Existing users, 
Needs improvement - MacHound
I agree with Perser's comment. All my music is arranged by last names so that Bach comes before Brahms, and Springsteen comes before Supertramp. The exception is bands whose group name uses multiple words, for instance Steely Dan is under "S" and Pink Floyd is under "P". The distinction here is that Dan and Floyd are not band members's names.The Last name - First name system makes better sense in a large music collection when you want to keep related musicians close together, for instance Winton Marsalis with Ellis Marsalis and Branford Marsalis. It also helps with large classical music collections where a person may have a hundred Symphonies No. 1. It's far easier to sort Beethoven Symphony No. 1 versus Schubert Symphony No. 1 if you include the composer's last name at the start of every track. First names don't work as well: "Franz Piano Sonata #1" could be by Franz Schubert or Franz Liszt.
I think this is fairly common usage if it's not the norm. Obviously there's more than one right way to categorize music. No organizational method is perfect, but I have fewer problems this way. I tried the First name - Last name method first and it caused many headaches.
Tuesday, July 18 2006 @ 03:53 PM PDT
Needs improvement - MacHound
One further comment... you might want to try pearLyrics instead of Harmonic. P.L. works great regardless of how you choose to organize your musicians' names. An added bonus is it comes with both an app and a widget, so you can take your pick which one you prefer.Unfortunately pearLyrics has been removed from VersionTracker. It's still available through MacUpdate and other places around the web.
Wednesday, July 19 2006 @ 01:01 PM PDT
Needs improvement - teechweems
I absolutely agree with you on the last name, first name thing. The unfortunate thing is that many things online are organized this way. iTunes automatically does this, and I find that CD swapping sites, such as lala.com and such do it as well. Even worse, things are alphabetized according to "the". As an English teacher, it is very distressing to see this. However, it looks like you have to swim against the rip current to do proper alphabetizing on the internet.Saturday, July 22 2006 @ 08:20 PM PDT
Needs improvement - teechweems
I absolutely agree with you on the last name, first name thing. The unfortunate thing is that many things online are organized this way. iTunes automatically does this, and I find that CD swapping sites, such as lala.com and such do it as well. Even worse, things are alphabetized according to "the". As an English teacher, it is very distressing to see this. However, it looks like you have to swim against the rip current to do proper alphabetizing on the internet.Saturday, July 22 2006 @ 08:21 PM PDT
Needs improvement - roger63
This is an odd criticism. While record shops may or may not organise their display by performers' surnames, song information downloaded from internet databases always has first names first, which reflects the way we all think of the artists. Ever heard anyone say: "I think I'll just play that Springsteen, Bruce, album"?Reply to This
Sunday, April 23 2006 @ 03:21 AM PDT