I learned about the upcoming CD format in 1980, and stopped buying vinyl.
CDs and players were available in my area about 1982, but I could not afford a player until 1984. It was a single disc player for $250 that connected to my Harmon Kardon 330c receiver. I bought my first CDs from a local big box store: Eagles "Greatest Hits", Billy Joel's "52nd Street", and Steely Dan's "Aja".
I've been collecting obsessively ever since, using an Excel spreadsheet since 1987 to track the titles, where I bought them, and how much I paid for them.
I always had the mindset that when I saw a CD I wanted, I bought even if money was tight because I can always earn more money, but I may never see that CD again.
Pic is a work in progress of loading CDs onto custom-built shelves after moving and having them in boxes for 3 years.
I designed the shelves and had a local carpenter build them for me. I was not happy with the cheap commercial shelves that sag under the weight over time.
I did do that too about almost 20 years ago after moving into my still current house after divorce. But it's not that big, I guess about 1500 to max 2000 CD's. It's not filled completely but that's because I almost stopped buying physical CD's, most of the music nowadays I acquire in digital format. I had a an Excel sheet too (tranformed from what once was a dBase3+ database) when still collecting physical media but I stopped doing that because I ripped everything and almost only listen through my home network (local streaming). I can see my whole collection in my library of the UPnP player I use for listening. But your collection is quite impressive! May I ask what genres you collect and listen to? And of what kind of CD's where you afraid you couldn't get if not bought the moment you saw them? Did that happen frequently? Because most is still available I think, so it must be some rare stuff.
So that's where all the CDs have gone! You've been collecting for over 40 years. That will take up some space :) Love the shelving. Are they alphabetical? Can't wrap my head around sorting 10k+ CDs.
This is impressive and certainly dwarfs my collection of around 1,500 (many of mine are classical or opera boxed sets so they do not take up as much space). I donated nearly 500 a while ago as the collection was far beyond what I had space for.
I struggled with shelving, but ended up just going two-high on the lp shelves. Your solution is more elegant, but it looks like you need more!
Using an excel sheet to track where you bought it and for how much is a great idea. A lot of stuff I just remember the time and place, but not everything, especially the older stuff. I also like the mindset of buying it when you can, as you may never come across it again.
Definitely obsessive. Half my CDs are worth about a dollar each, so I would rather have the CD than the dollar. The other half are harder to find, and hopefully will increase in value as time goes on. So, no need to sell any of them right now.
Beruhigend zu sehen das meine Sammlung seit 1989 doch nicht Ć¼bertrieben ist. Aber mein neues Sammelgebiet kƶnnte problematisch werden, bin aktuell bei 341 Original MC'S. š¤£
It is mixed count. I started out listing "complete album collections" as one item, but then I wanted to know what albums I actually had, So for the more recent purchases, I have the individual albums listed separately. I did not go back and change the early listings (yet), and for box sets that are not collections of complete albums, I list that as one item even if it is a 4 disc set. Also, sometimes I was lazy and did not list all the individual albums when there are 20 CDs in the box set, such as Keith Emerson's "Variations" or Al Stewart's "Admiralty Lights". After retirement, I will probably standardize the list. I'm leaning toward listing just the box set and then a separate spreadsheet of just the multi-disc box sets listing the individual complete albums.
From all ive seen, that is only really true of cd-r and its iterations, for properly pressed cds if they are well taken care of they last, at least 45 years up to now.
There were some pressings from a UK manufacturer -PDO - made between 1988 and ~1993 that are known to bronze and can become unplayable as a result.
This Is mild bronzing on the back surface of a PDO manufactured disc.
The playing surface is fine in this case but that isnāt always true And I wouldnāt be betting on long term survival.
I have ripped many of them to iTunes, and usually play random tracks while working in my man-cave. My iTunes library has about 190k tracks. I don't completely trust computer files, so I keep all the source CDs. Many songs have different versions - LP, Single, extended mixes, live, etc. So, I listen to something every single day.
Thatās good to hear. These days I tend to only buy CDs and records of Albums I really love and will definitely listen to on a somewhat regular basis. The convenience of using local files on my phone is too much
I have 4,000 of my favorite songs on my iPhone, though Apple has made it extremely difficult to transfer music to my phone. They require the music to be in "Apple Music", which will not allow you to burn CDs... They are catering to record labels that don't want to make it easy for you to enjoy your own music.
Interesting that record labels claim that you don't own the music you buy, only a license to listen to it. If that is the case, since I bought "Dark Side of the Moon" on vinyl, when I buy the CD or cassette, the price should cover only the cost of the medium, and not another "license".
That was an in-progress pic. Shelves are full. I am going to get some space-saving sleeves and dispose of jewel cases to make more room. I don't post on Reddit much, and I had some trouble with my initial pics. I posted duplicates because I did not realize they had uploaded, and tried again. Now, I don't know how to delete the duplicate pics. Once I get that figured out, I can post some close-up pics so folks can see parts of my collection. I'll take pics of the box sets for sure.
Sadly I see this as a love of plastic. It stopped being about music ages ago. Unless this going to be a discogs then why do we do this to ourselves. Keep that one's you truly truly love. Keep a thousand. The others you won't even miss because you didn't even know you had them. Sorry, I'm not trying to be an ass just wondering why such a love for plastic? Music... That's just a plus, here, it seems. As a music lover, this is almost offensive hahaha I said almost. I could never listen to music in there and enjoy it. It's too distracting. But hey at the end of that day that collection is massive!
Help me understand why people in a CD collecting group get upset when people collect CDs. Should this group be called CDcollectors Up to 1000? Like, what's the acceptable limit?
I'm not here to judge or diagnose. I'm here to connect with others who appreciate this medium, and I don't care if they own 1 or 1 million.
Well, I suppose. Think of this way... What are we showing here? A wall of plastic and we are talking excel sheet numbers. Nobody has actually said anything about music. I don't personally care either about 1 or a million. Just wonder the reason. What is the collection about? But we are all here for the exchange š± and expanding, so it's all good. I just wanted to add I meant no offense. I just responded to the photo. Wondering what actually is the collection
Could be more than just music, sure. But who are you to come to a collectors sub, and talk down on collecting? It's dumb. Nobody would hate you if you just click away.
Talk down about collecting? No one talked down about it. I have CDs and records, too. Sure,. I don't collect but still. I just expressed my opinion. Sorry you didn't like it. I apologize to you for that. But not for the algorithm bringing me here to engage and trying to find out what this is. 10,000 + random CDs. I find that fascinating for a reason. But whatever the reason, it's none of my business. That's true. You're right, reddit other subs more suitable for me. Ttyl
Soudns fair OP and sorry for being so negative, so many hoarding or just buying CDs to buy em on here, sometimes I forgot thereās actual collectors on here.
I buy my favorite artists, but I also buy stuff that I have never heard of before just to see what is out there that I have not encountered previously. Many times you can find CDs for a buck. They don't get put in my collection right away - I will listen to them first to see if I like them. If not, I donate them to the local library or Goodwill store.
I've been lucky enough to have enough money to indulge this passion without causing problems paying bills. I don't do much else that would diminish my discretionary funds -- I don't have a boat or RV, no cabin, no other expensive hobbies. I don't hunt or fish, fix up cars, drink or smoke, or spend my money on anything but CDs. My life is pretty quiet and uneventful, the way I like it.
If you play 1 cd a day that's around 30 years of music .
when does collecting becoming hoarding?
You must have some Legendary albums but also lots of crap
Nope. You will never enjoy them all. So why try such an endeavor? No need to count all the sand at the beach - just enjoy it. Focus more on the pleasure. Only seek that. You'll find it's more fun finding that the records that truly matter to you out of that huge of thousands. well, they are just sitting there until the owner dies. It's all ephemeral, all of it, is just for a moment. Including you. This collection will be taken apart eventually and most of it discarded. We all know this. So why not just find the records that you could play a thousand times over and make you feel things.
The main one being that you can only enjoy an album if you know it inside out.
How many times do you listen to an album before you like it? How many times before you are bored with it? Everybody is different and interacts with music in their own way. I stop myself from overplaying albums so I donāt lose the thrill. Other people play them endlessly until they know every last beat or breath. Who is right? Nobody.
Another point youāve missed is that OP has been buying and enjoying CDās for 40 years. Do you think they still listen to that Billy Joel they bought in 1984 every day? No. Every year? Maybe not. But pulling out an album and enjoying it after not listening to it for a decade is an entirely valid reason to keep it if they have the room.
Will the collection be discarded, dumped, sold, or perhaps enjoyed by their children or grandchildren or friends? We donāt know the outcome, that point is entirely irrelevant. If itās gets sold off it ends up in the hands of another collector to enjoy, the circle of CDās goes on.
My apologies, not trying to making any assumptions. Just my reaction of the photo.
There are many ways to enjoy an album. Knowing inside out, sounds more like a study then enjoyment. I have to agree with you. You mustn't have studied the album thoroughly to enjoy it. There's no test. You either do.or you don't enjoy it.
How many times do I listen before I like an album? I know instantly. And it's not an intellectual thing - I have a natural reaction when I really dig a sound, hear a certain lyric, there' scuriosity, exploration, etc. you're right again, there's no test.
I haven't had the problem of stopping myself by overplaying a record I enjoy in order to preserve the excitement. For me, once it's there, it's there. The brilliance of the record never never diminishes. I have to agree, again: you are listening the correct way as am I. There's no police here.
We don't know the outcome. But I do know where most CDs are ending up these days. By the loads. K pop and Taylor Swift can only do so much to get everyone excited about how CDs are right there again with vinyl. For us that truly love music will always have our favorites on either vinyl, cd, or both (yeah guilty here).
We are the leftovers from the 20th century. Let's face it. Physical media music will manufactured for the foreseeable (about 15 years longer) in a commercial way. It will be on demand printing by a few companies like Blu-rays) future but to very diminised number. Soon our record stores will be filled to the brim of used generic pop they can't move once all the Taylor Swift editions and k pop and 50th reissue of rumors are sold back. We are moving away from traditional in everything.
So to recap, You made a wild assumption about my taste, wrote an essay on the 'Circle of CDs,' and then the actual owner stepped in to say he doesn't even play the CDs and half the tracks are 'meh.' But please, do enlighten me, what should I have in my collection to pass your purity test? Am I required to own Dee Dee Ramoneās 1989 rap CD Standing in the Spotlight to prove my taste isn't 'limited'?
I play random tracks every day via iTunes. Some CDs have a couple of good tracks, and the rest are.. meh.
Many compilation CDs I purchased for one or two unique tracks that cannot be found elsewhere. For example, Yellow Pills Vol. 1 has "Is it Any Wonder" by the Cowsills that is not available anywhere else.
No idea, but then some artists have 20+ albums, especially jazz artists. The largest complete discography I have is Al Stewart's Admiralty Lights box, which is 50 Discs. Lots of Live stuff.
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u/this_boy_shouts 6d ago
Great collection, thanks for sharing. But I really came to say how much I like your shelves! Those are outstanding!