Will you outlive your CD collection?

[ardcarp]

I'm often awed by discussion here, especially from those who want, for instance, to acquire several different recorded sets of Mahler's symphonies.
I find my large but random CD collection rather depressing, and not just for the chaotic ordering of it. If I were to play them all back to back, how long would I have to live to get through them all? And then there's the LPs and cassettes. In reality, many are just not going to get heard. That's the sad bit. To decide which are de trop, and even worse to spend time selling them on eBay, would just make matters worse.
Does anyone else have the same feelings about music and mortality?

[Conchis]

A good question and one I shall put off answering for the rest of my natural! :)

[vinteuil]

I find my large but random CD collection rather depressing, and not just for the chaotic ordering of it. If I were to play them all back to back, how long would I have to live to get through them all? ...
Does anyone else have the same feelings about music and mortality?

... I don't think you shd be depressed ; think of it as a library.

There was a similar thread back in January -

.

... are the CDs we acquire to be considered as perishable goods, things for immediate consumption - or can we not rather consider the purchases as being part of building up a Library, a resource into which we will dip and plunder over (we hope) many years to come?

So - no guilt here that there are still works unopened / untapped among the CDs and boxed sets : in the same way that I feel no guilt at not having read every word of the Horace Walpole, Hazlitt, de Quincey, Ruskin, Sainte-Beuve, Léon Bloy etc on the shelves behind me as I write...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I might - and that's what matters. I've played the vast majority of the discs I own at least once, and even those that I've not been thrilled by are still there to be sampled a second, third, fourth time when the mood takes me. Absolutely nothing sad to me about this - it's the ones I'll miss after my particular clogs have been popped that could possibly be a cause of (present) neglect: the complete Dunstable recordings, the complete Carceri d'Invenzione, those Bach cantatas that only get discovered just as they're scattering my ashes ...

But then, everywhere and forever, the beloved Musicians are recording anew every year; the distant light shines ever bright and blue ... ever ... ever ... ever ....

[pastoralguy]

No one in my family is remotely interested in music so goodness knows what'll happen to my cd collection after I die. If I pre-decease Mrs. PG, she has strict instructions to sell them on eBay and at least make some money from them. (Quite a few are valuable). What I DO worry about is that my niece will just throw them in a skip.

Having said that, so charity shop may do extremely well out of a colossal donation. A charity shop close to my work got a huge donation recently, about which 20 are now sitting in a huge pile beside me. Who knows?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The problem doesn't arise with downloads. Just remember to give your password to someone you can trust.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The problem doesn't arise with downloads. Just remember to give your password to someone you can trust.

Downloads mean you live forever??!!

(That's never been mentioned on any of our many "Download v CD Benefits" Threads.)

[Old Grumpy]

Will I outlive my CD collection?

Dunno, not really my problem, I guess.

What I do know is that during my imminent semi-retirement, I certainly hope to be able to listen to more of them

OG

[cloughie]

No.

[teamsaint]

... I don't think you shd be depressed ; think of it as a library.

There was a similar thread back in January -

I like your attitude to these matters, Vinny.

In any case, all that spending keeps youngsters in jobs.

A library, a resource, is how I think of it. The downloads etc are a bit like the " borrow from another branch " facility.

Guilt over buying and keeping some shiny music discs really isn't the best use of guilt, in any case......

[Petrushka]

Does anyone else have the same feelings about music and mortality?

Yes and rather more frequently than I care to admit yet I am still buying CDs by the shedload! In all honesty, there's no logic to it because I have more than enough CDs to last several lifetimes. I was 63 last week, in reasonable health (though eyes and ears could be better) so, as far as I know there is no immediate threat of my demise, but I do, like PG, ponder on what is going to happen to all of my CDs when I've shuffled off this mortal coil.

No one in my family is as greatly interested in music as I am and none of my siblings would want them. Should I make any provision in my will for disposal to a library, charity or whatever? Has anyone got any information on what happened to Edward Greenfield's vast collection after his death? Or Hugh Scully's large number of CDs?

[Richard Barrett]

It's like Tristram Shandy's problem of his life going on faster than he can write about it...

As I get older my tastes get wider rather than narrower. I sometimes feel a little sad when I think that there are CDs on my shelves I'm never going to listen to again, and I don't even know which ones they are. It's all very well to say it's like a library, but sometimes I feel a bit overfaced by libraries too. Worse than the CD problem for me is that I won't get around to writing all the music I can imagine, especially if some day the imagination is still there but the capacity to realise it gone for some reason.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I had thought that Edward Greenfield's collection had been auctioned - separated into smaller Lots, and sold off - but I cannot find anything online to confirm this nor any reference suggesting where I might have heard this.

I have made very simple provisions in my Will for the disposal of all my property to raise funds for the Beneficiaries. I care no more now about what will happen to the books, CDs, scores, DVDs, house etc than I will then. I just hope that I won't leave too many more-than-half-full bottles of whisky.

[teamsaint]

It's like Tristram Shandy's problem of his life going on faster than he can write about it...

As I get older my tastes get wider rather than narrower. I sometimes feel a little sad when I think that there are CDs on my shelves I'm never going to listen to again, and I don't even know which ones they are. It's all very well to say it's like a library, but sometimes I feel a bit overfaced by libraries too. Worse than the CD problem for me is that I won't get around to writing all the music I can imagine, especially if some day the imagination is still there but the capacity to realise it gone for some reason.

I've been thinking about the " unfinished business" side of things a bit over the last few months, and I decided, yesterday as it goes, that this is a rather unhelpful mind set for me.. So some kind of acceptance needs to come into play, ( S-A is probably very good on this kind of thing) including maybe acceptance that what I see as "unfinished business" now, is better viewed as, I don't know, part of a larger journey, in which the unfinishedness is in some way positive, or at least not negative.

( A person probably confused after a very long day at work, a ceaseless struggle with an inoperative phone, and an hour on the 5 a side footy pitch writes......)

Anyway, like you, I find my tastes widening as I get older, which is in some ways rather unhelpful.

[Serial_Apologist]

I've been thinking about the " unfinished business" side of things a bit over the last few months, and I decided, yesterday as it goes, that this is a rather unhelpful mind set for me.. So some kind of acceptance needs to come into play, ( S-A is probably very good on this kind of thing) including maybe acceptance that what I see as "unfinished business" now, is better viewed as, I don't know, part of a larger journey, in which the unfinishedness is in some way positive, or at least not negative.

( A person probably confused after a very long day at work, a ceaseless struggle with an inoperative phone, and an hour on the 5 a side footy pitch writes......)

Anyway, like you, I find my tastes widening as I get older, which is in some ways rather unhelpful.

That's very kind, teamy.

The main concern I have is, if at all possible, not to leave a mess. I'm still figuring out this business of a will, not having any dependents.

As for outliving my recorded collection, I tend to see the large generic part of it that only gets recycled attention rather like the reserve collection kept by the Tate in their vaults - the majority part for which there isn't the room to have on permanent display. People sometimes come round, and ask, can they hear, say, the Bebop collection, and I'm only too glad to oblige. it's always there as a resource. I find I'm less and less troubled about this occasion being maybe the last time I go through, say, all my British 20th century music; this could be part and parcel of having for some years now thought my collection may be complete, which in turn may have something to do with the way many of my generation lived our lives in part through a sort of musical prism. It seemed easier to make meaningful connections between different areas of interest, not just musical, like the Taoist image of the spider's web covered with dewdrops in which each one reflects all the others, and in which one's life had some broader sort of relevance than what they all did for me. Or at least, that's what I ended up getting out of it all.