Big Collections - Music or Madness?

I have only 190 CD's and 55 LP's, but the collection is still growing....mva-ha-haa!!

MER,

Some women would tell you that size does not matter it is how you use it!

Regarding the record collection, your problem (if you consider it as such , but the size of my collection is not so much a problem as much as the space it takes and the health of my wallet) , but I generally tend to get rid of what I considser not essential after having made a track selection for my compilation. I still have some 400 cassettes (mostly Maxell XL-IIS) and now that I have a HiFi CD burner , I keep doing this. I am somewhat reluctant on always acquiring new albums but always find the my curiosity too strong to resist and do so still on a rate of 5 cd/month , some of which I trade and resell .

Martin/Trotsky's two points are also very common points of mine (not really knowing what I want to hear , tooooooo much choice and the fact that some albums I have not heard in years) and I also do miss the times when I knew my collection by heart - track listings and all.

This is a big problem with me ... my collection (which I share with my wife) once went up to over 5,000 original CDs and I've trimmed it down to under 3,000 CDs most of which are excellent ... we have a very wide range of tastes ... and both my wife and I have spent time as CD reviewers, so we once got them by the truckload (I did a lot of trading too, ya know ... sell a Britney Spears and a Sum 41 and use the money to buy a Yes CD)

But sometimes I really miss the days when my collection was around 200 tapes ... when I knew the order of every track on every album and figured out the lyrics (most of them) by myself. Nowadays I can go up to the 4 cupboards housing our collection, wanting to listen to something and half an hour later still be standing there not having chosen a thing ... there are great albums I own that I love, but haven't heard in more than 3 years ...

I try to go through phases ... and in a sense doing reviews for progarchives is partly about me being disciplined in listening to my own collection ...

MikeEnRegalia wrote: abyssyinfinity wrote: Also I have 1600 cds, but I'm not a collector, simply prog & psych music are a perpetual and pleasant surprise... And you still listen to all of them? I mean, I recently sold 40 cds, because they just don't appeal to me anymore. I think that your musical taste is constantly changing, and you have to accept that. For example, I find myself buying Tom Waits records, stuff that I would have thrown out of the window 10 years ago ...

Cemetry Polka (Rain dogs) is an awesome song - It always makes me laugh
One of his albums called 'Franks wild years' - must covermost of his life

I think theres something to enjoy in almost every album I own (Just under 200, be fair i only really began buying music last september ) I just love music as an artform, and I also enjoy it as mindless distraction. I think I have only about 6 albums id be willing to part with for any reason.

Of course I'd buy an album for a single track, if I can get it on ebay for 1-3€. But as your taste and experience improves, so does the price for your desired albums on ebay ...

The last bargain I'd be proud of was Ron Thal: Hermit for 6€. I follow many auctions on ebay, but for most of my desired items the price is little less than what I would pay on amazon.com. 

I'd buy an album for one track if the album cost less than a single...

(the advantage of 2nd hand vinyl!)

I don't think it's about the relentless compulsion to
acquire records, it just happens over time.
I'm clocking 40 and have about 2,000 records/cds
which to my mind makes me pretty careful about
what I buy. But about 60% of those I bought because
i loved the music at the time or loved one track from
the album.
There are plenty I never listen to anymore and there
are plenty I just take one track from but I wouldn't part
with 90% of even that 60%.
It's all part of my life from 12 to 40 - I can go back and
listen to something completely of its time (like say
Blur's Parklife album) and still get some pleasure
out of it, even if it's only listened to once in a blue
moon.
Nothing wrong with having a large record collection,
tells the story of your life in 3-minute (or 23-minute in
the case of prog ) episodes.
You're right, there is probably a core 200 albums I
listen to with great regularity but I'm very happy I have
things like Sparks 'Kimono My House' just so I can
listent to 'This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of
Us' or Grandaddy's 'Sophtware Slump' so I can listen
to 'He's Dumb, He's the Pilot' any time I want.
yes, I have some things for completist sake but by
and large I buy records to get a song or songs.

Man With Hat wrote: I don't think an album as to be a masterpiece for you to buy it. As long as you like the band, or the style of music, then buy away.

My pocket book kind of limits the number of cds I can buy, so I have to restrain myself and select 1-5 cds per month. Unfortunately, knowing good records from bad ones (even in a subjective way) requires extensive listening, which one cannot do in a record store. So if there is no other way of obtaining some samples of the record (file sharing, progarchives mp3 download, band's website), one has to buy the cat in the bag (don't know if that proverb exists in the english language). This means that after some time, a growing number of records in your collection will be stuff that you bought, but after some time "shrunk" on you, and now you wish you hadn't bought it in the first place.

I think that in big collections a fair share of the collection are records that fall into this category. I'll check my collection this weekend for stuff that I don't like anymore, I'm curious to see how many of those are prog records. At least I'll have some material for writing bad reviews, which could counterbalance my 4/5 star ratings

Snow Dog wrote: You don't have to say it! We know your mad, Flowerchild.

I know