If you have been collecting audio files for even a short while, you probably have a fair number stored on your computer. Finding a specific song by clicking through directories can be tedious and time-consuming, so you really need a way to find what you are looking for quickly and easily. Fortunately, there are many software packages that can help you do just that � organize your music collection and let you find songs by name, artist, or almost any other classification.

MP3 files can have "tags� imbedded in the file that store information about the song. Standard tags are Title, Artist, Album, Track, Year, Genre, Composer, and Comments. Most MP3 files that you find on the internet will use at least some of these tags � Title and Artist being the most common.

If you have lots of MP3s that don't have tags, you can use a program like MP3 Tag Tools that can add tags automatically. MP3 Tag Tools is freeware and there are many other programs that have similar functions. Tags will be generated from the file name or the folder name. You can process all your MP3 files at the same time, and even re-name files according to their tags.

Now that you have all your MP3s tagged, you need to have a database to make it easy to find any song in your collection. Once again, there are hundreds of programs specifically designed to catalog your music collection. You can find both freeware and commercial products. You don't have to use a program specifically for MP3s � any search program can find files for you � but MP3 cataloguers have special functions for organizing your music collection and creating playlists.

MediaMonkey is a popular software title which manages your entire music collection including MP3s, CDs, and other popular formats like OGG, WMA and FLAC. It has a built-in player and has functions for building playlists, ripping CDs, finding CD information from the internet, and automatic volume adjustment. You can use MediaMonkey or other similar programs to search for a song by title, artist, year, album or almost any other criteria including bitrate, length, or file format.