenced those who were born later. Here is the way classical.net broadly divides things:

Medieval - 11th though 14th Centuries
Early Renaissance - 15th Century
High Renaissance - 16th Century
Early Baroque - Late 16th and 17th Centuries
High Baroque - Late 17th and Early 18th Centuries
Classical/Romantic - Late 18th Century
Romantic - Early 19th Century
Romantic/Modern - Late 19th Century
Modern - 20th Century

In each composer section, I subdivide by opus numbers, chronologically. When that is not feasible, I keep all the symphonies of that composer together, all his string quartets together, and so on.

If you have a violin record with four composers on it, what do you do then? You can either put it in with your favorite composer on the LP, or you can have a section of records at the end or beginning of your shelving devoted to particular instruments. Piano, clarinet, guitar, what have you.

Operas you can have in a separate section or not.

Filing alphabetically is the lazy man's way, essentially pointless except for convenience. Is there really any sense in having Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Bruckner next to each other, when what they primarily have in common is the letter B?

Filing by label is valid if you collect by label and when music is not your main concern. But why have to go to dozens of different sections to find all your Beethoven?

Enjoy your new collection!

I had my CDs organized by birth of composer and my son (when he was around 10) reorganized them by the color of the spine of the jewel case, which essentially means they were organized by label regardless of period, performers, or composer. It was a daunting task but I eventually got them reorganized by composer date of birth.

Very helpful posts - thanks.

Hi Johnnyb53

I had my CDs organized by birth of composer and my son (when he was around 10) reorganized them by the color of the spine of the jewel case, which essentially means they were organized by label regardless of period, performers, or composer. It was a daunting task but I eventually got them reorganized by composer date of birth.

That is quite a feat for a 10 year old. Imagine how you would of felt if he did that with your records and was manhandling them. I have the boxes on two floors now away from view. I am going to need more shelving !
I am trying to decide between the ease of flipping through the records (much preferred) over storing albums like books in the shelving. The many box sets are not a problem this way, but the singles; I know they just won't get played as much this way with me. They become archived and then lost. I want to see the whole album face when flipping through it. I think now my wife doing me a favor by pulling the Deutsche Grammophon singles, and filing almost two boxes was a mistake :^(

**********************************

Hi Paulparsons - you said something that hit home with me. (btw - welcome to AudioGon as a poster)

Yes, definitely organize by birth year of the composer. That way you can get a visual feel of the progression of centuries of music, and understand which composers wrote during the same period, and which ones influenced those who were born later.

.....

Filing alphabetically is the lazy man's way, essentially pointless except for convenience. Is there really any sense in having Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Bruckner next to each other, when what they primarily have in common is the letter B?

Filing by label is valid if you collect by label and when music is not your main concern. But why have to go to dozens of different sections to find all your Beethoven?

I have always been the type to listen to whole records regardless of genre. I want to get to know the music and artists and feel at times, the music that doesn't get air play, is many times the best stuff. So I feel the extra effort to do this would in the end bring me a lot more actual music enjoyment and learning enjoyment; getting to know the Composers and as you said, seeing how those that came later were influenced by those before.
Thanks for links in your post. So I went to the website source and copied and pasted the referenced composer list into a spreadsheet.

Holy Moly, 1100 friggin Composer entries !!!

***************************************************

Bdp24 - Was thinking some more about what you said earlier about Longhair.

You can see TV clips from the 1950s, in which what is now called Classical was then referred to as "serious"---as opposed to Pop---or "longhair"---a pre-Beatles term!---music)

I'm not so sure about this Longhair comment.  

The Beatles.

http://verygoodmusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/bands_the_beatles.jpg

Beethoven

http://assets.classicfm.com/2009/04/ludwig-van-beethoven-1233160023.jpg

Bach

http://cp91279.biography.com/1000509261001/1000509261001_1707045537001_BIO-Biography-17-Composers-Jo...

So who has the longer hair?   What is it about those B's ?