There but for the grace of god go I... In my early 20's my CD collection ballooned to several hundred and I could see that this would not be sustainable over a lifetime. I ripped most of my CDs to lossy AAC files, which I regretted within a few years. I have since re-ripped them all to a lossless format, and lately I'm replacing many of those with hi-res audio files. My collection of several thousand albums can basically fit in my pocket. I do enjoy vinyl and have a modest LP collection (I even have one with liner notes by you!), but the space-saving benefits of going digital just can't be beat.
Do you sell on Discogs? It would be a good way to downsize. I'm sure I could relieve you of a few albums. Cheers & good luck with the rest of the move.
Theoretically all of my cds are disposable because I rip them all to flac and then file those away. But I have not made much headway thinning that pile out even so.
I digitize records to flac too but I know those copies are not great so it doesn't make the vinyl expendable unfortunately. Not that I would expend of it anyway...
I sold all my music a while back. Included were a couple thousand albums, including some real gems and rarities - tons of obscure punk and post-punk and all the New York no wave stuff, for example - and a few hundred CDs and DVDs. I do not miss them one bit. I know as a vinyl collector that sound quality is probably a big deal for you, and I get it. But man, iTunes match and Apple Music (or Spotify, as the case may be) have been a game-changer. When I want to listen to The Pop Group's "Y", I just open my phone, put in my earbuds, and press play. Boom.
Sell your records, dude. You'll get over the loss and you'll be amazed at how freeing not having all that clutter around feels.
Streaming based services such as Spotify and Tidal are, for better or worse, the future. Tidal is already lossless (so CD quality) and I'd be astonished if anyone could tell the difference between a CD and Spotify in a blind test (talking about the premium services here available for $10 - $20/month). While there are still a few gaps, the selection is excellent (every ECM album recently added) and it's only going to get better.
I recently sold my 3,000+ collection of CDs (including many jazz and rock rarities), and I don't regret it for one second. Added a whole room to our house. I simply no longer see a downside to a music collection that would take many lifetimes to accumulate playable on my phone via a $25 Chromecast dongle. The only thing one doesn't get is the snap, crackle, and pop of vinyl in addition to the psychological appeal of putting on a album.
I have a friend like you. Some years ago he was shopping in a San Francisco-area record shop when who should arrive but Elvis Costello, who shared with the clerks and other customers that he had one hell of a record addiction, too. He relayed that during a previous world tour, he'd hit every used record shop in each city, usually buy some stuff and have it shipped home. He arrived home to such a mountain of LPs that for months and months, every time he or his (first) wife was going upstairs for any reason, they'd grab and armful of vinyl to take along and deposit in the music library up there. Before his next world tour she put him on a record-buying diet.
It's a struggle just to keep the "not played yet" pile from growing out of control. More coming in than heading down to the library in the basement. Forget about playing something twice. And most of it's not on Spotify, or if it is, it's impossible to tell what version; all digital solutions have terrible, terrible metadata. Maybe I'll get rid of it all when Spotify integrates with Tom Lord's Jazz Discography somehow.
Hey Dave, screw Mr B. We are all here reading you. You are a success and should keep doing what you do. As you wish.
And your boxes? Reminds me of the High Fidelity album reorganization scene. "Chronological?" "No. Autobiographical." "Whoa"....
Who knows - maybe you'll hook up with Marie DeLaSalle when you least expect it!
When I met my current husband, I was still playing vinyl records mainly out of frugality - I didn't want to spend money on CDs to replace what I already had on vinyl. Little did I know that my husband-to-be was an audio fanatic. We went from my relatively modest collection - maybe 100 LPs? - to approximately 900 based on my count on our move last year. Nothing compared to the author or others, but still a heckuva lot of vinyl. Plus another 200 used LPs we need to "sort through" that we got in 2005. We'd have a lot more if there had been a record store in the town we lived in for the past 11 years... .now that we're back in civilization, we'll see what happens.
My not yet listened to pile is larger than my collection, they are 2 separate entities so I am fine with it. I struggle to find time to listen, but I still do, so I have no reason to stop. Yesterday I managed to spin 4 from the inbox so It was a really good day. To the author, I would think you could be a journalist just about anywhere. Why not move somewhere you could afford a living space that would allow you to have the collection you want.
@24 Seattle is one of the best cities in the US to be a music journalist and The Stranger allows a high degree of freedom to write about things I value, which is rare in this field. But if current trends hold, I will likely heed your advice.
Man! The music is all that matters, the physical stuff is a millstone you don't need in this century. Rip it all and donate those CDs one box at a time until you get your kitchen back. And stay in Seattle ;)
Do you sell on Discogs? It would be a good way to downsize. I'm sure I could relieve you of a few albums. Cheers & good luck with the rest of the move.
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Sell your records, dude. You'll get over the loss and you'll be amazed at how freeing not having all that clutter around feels.
I recently sold my 3,000+ collection of CDs (including many jazz and rock rarities), and I don't regret it for one second. Added a whole room to our house. I simply no longer see a downside to a music collection that would take many lifetimes to accumulate playable on my phone via a $25 Chromecast dongle. The only thing one doesn't get is the snap, crackle, and pop of vinyl in addition to the psychological appeal of putting on a album.
And your boxes? Reminds me of the High Fidelity album reorganization scene. "Chronological?" "No. Autobiographical." "Whoa"....
Who knows - maybe you'll hook up with Marie DeLaSalle when you least expect it!