[Drahken]

When you're making playlists or arranging folders, how exactly do you decide if a song is "new" or "old"?
I know that seems obvious, but it's not. For example, the obvious answer is to go by it's release date, but there's also the option of going by it's style, or by when you experienced it. Also, do you go by individual songs or by the performers?

I have a lot of metal mp3s and have them divided into "new metal" and "old metal" folders. At first it was pretty easy to divide them up as release date, my first experience with them, and styles all synced up well. Over time though it got more mixed up, and now I have a lot of songs which I think I should move to the opposite folders. The main problem is that I can't decide how to define old vs new. Some songs are fairly recent songs, but done in a 90s style. Some songs are from the 90s, but I didn't hear them until much more recently. Then what about new songs from old familiar bands?
Right now I'm thinking that I should either define "old" as "familiar/old to me", or make 3 folders; "clearly old", "clearly new", and "I can't F~ing decide".

I realize a lot of you probably don't even organize any of your music this way, but I'd still like to hear opinions on this issue.

[paw broon]

As all my music is on cd and I don't have mp3 files, I just don't know.  Also, my music goes way back and if we're talking heavy or rock, I don't have a lot.  My preferred louder, harder music is The Pirates. When I fancy listening to music, I run my eye over my collection, which isn't all that big, and choose something. 
Pirates:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS8uC7ea9oE

[The Australian Panther]

I have many music files, but 'Old' or "New' is irrelevant to me.
I put an original album or track in a folder according to its genre.
Any other versions go in 'Covers' or 'Tributes'
My Uberfile categories are:-
Year of release
Genre
Country of Origin
Covers
Tributes
Compilations
Major instrument - of which I have three categories, Guitar, Keyboards, Sax.
But even then I can still find downloads that don't easily fit into any of those categories.
Hope this helps, but probably doesn't.       

[Drahken]

When it comes to pirate themed bands, my fav is Alestorm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f55CqLc6IR0
..Although whether or not the music is heavy/rock doesn't matter for the new/old question, the concept applies equally to country or classical or anything else. Metal (particularly the lighter end of the metal spectrum) just happens to be one of my personal fav genres, and the one which I have the most of. I also have a lot of jpop/jrock, country, dance, and a myriad of other stuff (including celtic, big band era stuff, litemusic, and weird and parody songs). I've also thought of splitting my country folder into new/old, but I really don't have enough songs (especially for the "new" folder) to bother.

I kind of skipped over cds for the most part. I did get a few cds over the years, but I mostly just kept listening to my cassettes until the internet came along. Then I started streaming realaudio and later downloading mp3s.

I listen to my music at work all day. I currently have enough songs on my player to be able to listen for about 1.5 work weeks without ever repeating a song. I use folders instead of playlists to organize them for play because it's more cross-device compatible (some players I've had don't support lists at all, others don't support them properly when using bluetooth, etc). My categories are arbitrary and eccentric, with a lot of stuff being thrown into "wrong" folders. (For example, I have an "80s" folder, but a lot of the stuff in it is from earlier or later periods. It basically comes down to "stuff which says 80s to me" rather than actual 80s stuff.)