If you produce music, and you distribute it on the internet, name and tag your files.

I’m tempted to get really mad about this and scream in all caps, but really, if you’re an artist and you’re doing this it’s not anger that I feel for you, it’s sympathy bordering on pity.

You have just invested a considerable amount of time and energy expressing the deepest stirrings of your soul. You want people to hear it and, presumably, know where it came from.

If you’ve ever posted a stellar composition to soundcloud as a free download, but labelled it “Track 1.mp3” and not included any metadata in the file, you should know that I might be writing about how great that track was. Except that I only know it as Track 1 and have no idea how I would go about sharing it with the world.

This one time, I heard this awesome music. No idea what it was. But trust me, it was great. I guess you just had to be there. Drunk on the internet at 4 in the morning on a Tuesday saving everything I could click my grubby little mouse on.

If you’re using a format like mp3, tag the shit out of that motherfucker. ID3v1 and ID3v2. Plaster it with links. Multiple links. If you’re a DJ and you’re releasing a mix, put the tracklisting in the comments.

Ideally, I want to see an artist name and song title in the file name. And you can go ahead and add more shit in there if you like. Fuck any anal retentive filenaming style vanguard who tells you differently. You’re giving away your work for free. Make it identifiable.

This is especially critical if you’re distributing wavs. At the very least I need some words I can google without needing to go through more than, say, 20 pages of hits.

I like music, and chances are good that I like your music. I don’t mind if it’s hard to find because it has a generic name like “Jim – Crunk.mp3”. I can listen to 50 tracks with that exact same label. I am, however, physically incapable of sorting through every Track 1 on the internet. So meet me half way.

Until then, I’ll be out here googling random words that I think might relate to whatever the hell it is I’m listening to now.