Seriously, who's got the biggest CD collection?

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I know this has been done before, but I need some more recent insight for a piece I'm writing about people with large music collections. How many CDs do you own and how do you categorize them?
I recently spoke with Mark Malkovich, who runs the Newport (classical) Music Festival in RI. He has an estimated 29,000 CDs and LPs. Yikes. Of course, most of them were sent to him from record companies in the hopes that he'll book their artists. He gets about 10 CDs a week.
I have a friend with 6,000-8,000. I have a comparatively measly 1,500.
If there's anyone from the East Bay area of Rhode Island in particular, I'd love to hear from you.

― Jim M (jmcgaw), Thursday, 13 July 2006 14:40 (nineteen years ago)

Just CD or also LPs?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 13 July 2006 15:07 (nineteen years ago)

...or MP3s, for that matter?

― M. Agony Von Bontee (M. Agony Von Bontee), Thursday, 13 July 2006 15:13 (nineteen years ago)

CDs and LPs.
No mp3s.

― Jim M (jmcgaw), Thursday, 13 July 2006 15:17 (nineteen years ago)

I'm pretty sure it's a DJ then, Shadow has some ridiculous amount as does the guy from Soulsonic Force (I think). 60,000+.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 13 July 2006 15:28 (nineteen years ago)

genuinely i have no idea.
however according to my wife i have way too many, but thats another thread i suspect.

― mark e (mark e), Thursday, 13 July 2006 15:29 (nineteen years ago)

i'll show you mine if you show me yours

― timmy tannin (pompous), Thursday, 13 July 2006 15:31 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, Kenny Dope is said to have entire rooms (an entire house?) dedicated to his music library

xpost

and yeah, i have too many too, a point illustrated by frequent residence moves that last few years (argh!). also why i've been downsizing my vinyl fetish

― rentboy (rentboy), Thursday, 13 July 2006 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

i do know that Strictly Kev aka DJ Food has had to have a ceiling reinforced recentl;y due to his collection in the room above, and i know he's a serious collector of just about everything - so i dread to think. but i very much doubt it compares to Shadows which i too have read somewhere is just beyond belief, unles its one of those urban legend type of things.

― mark e (mark e), Thursday, 13 July 2006 15:38 (nineteen years ago)

Joe Bussard

― Edward Bax (EdBax), Thursday, 13 July 2006 15:39 (nineteen years ago)

Ha! I just picked up that Joe Bussard comp - it's great. After reading the notes, I'm convinced that anyone could just invite themselves over to listen to hang in his basement.

― Jim M (jmcgaw), Thursday, 13 July 2006 15:44 (nineteen years ago)

I once heard that Elton John had the biggest record collection in the world. Which at least supports the theory that all you need is a shedload of cash and very little taste

― winter testing (winter testing), Thursday, 13 July 2006 19:57 (nineteen years ago)

Here in the Netherlands a book by musicjourno and vinyl-collector Robert Haagsma was published recently. It's a collection of interviews with people who collect vinyl. One of the interviewees is a man who apparently has a collection of over 70.000 items. A great picture of him amidst his collection is used as the cover:

http://www.thealternative.nl/bevriendenaties/vinylfanaten.jpg

― willem -- (willem), Thursday, 13 July 2006 19:59 (nineteen years ago)

that's Willem Venema if i'm not mistaken

― rizzx (Rizz), Thursday, 13 July 2006 20:19 (nineteen years ago)

If memory serves, I think the winner is Dr. Demento with somewhere around a half-million items.

― Fsck Washing Ong's Hat (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 13 July 2006 20:34 (nineteen years ago)

I once heard that Elton John had the biggest record collection in the world. Which at least supports the theory that all you need is a shedload of cash and very little taste

A big Jesus and Mary Chain fan if you believe the current isue of Mojo.

Didn't Bob Stanley (of St Etienne) have to have his floors reinforced due to weight of vinyl. Or is this just a vinyl junkies urban legend, much like the Rod Stewart/Marc Almond/Boy George stomach pumping legend.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 13 July 2006 21:33 (nineteen years ago)

I would tell you, but the site I use to catalog stuff doesn't number or count them in any way and I'll be damned if I'm going to count by hand:

http://www.recordnerd.com/lists/ryanhupp

The CDs and music DVDs (not listed) fill up a couple of medium-sized shelving units, and the vinyl (which I've only gotten serious about in the last couple of years) fills a box and about half of a small 45 case.

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Thursday, 13 July 2006 22:08 (nineteen years ago)

Uh doesn't it count them at the bottom?!

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 13 July 2006 22:18 (nineteen years ago)

I have aprox. 2.000 (CD + Vinyl), and around 100-150 tapes.

― el buen vigia (elbuenvigia), Thursday, 13 July 2006 22:25 (nineteen years ago)

How many records do you own? And other interesting questions!!

― fandango (fandango), Thursday, 13 July 2006 22:31 (nineteen years ago)

I belive the real Bob Stanley story was that his house was suffering from subsidence so he had to move his massive collection. Blaming the subsidence on the record collection itself was a joke in Q or Mojo or one of those magazines.

― everything (everything), Thursday, 13 July 2006 22:33 (nineteen years ago)

i would like to spend a few days with bob stanley's collection. just me and the records.

― electric sound of jim [and why not] (electricsound), Thursday, 13 July 2006 22:50 (nineteen years ago)

IVE GOT THE SMALLEST CD COLLECTION, hurray. They're just never enough (cd's , i mean)

― bam psycho (bam_psycho), Friday, 14 July 2006 05:43 (nineteen years ago)

It was John Peel who had to have his floors reinforced to take the weight of his collection. His was probably the biggest collection in Britain.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 14 July 2006 06:58 (nineteen years ago)

the biggest collection is a postpunk collection. if it exists.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 14 July 2006 07:09 (nineteen years ago)

So that's John Peel's floors (when he had a separate building for his collection?!), Bob Stanley's ceiling, and an entire wall of Norman Cook's house. Anyone else had reinforcing done?

Biz Markie apparently has multiple apartments, one to live in, one for records, and one for overflow of records plus other collections, like toys and board games.

― kit brash (kit brash), Friday, 14 July 2006 08:52 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, Biz Markie's collection is the envy of every rap nerd collector. The sentence "That's so rare Biz doesn't even have it." is usually replied to with "Yes, he does."

― ramon fernandez (ramon fernandez), Friday, 14 July 2006 09:15 (nineteen years ago)

wouldn't it be sweet if all these dudes put their stuff together into one gigantic library/museum/listening post type thing? i'd probably move in and never leave.

― rentboy (rentboy), Friday, 14 July 2006 12:02 (nineteen years ago)

Only so long as you paid your rent.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 14 July 2006 12:48 (nineteen years ago)

I'm at a point now where i'll probably get rid of old records as new ones come in, I don't really want more stuff in my apartment & have my collection continue to grow my whole life. I find it's pretty easy to find things I don't mind getting rid of and I don't really want to buy more shelving and get another wall.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 14 July 2006 12:57 (nineteen years ago)

I would tell you, but the site I use to catalog stuff doesn't number or count them in any way and I'll be damned if I'm going to count by hand

Seek ye one http://rateyourmusic.com

― M. Agony Von Bontee (M. Agony Von Bontee), Friday, 14 July 2006 13:19 (nineteen years ago)

So that's John Peel's floors (when he had a separate building for his collection?!), Bob Stanley's ceiling, and an entire wall of Norman Cook's house. Anyone else had reinforcing done?

i refer the honourable person to the answer i gave earlier re Strictly Kev.

― mark e (mark e), Friday, 14 July 2006 14:30 (nineteen years ago)

how many pieces of vinyl does it actually take to weigh a ton?

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Friday, 14 July 2006 16:30 (nineteen years ago)

Uh that's be 2000 lbs or 4000 12" vinyls, more or less.

The only time I ever spoke to Peel he said he had to have a new foundation put in. That was in the early 90s I think.

What I really want to know is why address was "Nan True's Hole" or something. No one can ever tell me. Maybe that should be a seperate thread.

Who is the English big-shot radio jock who has a seperate house for his wax?

I got about 4000+ LP/12s, 2000+ 7"s, few thousand CDs. Do CDRs count? Also several hundred cassettes including lotsa live Walkman and radio broadcasts. It's all in boxes right now as I don't have room @ home. Piss.

One of the guys on Discogs has 15550 listed.

― factcheckr (factcheckr), Friday, 14 July 2006 21:08 (nineteen years ago)

i had a boss who used to own a record store. he had custom shelves in his basement that were full of (at least) 30,000 LPs.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 14 July 2006 21:40 (nineteen years ago)

Could god make a CD collection so large he couldn't listen to it?

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 14 July 2006 21:41 (nineteen years ago)

Uh doesn't it count them at the bottom?!

It does indeed. And somehow I missed this.

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Saturday, 15 July 2006 00:04 (nineteen years ago)

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