Review your existing music formats for everything you own, including downloads, CDs and even vintage recordings you might have on vinyl records or cassette tapes.
Use a software program such as Microsoft Excel to set up a "master" list to index your collection as a "stand-alone" index list that you can access independently without having to go through an online program such as Windows Media or iTunes, which may limit your index to music stored on the digital library for that particular software program.
Create horizontal columns labeled as follows: artwork, artist, album title, song title, source, genre and notes. Enter data for each album on the Excel spreadsheet. Limit the listing to the music you own if you downloaded specific tracks and do not own all of the tracks on the entire album.
Use the "source" column to identify where your music is "housed," such as on a CD, download or vinyl.
Use the "genre" column to identify the style of the music, such as hip-hop, rap, pop, jazz, soul, classical, etc.
Use the "notes" column to add special information, such as whether the track is a live recording, or personal reminders, such as whether the song was played at a wedding or birthday party or designated a "must have" for a party mix.
Review information on your Windows Media or iTunes files to complete missing information such as the genre or song titles.
Consider adding a final tab on the horizontal column to create your own short reviews of songs and star-shaped graphics to rate selected songs.
Use the Internet to find JPEGs or GIFs for the artwork for each album, and eliminate the need to scan album covers. Save the artwork as a JPEG or GIF file. Label each artwork file with the name of the artist. Insert the album artwork under the "artwork" column for each listing of songs from that particular album on your music index. Resize the artwork (if needed) to a thumbnail size visual to keep the look of your music index consistent.
Sort the list after you have finished entering all data onto the Excel spreadsheet so you will have an organized way to access songs at a glance. Highlight the column for the name of the artist or the genre, based on your preference to sort your music index. Click on the "Data" tab, then select "Sort" tab, alphabetically from A-Z.
Make any adjustments to how the Excel program sorts the list so that the final version is user friendly and customized to your needs, tastes and preferences.
Save the file to your hard drive on your PC or laptop. Copy the file to a CD or flash drive for backup purposes.
Set a time to update your index system on a monthly or quarterly basis. Add music you have acquired to keep your system current.