Is your Prog Collection too big?

I blame PA for everything - My collection is ridiculous.... big, yes, but I have room for a lot more.

I'm very impressed by the quantity of music some of you have, especially knowing that (this is my understanding) those collection are 100% Prog (or related, I guess).

I must say that from time to time, maybe a couple of time a year, I get all like : "what do you guys recommend / I need something new". 

Usually, at those moment there is always one, sometimes 2 bands that "emerge" and I listen to them a LOT. 

But then… even so I am lucky enough to be able to work with music on, pretty much all the time,  I haven't got the physical time to have a 5000 cd's collection. 

After reading a few posts at the beginning of this thread, I went to "inquiry" my iTunes.

First and foremost, my collection isn't 100% Prog, but has a strong emphasis on this genre (and most of its subgenre). that say, my collection spreads from Classical to Elecronics, passing by Fado or Flamenco, and I'm not ashamed to say that I have some hip-hop related material (Listen to Meshell Ndegeocello's "Peace beyond passion", you'll understand  )

That said, the collection I have is of 380 artists for a total of 989 albums, all together (Not only prog.) 

And honestly, I always come back to the same LPs, the play count doesn't lie 

Can I have 5 times that collection and being able to listen to it all and enjoy it, and remembering it ? 

I don't think so, and I don't think there is much people on this planet able to, really ..

And as I said above, I always come back to a very selective list of LPs, all genre shuffled, maybe 50, surely less. 

That list does grows year after years, obviously, but not to extreme extent.

I'm 37, music is my passion, playing or listening to it. That's my main thing, my passion, my life for sure.

Do I have too much music, I think I do. 

The need of discovering new stuff is very much alive, but the one or two LPs a year I discover and like doesn't justify my almost 1000 CDs collection. 

I actually have stuff I have listened just once. I keep them, I don't even know why :o) 

I am sure I can survive with 50 LPs plus that band a year for the following 50 or 60 years (hopefully I 'll get to 100 years old  )

ginodi wrote: CD's (or whatever media form you use) and books...never can have enough.

moshkito wrote: dr wu23 wrote: moshkito wrote:   Without some of that fun, an evening into Canterbury is empty! Very wishy-washy, strange, sometimes quirky, a bit drunk ... maybe even stoned ... but in the end, nothing to write home to ma about ... she would get mad at you anyway, for wasting your time!       Oh, by the way ... I play tennis left handed, and I serve just like John did in the old days, and have 3 little trophies to show for it. The trophies are cheezy, but what the heck ... felt like they were bought at Safeway, but I guess the meaning is ... better!   Oh, and I was a serve and volley player, too! AND I still use colorful scarves around my head to hold the sweat and flying hair ... and my scarves are silk and better looking than Mc's bandanas!

Now I'm going to have an image of John McEnroe in my head whenever I read a post of yours.   Great tennis player.  I saw him play an "oldies" tournament a few weeks ago, he beat the stuffing out of Michael Chang.  He's still got it.

moshkito wrote:   Without some of that fun, an evening into Canterbury is empty! Very wishy-washy, strange, sometimes quirky, a bit drunk ... maybe even stoned ... but in the end, nothing to write home to ma about ... she would get mad at you anyway, for wasting your time!

zumacraig wrote: ... Tell me about it!  There are so many rabbit holes on this site.  One weekend I went down the Canterbury hole and didn't come out till monday morning.    So much stuff to check out!

Edited by moshkito - June 05 2013 at 08:44

In response to the original question, "no".  It's not too big.  I thought it was about a year or two ago, but then I started finding new, obscure bands. In my opinion, much of the real "progression" is happening with these bands, and less so in the more established bands (for obvious reasons).  So, now I can't help myself.  I started using Spotify for some things because, let's face it, Prog is expensive, especially if you live in the U.S.  It might cost me $30 to get single album that I'm not even sure I like.  However, after I like an album, I have less problem with that.  I loved Riversea's debut album last year, and had to have a physical copy.  It cost me almost $30, but it was worth it.

Edited by Second Life Syndrome - June 05 2013 at 22:31

progbethyname wrote: presdoug wrote: I have most of what i want already, and have become very picky and selective about what i will actually purchase in the future. And i find i spend more time on listening to my favorites (for instance, Triumvirat, Passport, Historical Bruckner) with some things unfortunately getting ignored. I guess now when i think of adding something new to my collection, i have to have a really strong reason to want it to go thru with it. Being super picky can have advantages, i guess. I pretty well have just the right amount of selection, so i don't need much more. Not many more will get through my picky, new additions process. I agree on a ton of what you said here. I think being 'picky' represents a person who knows and understands their 'sound' very well and that is a huge advantage. You most likely don't make the mistake of buying something you completely don't like; thus, wasting your money. We all gravitate towards a certain sound we really enjoy that gives us goosebump city and some of us have a core of bands that we gravitate towards as well. All in all, I'm like you where I am picky and I have high standards as a listener because ultimately I know what I like and it sounds to me you do as well. Now sometimes we take a 'risk' here and there by buying something from a band that we don't know much about, but I gotta tell ya 9/10 I end up liking it cause I at least know what kind of sound that band produces or if it's similar to some of my all time favs. This is very interesting and I'd have to say overall that my prog collection is well oiled and organized machine cause everything gets a spin now and then, but my cd stack is massive. It takes time to go through it all, but I get around to everything cause i average at least 4 albums a day. :)

If my prog collection WAS too big, it would be entirely the fault of this web site. In fact, what is the purpose of this site if not to celebrate the vastness of it all and to thereby mock each of us for our utter failure to have collected all available material? Until I develop the eternal immortality I seek, this site allows me opportunities to spend at least a wee bit of time considering artists and releases I'll never actually have time to explore properly.

Knobby wrote: friso wrote: Somehow I feel like a lot of collectors are living by the illusion that they are somehow responsible for what they collect. It gives them a feeling of importance. .   I AM important. I am a Prog Masterman.   .... A vasty collection deludes the owner into thinking he will live much longer than the average man.   This can only be a proper, healthy misconception - just think of the power of positive thinking.

Edited by dr wu23 - June 04 2013 at 17:57