Why own multiple performances of the same work?

[Roger Webb]

I think if my ancient iPod can remember how many times I’ve played something, your Qobuz app can too!

(And I’m sure fairly remunerating the artists is uppermost in their minds at all times…)

And I'm sure it does do it, but when offline and merely playing that music stored in the memory of my tablet, the number of plays must be counted at my end, and then when I go back to using my Qobuz app. 'live' it must send the information of the number of plays to the Qobuz computer. I know that if you cancel your subscription the Qobuz app. will wipe out all your stored music...apart from those downloads that you've actually bought.

[Pulcinella]

So I wonder what percentage of the satisfaction is about just owning them as distinct from listening to them? With books I have a number which I've never read but they are available to be read if some unpredictable cue arises (e.g.my brother mentioned Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward this morning, which I have); but my book collection is nowhere near as big as some people's record collection. (And my record collection is mere.)

Curiously, that's a book that I've thought about reading again.

[Roger Webb]

So I wonder what percentage of the satisfaction is about just owning them as distinct from listening to them? With books I have a number which I've never read but they are available to be read if some unpredictable cue arises (e.g.my brother mentioned Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward this morning, which I have); but my book collection is nowhere near as big as some people's record collection. (And my record collection is mere.)

I went through a Hemingway phase and bought just about everything, but a couple are unread, but there in case I take him up again.
Same with some composers...casting a glance at my CD shelves from top left Atterberg catches my eye - have just about all the orchestral works but can't remember playing all the symphonies...3rd is on regularly, and I've a soft spot for 2nd with its big tune, but the rest are there as a personal archive. Anyway, it's often cheaper to buy the box set than the three or four you may want.....some of my ex-customers may remember my good advice in this direction!

And I can confirm that part of the satisfaction is in just owning them!

[Petrushka]

So I wonder what percentage of the satisfaction is about just owning them as distinct from listening to them? With books I have a number which I've never read but they are available to be read if some unpredictable cue arises (e.g.my brother mentioned Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward this morning, which I have); but my book collection is nowhere near as big as some people's record collection. (And my record collection is mere.)

There is no point in 'just owning them' as if they were some sort of status symbol. They are there to be played and heard, and they are. Deciding on a particular work to play is often relatively easy; the hard part is choosing whose recording! So percentage wise I'd say 10/90 in favour of listening.

My books are in a similar state of anarchy though I do have a very early paperback edition of Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward which I bought decades ago, probably when it first came out, and can lay my hands on in seconds.

[kernelbogey]

There is no point in 'just owning them' as if they were some sort of status symbol.... My books are in a similar state of anarchy...

I have 1000+ books after two decades' work in book publishing. About half are in storage and some serious weeding is indicated. But just recently I read The Kool-Aid Aid Test, by Tm Wolfe which has been on my shelves unread since 1969: which both brought back memories of ten months in California, and explained some of the 'hippy' culture of the time, and some of the background to it. I heard the Gratefufl Dead and Janice Joplin live (adn I have some of their LPs too.) So that's the point of a library of books IMVHO.

[gradus]

Multiple versions appear here but I get less and less bothered about particular versions of general, albeit enjoyable, repertoire, so not much point in multiple versions. There are some exceptions that I always choose but they are often so personal that I would hesitate to recommend them to the discriminating ears hereabouts.

[french frank]

There is no point in 'just owning them' as if they were some sort of status symbol. They are there to be played and heard, and they are.

I didn't really doubt it in your case, Petrushka. But as someone who can't walk and chew gum at the same time, I marvel how people find so much time during the day to listen to so much. I can listen to music while I'm eating a meal but not while I'm cooking it . Even now, while I'm pausing between cheese and fruit, I'm writing this - and am well aware I'm not really listening to Brahms

[vinteuil]

I think of my CD collection much as I think of my books - my ideal is to have a (Borgesian?) library : I won't have time or inclination to experience them all - but they are there waiting for me when I need them. A case in point today - have just received the new slim volume of Julian Barnes (Changing my Mind) : in it he refers to a Simenon roman dur (Chez Krull) - which I had read : but following that up on-line, an article by John Banville in The Guardian alerted me to another roman dur (la Fuite de M. Monde) which I had not read - but I was able to get from the top shelf the volume of Simenon which contains it - and am now happily ensconced in my favourite arm-chair, engrossed...

[Petrushka]

I didn't really doubt it in your case, Petrushka. But as someone who can't walk and chew gum at the same time, I marvel how people find so much time during the day to listen to so much. I can listen to music while I'm eating a meal but not while I'm cooking it . Even now, while I'm pausing between cheese and fruit, I'm writing this - and am well aware I'm not really listening to Brahms

I rarely have the wish to listen to music during the daytime, considering it to be mostly a nocturnal activity, the rare exceptions being chamber music and church music.

Also, listening to music while engaged in another activity is anathema to me. So the evenings (usually the standard concert time between 7.30 to 10.00) are my time for serious music listening. I'm on a short interval at the moment. I manage to get through a lot of music this way but, as with reading, it is all about the journey and not the destination so I no longer worry about the great number of CDs that might not get another hearing.

[Roslynmuse]

I certainly have more CDs than I shall ever be able to listen to, but it doesn't stop me adding to the collection if something catches my eye. I have multiple versions of quite a lot of pieces - things that interest me, recordings that were my introduction to works that I keep for (sometimes) sentimental reasons even if they have been superseded by other, better ones; phases of collecting certain composers - I probably have almost every Dutilleux recording and many Poulenc and Roussel discs, as they were composers I was particularly interested in when I was a student; historic and more recent recordings of Chopin, Debussy and Ravel; the Great Pianists and Great Conductors sets; other artists who I was impressed by in some repertoire and then got as many of their discs as I could. I think OCD does play a part, as does getting an ADHD dopamine hit from finding the recording and buying it. My listening time is fairly limited though and as I work in music in my professional life there are times when I just want silence at home (and Radio 4 in the car). And I can't listen to music and do anything else (and I'm afraid I need everyone around me to be quiet too if I'm listening - another neurodivergent trait...)

I haven't the space for more books so anything new is an e-book although I am embarrassed by that - I do like the physical objects. I still buy music despite having nowhere to put it. And I simply can't imagine thinning any of these collections out! (Including my cassette collection - almost never played, but knowing it is there is a source of pleasure.) I think that from an early age the idea of building a home library was a dream - impossible to realize in full!

[gurnemanz]

I mainly like listening to music in the morning - not Essential Classics - when there is less distraction. Also talk radio - R4 or 5. Sometimes in the afternoon but that is when I tend to do other things, daily bike ride, tennis once a week, gardening, reading, crossword (cryptic). We rarely listen in the evening. If not going out, we read or watch TV or a film, maybe sport. I nearly always listen to music late evening just before going to bed.

Re large classical music collection, which I do have, I am aware that much of it is likely never to be played again but the delight is to have the choice. As in a restaurant where you can't eat everything on the menu.

[teamsaint]

I went through a Hemingway phase and bought just about everything, but a couple are unread, but there in case I take him up again.
Same with some composers...casting a glance at my CD shelves from top left Atterberg catches my eye - have just about all the orchestral works but can't remember playing all the symphonies...3rd is on regularly, and I've a soft spot for 2nd with its big tune, but the rest are there as a personal archive. Anyway, it's often cheaper to buy the box set than the three or four you may want.....some of my ex-customers may remember my good advice in this direction!

And I can confirm that part of the satisfaction is in just owning them!

Staying on ownership, the physical item just can matter. So many of them represent something beyond disc and artwork that we enjoy. Where we bought them, what persuaded us , the phase of our life, the developing relationship with the music, and back in the day the search for the music and so on and so on.
Never going to get that back from downloads or streaming. It has been a lifetime’s work.
And my collection is far from what I might choose as a perfect collection. But it’s MY imperfect jumble, full of good choices and liberally sprinkled with not such great ones.
” You have listened your life away” somebody told me with( I think !) affection, although 40 years of work and 3 kids seem to have taken up some time. But my collection reflects all of that ( including the cash shortages of the the three teenager years ) and that is why it matters.
It is my life right up to the present, seen through the past darkly.

[Roger Webb]

Staying on ownership, the physical item just can matter. So many of them represent something beyond disc and artwork..........................
.............................. is my life right up to the present, seen through the past darkly.

So true Teamspirit!

One of the things I dreaded in running my CD shop was a relative of a customer (often one who had become a friend) coming into the shop and, after telling me that he had died, asking me to go to his (never had a 'her') house and buy back his CD/Lp collection. Each collection is unique in some way - I often met a customer at, say, a concert or opera and could remember what they bought, but often not their name!

The most idiosyncratic collection must have been dear Mr Williams (RIP Keith ) who set out after WW2 to collect the complete classical canon..... alphabetically, starting with A. First on 78s, then LPs, cassettes, CDs. I first got to know him in the early 80s....he still hadn't got out of the As! By the mid 90s he made a start on the Bs...Milton Babbitt I remember....by this time, as he became more infirm, I delivered to his house. I learned of his death just as he was planning an assault on the Bach dynasty! Now that's a unique collection.

[LMcD]

I marvel how people find so much time during the day to listen to so much. :

A mystery which I, too, have yet to solve!

[smittims]

Systematic collecting, as Roger says, can contribute to the size of one's store. I remember a man who set out to buy every Decca 'World of...' LP, possibly thinking it was an easy way to acquire a comprehensive library. I tried to point out to him that he might just not like some of them ,and others weren't necessarily the 'best buy' for that music. Having saithta, though, I admit I've often wished I'd collected all the Oiseau-Lyre 'OLS' LPs ( a 99p label that came out as the same time as 'Eclipse') because of the lovely flower prints they had on the generic cover.