500+ Disks and nothing good (1 Viewer)

[Evan S]

Anyone ever get this feeling? Walking up to your CD rack that contains over 500 titles and get the feeling that you aren't in the mood to listen to ANY of your titles? I have a very eclectic collection that spans the entire musical gamut, so I guess it's time for a new selection.

Anyone ever get this feeling from time to time? Slightly off topic, any good reports on the new Sheryl Crow or Ben Folds?

 

[Robert V]

Sort of. I have 250 discs, but find myself listening to a select bunch. Sort of defeats the purpose of buying a large selection, but I still do it

 

[Greg_Y]

any good reports on the new Sheryl Crow

I haven't read any good reviews yet. I rarely listen to album reviews but some of the stuff I've been reading about C'mon C'mon has just turned me off to running out and buying it. I love her last 2 albums, but I think I'm going to wait to hear some of the tracks before I purchase.
To answer your topic question, sometimes I feel like I have nothing to listen to ... and I'm closing in on 1000. But it's not very often. I'm close to completing a "project" I gave myself last August. To listen to every single CD I own and, if I don't like it, get rid of it. There's no use in owning stuff that I rarely listen to. It was also alot of fun listening to stuff I haven't touched in the last few years, even the lighter stuff like Steve Miller Band's Greatest Hits.

 

[Zen Butler]

Anyone ever get this feeling? Walking up to your CD rack that contains over 500 titles and get the feeling that you aren't in the mood to listen to ANY of your titles?

This happens to me all the time, I'm at 700 + , I just close my eyes and point and make myself listen to that disc. As a disc collector, there is always something I "need", "want" to finish a collection or discography, its a sickness So I feel your pain. BTW, alphabetical or by genre...

 

[Evan S]

Call me anal, but I organize alphabetical BY genre!!!!

 

[Mike Broadman]

Yes, I suffer the sickness, too. I'm at around 900, but if I sit down and make a list of CDs I want to get, I'm pretty sure it would equal or surpass that number.

I rarely if ever feel I have "nothing to listen to," though. I just have trouble deciding some time.

When people see my collection, they always ask, "Do you listen to all this?" Yes, that's why I bought them. If there's something I don't like, I get rid of it. Every CD in my collection is important.

I also go through different phases of organizing the CDs. Right now, it's kind of complicated because by shelf doesn't fit all of the stuff, so I have to use those plastic tower things. It look pretty weird.

NP: Frank Zappa, London Symphony Orchestra, Volume I, CD

 

[John Torrez]

I have about 280 now and I do that sometimes. I go up to my cd's and don't feel like listening to any of them at the moment. So what do I do? I buy more of course!

 

[John_Bonner]

Call me anal, but I organize alphabetical BY genre!!!!

Now I don't feel so bad. Not only do I alphabetize by genre but also by year of release. So my Rush albums go "Rush", "Fly by Night", "Caress of Steel", "2112", etc. Just wish I had more time to listen to them all.

 

[Ted Lee]

i had a friend who organized by sleeve color. now that drove me crazy!

for me, it used to be alphabetical, then by release date. nowadays, if i get it grouped alphabetically i'm happy...

i'm probably at about 800 or so and although i don't feel i have anything to listen to, i do feel it could use some updating. problem is i don't like much of today's music anymore.

 

[Kerry Hackney]

For those of you with large collections, try CD-Trustee available at www.base40.com
You can download a trial version that is fully functional except it limits the number of albums you can catalog.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

My collection's probably around 800, but I also know the feeling described here. Every once in a while I just can't think of anything that really gets me excited. It's weird and frustrating, but it happens!
I think part of the reason this happens to me stems from the fact that a LOT of my collection comes from just a few artists. I mean, Bowie alone accounts for at least 10-15% of that total, and about 10 acts total make up roughly 80% of it, if not more. That means if I'm not in the mood for one of them, my options drop radically.
As for my cataloging, I alphabetize by artist, and then go chronologically WITHIN artists. It's the ONLY sane way!

 

[Mike Broadman]

Warning: music snobbery ahead.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that people who are more into jazz don't have this problem as much. In general (and yes, of course there are plenty of exceptions and gray areas), rock music focuses more on the song, while jazz more on the playing. It's easier to get familiar with the rock songs, so that you can lose interest in listening to it over and over again. Jazz seems tailor-made for repeated listening, as it's more of an engaging performance music. For example, I would say I love Rush's Moving Pictures and Miles Davis' Kind of Blue equally, but if I had to pick one of those two to listen to, it would be the latter.

Ok, now, because it's Friday afternoon and I'm not busy at work, I'm going to try to explain my absurd method for arranging my ~900 CDs.

I'm have one wooden tower shelf that stores 750 CDs, two plastic towers that hold about 100 each or so (the type that have grooves for each CD, so that only a regular jewel case can fit in them), and one plastic thing that holds 90 sitting on top of the wooden shelf.

On top of the wooden shelf, I have:

Led Zeppelin Complete Studio Recordings box set

Stevie Wonder 4 CD box set

All of my music DVDs

That 90 CD holder that contains all the CD of bands for whom I also have DVDs. The idea is to keep everything by a band together, or as close as possible. Steely Dan, Tool, Thelonius Monk, Queensryche, Iron Maiden, and AC/DC are there.

Wooden shelf:

Top row: Classical music. SACDS on the left, regular CDs on the right. Also comedy, soundtracks, and other extras.

Second row: King Crimson, including box sets, gatefolds, DVD, and a book, as well as anything from their record label.

Third row: Frank Zappa

Fourth Row: Miles Davis and John Coltrane

Fifth Row: Charles Mingus and the beginning of my jazz stuff

(Yep, I have so many CDs of the above bands that I give them their own shelves. They're "special.")

The next few rows contain my jazz CDs, alphabetically, chronologically within each artist.

The next couple of rows are rock bands/artists who have a CD that won't fit in the plastic towers (slip cases, SACDs, gatefolds, etc). The plastic towers have the rest of the rock CDs alphabetically.

It's weird, but it makes sense to me, and it actually looks kind of cool.

 

[Evan S]

Hey Mike, you have pictures of this setup?

 

[Dave Poehlman]

I just close my eyes and point and make myself listen to that disc.

I do the same thing... then I get even more depressed because my CD collection has really fallen out of date. ("What!?! Another cheesy washed up 80's band! Thats 6 in a row.. how is that possible!?!?")

But my wife asks me, "why don't you sell the ones you don't listen to anymore?"

And I look at her as if she just asked me to kill my first born.

I think my problem is that my tastes have really moved away from commercial/"popular" music. Which makes a lot of CD purchases a hit or miss type thing. I try to find more obscure titles/artists. Thats difficult due to the fact that radio here in Milwaukee really sucks... we've got about 10 stations all playing the same 10 songs.

Hmmmm... how much is that XM again?

 

[NickSo]

Hehe, i dont have many CDs, but i do know the feeling...

I do the same thing with my 80-ish dreamcast games i have :p)

 

[Mike Broadman]

Evan, sorry, no pics. I don't have a camera or a scanner. (Ironic considering I work for a company dealing with photography and digital imagery). Anyway, I plan on getting another wooden shelf thing, which will make it the CD organization make more sense.

NP: King Crimson, Collector's Club #1, Live at the Marquee, 1969, CD

 

[KeithH]

Evan, I hear you. I have around 1500 CDs and there are times that I can't find anything I want to listen to. It depends on my mood. It's even worse with SACD and DVD-Audio. I only have 62 and 20 discs of those formats, respectively. Anyway, when I can't find anything to listen to, I usually get out of the house for awhile to see if that will clear my head. Also, I will head to stores looking for bargains on CDs. I am much more willing to experiment with music when it's cheap. I just got back from a six-day business trip in Miami last night, and while there, I was able to hit the Virgin Megastore to seek out bargains. They were running a sale of 3 CDs for $25. The selection of sale titles was pretty extensive. As a result, I decided to experiment with Grateful Dead American Beauty and Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks. I had heard good things about these two albums for a long time. I'm very glad I picked them up, especially for only $8.3333333 each (). I had read especially good things about the American Beauty DVD-Audio disc, and it is now on my wantlist. Now if only Sony would release Blood on the Tracks on SACD. That would be nice.

 

[Rachael B]

I never, ever feel like I don't have something to listen to. I can only not feel like listening to music. Keith, soon you'll be a dead head, and drinking Ripple and who knows what else?
1300 CD's & 2000+ records, not to mention LD's, DVD-A's, SACD's, DVD-V's.... "life should be set to music"...oh yeah it is! I should get call letters and broadcast.

 

[KeithH]

Rachael,
You may be right regarding the Dead. I already had In the Dark on CD, but American Beauty was my first venture into older Dead music.
All,
Along the lines of getting music cheap to expand one's horizons, I just got a flier in the mail from Columbia House "begging" me to join the CD club again. I fulfilled my membership requirement a few years ago and cancelled my membership some months back. Now they want me to join again. 15 CDs for free, except for shipping and handling. Then I just have to buy four CDs in two years. I'm gonna sign up. I went through the CD stamps they sent and found nine that I want. Now I'll go to their web site and find six more. This is a nice opportunity to get some CDs that interest me but that I might not ever get around to buying. Anyway, it gets me some new music, and for free. If you get one of these fliers in the mail, take them up on it. I recently did the same thing with BMG. Great deals.

 

[Luke_Khuc]

so what does this all mean? i should stop buying cds? yeah right. i'm at 400 right now and there's always something for me to listen to.