Utter waste

[eighthobstruction]

If you have a smartphone you could download the Music Magpie app and sell CDs through that - though expect to be disappointed with the prices offered.

....yes, i'm sure that would be the case....you'd have to be ruthless to get rid of 'tripe'....

[Petrushka]

If you have a smartphone you could download the Music Magpie app and sell CDs through that - though expect to be disappointed with the prices offered.

See my message #9 above. As I say, I tried this but with the majority I got the 'we do not want this item at the present time' message. A full price CD they did want would be bought for around a laughable 30p. Now I know with the number I've got the pennies will mount up and it will be more than I'll get if they just sit piled up on my floor but it hardly seems worthwhile.

I've also bought the odd second hand CD from them and they are making quite a tidy little profit out of those selling for pennies.

[Jonathan]

From what I learnt from the lady who had the discs, they were part of a house clearance of a property owned by 2 music teachers. Lots of other stuff such as sheet music was thrown out too.

[Petrushka]

I'm afraid I find this thread somewhat depressing! I look over at my bulging LP and CD shelves, all bought or received as presents, over most of my life and realise that in 20 years or so they could all end up in the skip too

[teamsaint]

I'm afraid I find this thread somewhat depressing! I look over at my bulging LP and CD shelves, all bought or received as presents, over most of my life and realise that in 20 years or so they could all end up in the skip too

The company I work for moved office a year ago.
After trying every eco method of disposal, re purposing etc, ( including giving away anything that anybody including and especially charities would take) we finally ordered a skip for the residue. A single skip, for an office that had housed up to 80 people over 30 years.

Boy, the stick we got from the local eco groups!!
So they may not even end up in the skip........

[akiralx]

I'm afraid I find this thread somewhat depressing! I look over at my bulging LP and CD shelves, all bought or received as presents, over most of my life and realise that in 20 years or so they could all end up in the skip too

Yes, this is why I really only buy downloads now - better for the environment, and can sound better.

[oddoneout]

Yes, this is why I really only buy downloads now - better for the environment, and can sound better.

Downloads don't produce the obvious physical waste problems for the environment but there are 'costs' elsewhere to do with the energy needed to stream. As with so many activities and choices it isn't as straightforward as one might like.

[gradus]

From what I learnt from the lady who had the discs, they were part of a house clearance of a property owned by 2 music teachers. Lots of other stuff such as sheet music was thrown out too. ������

Sheet music is so often in fairly poor condition although still usable. My wife has started to go through the mainly vocal music that she no longer uses or has never used, much of which was given to her by musical friends over the years. It's difficult to find anyone interested in taking it so the skip looks increasingly, but regrettably, the likeliest destination.

[Dave2002]

Downloads don't produce the obvious physical waste problems for the environment but there are 'costs' elsewhere to do with the energy needed to stream. As with so many activities and choices it isn't as straightforward as one might like.

I believe that the energy for streaming is not very sigificant - on a per track basis, but of course the computer centres required to run many services are very energy intensive.

This gets us into the usual journalist/politician's "big numbers" game - use small numbers when one wants to show how insignificant something is (only 2p per day ....) vs large numbers (at a massive cost of £65 million .... ignoring the fact that £65 million might be spread over a population the size of Germany, and over 50 years!).

Chances are that domestic heating in a country like the UK is far more significant than either buying and playing CDs, or using streaming services.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Sheet music is so often in fairly poor condition although still usable. My wife has started to go through the mainly vocal music that she no longer uses or has never used, much of which was given to her by musical friends over the years. It's difficult to find anyone interested in taking it so the skip looks increasingly, but regrettably, the likeliest destination.

Maybe ask a singing teacher if any student would be interested?

[Pulcinella]

Sheet music is so often in fairly poor condition although still usable. My wife has started to go through the mainly vocal music that she no longer uses or has never used, much of which was given to her by musical friends over the years. It's difficult to find anyone interested in taking it so the skip looks increasingly, but regrettably, the likeliest destination.

Might it be worth contacting a cathedral choir school or some such establishment, to see if there's any interest from pupils or lay clerks?
Probably bad timing at present, though.

[Constantbee]

Time was when the larger local branch libraries used to have cassette tapes and CD's for loan to members. They used to sell them off when the casing started to look a bit tatty. The sought after titles always sold and it was another useful way to raise much needed funds for the service. One of the large branches in our county still has some CD's on display for loan, but the classical section is very small and limited to classical pops and middle of road artistes.

I asked an assistant at the library a couple of years ago whether the library might consider expanding the service if members of the public were ever prepared to donate their classical CD's. I got a blank look of incomprehension in return and slunk away It's an idea that resurfaces from the back of mind from time to time, based on a DVD rental membership I have of a company called Cinema Paradiso. For a modest monthly rental it's possible to rent movies, and some music and opera dvd's too, by post. It works well Apart from major titles it also gives access to a lot of World Cinema movies and historic masterpieces like French New Wave that you might not otherwise be able to get hold of. Could this work for classical music CD's? Quite honestly, there are times when I'd love to have the flexibility to listen to something on CD but I don't fancy paying GBP15, or thereabouts, for something I might only listen to once and then file.

I recently started wondering whether the idea could be adapted for a community setting, based in a community centre or village hall, for example. We probably have a small but relatively keen population of music enthusiasts here so it might just work, although I can imagine stock shrinkage being a problem as people forget to return them Also, running it on a subscription basis could get difficult when you have to start chasing people up for subs.

Does the Barbican Libary in London still have a large music CD and DVD lending section, btw?

[gurnemanz]

Sheet music is so often in fairly poor condition although still usable. My wife has started to go through the mainly vocal music that she no longer uses or has never used, much of which was given to her by musical friends over the years. It's difficult to find anyone interested in taking it so the skip looks increasingly, but regrettably, the likeliest destination.

It hurt me to throw out so all my father's piano music when he died about ten years ago. No pianists in the family to take anything. Especially hard to junk were the very well-thumbed complete Beethoven Sonatas which had belonged to his mother who was a piano teacher and I unfortunately never knew.

My next job must be to deal with several hundred LPs mostly in poor nick and most likely of no interest to anyone except me - sentimentally. I rarely play any of them and I only look at them to remember what versions I had in the old days. They will go to junk at some point.

[Constantbee]

I still buy a lot of second hand sheet music, mainly from ebay and Oxfam. Things like graded exam preparation books of sight reading, music theory and aural test books with accompanying CD's never go out of date. Syllabuses do change but never by that much and the practice is always useful.

Material like this is appreciated in developing countries and countries with cash strapped economies, too. A music teacher friend of ours used to collect old sheet music and recordings for shipping out to a contact in Greece, for example.

[johnb]

From time to time I wonder what to do with a pile of classical guitar music that must be 18" high now that it looks as though my playing days are over (or at least severely limited) because of a now cr*p right hand.