On collecting records

[Alison]

Isn't it strange that sometimes you can eye through the shelves of your collection and nothing seems to implore you to listen.

And then there are other times, typically for me towards the end of a bank holiday weekend, when free time is running short, when you become aware of the vast riches of your collection and can hardly think of what to listen to first.

Know what I mean ?

Any other facets of this great collecting game that we're all in ?

[EdgeleyRob]

I occasionally have this crazy idea to listen to everything in my collection once until i've gone through the whole lot!
One day, perhaps when I have retired, I might just do it.

[Petrushka]

Hi Alison, yes that sounds pretty much like me! I have over 2000 CD's (not sure by how much over) and am often stumped at what to play but then next day want to play too many.

As a variation, I sometimes can't decide whose version of a work to play, then when part way through my final choice wish I'd chosen one of the others!!

[gradus]

For me it's a bit like visiting a gallery or museum, one can be overwhelmed by the abundance of choice.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I occasionally have this crazy idea to listen to everything in my collection once until i've gone through the whole lot!

I actually did that once, in the car. However, that was before I'd bought the complete works of Bach. Mozart & Beethoven. I still had 11 version's of the Enigma Variations and only 5 Alpensinfonies (now 20). It only really works if you give yourself a balanced mix (unlike Mozartfests, etc.)

[Mahlerei]

It's the monthly stack of unopened discs that intrigues me most - often pieces I don't know but have been meaning to try. These days it's the discoveries that keep me hooked. The collection as a whole is used mainly for comparative purposes.

[Bryn]

Trouble is, the commercially produced CDs are only the start of it. What do you do when you get into the habit of archiving most of the Live in Concert, H&N etc. offerings from Radio 3 as well. Then there's all the concerts by friends recorded and edited to CD-R and DVD recordable ...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i have stopped collecting, three banker's boxes full of cassettes, six plus of lps and shelves of cds .... not to mention the full hard drive ...what is it all for .... in reshaping the house arrangements because i have left the office i am facing some very challenging questions .... i have not played a cassette or lp in five years at least, and hardly a cd ... the cassettes and lps are going, the cds will go onto a hard drive and then i can just look at the lot on foobar and itunes .... and still not know what to play .... but if my music appreciation prevails against dementia at least i can take it with me!

[umslopogaas]

" ... this crazy idea to listen to everything in my collection once until I've gone through the whole lot!"

EdgelyRob (post 2) relax, there are those out there crazier than you. Like me: I'm in the process of doing just that. I retired and moved house three years ago and my (LP) collection was packed up into massively heavy cardboard boxes. I could barely lift them, but eventually got them scattered all over the floor space of the new home (none in the kitchen, bathroom or loo, but pretty much everywhere else). I couldnt face the prospect of putting up all that shelving all at once, so decided to play my way through the whole lot, shelving them as I went and maybe chucking out a few en route.

Now, a bit over three years later, I've chucked out very few, got about three thousand safely rehoused with another three thousand to go and bought a few more in the interim. Just another three years should do the trick, assuming I dont get an irresistible opportunity to buy serious volumes of new stuff.

Collecting is undeniably obsessive behaviour, but hey!: it keeps you off the streets, supports all sorts of small businesses and does no harm to anyone else (well, at least as far as I can see: amassing shelves of obsolete technology is a fairly benign activity). And anyway, I enjoy it.

[Serial_Apologist]

i have stopped collecting, three banker's boxes full of cassettes, six plus of lps and shelves of cds .... not to mention the full hard drive ...what is it all for .... in reshaping the house arrangements because i have left the office i am facing some very challenging questions .... i have not played a cassette or lp in five years at least, and hardly a cd ... the cassettes and lps are going, the cds will go onto a hard drive and then i can just look at the lot on foobar and itunes .... and still not know what to play .... but if my music appreciation prevails against dementia at least i can take it with me!

That's fine... but what happens when you invite friends round to dinner, and suddenly realise you ain't got no favourite music to play them, no lovely Blue Note sleeves with all them liner notes to pass round no more?

[Pianorak]

I too go back to the era of LPs – then tapes appeared and the boxes full of off-air recordings I have is nobody's business. I then vowed I'll not start all over again on this newfangled CD lark which sounded pretty dodgy anyway. Famous last words. DVDs: another broken vow. Yet I steadfastly refuse to classify myself as a “collector” which to me has an unacceptable open-endedness and finality about it. Every new CD and DVD I buy is The Last One! No more! Finito! Alas . . .
Yes, I too go without listening to music, sometimes for days, simply because I can't make up my mind what to listen to. Thank god for the piano!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

no lovely Blue Note sleeves with all them liner notes to pass round no more?

they can bring their own or use google! although the rolling up activity will, i confess, be compromised!

[Suffolkcoastal]

I actually did that once, in the car. However, that was before I'd bought the complete works of Bach. Mozart & Beethoven. I still had 11 version's of the Enigma Variations and only 5 Alpensinfonies (now 20). It only really works if you give yourself a balanced mix (unlike Mozartfests, etc.)

I've just recently finished going through my recorded music collection in alphabetical order by composer (and each composers works as chronologically as possible), I only played one recording of any particular work as more often than not have only recorded version of a piece. I started in September 2006 and finished in March this year. the trouble was I'd probably bought another 500 hours or so of music since I started so if I started from the beginning again it would probably take me 15 years!

[mathias broucek]

Let's face it, we're weird.... I have 4,000-5,000 LPs/CDs/MP3s etc and don't NEED any more but I keep buying and end up listening to the new stuff at the expense of beloved older purchases. Irrational, right?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Collecting is undeniably obsessive behaviour, but hey!: it keeps you off the streets, supports all sorts of small businesses and does no harm to anyone else (well, at least as far as I can see: amassing shelves of obsolete technology is a fairly benign activity). And anyway, I enjoy it.

I have a collector's obsession. It's quite worrying really. You've no idea how many partworks magazines I've amassed over the years.
And when it comes to pens and pencils... let's say the Cumberland Pencil Company might have folded years ago were it not for me (and my daughter)