My collection is ripped so it looks like the following:
MUSIC DRIVE/D/Dylan, Bob/Blood on the Tracks
All of my music is sorted by artist, last name first (J. Geils Band is filed Geils, J. Band in my collection). Then subfoldered with the album titles in alpha order. I have 26 different top folders based on the first letter with numerical artists like 10CC or 4 Non Blondes in T or F respectively.
This was the same way when I had CDs.
First of all, they’re about 4.7" wide. (Can’t believe I’m the first to post this. C’mon, Dopers. This is what we do.)
Anyway. Alphabetically by group. (Ignoring “The” in band names, except for “The The” of course.) Then by original release date within a group.
I am by default responsible for maintaining order (to the best of my ability) for Mrs. FtG’s CDs. There is grouping by genre, then by release date for each artist, but no attempt at artist alphabetization as that would be hopeless to maintain.
(For mp3s players, I listen to songs by album and in order. Mrs. FtG just does random shuffle for the whole thing. How can a person not listen to Abbey Road in order?)
There was a record store I went to a few times years ago. The albums were grouped by record label and then catalog number. If you wanted a Jimi Hendrix album you had to know what label it was on and the approximate time it was released to even start homing in on it. High Fidelity really captured the mentality of those folk.
Alphabetical by artist. For classical, by composer. For classical concerts, like a recital by Horowitz, Brendel, or Richter or somebody with multiple composers, by performer. For compilations, under ‘V’ for various.
But truthfully, there are stacks and stacks of CDs I play a few times and don’t get around to shelving again. Same with LPs.
Also, burned CDs (er, legally backed up) go in cases in their own separate place, separated into jazz/classical and rock/spoken word/whatever. Same thing.
Also, no jewel cases. All in plastic sleeves. Saves a ton of space. The fancy sleeves have a slot for the back insert, so you can kind of see the spine a little bit. But I only have a hundred or so of those – they were kind of expensive, so most are in cheap sleeves that just hold the disc and the front cover/booklet. Also digipacks I don’t break down – they’re helpful for seeing immediately where you are in the alphabet at a glance.
Oh, yeah. Solo albums/Bands go separately. And by last name. There are some exceptions, but I can’t remember what they are without looking at the shelves.
And for digital rips, I separate by genre, then subgenre, then artist, then recording date. So a directory might be Jazz<Organ<McGriff<1963 McGriff I’ve Got A Woman<01 All About My Girl.wav. Or whatever.
Here’s a question I’ve wrestled with – what do you do when the “the” in the band name is in another language? For example, Los Lobos, Los Campesinos, Le Tigre, etc. Do you file them under Lobos, Campesinos, and Tigre?
Right now I do. But I go back and forth on this.
From left to right: classical (alphabetically by composer), comedy (alphabetically by performer), popular (alphabetically by name of act or by title of musical), and then the Pet Shop Boys section (chronologically).
Alphabetizing by last name is for losers. I use the Bleecker Bob method, and also do it by first name. And I angrily throw out of my apartment anyone who questions my method or makes fun of it! 
*
But in all seriousness, I alphabetize by last name and do not make special arrangements for solo albums, etc.
Classical is sorted by average date of composition on the disk. It’s interesting to see what pieces were composed at the same time. Some compilations are alphabetical, at the end.
Then Musicals by title.
Then everything else, by group or artist or subject matter (e.g. Paul McCartney’s own music is separate from The Beatles).
Now that I have over 2,000 CDs, I’m thinking of breaking down “everything else” into smaller categories.
I follow the basic principles of Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd ed., except that they alphabetize by last name, whereas it seems more natural to me to go by first name, for my private collection, anyway. Now my books which are shelved according to Library of Congress classification, have their authors ordered alphabetically by last name where applicable to form part of the class number. I don’t depart from that because the system isn’t adaptable to going by first names. But for a simple alphabetization scheme, it’s just as easy to implement.
It gets real interesting when you collect enough “various artists” compilations to require organising too. I have the following sub-categories:
Lucy Porter, the UK stand-up, has a routine on this. I paraphrase: “I had an argument with my boyfriend last night about organising our CDs. He wants to file them alphabetically by artist surname, with each artist’s section organised in strict chronological order of release and solo albums cross-referenced with a system of coloured stickers. Whereas I want him … to GET A JOB!”
Mark Steele does a bit on it too. Again, this is approximate: “It’s not anally retentive at all. It’s just that, once you get a certain number of CDs, alphabetical filing becomes a necessity. I like to be able to find a CD when I want it, and I get told there’s something wrong with my arse!”
Hi, i still like to collect music CD because it is my fovorites. I have dozen of CD from Phil Collins, i like the the song “in the air tonight” performed by him
Alphabetical by band name, or artist LAST name.
Subset of album titles by chronological release date
All Zappa goes together (between official releases and boots I’ve well over 100 of them). I’ve been thinking of just putting all the FZ into one big binder.
Soundtracks go under V (for ‘various artists’) if a compilation album (such as Gross Pointe Blank, which is nothing but songs from the '80s); or by composer name for albums like the Star Wars soundtrack, or Broadways shows. Sometimes I’ve been tempted to just lump them all together under S for soundtrack.
Hmm, I don’t think I’ve had to deal with this. Or it’s just that I’m not good at foreign languages and don’t pick up on this. The closest that I have are a few songs by Raimundos, a Ramones inspired band, but no article prefix in the band name.
I think I would just be happy with my ignorance and include foreign articles in alphabetizing. (So, yes, I do say “The La Brea Tar Pits” knowing full well of the double redundancy.)
A related issue are non-English letters. Æ, Ø, Å and all that. Don’t have any music that have these, but I have other stuff where I treat them as if they were the closest looking English letter. So I’d do that if it came up with music.
Alphabetical by band name or by artist ***first ***name (I’m not running a freakin’ library!) For multiple titles by the same band I more or less sort them by release date (but I’m not anal about it). Classical I only have a few so by composer suffices. I keep major genres completely segregated (i.e. Bands, Classical, Comedy, movie soundtracks etc.) Group artist’s solo works I usually do by the artist (again first) name. Though Rob Zombie and White Zombie are together under R (I can’t tell the difference between the two).
I don’t have a huge selection, only about 300 discs, so I keep them in their jewel boxes in plastic 30-disc holders across a shelf. I’m an audiophile so the jewel box is no different than vinyl records’ cardboard case/covers, to separate the two would be blasphemy!
But I’m also a tech geek so they’re all ripped (and backed up in the cloud, ain’t ripping 300 CDs a second time!) and all on my PC & iPhone. The CD shelf is strictly an archive library. Kind of like the old 10.5" computer tape reel libraries when I started in IT 20 years ago…
I don’t have a CD collection anymore, but, when I did, I always alphabetized by title and genre. I don’t really care about artists.
Alphabetic by artist, then chronological by when it was recorded.
I go case by case with solo artists. Ozzy and Dio are separate from Black Sabbath, but KISS solo albums are with KISS, and White Zombie and Rob Zombie are filed together under ‘Z’.
I wonder if the five people who bought the Chris Gaines CD file it under ‘Brooks’.
Upstairs in boxes.
But when I did have my shelves full of CDs I had them sorted by genre.
Similar, but with numbers (10cc is a great example) before letters.
Also, I use the library catalog concept of “main entry” and will sort by title for things like “35 Great Rock and Roll Classics” rather than trying to arbitrarily assign a single artist.
Within artist, titles are sorted chronologically by original release date.
What the hell are you talking about? A jewel case is a crappy piece of plastic, containing no information. A record jacket has liner notes, maybe a gatefold, cool picture on the front. Nobody sane on earth throws out liner notes to CDs, so no information is lost, ever.
And what does this have to do with audiophilia?
Alphabetically by running time - inspired by my drill sergeant’s request that we line up alphabetically by height…