Sort Your Music with Mp3 Folder Structure Maker

Martin Brinkmann
Mar 16, 2011
Updated • Mar 26, 2016
Software, Windows software
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Mp3 Folder Structure Maker is a free program for Windows that enables you to sort your music in different ways semi-automatically.

How do you store your music on your computer? Do you lump everything together in a folder with hundreds or even thousand of titles? Do you save music to different places so that it is scattered around on the computer? Or do you sort your music collection methodically in subfolders named after artists, albums or genres?

The latter offers greater flexibility and usually means that it is easier to locate a specific song or artist. Some music players and organizers on the other hand mitigate the factor, as they take music from all places and sort them automatically by artist, genre and other parameters if the collection is tagged or at least named properly.

Read on if you are not using iTunes, Mediamonkey or another music organizer, or would prefer your music to be in one location for easier access (for instance when copying music to your mp3 player).

Mp3 Folder Structure Maker

Mp3 Folder Structure Maker to the rescue. The freeware can re-sort folders full of music based on your specifications.

mp3 folder structure maker

The program interface looks a bit messy, but it is not actually that bad once you get used to it. You start by adding a directory, or individual files to the music list. You can add multiple folders and files and process them all together which is great if your music collection is stored in multiple locations.

Subfolders are automatically parsed and processed which means that you could theoretically pick the root folder of the drive, e.g. f: and wait until the software has processed the whole folder structure.

All mp3 files are then displayed in the list, along with artist, title, album and file name information. The program, as the name suggests, will only add mp3 files to the listing which could be a deal breaker for users who have part or all of their music in different formats.

mp3 collection

The new folder and file structure is defined in the lower part of the interface.

mp3 folder

The program uses variables to create the file and folder structure. Available are:

%original% - the original file or folder name
%artist% - the name of the artist or band
%title% - the title of the song
%album% - the name of the album
%firstletter% - the first letter of the artist
%year% - the year of release
%genre% - the genre of the album

It is now possible to define the new folder structure. You could for instance use %artist%\%album% to sort the music by artist, and place all albums in subfolders of the artist folder. Big collections could start with firstletter instead followed by artist and album, for instance a/abba/abba gold/.

It is possible to keep the original file name, or change it as well based on the available variables.

The output directory needs to be defined as well, the files will be copied and not moved to the directory, keep that in mind if you have little disk space left on your drives. The program displays an example in the interface based on the user's selection which should be used to check the new sorting to verify that the structure works for you.

It may be necessary to run the application with elevated privileges. This was the case on my Windows 7 Professional 64-bit PC. The program would not save preferences and process the music otherwise.

Words of Advise

It is a good idea to check for missing tags, especially the ones used in your new sorting structure to avoid that some files are not included in the end. Mp3 Folder Structure Maker can display those files. A click on Bad tagged Files opens a new window where the files are displayed. You may also want to make sure that band and artist names are identical for all albums, as you may end up with different artist directories for the same artist otherwise.

A log file is created in the end that lists all errors and problems during the copying and renaming.

Mp3 Folder Structure Maker is available for the Microsoft Windows operating system. It runs fine on 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

Update: The program homepage is no longer available. We have uploaded the latest working version of the application to our own server. Please note that it is flagged for adware by several antivirus solutions. Click on the following link to start the download of the application: (Download Removed)

Summary
software image
Author Rating
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3.5 based on 3 votes
Software Name
Mp3 Folder Structure Maker
Operating System
Windows
Software Category
Multimedia
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Comments

  1. Peter Fleming said on October 1, 2022 at 3:57 am
    Reply

    Hi,

    I got this below when trying to download? Has the program been removed?

    Forbidden
    You don’t have permission to access this resource.

    Thanks.

  2. James said on February 4, 2016 at 10:32 pm
    Reply

    Your link to sebass.org now is diverted to a scam page.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on February 5, 2016 at 6:31 am
      Reply

      Thanks James, I have removed the link, uploaded the latest working version to our own server.

  3. Damian said on November 23, 2012 at 12:07 am
    Reply

    I’d love an %albumartist% option, great for various artist CDs & Duets
    I look forward to using this program

  4. Sebastiaan said on December 22, 2011 at 11:10 pm
    Reply

    Hi there,

    It’s nice to see people write about my quite old program. Thanks for still keeping it alive ;) If I have some spare time I’ll fix the mentioned bugs you’ve found.

    Sebastiaan

  5. Bob L said on March 23, 2011 at 3:31 pm
    Reply

    No support for compilations (albums with various artists)… not that I can see, and the author’s website seems to be down…

    Other than that, very nice utility, one that I could’ve used a few years back!

  6. x said on March 16, 2011 at 11:44 pm
    Reply

    Mp3 Folder Structure Maker will stop responding without further ado if one of your files is being played while being added.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on March 17, 2011 at 12:52 am
      Reply

      Thanks for noticing that X, strange that it does not skip that file.

  7. Robert Palmar said on March 16, 2011 at 9:21 pm
    Reply

    I’ll have to check this out. Thanks.

    Love the Byrds screenshot.
    My favorite group, Martin.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on March 16, 2011 at 9:29 pm
      Reply

      It is a nice really nice tool. Love the Byrds as well ;)

      1. Jon B. said on July 22, 2011 at 12:26 pm
        Reply

        Enig med deg :)

  8. Dan Gravell said on March 16, 2011 at 8:32 pm
    Reply

    Doh! Sorry for forgetting that one!

  9. Dan Gravell said on March 16, 2011 at 7:59 pm
    Reply

    Looks like a nice tool. I’ve just added support for structuring music folders to bliss: http://www.blisshq.com/organise-music-files.html .

    The advantages of MP3 Folder Structure Maker appear to be wider tag support. The advantages of bliss, I think, are that it also does other organisation like cover art download. Also, it’s capable of working like a server, continually in the background, so you could rip to a folder and the music files be automatically re-organised without you having to run any batch job.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on March 16, 2011 at 8:29 pm
      Reply

      Another advantage is that it is free ;) But thanks for letting us know about your tool, looks great.

  10. hal9000 said on March 16, 2011 at 1:59 pm
    Reply

    I will have a look at that thanks, I have over 600GB of mp3s and they are all sorted neatly into albums and tagged correctly.
    My albums all get renamed such – Artist – Album – Year (bitrate)
    I do this with Tag & Rename which is worth every penny. for things like the above.
    I also have the albums roughly grouped into styles such as Pop, Rap, Trance, Goa , Oldies
    Etc

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