Physical Music Collections

[Matthew Strongin]

Alright you music loving forumites, here's the deal. Over the years I've amassed a decent size music collection. The vast majority of it CDs. In recent years I've started to buy almost everything digitally and what was once a collection I wanted to display proudly on my shelves is now just a bunch of heavy, accumulated stuff filling up all the nooks and crannies of my closets. So here's the question. For anyone who has made the same transition, what did you do with all the CDs/cassettes/etc.? Sell, donate, burn...? And for those of you still proudly displaying your collections, let's see some photos of your walls of music. I could potentially be convinced to break everything out, plug in the old Marantz changer, and relive the late 90s.

(Seriously, though, I could use some tips on unloading this stuff in a reasonable way.)

[cash]

I don't have any suggestions but I'm in the same boat... compounded by the fact I'm in the process of moving. CDs, books, DVDs ... once so crucial but now so millennial.

[davids]

I did this about four years ago. My solution (since I am one of the twenty three people in the US who still buy CDs) was to get a bookcase and stuff it full of these binders.

Attachment 82768

Here's a link to Amazon: Amazon.com: Bellagio-Italia CD/DVD Storage Binders-3 Pack Black: Electronics

I've got many hundreds of CDs and DVDs in these things and, while they're not exactly gorgeous, they are a big improvement over shelf after shelf of CDs.

Combined with custom cabinets, it looks like this now. If only I could do something similar for the vinyl:

[steve garro]

Burn them all to I-pod and box them up, I'll send you my fedex # and send them to me, where I shall keep them forever with my other 3000-something CD's, and when you ruin your I-pod you can come burn tunes at my house.

I'm serious.

I've soaked up a few collections now.

- Garro.

[TMB]

All of the CD's got burned to digital.

I started on the LP's and realized that was a mug's game.

All of the LP's and CD's were taken to the SPCA and donated when they were running a fund raising garage sale.

Amazing how much more room is in the house.

I have the most listened to stuff on my laptop for easy syncing. Deeper dive stuff is on a separate 1.5 TB hard drive (of which there are two copies) and all of the stuff on my laptop is also backed up to external drives (of which there multiple copies).

Even so, hard drives are the size of a deck of cards. The music on them would fill a reasonable sized room. I count that a win.

[davids]

Lossy audio is a tool of the devil.

[Matthew Strongin]

David, those binders look like a good solution for the discs I want to keep. Almost all of it is burned and in my digital library, but there are a few discs I'd never get rid of, like a random live Op Ivy concert found on the wrong shelf at Newbury Comics. I can't see ever find that again.

I like Garro's offer. I could count down the days before planning a riding and iPod resuscitation trip to Arizona.

[TMB]

Lossy audio is a tool of the devil.

Possibly, most likely not.

The days of my youth sitting in a chair while listening to music are long behind me. I now listen to music while doing other things and a set of phones and an iPod are wonderful thing when cutting the grass, pulling weeds or lubing chains.

At this stage of my life I take what I can get.

That said - I was reminded that I am looking for disc 4 in the Mingus Complete RCA and Columbia set - I think mine must have got chewed by a puppy or something.

Can anyone help with that? Lend it to me, I will send back .....

[Britishbane]

Possibly, most likely not.

The days of my youth sitting in a chair while listening to music are long behind me. I now listen to music while doing other things and a set of phones and an iPod are wonderful thing when cutting the grass, pulling weeds or lubing chains.

At this stage of my life I take what I can get.

That said - I was reminded that I am looking for disc 4 in the Mingus Complete RCA and Columbia set - I think mine must have got chewed by a puppy or something.

Can anyone help with that? Lend it to me, I will send back .....

I was REALLY into music at one point in my life. Spent lots of time ensuring fidelity, yet more and more I can relate to the above bolded section. I don't know what it is, but I have zero attention span these days. If had to do high school all over again I'd be in trouble.

[BShow]

the books look like a good option. My wife likes the artwork and literature, so the fact that you can store the booklets with the discs is a huge plus. I'd love to get rid of the bins and shelves of busted ass jewel cases. The vinyl, I dont think that's going anywhere anytime soon.

[Lurpy]

I haven't "listened" to a CD since loading my first iPod however many years ago it was and just transferred all my CD/DVDs to seven of these binders and pitched all the jewel cases following a move. FYI, don't bother buying additional inserts for the binders, loading up the included inserts takes them to full capacity.

[davids]

David, those binders look like a good solution for the discs I want to keep. Almost all of it is burned and in my digital library, but there are a few discs I'd never get rid of, like a random live Op Ivy concert found on the wrong shelf at Newbury Comics. I can't see ever find that again.

I like Garro's offer. I could count down the days before planning a riding and iPod resuscitation trip to Arizona.

Garro might let you drop by without donating all the CDs. Maybe...

I know I'm in the minority here. And, hey, I do a lot of listening on my iPod, especially in the car or sweating on the trainer.

But no. A transistor radio is fine for the beach. I want to hear what the artist recorded.

Lossy audio is the tool of the devil. Apple should have kept it in their pants until they could squeeze 1,000 lossless songs onto the iPod.

the books look like a good option. My wife likes the artwork and literature, so the fact that you can store the booklets with the discs is a huge plus. I'd love to get rid of the bins and shelves of busted ass jewel cases. The vinyl, I dont think that's going anywhere anytime soon.

You & I can hang. I've been itching to pull out the 'Mats albums.

[edoz]

I ripped all my CDs to a hard drive a long time ago, then took them to the used record store and got enough to put Campy Record on a road bike. I keep a couple of backups, one onsite and one off.
Lossy audio? I can't tell the difference, so whatever.

[rowdyhillrambler]

I might have a serious collection of punk/hardcore/indie/death/crust/math/industrial/new wave/postpunk compact discs. I have never burned or converted any of them. I still buy and listen to them specifically. Except when I am in the truck, then it is cassette tapes only. Those sound funking good. Just listen to a Faron Young tape on the way home. My wife buys me cd's when something new comes out. I have been thinking bout getting a new radio that plays discs for my truck.

[rec head]

Technically if you get rid of the disc you should delete it off your computer too. Just thought it should be mentioned. You could probably make an argument that you are storing them in Arizona.

I still by CDs and rip them to flac. Then once the pile on the shelf gets big enough they get thrown in a box. Buying the binders would make sense but right now I have the space so I keep everything.

[djg21]

Me too. My wife made me get rid of my old stereo system because it was "too big," and she's been pressing me to sell the closet full of CDs I've amassed over time. I already got rid of the Vinyl years ago.

[oopfoo]

Technically if you get rid of the disc you should delete it off your computer too. Just thought it should be mentioned. You could probably make an argument that you are storing them in Arizona.

I still by CDs and rip them to flac. Then once the pile on the shelf gets big enough they get thrown in a box. Buying the binders would make sense but right now I have the space so I keep everything.

+1 for ripping them with FLAC. It's a good codec that doesn't make music sound like a Sirius XM broadcast.

I trashed the cases and store the CDs in paper envelopes in plastic, sealed cases. Did the same for DVDs and Blu-Ray, too. Now VINYL...that's another story. It's all in record-store racks for browsing, though I REALLY need to reorganize my studio to make better use of my space.

[xjoex]

Here is what I did, all my punk and hardcore vinyl I posted on a forum and asked for donations for the whole collection. Whoever pledged the most to a charity got them.

For the CDs, I gave them to a younger punk bike racer who was psyched. Or give them to Garro.

I ripped it all a long time ago and never felt bad about it .

I kept one 7" - Desiderata / Dischord 61.5


-Joe
PS I had a Rio player with 32MB of space. Then I bought the first 5GB iPod the day it came out.

[Matthew Strongin]

I'm definitely leaning towards giving it away as long as it goes to a good home. Maybe I'll break it out by genre so my Klezmer albums can all go to the same place.

[pdmtong]

the time sink is ripping them...my choice is lossless and later if you want to shrink the file size convert the lossless file to something smaller. its not a big deal to go with a small file until you play the file back on a real stereo - not your car, not your headphones, not a boom box. a real stereo. anything less than lossless sounds like garbage.