So you like music? You have a bunch of songs that you enjoy listening to regularly? You go to ITunes or Amazon to buy MP3s occasionally? Your friends tell you when another good song is released?

You may only be scratching the surface of what could become one of your most rewarding hobbies… building your own music library. Consider compiling a rich collection of artists and songs, organized to be easily managed and transferred across your changing music players, and be prepared to experience the power and beauty of music in your world as you may have not known possible.

Where do you start?

Try new music… be open to new songs by your favorite artists and bands. Listen to songs that don’t make the top 10 or even top 1000. Be aware that some songs won’t capture your attention the first time you hear it, but quickly become more interesting and pleasing after a few plays (good reason to buy albums rather than songs). Good music is particular to you. You are the best person to decide.

Be aware of artists and bands that play music in the same genre. Listen to artists interviews when they speak of their influences. Notice who they choose for duets and who they choose to open concerts. Try services like Pandora that play songs similar in taste to your chosen artist based on what others who like that artist also enjoy.  Spend time on Amazon or ITunes playing free trial, song snippets, and watch YouTube videos of bands in concert. Be open…

Write it down… When you hear a song you like, write the name and the artist on paper, save it on your player or buy the song. For this small price you might discover a hundred more new songs that you never would have heard about if you didn’t explore. But if you don’t act to write it down when you hear it, chances are good you won’t remember the names when you eventually have time to listen to new songs, so grab it while its fresh.

Take care of your collection… keep your songs in one place on your main computer and back them up. Typically, music is organized by an artist folder with album subfolders containing song files. Most players use this organization to let you choose by artist, album or song. So take a little time to keep these folders together.

Watch for duplicate artist’s folders with different spelling or variations on their name. You will want to see everything by the artist in one place if you do a search later.

Choose high quality recordings… especially if you rip CD songs to mp3s. MP3s recorded at a bit rate of 256 kbit/s or more can make a difference in your listening experience over more compressed versions.  Yes, you cannot store as many songs on your smallest players, but storage space is less of a problem these days. Consider lossless recording which keeps the music at the same quality as the original source (which may already be compressed). Unfortunately for this discussion, the subject of recording quality is lengthy, varying by file type and listening source for instance. Take some time and read some of those articles too.

But high resolution means maintaining all of the subtle instruments and tones originally played live by the artist. You will quickly appreciate the differences when you listen to a high quality recording of your favorite song in a quiet room with good equipment. (And then you will notice the difference on all your players and environments!)

Enjoy… take some time to expand your music collection and you will discover how powerful music can be to enrich your day bringing excitement and energy in one session to soothing relaxation in another, depending on your mood… but you will be affected and have some fun too.

Save money for good sound systems. A subwoofer is a great addition to your home and car audio speakers to get that live concert sound. And better equipment means better dynamics to play that cymbal crash as it originally sounded.

So have fun and cheers to great music. And let us know your other sources for great tunes?