CDs Anonymous

[teamsaint]

one way to reduce the number is to lend them to people...they NEVER come back.

[Beef Oven]

Giving up buying cds or giving up smoking cigarettes, which is harder?
I've tried both,smoking was a doddle.
Nice little Rachmaninov box arrived today.

Ciggies was easy. CDs no. Maybe they should sell them in plain boxes.

[EdgeleyRob]

My CD as well as LP as well as Cassette tape collections all reach easily the four figures (around 5000, 5000 and 1750 respectively). But according to my computer (of which the recorded music database is fully up-to-date) there are 47262 pieces of music in my collection...... (of which approximately 36000 are represented only once).

WOW, that's a lorra lorra music Roehre !

[teamsaint]

WOW, that's a lorra lorra music Roehre !

do you think he has listened to all the B sides?!

[Roehre]

do you think he has listened to all the B sides?!

I am afraid i have

[teamsaint]

quite right too !! some gems to be found there !

[Dave2002]

In 2004 I went 5 months nearly. I thought I was cured. I had a relapse and have spent about £300 per month on books CDs & DVDs since then. I am going to give up next month.

Wow - that's over £3k per year. I thought I was bad.

My own collection got a boost round 1998 when I lived in Sweden and felt lonely. Some of the shops had offers of CDs for around £4 each and I spent time (a) travelling around to spot these bargains, and (b) actually listening to most of them. Now I'd consider them expensive, but at the time recordings such as Karajan's Nielsen 4 were good value. There were quite a number of DG, Philips, and occasionally Decca, available.

OK - I recently ordered Rattle's Bruckner 9 for £9, but generally I don't go for anything with a CD price as high as that, and often the price per CD is betweeen £1 and £2 in those various large box sets. Very occasionally I really lash out. I think I paid nearly £20 for Elie Siegmeister's clarinet concerto played by Jack Brymer shipped from the USA, but I'd only only spend that much on a single CD perhaps once per year.

Apart from the desire for getting more music through the door, are there other reasons why we buy so many CDs? I admit that at some times - I've already said I was lonely on occasions - that it's not only perhaps a desire to listen, but a way of filling time. For me it also gave some purpose to my days. Since I had to travel to the shops it took quite a bit of time, and I used to get the bus out to a relatively large shopping area after work. It also had the effect of creating a need for storage, and I very rapidly acquired 3 or 4 of those IKEA Benno units, so I must have bought around hundreds of CDs in a fairly short time. I even used to look forward to the new Naxos releases, which were always cheaper initially. Now online buying is much easier, but does it satisfy the same needs?

I used to go out and at least be aware of other people, maybe have a coffee or some food, and even have adventures, such as the one when the bus I was on didn't go where I expected. Here there'd be no problem with that, but once I realised the situation and gone past the last place I recognised, there was no way I was going to get off that bus. It carried on to more and more isolated places, with hardly any people or houses about. The outside temperature was probably between -5 and -10 degrees C, and would have fallen considerably further as night set in. There was of course snow all around, and I was amused occaasionally to see single people walking along seemingly in the middle of nowhere, having conversations on mobile phones. That was before most of the young people over here in the UK were born with mobile phones super-glued to their ears. That mini adventure did work out, as eventually the bus turned round and I got back home around two hours later than I expected, without ever going to the shops. You don't normally get that level of excitement by hitting Confirm on Amazon web sites. I never did find out exactly what happened with the bus. Perhaps it was a route which had clockwise and anti-clockwise variants, as on the return journey it went past my originally intended destination just as the shops were closing.

[Pianorak]

. . . CDs no. Maybe they should sell them in plain boxes.

And only to kids under 18!

[vinteuil]

. For me it also gave some purpose to my days. / ... / Now online buying is much easier, but does it satisfy the same needs?

.

I have been having the same thoughts. The efficiency of finding CDs and books on amazon and abebooks is wonderful: but I miss the browsing. When I lived in France part of the shape of the days visiting provincial towns was the sniffing out of CD shops and secondhand bookshops - giving one the reason to visit obscure quartiers off the beaten track - and en route discovering all sorts of unexpected delights. Sitting at home pressing keys on the computer ain't quite the same...

[verismissimo]

I was sorting some CDs yesterday when mrs verismissimo told me sternly that I had to get control of my addiction.

I agreed with her...

[HighlandDougie]

I never did find out exactly what happened with the bus. Perhaps it was a route which had clockwise and anti-clockwise variants, as on the return journey it went past my originally intended destination just as the shops were closing.

I think that we may have found the new Henning Mankell

[Beef Oven]

Wow - that's over £3k per year. I thought was bad.

My own collection got a boost round 1998 when I lived in Sweden and felt lonely. Some of the shops had offers of CDs for around £4 each and I spent time (a) travelling around to spot these bargains, and (b) actually listening to most of them. Now I'd consider them expensive, but at the time recordings such as Karajan's Nielsen 4 were good value. There were quite a number of DG, Philips, and occasionally Decca, available.

OK - I recently ordered Rattle's Bruckner 9 for £9, but generally I don't go for anything with a CD price as high as that, and often the price per CD is betweeen £1 and £2 in those various large box sets. Very occasionally I really lash out. I think I paid nearly £20 for Elie Siegmeister's clarinet concerto played by Jack Brymer shipped from the USA, but I'd only only spend that much on a single CD perhaps once per year.

Apart from the desire for getting more music through the door, are there other reasons why we buy so many CDs? I admit that at some times - I've already said I was lonely on occasions - that it's not only perhaps a desire to listen, but a way of filling time. For me it also gave some purpose to my days. Since I had to travel to the shops it took quite a bit of time, and I used to get the bus out to a relatively large shopping area after work. It also had the effect of creating a need for storage, and I very rapidly acquired 3 or 4 of those IKEA Benno units, so I must have bought around hundreds of CDs in a fairly short time. I even used to look forward to the new Naxos releases, which were always cheaper initially. Now online buying is much easier, but does it satisfy the same needs?

I used to go out and at least be aware of other people, maybe have a coffee or some food, and even have adventures, such as the one when the bus I was on didn't go where I expected. Here there'd be no problem with that, but once I realised the situation and gone past the last place I recognised, there was no way I was going to get off that bus. It carried on to more and more isolated places, with hardly any people or houses about. The outside temperature was probably between -5 and -10 degrees C, and would have fallen considerably further as night set in. There was of course snow all around, and I was amused occaasionally to see single people walking along seemingly in the middle of nowhere, having conversations on mobile phones. That was before most of the young people over here in the UK were born with mobile phones super-glued to their ears. That mini adventure did work out, as eventually the bus turned round and I got back home around two hours later than I expected, without ever going to the shops. You don't normally get that level of excitement by hitting Confirm on Amazon web sites. I never did find out exactly what happened with the bus. Perhaps it was a route which had clockwise and anti-clockwise variants, as on the return journey it went past my originally intended destination just as the shops were closing.

This is a great story and without going into detail, it's the sort of thing I've done many times in foreign countries, but without any CD connection.

Spending £69 per week on books, CDs, DVDs and fountain pens is not too bad - I don't really spend anything else on myself regularly . Being semi-retired I can't afford it any more, so it stops in June! My wife tends to waste her money on food and clothes for the kids etc.

[amateur51]

This is a great story and without going into detail, it's the sort of thing I've done many times in foreign countries, but without any CD connection.

Spending £69 per week on books, CDs, DVDs and fountain pens is not too bad - I don't really spend anything else on myself regularly . Being semi-retired I can't afford it any more, so it stops in June! My wife tends to waste her money on food and clothes for the kids etc.

YES!!

[Beef Oven]

YES!!

Oh no! Have I got a partner in crime?!!!!!!!!!

[teamsaint]

All of the above rather tends to lead me back to the question of how long the CD will remain a "current" format.
Its been pretty resilient, heading towards 30 years.
As we know, the industry just loves a change in format... we all have the tapes and Vinyl if the point needed making.

As we have seen from the thread there is a huge amount invested in CDs in the music buying public. However, vast amounts of music can be stored in a tiny space. So what will happen? Presumably there is enough of a market to keep CD players in production for a long time.
Will downloads take over, or is some other "physical" medium hovering?