How do you store and catalog your vinyl?

Hi uberwaltz,

 I have a VERY simple Excel spreadsheet with album name, artist, year it came out, Genre and a box for notes.  I also have a Dropbox account that I place the list. I can open it anywhere on my phone or pad so I stop buying dupes. 

As for as storeage, I separated them by genre and then have the in alphabetical order. I did the same with CD’s.

Hope this helps.

JD

+1 tooblue! I like the surprise of finding something in my collection that I had forgotten about! Sort of like going shopping to stores for music in the old days! LOL!

A divider between each of the categories such as Symphonies, Quartet, Sonatas, Vienna waltz, Opera, Solo instruments, Concertoes etc often with subcategories such as Piano, Violin, Organ etc. Within the category alphabetically after composer, then name of work.
An Excell sheet with a post for each LP and with many data such as e.g. composer, performer, record brand, day of purchase, my personal rating for technical and musical quality as well as wear state. In Excell I can filter and sort in whatever way I want.
For me this works very well.

In my case physical storage is something entirely different than cataloging on paper.

On paper it's really simple: 3 different lists for classical, jazz and rock/pop, each alphabetically ordered by name of composer (in classical) or artist.

Physically, it's more complicated and intuitive, guided by different types of associations (stylistic connections, label mates, artists that worked together or influenced each other, share the same producer, etc.)

In classical, it is by label and within each label by conductor. So e.g. all decca SXL's together and within this all Ansermets together, ranked chronologically (early 2000 series first, later 6000 series titles later).

In jazz it's also by label and than within each label arranged by associated artists. So e.g all blue notes together and within that group the Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Anthony Williams titles side by side. Why? They were at that time all members of the Miles Davis Quintet. Of course (?) the records under Davis' name are elsewhere on the Columbia shelve.

In rock it is again mostly arranged by label and/or association. So e.g after Roxy Music (island label) comes Brian Eno (island and polydor/eg), then Cluster (first on Brain, then on Sky), Kraftwerk, Neu!, Can and other Kraut bands. Then it suddenly jumps to UK punk and wave, which was strongly influenced by krautrock.

So it's sort of a quilt with some unusual patterns and I don't suppose anybody outside myself could ever find his/her way through this (I know my wife doesn't). For really massive collections this 'system' probably wouldn't work, but for my ca. 4000 lp's it never fails.

I have always catalogued mine by genre but it doesn’t reflect how I actually use lp’s. That said, I have considered organizing them more aspirationally, or event-driven. In other words; what is the goal I am trying to achieve?

More often than not I am finding I do things like comparisons of recordings to show the differences between labels and live or studio recordings. I also find that I play my lp’s according to the mood I am seeking....walks down a memory lane, parties, dancing, sit-down cerebral, amping up my mood or relaxing...

Organizng by the above may not be realistic as it would require me to re-evaluate each lp. If I ever find I have the time to put toward it, I may make a run at it.