Library writers: how do you keep it organized?

[zink]

Quote:So, how do you do it? I don't I waste way too much time going through iTunes looking for songs and looking through contracts to see what's available. I like the idea of using the iTunes info. Currently, I only have my tracks in iTunes organized by copyright submission groups. Wouldn't be a bad idea to get a little more detailed though...Excel seems like a good idea too. That would help keep retitling and stuff of that nature organized.Z

[nomiyah]

Stick,In the last dozen years since I started using databases, Filemaker has always been the best. For me it's worth the cost. Easy to set up, easy to change.You can create more than one database. I've got one for people and one for songs.When I put a new person in the database, I'll write a few notes. The next time I meet them, I can check my notes to remind myself of what songs of mine they've heard, what they are involved in, etc. It's really helped me develop relationships.If someone buys my CD, I'll put that into the database, I know which CD they have so I can market the others to them.And of course your original intention of keeping track of your catalog is easy with Filemaker. Each song has a record. If you set up a database and come up with some really good ideas for tracking, let me know!!!!Nomi

[djdeweese]

Stick-- Let me know how your Filemaker experiment turns out. Eric Beall in"Making Music Make Money" says there is a Filemaker Pro system just for music publishing, including storing an MP3, but I couldn't find anything else about it online. A copy of the page from his book is here: http://www.shortenurl.com/6ftrcOne of my new year's goals is to compose a hundred pieces this year, so I need to get organized early or it will be a nightmare.

[stick]

Will do DJ... That's my goal this year too. Though, I'm not sure I can pull it off with all the other projects that inevitably take my attention.

[mazz]

I found two:http://www.macbusiness.com/portfolio/c/ ... trkr.htmlI think the second one might be the one mentioned in the book, just a hunch.Mazz

[stick]

Songtracker looks pretty cool. Maybe a little overkill for what we're trying to accomplish for library stuff. And I think you still need to buy Filemaker on top of the cost of the database.

[stick]

Oh, and I just saw that it won't run on Filemaker past version 6. We're up to 9 now. I guess if you can find it, an old version of Filemaker ought to be pretty cheap, as long as it'll run on your Mac. Probably not on an Intel Mac.

[mazz]

There's another one one the FileMaker website under the Creative Pro section that's even more expensive, it's a royalty tracker database that's also probably overkill but should give some good ideas for what basic info is needed.It might be worth starting with the Music Collection template in FileMaker and adding fields based on looking at the trial version of Songtracker. I have a tiny bit of Filemaker knowledge and starting with a basic layout has always worked better for me. I've started a list of data fields that seem useful to me. I have access to Filemaker 6 so I was able to look at the Songtracker demo.