Old CDs and records

@sns

Time to cue up that old quote attributed to Hunter S Thompson -

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench - a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs.

There’s also a negative side..."

Let's face it, half of the music business seems to be entirely devoted to endless lawsuits.

Yes, this is a deplorable situation.

More and more people are dying these days with substantial collections of books, records, paraphernalia left behind in the hands of those who cannot see anything beyond a financial return for them.

Ok it’s not Citizen Kane, but it’s an issue nevertheless.

What to do?

At the very least everyone should leave clear instructions of what to do in case of their unexpected demise.

It is vital to appoint someone with the legal power to do so.

Not a pleasant task but as far as we know, we will all have to die one day.

This might mean sorting out legal papers in advance.

The more prudent might want to downsize their collections by choice beforehand, before someone else will have to do it.

Recently a very close friend of mine died unexpectedly. He lived alone and had no close family. Now I’m facing the prospect of watching his carefully collated records and journals being ’cleared’ by his housing agency.

He lived his life through his ’archives’ and the thought of what might now happen would have appalled him.

He did once say that I would have to sort his stuff in case anything happened but there was never any paperwork. I didn’t even want to consider such a possibility, and now see what’s happened.

This leaves me wondering about my books, records, comics too.

Should I sell them or should I keep them for nostalgia’s sake?

The music side seems to be heading for ripped MP3s but I don’t particularly like digital books.

@rok2id 

Then along comes Streaming.  Now audiophiles seem to be saying, the standard for great streaming is, if it equals CD in sound quality.  Am I missing something?

We're all getting older and the harsh practicalities of the world are difficult to argue with.

All you need to do is to rip your collection to a hard drive/ USB and then play it back via a PC/laptop, or as in my case, a smartphone.

Plus the fact that streaming is so so convenient and comfortable.

Just set up your desired playlist and then forget about the material world for a while.

The LP is never going to be obsolete, but I can't see what advantage the convenient CD has over the even more convenient streaming options.