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This is a question for you established library music guys... Since I'm committing to really dive into it this coming year, I want to put the right infrastructure in place as I get rolling. So...How do you catalog and keep track of all the pieces in your library? Things like: genre, style, classification, tempo, key, co-writers (and their percentage) where you've pitched them, what libraries have them, what's exclusive or not, etc. And then how do you keep the actual Audio Files themselves? By date? By Style? Just thrown in one big folder? Do you assign a "number" or just name them? It smells like a custom database to me, which I haven't created in years... and maybe iTunes is enough for the Audio Files... hmmm. So, how do you do it?

Yeah, I've built Filemaker databases in the past, but sheesh, the latest version is $300! Ow. Maybe I can find an old one on ebay. Another thought I had as I looked around online was a database that's web based... then maybe I could direct potential clients directly to where the mp3 version of the audio was stored. I was looking at this when the thought occurred. Of course, I don't know anything about maintaining an online database. But, in the time I worked up that cool of a database I could've written 4 or 5 library tracks.

I wish I could contribute something productive to this thread . Having a searchable database with all the necessary information and keyword attributes etc sure would be a timesaver for me at this point any time I have to put together a custom demo. But who has time to catalog/categorize 500+ tracks... So I think you have the right idea stick, trying to build the database at the same time as you build the catalog. But as to exactly how, I have no idea. I wonder where the music library sites get their database/search engine systems from...In the meantime, I have to rely on brain power .The one thing I do have well organized is the contract/release/co-writers etc side. The "business" side in other words. I think that's essential obviously. But I just use a conventional hanging files system for that, and it's easier now that I can usually do it on a project by project basis rather than song by song.matto

Hmmm.... I'm wondering if it would be an idea to modify one of the forms you fill out for library music for use in your own studio. Those forms usually ask for the a las, the mood, the instrumentation, etc. You could file it with the wav files, and also print it off and put it with the other paperwork for the piece.If I put my old organizational hat on, I could probably develop a system for organizing my catalogue plus keeping track of forwards & deals. Obviously you want cross-referencing, too. I shall think on it. Just as an aside... one of my problems is my pieces often go through several stages and often have different names at different stages... so remembering that was once called 'Sunday musings' morphed to 'seashore' and was then submitted & forwarded as 'call of the seabird' gets difficult!

In iTunes, can you assign custom keywords to your tracks which you can then search for? That would really be an essential feature for me. Otherwise I'm faster going by memory...as long as my memory holds and my catalog doesn't get too out of hand...

Sheesh, I write a tune one day, and can't remember what it sounds like the next! That's amazing you can remember a library of hundreds of tunes. It looks like Filemaker is going to do what I want. And it's pretty easy so far... Maybe I'll spread it around for a small Paypal donation...

Quote:In iTunes, can you assign custom keywords to your tracks which you can then search for? That would really be an essential feature for me. Otherwise I'm faster going by memory...as long as my memory holds and my catalog doesn't get too out of hand... I've discovered there's certain fields such as "album artist" that are included in a search and so one could type keywords in to one of those fields. You can choose to display that field or not in your window and, in fact, different playlists can have different "views". You could have two playlists with the exact same songs in them but set them to display completely different information.If you haven't tried iTunes, it's free from Apple and it's cross platform. It's worth checking out.Mazz

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