I also have it divided up into playlists, including classical, retro, covers, angry music, dreamy music, writing music, and music that serves as the “soundtrack” to my various novels.
I have them in order by artist name and I have a few playlists. I have a playlist for my favorite songs in the universe and a separate playlist for my opera music and things I should be learning how to sing or play.
By artist. Then sort the albums of said artist by year released. Though, it really doesn’t matter because unless it’s in a specific order, like a musical, my music’s usually on shuffle.
By artist, and then I think the albums are in chronological order. I have playlists as well, but they’re very unorganized. Usually I’ll put shuffle on and then add the songs I forgot I liked a lot to an on-the-go playlist. I haven’t had itunes installed in my computer for awhile now though because my computer is on the fritz.
I have my full music library for when I don’t care what I’m listening to. For my playlists, I categorize them into one of 4 categories: Beats, Rock, Chill, Training
I agree with @Hibernate, music isn’t synonymous with iTunes. (Just a note)
I sort my music into folders usually by Artist, then other folders with extra copies for a few uses.
Songs I currently enjoy listening to often go in their own folder, with new music in general.
If a song is just getting a bit stale, I move it into a secondary folder labeled “For Now”.
I occasionally listen to this folder instead of my usual song folder. If I want to recruit an old song back into the main mix I do, and any that have gotten even more old with time, I remove completely. (Obviously keeping the extra file in it’s artist’s folder as a backup.)