Taking Sides : Record Collections - Sprawling vs Condensed

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Do you keep all personally and /or historically relevant records of past, present and future? Or just the good ones?

― Wintermute (Wintermute), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 00:23 (twenty-three years ago)

sprawling, oh so very very sprawling

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 00:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Used to be sprawling, and now very condensed.

It's odd...once you start selling it off, it doesn't mean that much anymore and you end up only keeping the essentials.

― paul cox (paul cox), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 00:28 (twenty-three years ago)

keep all the vinyl, sell all cds that aren't great (not before burning them)

― JasonD (JasonD), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 01:32 (twenty-three years ago)

historically i've had a sinusoidally growing and shrinking collection.

now i'm working on eliminating a lot of the extra.

it's funny what you'll sell when trade credit is the only money you have to buy new stuff. (and you really want new stuff.)

― msp, Wednesday, 26 February 2003 01:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Sprawling doesn't begin to define it. The Raggettstacks will devour you all (especially now in concert with the Raggettbookstacks and the RaggettDVDstacks).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 01:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Sprawl, sprawl, sprawl. It sprawls so badly that I've had to put parts of it in storage. And when I pull them out again a couple of years later I always find things I'm TOTALLY excited about.

― Douglas (Douglas), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 01:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't even want to know about the RaggetVDstacks

― JasonD (JasonD), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 01:42 (twenty-three years ago)

sprawl, natch

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 01:43 (twenty-three years ago)

I've never sold any cds except a very limited amount when I was younger (which I actually regret selling and am trying to buy again)

― A Nairn (moretap), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 01:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Mine's relatively sprawling, but I'm trying to fix that. I've basically made 1,000 non-burnt/taped albums my limit. Also I'm kinda mentally rating all my albums on a one to ten scale and trying to get rid of everything that gets a 5 or lower.

Someday if I ever turn into some kind of Richard Meltzerian crank (if I ever think music DIES or whatever) I'm gonna just STOP getting new music and listen to a specific album a day for the three years it takes me to get through all that I have, so that I can swear I really KNOW each album (Rather than have stuff I only listened to once four years ago, etc.). But it can't happen today.

If what I have is taking sides then I vote for sprawling, but frankly I respect ALL music collections, because they're music collections, and inherently good!

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 02:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Ultimately*, I can't afford to buy and keep many recordings simply for their historic value. (This might be different if I were in the business of music somehow, e.g., as a writer.) I hang on to some things I don't especially like but that I think are important in areas that are of particular interest to me. I bought a "starter kit" of 70's salsa from descarga.com. I love some of it, but I disliked at least as many CDs as I liked. I have kept them, however, because I'm still pretty new to the music. However, I'm starting to think that enough time has gone by for me to consider ditching some of these "classic" recordings. I don't really like keeping things I don't like, unless I have a good reason for it.

*A word I use excessively.

― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 26 February 2003 02:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Taking sides: Sprawling. In reality if I have to sell a few disc so I can eat this week, sometimes it happens.

― brg30 (brg30), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 02:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Sprawl in fact, but I aspire to condensed.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 02:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Condensed! Too much sprawl gives me GUILT that I'm neglecting stuff.

― Poppy (poppy), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 02:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Compact.

I met this guy named Allan Mason a few years back who's done music supervision work for Berry Levinson's films. He lives in this loft in downtown L.A. that reminds me literally of a public library with books instead of records.

― Scott Warner (thream), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 03:02 (twenty-three years ago)

In the process of condensing a relatively sprawling collection. I've been giving away promo CDs that have been gathering dust while trading in the non-essential for my special orders. In the past month, I've managed to cull about 200 extraneous CDs from the herd.

― Bruce Urquhart (Bruce Urquhart), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 03:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Sprawl. I plan to keep the physical monument around even after I move the entirety of the information contained therein to a large hard drive (using FLAC).

― Millar (Millar), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 03:03 (twenty-three years ago)

err or records instead of books. ;)

― Scott Warner (thream), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 03:03 (twenty-three years ago)

sprawl == records, cds, books with the annual weeding.

― jack cole (jackcole), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 03:25 (twenty-three years ago)

I've sold off a lot of things over the past couple years, so my collection's somewhat condensed. Thanks to mp3s and the ability to make mix CDs, I've been able to get rid of albums I would have only kept for the one or two good songs.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 03:44 (twenty-three years ago)

my girlfriend hates me.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 03:57 (twenty-three years ago)

i don't know if sprawling is the right word... on the infrequent occasions that i clean my apartment i find bags of records/cds/deep discount cassettes that i bought, put down, forgot about, and subsequently covered with coats/books/dunning letters from citibank . i am incapable at the deepest level of getting rid of anything, ever, unless we're talking craptastic promo cds. those go quickly and joyfully to the resale man.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 04:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I do a radio show, so I justify keeping everything for that, like: "I know I'll never listen to Lemonheads (for argument's sake) again, but what if Evan Dando gets arrested like Phil Spector, then I could play one of his songs and be semi-topical"

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 04:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Well what I keep with me in me apartment is very condensed, but I still have boxes of stuff at my dad's house. I'd like to sell a lot of it, most I never listen to, but I thing 'man, when I listened to metal I had to import this from Sweden (or whatever), I don't want to sell it for three bucks.' I'm sure the time will come though.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 05:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Terrible sprawl. There's really no point to it. I've worked out that if I started right now and listened to a different 4 records every day, it would take somewhere between 5 and 6 years to cycle through my collection. I moved into my current digs two years ago and there are record boxes I still haven't unpacked. I have records picked up on various thrift store trawls that have gone unplayed for a decade. It's really pretty pathological, and I've finally resolved to cull the herd.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 05:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Used to be fairly large, but ever since I left my parents house it has been getting smaller. I have never sold a record to cover practical expenses. I just have to thin out the collection because I cannot stand the clutter in my room.

It seems like every six months I have to go through my entire collection and ask myself if I will ever want to listen to a record or cd again. If my gut tells me no, it has to go. Keeping records you don't care about is a lot like having a bunch of old cars in your back yard that you think you are going to fix up. Yeah, maybe one day you will fix one of those cars, but who wants to see a bunch of rusted cars in the meantime.

The other thing is that I think there is only so much music you can really know and care about. I am pretty obsessive about music, and if something catches my ear I will listen to it nonstop until I am sick of it. I would rather have 50 cd's that I completely love and live in, than 2000 that I just kinda play here and there.

Right now I have two and a half crates of vinyl that is cream, I have probably sold off twice that in the last couple years. I am not sure how many cd's I have, but my guess would be around 200. I can't even guess how many cd's I have sold back over the years. There was a good chunk of irreplaceable dance vinyl that I regret getting rid of. Other than those 12"s, I don't regret selling anything off.

There is nothing wrong with having a huge collection, it just isn't for me.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 05:52 (twenty-three years ago)

My collection is large, but no longer does it sprawl. I've learned how to throw away jewel boxes, how to burn and sell, how to keep those big books in just as fine and easy-to-use an order as any rack, and how to keep the vinyl in crates. Somewhere around the ripe old age of 26, it stopped being important to me to *show* everyone who walked into my home how much music I have, and the rest followed quite practically. I labored too long under the illusion that some gorgeous blonde would walk in one day, take a look at my collection, say to me, "Oh my God! It's SO BIG!" and immediately get a dark spot on her jeans. Ain't gonna happen.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 05:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Unless you serve her an extra-large, overflowing coffee and she spills a bit. : )

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 06:06 (twenty-three years ago)

And besides, if you're one of those people who move every year or two (like me), you'll be thanking the lord you threw away all those jewel boxes.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 06:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, moving was thing that convinced me to pare down. Prior to my last move, I had lived in the same place for seven and a half years. I'd forgotten just how heavy vinyl can be.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 06:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I just hefted some myself, and was surprised all over again. Ten records weigh, by my estimation, about four pounds. Say you have 500 records. Do the math.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 06:21 (twenty-three years ago)

How DO you keep those cd books in order?

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 06:22 (twenty-three years ago)

You simply care to.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 06:25 (twenty-three years ago)

I wish I had a decent computer (i.e. with considerable hard drive space, much more RAM, a CD burner, and a fast internet connection) so I could put all my music on some kind of storage. I much prefer to be surprised by a song than deliberately pop it in the CD or record player, but the radio isn't exactly full of surprises these days.

I'd like to organize my collection by genre/era/etc. and then I could say to myself, "Oh, let's play some 1920s country music this morning," and set my computer to play a random assortment of just that from among the things in my collection. And then, like Jody, I could start getting rid of the less essential items in my collection. I wonder if that would pay for itself. Computers are awfully expensive, not to mention monthly DSL subscription, and when you're a Mac user like me..... I have no capital at the moment. I suppose I need some kind of long-term financial program to put this plan into action.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 06:54 (twenty-three years ago)

For music storage and downloading purposes, I always recommend the PC. In fact, music may be the only remaining reson I have a PC. It's easily scalable -- run out of space, go buy a hard drive, pop it in, fill it up. And the downloading software is much much MUCH better. PCs are so much more punk rock.

And they're cheaper, too. If you're a PC person, computers are still expensive, but they don't have to be "awfully" expensive.

Not that I want to start a Mac vs. PC fight. I'm just saying.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 07:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, it might be wise, from the standpoint of economics and convenience, for me to buy a PC in addition to my Mac. However that would offend the part of me that cherishes compactness and efficiency. I'd much rather have my entire music collection on a little laptop I could tuck away inside a desk when not in use. Esp. since for various reasons I may be living in smaller apartments over the next few years.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 07:06 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't care that much anymore.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 07:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I'd much rather have my entire music collection on a little laptop I could tuck away inside a desk when not in use.

So but a little PC laptop, then. Nothing hard about that. And still cheaper.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 07:40 (twenty-three years ago)

but = buy

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 07:42 (twenty-three years ago)

If you're thinking about getting more than about 100 gigs of music on any one computer, though, keep dreaming.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 07:43 (twenty-three years ago)

I have about 1,500 CDs, how many gigs would that be?

― Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 07:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Why couldn't he get more than 100 gigs on a computer? With a SCSI card and a bunch of external drives ... wouldn't be hard at all (not exactly cheap however).

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 07:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Kenan, do you keep all the booklets that come tucked inside the original jewel cases (I'm confused when you say "CD books" if you mean "booklets from CDs" or "storage books full of CDs")? And do you keep the paper inserts from the backs of the jewel cases (see my comments below if this seems like a bizarre question...)?

My not-so-large-by-ILM-standards collection is split in three parts:

Modern Classical on one set of shelves -- this part aspires to sprawl; I keep everything I get and even if I don't listen to it again I figure my students might (I teach music).

Pop/rock/miscellaneous on another set of shelves -- this I'm always trimming down, getting rid of stuff I don't think I'll listen to again. I rarely regret letting go of things.

Older classical stuff -- this part lives in my office and is pretty compact and stable (Beethoven isn't writing many new symphonies these days and I don't feel I need ever more recordings of the existing ones). This part is in one of these big books for storing CDs. There's a pocket for each disc and a corresponding pocket for each booklet. But I didn't think to keep the paper inserts from the BACK of CD cases; I threw them out. Which sucks, because for classical music, discs are often packaged with info on these inserts that doesn't appear elsewhere -- like tracklists.

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 07:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh my GOD!! It's taking hold of the living room! Stop sprawling, curse you, STOP SPRAWLING!!!!

― JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 19:51 (twenty-three years ago)

I keep the front insert and throw the rest away (except for the CD, of course). I think I have two or three discs that I kept the back cover for, because the tracks weren't listed anywhere else.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 19:54 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm selling some stuff for the first time in years, but generally, yeah, I'm a sprawlist.

― hstencil, Wednesday, 26 February 2003 19:57 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm a bit pinched for space so my CDs are limited to a large rack that holds 700 and the LPs are limited in number to about 500. I originally tried to weed-out all but the essentials but that has become troublesome (since i have SO MANY of these so-called classics). So, about one-quarter of it sets out, and the rest is boxed-up; i do occasionally dip into the storage and seek a particular title -- or there will be days that i listen ONLY to the ostracized stuff. Some things slip back into rotation, and eventually, i suppose it all does (i.e. I sell nothing).

― christoff (christoff), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 20:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Woops, so i guess "Condenced" is my answer; but "static" it is not.

― christoff (christoff), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 20:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Condensed. I always sell things that I don't really like. Only recently did it occur to me that I should burn CDs, if only for trading purposes, before selling them. Dang.

― dleone (dleone), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 20:43 (twenty-three years ago)

(That's pretty much what I wish I'd thought of, Kenan. Oh well...)

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 23:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Mad, mad sprawl!

― matt riedl (veal), Thursday, 27 February 2003 16:01 (twenty-three years ago)

mines certainly sprawling in a conceptual sense. in reality its just a f**kin mess.

― gaz (gaz), Thursday, 27 February 2003 22:51 (twenty-three years ago)

condense, condense, condense.

if i get more than 100 CDs or 100 LPs, i know it's high time to clean house.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 27 February 2003 23:24 (twenty-three years ago)

jeez. i used to buy that many in a month (not anymore)

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 27 February 2003 23:49 (twenty-three years ago)

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