I've got over 53,000 songs from over 5,000 albums by roughly 2,400 artists on my server.
First, I've been collecting music for 45 years. I'm not in the habit of tossing out an old album just because I bought a new one. Second, my musical taste is very eclectic and not geared to what's currently popular or only the music of my youth.
Some days I have an urge for classical. That could be J.S. Bach, or Christian Bach, or it could be Offenbach. This past weekend I listened to The Subdudes and a few days before that I was on a "new flamenco" kick. The weekend before was an early 20th century jazz fest with Scott Joplin, Eubie Blake and others.
So, the point is, if I hear music I like, I buy it. Once I buy it, I keep it so I can listen again, whenever that may be. Do that for a couple of decades and one day you'll wake up and realize you have a bunch of music!
I'm asking because I own about 600 records and I listen to maybe 10% on a regular basis. I'm curious as to someone who has a collection of thousands of records actually knows what they have and how they decide what to listen to. My head would spin.
I'm curious as to someone who has a collection of thousands of records actually knows what they have and how they decide what to listen to.
About 10 years ago I decided to make the switch to digital and started converting my LP and open reel collection. That was about 2,000 albums at the time.
In the process, I discovered a lot of material that, 1) I'd either forgotten I had, or 2) I couldn't even remember acquiring. (There were only a couple in that category.) Discovering I had copies of a few un-released masters on open reel was a real treat.
One advantage of a music server is it makes searching your collection much easier than checking what's on the shelf. Doesn't matter if you're looking by album, song title, artist, year, genre or whatever, I just find it a lot easier to enjoy what I have.
Have approx 2000 vinyls... Half of them are digitized 5% in poor condition, but kept due to inability to get better condition and to extream rarity. 90% in near-mint condition. I don't have and don't use record cleaner or record cleaning liquids and buy them clean and mint most of the times. I listen to all of them and don't have particular preference what I listen most of the time since I like them all with exeption to few rare records that I prefer to keep mint-mint that had only been played once to digitize. I moved almost all of my CDs to CDR's and computer that has near 400gB of music videos and lossless music.
I had a reasonable amount of vinyl in the 70's and early 80's but with the demise of vinyl as a mainstream format, I started acquiring more. And, as I continued to develop my playback system, I sought out many of the Harry list, old RCA, Mercury Living Presence, Lyrita, Decca, London, etc. I got to the point where I was buying vinyl wherever I travelled- would have it shipped home. Over the course of this spree, lasting say 15 -20 years, I probably acquired 5 or 6 thousand records, and then bought a collection from a dear friend's widow- say, another 4,000 records. In all that time, I was working, 6-7 days a week, and when I had time to listen, I would pull out something I knew, or something that had been highly touted. At this point, I'm guessing I have somewhere around 11,000 records. And, because I recently retired from the fulltime practice of my profession, I have more time to listen. So my objective has been to listen to records I have never heard before. I will try to pick out some things in advance, a mixture of jazz, classical, pop, choral, etc. I have made some fabulous discoveries. My collection is not well organized, though, which is something that i will eventually have to undertake. And, I have many duplicates, albeit different pressings, of the same record. I have not had the energy to sit down and listen to 5 different copies of the same record to determine which one sounds best. But, all those years of acquiring have now paid off. I have some real gems and there is a constant process of discovery. It is also an education, because while I know some of the more famous classical pieces, and better known jazz records, there's a vast amount of material that is less well known (at least to me) and that's part of the joy of learning and listening.
I have about 3000 lps. Most are stored in the garage on book shelves, and I have 50-60 at a time in my listening room-mostly the new lps I just bought. I listen to lps, and rotate them occationally. But I can always walk into my garage and find a particular title if I want to hear something.
I've got a couple thousand records, probably listen to 200 from time to time, maybe 50 on and off, 20 get the most action. Record collection is split abuot 50% classical, 40% rock (mostly classic rock) and 10% other. 99%+ of my listening is to classical music. I haven't spun a rock record in over a year.
About 3500. About 75 take me to a particular place in the past with fond memories and are in the rotation. I try to listen to the rest as the mood strikes me. Sometimes I'll take requests from my wife or 88 year-old mom. I buy new music such as Grace Potter too.
About 6000 albums about 100 or so in heavy rotation, about 3000 CD's about 100 or so in play here too.
This rings true to almost any of my clients too - however have one couple husband and wife mid 60s that have about 5000 albums or so 99% opera, and listens to them in order, they are sorted out by label, 2 to 3 albums every night.
I buy about 5-10 new records a month, some reissues, some remastered, mostly from Classic. I also buy about 10 used records a month. My record collection is probably around 8000 or so. I try to pull 2 a week from my older existing pile. I pull them out, clean them and put them in the clean pile.
I have about 2,000 cleaned and ready to play and maybe a few hundred to clean. Any collection mostly sits on a shelf. Even if I haven't played a particular one in years, it's nice to know there's a nice copy ready when I want it. I also have a hard time not buying different pressings of the same title if it's one I like. A backup pressing or two of favorites is also nice. More and more I'm trying to thin the collection out to no more than two or three good pressings of any given title and most titles only one.
I kind of get into rotations of groups of LP's and those are on a separate shelf. I would say that my "rotations" are usually 50 or so at a time. Maybe over the course of the year, I actually listen to about 1,000 or so different records.
I have about 2500 CDs or digital files and I probably do most of my listening to only about 20% on a regular basis, but its nice to have the variety when you want that other weird 5%
i had 12K or 13K Lps total a couple years ago; now i'm around 10k Lps. i culled the herd of fluf and crud that came with a few collections i acquired.
there are approx 3k Lps upstairs in the rec room that are somewhat organized but not cleaned or listened to.
i have approx 5k Lps in-room and right outside in the hallway that i consider my 'A' records, then another 2000 records down the hallway that are my 'B' records and dups.
of the 5000 'A' Lps that are close at hand, cleaned and organized; i would estimate that half of them are continually actively played, the other half i stumble onto from time to time and play. certainly there is a subset of 100-200 Lps that are test records that i do pull out when i'm listening critically that likely get the most play. hopefully my percentage of time listening critically is minimal.
occasionally i will grab 15-20 Lps off the shelf and simply play then consecutively as a change of pace. i get re-acquainted with 'old friends'.
when i have new Lps (or new to me) they mostly go to the head of the line for awhile after cleaning.
"Record" collection - just depends on whether one uses the definition from the dictionary (which includes "to cause (as sound, visual images, or data) to be registered on something (as a disc)), or you limit the meaning to an individual's personal opinion.
Whart- An easy way to keep track of your lp's is to put them in alphebetical order and have this on your computer also. Then do a print out of your albums and use the print out as a quick reference. When , I pull out an album to listen to, I leave the one behind it sticking out a couple of inches so the one I am listeninig to goes right back into the same place alphabetically. I realize it would be quite a task with your large collection, however, you now have the time and think it would help you out immensely. I am glad I started doing this off the get go. I don't have collections like you guy's as I have only been back into vinyl for a year. Even with my small collection, without the alphbetical order and reference printout, it would be time consumming to locate albums.
Moon- in the process of moving, and relocating, my plan is to organize the LPs properly. It is at best controlled chaos right now, i have a general section of jazz and a few of the labels are grouped together, e.g. older EMIs, Lyritas, but I do intend to organize them properly. And to have some sort of catalog in the process. right now they are spread among different rooms, i would like to have them all on one wall, floor to ceiling, with a library rail ladder and lot's of extra space, along with a outward facing bin, like the record stores used to have, at waist height, for access to the ones in current rotation, or to display some of the more interesting cover art. It will be a fun project in concept and a daunting one in execution. I'd also like a larger area for cleaning- right now, i use a small utility closet off the main room (which also has shelves where a couple thousand records are stored). I'd like to have a nice 'work area' nearby the system, for cleaning, extra tubes, and associated system paraphernalia.
Sometimes I'll close my eyes and run a finger across a shelf of LP's or CD's, and randomly stop. Then I'll play that particular album, and, quite often, say to my self...."....Self, that was great. I forgot I even had that album, and I just really enjoyed it !"
The whole notion of "in rotation" is a bit foreign to me. When I buy new records, I guess you's say they stay in rotation until I have a firm grip on the music, then they go on the walls.
Later I'll get an "enthusiasm" such as listening to a specific composer or a specific artist or conductor and then I'll drag out all of their stuff that I've got in my collection and start playing through until the enthusiasm wears off, or a new one comes. Sometimes the enthusiasm is driven by a recent live performance, or a new acquisition. But frankly, I rarely repeat an LP in a year.
I mean, listening to records 3-4 hours a day, how many records can you really listen to? Let's say I listen 6 days a week, 6 records per day. So that's maybe 1500 or so unique records in a year, since I'm traveling some too. My collection is only 3,000 or so, so I guess I'm listening to about half of it, but I'll bet there's stuff there I have not heard in 10 years or more.
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