Is your Prog Collection too big?

Great topic!  I have hit a plateau where I am less interested in finding new bands.  I have such a huge collection of bands that I follow, that I find it hard just keeping up with their new releases.

I buy both CDs and Music Downloads, probably 50/50 at the moment.  There was a time when I was buying mostly downloads, but the increase in price and the increase in encoding blemishes has turned me off a bit.  I do not need the CD, but would like the best sound available.  If CD Baby or Bandcamp has the FLAC version, that is my first choice.  I store my CDs in jumbo case logic books, and I put the paperwork in ziplock bags.  I keep the unique packaging CDs in original format, but this has really shrunk my collection into a smaller space.

My shelf-space is too small.

Years ago I would buy stuff that I thought was merely ok but now I'm much more choosy. Maybe I'm too old and jaded but I don't get excited by new prog music that often any more and tend to buy a lot more stuff outside the genre than I used to.

It would be if I had any money.

Yes, I need to throw a bunch of in to the back creek to make room for modern pop music. 

Kentucky_Hawkwindage wrote: The Dark Elf wrote: Dean wrote: My shelf-space is too small. Yes, the problem is not with my collection, it is with my wife complaining the sprawl is overtaking the house. She'll have to move.  Now thats funny! After i became single those complaints are no longer a problem

Used to hunt everything down. Now I find it is best to research first. First there is the quality factor. There is the old pure analogue versus pure digital argument. What is better 24 bit hi hi res audio or the vinyl equivalent? This stuff was also compressed but in a different way to digital compression (they had to squeeze stuff onto a record) rather than just ensure sonic consistency. There's either well done, or not so much... it all comes down to the master tape (for old remasters).

Anyway many classical labels embrace digital easily, SACDs are very popular; no problem there apparently. Perhaps we need to adjust our listening styles... rather than make mistakes that will cost mega bucks. I've a few records usually because there is no CD or DVD so needs must.

The quantity factor.  When you get King Crimson selling their bootlegs (they still doing that? I gave up a while back) and everyone else doing so, and all the unofficial bootlegs, the multiple versions of everything... I gave up even more. I like my collection and occasionally check out something but frankly I get the feeling I have heard it all over the years. I enjoy a lot of other music than prog rock (romantic and modern classical and bebop and cool jazz as well as other rock).

But now... it has to be something that compels me that I know will continue to do so. The deluge of music and multiple formats and versions is diluting the idea - the cash grab that is prevalent in the music biz kind of turns me off. The fun is going out...

The days of beer crates full of records stacked around walls floor to ceiling (or CDs on shelves occupying flats) are over. Well, nearly. I should invest in a new (ortofon) player that plays everything so it can all sit on hard drives.

I think the common theme here is that according to us, we don't have too many albums and never could, but according to our family members we have way too much, no matter what the actual size of the collection.  Personally I have an obsession with acquiring music (CDs), but money comes in the way. Luckily I will be graduating soon and then hopefully working, so I'll have more money to buy music with (but less time to listen to them... ) But no, there can never be too much.

I'm on the brink of running out of real estate. I think if I tried to move all my CDs and audio equipment from one place to another, the Canadian government Would slap a 'land transfer tax' on me.
I need to make a trip to Ikea and let those Sweeds help me out. ;)