This is a plea for help as much as it is a conversation starter. When MP2s (and soon after, MP3s) took off in the 90’s I started converting cassette tapes and CDs to digital files. For mainstream music it was simple enough: Aerosmith is rock, Ace of Base is pop, and Tchaikovsky is classical. There’s loads of sub genres you can debate over but I think most would agree on the basics. When it came to video game music, though, I wasn’t sure how to keep things straight.

Ultimately, I decided that whichever platform I played a game on was where its music would go. Want to listen to Aero the Acro-Bat? Navigate to ‘Music > Game > Sega > Genesis’ and there it is. Nevermind that it also came out on the SNES. This scheme has stuck with me for nearly twenty years but as game music evolves I think it may be time for a change. Remixes, covers and chiptune artists who are inspired by their favorite games make it harder to organize by console alone. My system gets even muddier when a console exclusive like Peggle 2 debuts on Xbox One — where I go crazy tracking down the music and cataloging it — and then jumps to Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and eventually PC.

I’ve never had many people to bounce this off of so now that I can address the OSV audience I’m curious: how do you organize your game music collection? Alphabetically? By style, composer, platform? Or does it even matter with software that searches through file tags by whatever criteria you throw at it? Let us know in the comments, I’m really interested in how everyone keeps it all straight.

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