I too had a collection I couldn't really manage or listen to. about 2250 CDs and the samenumber of LPs. I got rid of most of my vinyl through a dealer friend, leaving about 400 LPs, which is more than enough, though I am back to buying a few again, I'm incorrigible. That was mainly to avoid laying too much of a burden on my kids, to get rid of all my stuff, when I finally fall off my perch.
I was planning to sell my CDs, having loaded them onto an Innuos Server, but lost the will to live trying to set up an Amazon private sellers A/C. Then it struck me, children today think money comes from a magic money tree. So I plan to give my CD collection to my grand kids, when they are a bit older. Have you noticed how much second hand CDs are selling now. Many of mine seem to be worth north of £20. I reckon my collection is worth about £20000+. They can sell them and put the money into their college funds.
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Serious music aka Jazz and Classical are all that live forever .
Esp. the latter !
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This thread is 20 years old ,have you reached the end yet ?
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I love classic rock/metal/pop but I think I'd be bored if it wasnt for modern rock/metal/pop. |
Ben, I am guilty as charged! I do spend more time reading about gear than about music. It didn't occur to me that when I stopped subscribing to the various audio magazines, I severely curtailed my music reviews. Thanks for the slap uplongside the head ;-) Another thing to add to the recommendations are to listen to the radio or TV (satellite or digital cable carry music channels -- no video streams). I just moved to a city with a great jazz station and listening to that has really paid off -- I can jot down what I like and know I'm not throwing my money away when I buy a cd. Ditto with the sat or cable stations -- you can even pick your poison from metal to alternative to classical. Reenergize with great new music. |
T; I've occasionally wondered the same thing as you are expressing. For me, the possibility of finding exciting new artists or music that I really like is what keeps me looking for and buying new CDs. As an example, this year I "discovered" Allison Krauss, bluegrass in general, Allison Moorer, and Jacintha. And last year Shirley Horn and Diana Krall smooth jazz ballads. And BTW, these were all the result of other A'Gon members recommendations. My CD collection is a bit smaller than yours, but then I trade in CDs I don't care for, poor recordings etc.
As a suggestion, start a thread here on Audiogon about the types of music you like, and ask for recommendations every once in a while. You'd be surprised at what comes up. Personally, I'm starting to "explore" classical music a bit. Good Luck, and Cheers. Craig |
Don't worry. I think this happens to most people. Music we listen when we are younger tends to relate to certain significant times and occurrences in our lives and therefore hold more meaning than newer music. I have bought hundreds of records in the past few years and just a few stay in rotation. I was actually thinking of not buying any more records, but that would be even worse. Those few gems I find along the way make it worthwhile, I guess. It's kind of like playing golf and doing terrible for 17 holes and then hitting that perfect shot on the last. Besides, what would the used record store (Charlemagne in Birmingham, Alabama in my case) do without those discards I bring in? |
Lately I've been burrowing through the bins of LPs in my basement--the overflow that doesn't fit on the shelf in the living room--and rediscovering some gems I hadn't heard in a long while. I've even bought some new items because I wanted to hear more by an artist I've just "dug up" from the vaults. And my collection is a lot smaller than some of those being described here. If you've got 1500 CDs, there have to be some you haven't heard in years. Give 'em a listen, and I'm sure you'll discover some "new" music. |
actually i'm not keeping too much of CDs and they serve me as an information flow material. i might listen to them once or twice and than sell them. i can figure that that way i've already had arround 5...6000 cds that went though my ears and 90% of them are sold to acquire another couple of thousands and so on on on and on...
thus i can say that i'm also different from typical audiofile since my goal is to learn more about music and its different styles without even paying attention to a recording quality. i do care about recording quality of the items i collect which you should guess should be 100% unique. if anyone interested to share or explore with me shoot me an e-mail and we'll probably arrange an exchange of unique CDs. |
I'd try to find a music "dealer". Much like we rely on dealers to expose us to new equipment, I'm always looking for the equilvalent "music dealer." In college it was easy to expand your collection. Most of my friends or friends of friends exposed me to music that I liked. Now out in the working world, I can't seem to find that close concentration of people in a small area with diverse listening tastes.
For awhile (when I was in high school and college), my "dealer" was either the guy who worked at the CD Warehouse (used CDs) Thurs/Sat (heavy metal recs), or this guy "John" who worked at Coconuts (classical recs). Unfortunately I lost track of both. I found a suitable "heavy metal" dealer on the net, at holeinthewall.com. His name exscapes me, but I'm talked with him over the phone and exchanged several emails (I'm also on the mailing list). Basically I let him know what I like and he makes new recomendations from time to time. He's been extremely helpful.
I'd like to find an equilvalent dealer for classical and jazz. |
Twl is 110% right.
Nobody in their right mind could consider that the cornerstones of 60's music could be recreated hence modern releases in terms of the popular music forms simply cannot hope to be as original or as good as that.
The mistake that a lot of audiophilles make however is that their ability to experiment on what they might like musically is not matched by their ability and desire to experiment with modifications,tweaks,cables in their system.
Their passion for their hobby endures but does their passion for new music?
Even more interesting I would guess that more audiophilles spend much more time reading about audio than music.
I have a passion for music so I read all the serious music monthlies-Mojo,Q,Uncut for new "popular" music-Record Collector for reissues etc. and The Wire for experimental/avant garde music as well as the hi-fi mags that cover music.
I am probably not a typical audiophille and I respect fully other's opinions on what they like musically but I do despair when I read things like "I don't like Jazz,Folk,Reggae "-my take on most music forms is that they meet somewhere -so if you like light music there should be some jazz that would touch you-most musical forms,even the basic ones diverge into other musical forms-"I hate Country" you'll probably find that something you love in your collection is descended or inspired by country.
We are only limited by our own imaginations.
The world of music is virtually limitless and you do not even need to go forward or force yourself to listen to stuff that you find painful-where's the fun in that?
If you like Folk-you could end up back at Harry Smiths Anathology Of Folk Music-field recordings from the 20's,30's,40's-this could diverge into World Music,early Blues if that's too far you can stop at Woody Guthrie or even go forward to David Gray,there are no rules.....a love of talking Blues could lead you to Rap,seriously the leap from Dylan's talking folk blues to the world of Public Enemy isn't that far..
Even if you only liked Classical,you could probably spend the rest of your life finding lost gems.
And if you think there is nothing new of any value being released then you are beat before you start,you might not like to admit it but your fire has went out....everything new will always be crap, forever.
This week I spent time listening to the first four Queen albums,the new Bowie record,Peter Gabriel 1,2 and So,Wilco's new record,Dark Magus by Miles Davis-pretty far out jazz,DJ Shadow's new record-hip hop/ambient,a Dylan bootleg from '98,Steve Reich's Music For 18 Musicians and of course it was nice to hear it all on a decent system.
There is great great music out there,you just need to spend some time searching for it.
Of course you can be just as happy listening to what you know-you don't need to analysis the nuances,the motivation behind a great piece of music,you can just sit tapping your feet,that is the beauty of music it taken be taken on the level of importance you want to place on it,it's your choice.
The day I walk into a record shop and think there isn't some great,new,lost or popular masterpiece waiting to be found is the day I know I've lost it.
Reaching the end of a music collection?
Some 1200 CD's in,I'm only starting.............
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I've been listening to classical music for over forty years now; first on lp's, then on cd's, now on lp's again with current analogue playing and cleaning equipment. I will never run out of music or software to listen to or learn about. Classical music can become a very important part of one's life. |
Turnaround - I think you answered the question yourself when you mentioned curiosity. As long as you remain curios and open minded, you'll never run out of stuff to buy. I find groups I like and then go explore allmusic.com, a fabulous website, and look for similar artists within the genre. I buy a fair number of CDs that I end up being less than enthralled by, but I also find a ton that are really good. I don't listen to classical music, so I get to avoid all the different recordings of the same piece, and I'll never own 60 CDs by the same artist, but I'm at 1000+ CDs and buy 6-8 once or twice a month without any letup. -Kirk |
Turnaround,
I have begun the practice of swapping music with a group of freinds. We are all trustworthy and care for each others CD's as our own. This has evolved into something resembling a pyramid. Each of us has friends outside of the core group that participates and eventually the best music gets to be auditioned by each of us.
This began as a cry for help by yours truely to find the best blues without having to "pay my dues" through mis-spent funds. Not only have I discovered a treasure trove of blues this way but also zydeco, folk, celtic, jazz and some music I can't put a label on. We haven't had the pleasure of a classical enthusiast joining our ranks and enlightening us all but time is on our side.
As a vinyl junkie this practice has brought me much closer to my CD player since so much newer music is not available on LP. For some reason it doesn't bother me at all to loan a handful of CD's for a week while I would never, ever part with an LP for any reason.
This has been good for the music industry and has made me rethink all the controvercy surrounding MP3's and file sharing. Exposure sells product.
Happy listening,
Patrick |
One of the best ways to expand your musical horizons is to explore new musical styles, like Marakanetz says. If you are not sure of what is good in some styles, put up a thread on this forum. The people here are very knowledgeable in a wide variety of music. You may not always agree with their taste, but at least you will probably get a recommendation with good recording quality. If you get into Jazz, you will run out of money before you ever get close to getting all the albums you want. Just Miles Davis alone has something like 60 albums out. Classical music is another real deep hole. There are thousands of different compositions and performances that you can pick from. You may not think that you will like these other types of music, but it can be an acquired taste. And many of the Jazz and Classical recordings sound fantastic on a good audio system. The acoustic instruments provide an excellent venue for evaluating the accuracy of your playback equipment. You may find, as I did, that Jazz and Classical become some of your favorites. If you do this, you will never reach the end. And that doesn't even include the other ones such as folk, bluegrass, zydeco, ethnic, alternative, fusion, etc. The music is out there, you just have to try it. Happy listening. |
...david sylvian and his numberous projects with different figures, "king crimson" and its members. check out discipline records. the collection become topless and botomless as well. |
stop being stock with folk music, there is much more than folk and pop out there.
i now dare to consider "led zep", "yes" and even frank zappa to be a folk music.
check out www.30hzrecords.com to start with your explorations.
what about "lounge lizards", "ambitious lovers"; euro-jazzrock such as "focus", "pere ubu", pekka pohjola and many many more... |
yes i seem to feel the same way..the new music just does not turn me on anymore. i just end up buying cds of my old record collection...guess i'm stuck in the 60s and 70,s.... |
