Based on a post on the Hoffman forum, someone asks if 300 albums are enough especially as one increases in age with finite time to play them all.
I probably have something like 3000 albums on either CD or vinyl, 99% of the CDs are ripped to hard drive, most of the ‘jewel cases” have been thrown out/recycled, so they can be stored in much less space. The vinyl (and box sets) takes up a lot of room. At some point in the next 2 or 3 years, God willing, I will downsize and I don’t think I can take everything with me. I rarely play physical CDs except for new ones, I stream them on my home server, or even use a paid for streaming service (YouTube music). Vinyl gets played now and then, usually when I take an evening and spin them throughout.
I am thinking of reducing the vinyl albums to something like 150 to 200 crucial ones eventually. How many physical albums do you need?
I know what you mean? According to my Discogs I have 3755 crammed into my study and as I approach my seventieth year, I do think a cull of some kind is required.
My eldest daughter even commented on my man cave quite recently, with something like “ Dad, what an earth do we do with all this stuff when you’re no longer here”
The problem is I ditched all my vinyl in the eighties, when CD came along, and have regretted it ever since, so I’m not doing that again.
My Nan used to collect tea towels. Wherever she went in the world, she bought a tea towel.
At her wake we decorated the hall with all these souvenirs and as everybody went home, they helped themselves to a tea towel to remember her by, which was all rather lovely.
Maybe all the attendees to my funeral could all troop through my study and snag something to remember me!
(Can I come?)
LOL
Not if I get there first.
Similar to @dai, I have upwards of 5,000 CDs all sitting in my unattached garage and I hardly ever bother going out there to pick out a CD to play, preferring to stream it or play a digital rip via Roon.
I think the word “need” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in the original question in much the same way as it would with books. However, if I had to put a number on it I would be happy to limit it to around 100.
I solved that particular problem by moving my hi-fi into the garage (after I had soundproofed and insulated it first). Mind you, if it is pissing down outside I stay in the house and watch telly.
I permed mine back to two shelves worth of vinyl and I still reach for things which aren’t there like people with missing limbs still feel them itching. I could certainly lose at least 50% of my CD collection if I applied the “can I actually remember I have it, and, if yes, have I played it in the past 5 years” test.
I have been taking some of these albums around with me for 40 years. I recently wanted to play Ocean Rain by the Bunnymen (bought day of release). Did I get the vinyl out or the CD or play my ripped files? No, I listened on YouTube music
The process of digitising my CDs has certainly been an eye-opener in terms of how many awful albums I bought, mostly in the mid 90s to mid noughties. These include a number of bog standard rap albums. And I don’t even like rap! Anyone remember Foley who used to play bass with late period Miles? Well he made a couple of stinkers and I have them both. I blame the music press.
I have started pruning down my CDs due in part to space, but also never really properly using my hi-fi. I have a small rack that fits 20 CDs and I think I would be happy to reduce the (several hundred) ones I still have down to that number. I wonder how many AWers could list the 20 CDs they would hold onto, while still having (tems of) thousands in digital form?
How many albums do you need? The answer is always “just one more”.
#word
It’s impossible to actually do. Sure, I surprise myself that I actually have some of the 3-4k “hards” I have, 10% vinyl, 90% CD, but the surprise tends to be pleasant, when I remember a forgotten but, no doubt, then deemed essential. I’m trying the old one in /one out trick, but it is difficult. Sure, I rip to my hard drive, which is religiously backed up, but I still fret around (another) meltdown, it taking 2 1/2 years to re-rip everything. I think my kids just accept the need for a big skip when I’ve gone, as, other than the sum of very many small parts, there is little collectable gold on them that shelves.
My wife has her own collection, from before we met, about 300 CDs, and wants to just chuck ’em. But I daren’t let her, at least yet, as I will insist on keeping many, and filling yet more I-clouds with those I can just about get by without a hard copy.
Do I play them as CDs? Of, course not, or at least rarely, thanks to cars no longer having an applicable unit to play them in. I stream ’em, from my collection, which at least feels like “mine”, rather than the endless horizons of streaming platforms. I have a record deck, but forget the last time I used it, although I always have plans to start doing so again.
It’s crazy, isn’t it?
I have circa 500 Lps and upwards of 4500 cds.
Not planning on getting rid of them just yet but space is getting problematic.
Every so often I have a small cull -next week I am planning to shed around 30-40 lp’s.
If we move house it would be the time to look at this again properly – depending on the house and what storage space I have.
I think at ours the answer is ‘enough to physically fit on the existing shelving and no more’. Ms Moles has only bought a couple of CDs in the past five years, both at gigs. She has 4-500 CDs and a couple of hundred vinyl albums that are never played by her but she shows now great desire to rid herself of. I am down to about one purchase a month, and am probably saying goodbye to one every couple of months that doesn’t make the grade (latest: Paul Weller’s dreary mid-period Illuminations) to stay on the shelves. Should I be more ruthless? Probably.
CDs are mostly played in the car, so will I get a car with a CD player next time round or will it just be streaming? Once the carplay goes I think I can be more ruthless.
Incidentally I do play CDs and vinyl, in the living room, on a proper stereo with separate components. So at least they theoretically could get played and I do randomly select things and rediscover old gems. I played the first Radney Foster album last night, bought in 1994, loved every minute. Sounded great too.
These days 98.28% of the population needs no physical product all. The rest, some of whom wander through here, are basically Trainspotters. They need shelf after shelf of CDs/vinyl in their “special room” and spend many, many hours internally debating whether Bob Marley & The Wailers should be filed under B or W.
Bless em, gentle thoughtful folk who do no harm. Tread lightly.
A librarian writes: Bob Marley & The Wailers should be filed under M.
Obviously.
Under Andy’s Records rules, under ‘B’.
Andy’s Records Rules Rule – any other system is just plain madness.
Their other rule back in the late eighties and early nineties ,as I recall, was to charge about £5 more for each CD than anyone else. No wonder they went bust.
Andy had long gone by then
They went bust because they ignored the concept of online shopping.
Default answer: more than I currently have.
New stuff gets released, and I ain’t ditching any I have
That sounds sensible to me, RD.
Lots would be my answer but then my listening is split between CDs, LPs and streaming, particularly as my record player and cd bit the dust this year and I treated myself to a new set of separates.
Having said that, I ripped and got rid of about 300 CDs earlier this year, leaving about 500 of them plus 600 odd LP. I don’t know why I bothered ripping them to be honest as I never listen to them.
I gave about half the CDs to MIND who were really pleased and a while later I got an email saying they’d raised £300 plus gift aid which was good. I presume they were sold as a job lot. Unfortunately I gave the other half to Oxfam who clearly thought they were doing me a massive favour and didn’t even ask for my details for gift aid.
I have around 2000 CDs and 0 LPs. It’s a modest number, but I have no space for any more (largely due to the vast number of books, DVDs and blu rays cluttering up my shelf space). I have a regular cull to create more room – most new stuff is acquired on a one-in, one-out basis. I still buy small numbers of CDs, and yes, I do play the ones I have, although streaming gives me the option to listen to things I’m unlikely to buy. 2000 is more than enough for me. Tempus is doing a lot of fugit these days.
I’ve got one. It’s called The Best Album In The World Ever!
I will not tell you how many discs I have, vinyl or polycarbonate.
There are definitely too many of them, especially the CDs, but they only fall into two categories – ones full of music I love and ones full of music I’ve never actually heard. Those full of music I loathe have never been bought.
I’ve toyed with ditching all of the vinyl, but can’t bring myself to do it. Particularly as I have a lot of material that’s ‘worth’ a lot of money on paper but for which I’d only get insulting offers. If I did decide to lose the LPs I’d still want to keep some of them for sentimental reasons – maybe 200 or so.
That would free up sufficient shelf space for just about all of the CDs that are cluttering the room up – roughly half of the overall total of the things. None of the CDs are in jewel cases any more, so you can fit several of them in the space that might otherwise hold a book.
When we ask about how many albums one ‘needs’, it’s not a simple question. If we mean how many albums would we try to cart off in a wheelbarrow/boot of the car as Putin’s hordes career in one’s direction through the countryside, when hoping to hide up somewhere until the dust settles, then the answer is probably ‘about 50’.
According to discogs my collection is worth between $12000 and $83000 (not everything has been included yet). I will take $50,000. Any offers? You would need to come and pick them up though.
I have far too many CDs and yet nowhere near enough. They accumulate in heaps around my sitting room. In my defense they do get played, not all of them every day obviously but despite streaming I still much prefer to drop a disc into my CD player’s tray and press play. I’ve just this minute done exactly that with Juni a Peter Erskine Trio album on ECM. Far from considering downsizing I’m still adding more with a couple of box sets on pre-order which are due to drop in a few weeks, bought as a birthday present to myself, I turn 70 a couple of weeks from now. I suppose that sobering occurrence should put me in a different frame of mind but I see no need to give up on buying music or books as they give me so much pleasure. I live alone so I only have myself to consider. When I’m gone it will be up to my nieces to sort it all out and as they basically couldn’t give a stuff about me I feel under no obligation to make it easy for them. As for what happens to the detritus of my life I’ll be gone and beyond caring so they can do as they please with it.
About 300 LPs and 750 CDs, although that does involve some duplication. Do I need three copies of Any Trouble’s Wheels in Motion? Well, yes, apparently I do.
Tricky business. I need no vinlys but have a whole load of them. They’re packed away neatly enough and do no one any harm. I’d be more likely to give them away than try to make a profit.
CDs? Well, you know what, now is ‘the’ time to buy the things. The year is a fortnight old and I’ve already got the Dylan Live 66 box (£30), the Mothers at Whisky a Go Go (68 – 3CDs), the Small Faces Mojo CD and, best of all, a Fania compilation which, despite having the distinctly worrying phrase ‘D.J. Series’ on the cover, is actually tremendous, and only £3. A day doesn’t go by when I don’t listen to something new, it’s just always Golden Age.
I’m not planning on a CD/Vinyl/Cassette cull any time soon but I’ve completely stopped buying more of ’em. I’m sometimes tempted to buy a CD at gigs I’ve enjoyed, but I don’t.
I sold 95% of what I had about a decade ago. Have never missed anything. I don’t really have any means to play anything physical at the moment. I still buy cds by a couple of acts for the sake of completion … which is a bit daft.
I have an estimated 2,000 LPs and 5,000 CDs I don’t intend counting them also a lot of ,box sets
I have had a cull of my LPs and vinyl box sets in recent months selling quite a lot an eBay & Discogs
I also sold around 100 LPs at a record fair on Saturday just gone (40% of the total I took) my wallet was £1200 fatter when I got home
I gave half to my better half the other £600? I’ll probably spend it on LPs!
I’d like to thank @Gardener for suggesting I attend a record fair.
One point… streaming is still gonna be a thing in, say, twenty years time?
Erm, you think? Hmm… maybe… you do it.
However, I’ll get all the rare 50s/60s stuff on CD now, and if streaming ‘isn’t’ still a thing in 2046, I’m gonna be completely sorted anyway.
Yep, that’s what I’ll do. Now might, seriously, be a time to lump on CD players.
Well I’ve got a CD player and a CD transport and I’m giving some thought to buying another CD transport for just in case. Can’t do any harm to be prepared.
It’s tragic I know, but I have 2 spare CD players and a spare amp, all brand new and unused. They are unlikely to see service, but when it’s time to downsize to a box in the ground I want them plugged into the mains and buried with me so I can annoy the neighbours for all eternity.
I have a spare amp too and a spare pair of speakers. I used to have a couple of spare DACs and a couple of spare headphone amps but I gifted those to good friends. I often give headphones away and despite that I still have ten sets.
I need help.
Yes I have a second system including turntable which Twang Jr has his eye on but not enough space. I said “welcome to vinyl”.
10? My goodness.
I have 2 of everything pretty much
I am a self confessed headphone junkie.
The first step is admitting it 😉
These days I probably listen a lot more to physical CDs than to their ripped versions on my computer. I listen to them in the kitchen when I cook, bake and do the washing-up, on my mini stereo system sitting on the kitchen counter. I also have a CD Walkman that gets used once a week, mainly for listening to CDs I just bought.
I never listen to my LPs, because I’m too lazy to put together my big stereo in the living room – I would if I thought I’d actually use it, but I know I rarely would… Haven’t bought more than ten post-80s anyway.
No idea how many I own of either format, most of the CDs are in the attic storage space, all of the LPs are in the flat – they live inside a cabinet + two crates on top of one of the bookshelves. Too many CDs to store in the flat, but I don’t plan to let them go anytime soon. What else am I going to keep in the storage room?
I hardly ever listen to Spotify – only if I can’t find a physical copy of an album, probably no more than twice a year.
I have about 300 LPs which I never play, and they’re going to my son (who’ll probably only really want maybe 30 of them), along with my Thorens TD321 turntable. I just never use it. I bought it in the 80s.
I have maybe 600 CDs and I play a CD of an evening while Mrs M cooks dinner and I do a cryptic crossword or a Sudoku. If I cook I listen to the radio
I have an untold number of downloaded albums on Apple Music.
This is the Aword equivalent of posting your PBs onto Strava. Loving it.
Where do I give my kudos?
I took the plunge a few years ago and digitised my entire physical collection, which, despite being a bit smaller than many here (around 400 LPs and 1000 CDs) took an effin’ age.
Space WAS becoming a bit of an issue but i did it mainly because I found increasingly that despite having some great gear in a separate room (Linn Sondek, expensive amps, pre-amps and speaker etc) I just didn’t want to go and sit in a separate space to listen to music, I wanted to sit in my comfy armchair in the lounge and instantly switch to music as opposed to reading, Tv or a film. I ripped everything, sold the Hi-Fi gear and spent some of that on Sonos gear (no problem for my 60-plus year old ears), an expensive pair of headphones and backed up the fuck out of everything.
I did essentially have to give most of the collection way as the prices are ridiculously low. I had a handful of LPs that were worth a few quid which i sold individually and I couldn’t part with the very first proper album I had ever bought as a kid (Don’t Shoot Me…) and an original Blakey Records copy of the first Back Door album, but I haven’t ever looked back with any regret. I don’t use streaming generally unless I have to – I still want to know that I own a copy of what I have and no service can ever just make it disappear if I decide not to (or can’t afford to) pay their monthly fee. I have about 6 backup in various places, the cloud included !
The back wall is Kallax units and it is full. Yes, I should probably stop browsing charity shops but (a) I like it (b) they don’t cost much and I can afford to redonate (c) occasionally present Charity Shop Classics (the clue is in the name).
The main joy of having that many is I can browse the shelves, find things I’d forgotten about, and give them a spin.
I don’t have any other vices, and it is harmless (until, god forbid, I ever move house).
Moving or potentially moving is the main issue. I have moved about 20 times in my life and some of these LPs have been with me every time. Many probably remaining unplayed since the 80s. Been in current place almost a decade which is unusual for me, and I have accumulated a vast amount of new stuff in that time
I also have a wall of Kallax units (and some overflow), I WILL NOT BUY ANY MORE!!!
I was offered £500 by the bastards at Magpie for my entire collection (min value of £12,000 on Discogs). I’ve made £15,000 so far, selling them on ebay. No skip needed when I’m broon breid.
I am down to about 500, and that’s more than enough. I could cope if streaming suddenly stopped. Honestly I care more about having my guitars and piano; as a relative latecomer to proper music theory, I’m finding magic there all the time.
I can’t even cull my socks so I have no chance of getting rid of music.