How do YOU organize your iTunes library?

I'm at about 2,000CDs

I'm with VegasE and ThomasE - making all those playlists is like reinventing what's already there - plus then you still have to find the dosh gone playlist...

One wrinkle I have added is I use grouping to create another kind of category - instruments. So if I type Jazz sax I will get everything that features a sax player (so I would use this for a Ben Webster album)

I have also created a couple of new genres - especially Alt Country which has all the EmmyLou but also the Byrds and Gram Parsons etc

Having made an initial sort, I can either alpha the artist or album and pick one; or create a playlist for my iPod and Airport, or just hit shuffle and play that feel until I want something else.

BTW my Playlists are pretty much "feels" or "grooves" -"All Over Blues", "Island Music", "Morning Music", "Duke and Frenz", "Taj and KebMo". I guess you could say I am creating radio stations...

There is some fun mix software out there, plus of course the Apple Genius feature but I find that my library is too big and tends to crash them. I've had the best luck with MusicIP mixer.

Pandora is also a pretty fun way to play with some new music.

I see all your points but I still think playlists for each individual album work best for me. There is a macro that creates a playlist from a selection. It even names it in the artist - album format automatically...SHIFT, COMMAND & N. You don't have to type any artist/album info.

Search doesn't always work for me because how does that filter out a group's self-titled album? By typing in "Boston" it will bring up all of their albums not just "Boston - Boston". Plus what if I can't remember exactly how to spell something or I don't remember an album title. I have over 7,000 cds.

Using the browser doesn't work for me either because once I find the album I want to listen to the artwork won't be there. With playlists the artwork will automatically be there.

As far as finding the album in my playlists it takes no time at all. Either start typing the name and it will automatically jump to that playlist(did anyone even know you can do that?) or just drag the bar. It isn't hard...they are in alphabetical order.

I also create the playlist at the same time as ripping the cd so it really only takes about 5 seconds extra to do.

All the other methods force you to remember which album got tagged with what genre. Is AC/DC under rock or metal?

I guess I'm an outcast.

I use J River. You can create your own fields and index on any combination of fields (standard and user-created) one wants to. Even with 70K files, it's quick to navigate from any angle you choose. It's also easy to set up a playlist on the fly very easily, so I don't do a lot of playlist setup.

I can't imagine any setup that would require 45 seconds to look up a specific album.

Using the browser doesn't work for me either because once I find the album I want to listen to the artwork won't be there. With playlists the artwork will automatically be there.

I don't follow. Anytime I select an album to play from the browser the art work is there.

If you have the browser sorted "album by artist" all of the artists are there in alphabetical order. I don't see where having all of that duplicated by playlists is any easier, or really different for that matter.

How does having playlists by album help if you can't remember the title?

"I don't follow. Anytime I select an album to play from the browser the art work is there."

The artwork can be shown in the browser...about 2" x 2" on my 42" widescreen. My way fills up the entire screen with the album cover. I'd rather stare at a full-screen artwork shot than the iTunes interface any day.

"If you have the browser sorted "album by artist" all of the artists are there in alphabetical order. I don't see where having all of that duplicated by playlists is any easier, or really different for that matter."

It's WAY easier to navigate the playlists because when trying to scroll up and down by artist in the browser only 6 artists are shown at any given time(by default) unless you then drag the bottom half of iTunes down revealing more choices. My way shows playlists from the top of the iTunes GUI all the way down to the bottom. I easily see 40 playlists at once this way.

"How does having playlists by album help if you can't remember the title?"

Because I can type 3 letters of an artist's name that I have dozens of albums of and see all of the albums in alphabetical order...instantly.

Maybe I can make a short video of how I use iTunes to help show how this makes a whole bunch of sense to me.