Clean Up and Increase Your MP3 Collection

Clean up filenames and ID3 tags with MP3 Tag Tools
This a great program. You can use ID tags (what displays in your music player) to rename files or use filenames to create ID tags.

If some MP3's are too loud and others too soft, try MP3 Gain
This program will analyze the volume of your MP3s. Then you can set them to a standard decibel level. I use 92 dB. It also let you know if there is peak cutoff distortion.

Looking to rip your CDs into MP3s? CDex is a great free tool to do this. You can choose from many file formats and sample rates and customize your file naming format. It also pulls the CD track listings automatically from the free online CDDB database.

If you need to convert .wma, .wav, or other files to MP3 format, MMConvert works great and is also free.

How about some places to discover new music...

Pandora - Creates playlists based on a band name or song title you type in. You can rate each song and jump to the next if you choose.

Finetune - With this site, you can create 45 song playlists. If you get lazy, you can put a few in and let the site fill in the rest of the list. You can also listen to others' playlists and stream your playlists to your website or blog, like I am in the upper right of this page.

Radio.Blog.Club - Another site where you type an artist or song name and it pulls up a list of music. You can save songs to favorites or click on one of the songs to pull up another's list. It also says it can stream music to your website but I haven't tried it yet.

Blogmusik - Another site to search and create playlists, with an IPod-like interface.

Music-Map and LivePlasma - Enter a band/artist into these search engines and it will cluster other artists around them based on recommends by people who like the artist you entered.

Downloading music without peer-to-peer programs (i.e. Kaaza, Limewire)

MP3Salad or G2P - These are simple, clean interfaces to use Google to find downloadable MP3s on people's Web pages. This can be done straight from Google, but would require you to either type in a long string into the search box or create a keyword to use in the address bar.