I'd have a massive CD / LP collection without Spotify and YouTube

DS86DS · 22-11-2018 09:05AM #1

I'm in my early 30's..,..my Uncle is 10 years older came of age in the 1990's when the only way to listen to music was through a CD or Vinyl.

Whenever I go to his place, I'm literally greeted by a full box room full of shelves containing CD's and Vinyls. Music be in the region of a few thousands.

All of that raw physical music material and I'm envious..........plus I don't know why....but a huge music collection is so colourful, it's like a Library of Alexandra of music.

Me though, I do have some CD's and Vinyl....but a measly 150 for I came of age in the age of YouTube or Spotify.

I've sold off 100's of music records, often fobbing them off to second hand music shops for firesale prices........always with the excuse that well YouTube and Spotify have the same music

I kind of envy my Uncle......such a great collection of music and wonderful to look at I feel that online media makes it too easy to not bother with a proper music collection.

I know if I was the same age as my Uncle... I'd have a wonderful collection of music in its physical form.

And even if I sometimes want to buy an album.....it's there on Spotify...... Bluetooth even allows it play on the Hi-fi

There is no incentive anymore to have a large and wonderful CD and Vinyl collection anymore which is such a pity.

Buying music on a physical medium used to be a necessity and it added up to a wonderful collection

Now it just feels like an unnecessary approach.......and even if it sounds a million times better than YouTube and Spotify....the temptation is still there to sell them on to buy something else

....after all it's still on Spotify.and can be listened to.

I miss big CD/ Vinyl collections

NIMAN · 22-11-2018 09:09AM

I have several hundred CDs at home, and I would hate to think how much I spent over the years on them!

But you couldn't give them away nowadays. And for that reason I may as well hold on to them, at least for now anyway.

I still play them in the car or at home the odd time, although very odd time.

DS86DS · 22-11-2018 09:12AM

NIMAN wrote: »

I have several hundred CDs at home, and I would hate to think how much I spent over the years on them!

But you couldn't give them away nowadays. And for that reason I may as well hold on to them, at least for now anyway.

I still play them in the car or at home the odd time, although very odd time.

I would never ever sell away a collection like that. You're looking at €7000+ worth of music and you'd be lucky to get €1500 selling them to a second hand record store

Candlemass · 22-11-2018 09:19AM

Im a big collector of Vinyl, there are many reasons i went back to physical format, but one of the main reasons was i had hard drives with thousands of albums which id never listen to half of them and id never listen to a full album constantly skipping to the next song/album.

I missed the feeling i had when i was in my teens staring for hours at the lyrics and artwork on the tape/cd inlay that was all gone when digital came about.

So now with Vinyl i always listen to albums through and experience it like i did as a kid.

The only downfall is storage and now that vinyl is popular again the prices have shot up.

But for now its Vinyl at home, CDs for the car and Digital in work.

OU812 · 22-11-2018 09:19AM

Recently cleared out my cd collection. I’d put it in the attic three years ago to make room. Had everything digital anyway as I’d ripped them over the years & re-ripped them in higher quality as storage got less expensive.

Totally forgot I had them and ended up giving away about 400 cds. Family got first dibs and then the rest went to the VDP

RayCun · 22-11-2018 09:23AM

DS86DS wrote: »

I know if I was the same age as my Uncle... I'd have a wonderful collection of music in its physical form.

Yeah, if you'd spent thousands of euro on it, and spent ages searching for the music that wasn't in your local record shop and didn't get radio airplay...

andekwarhola · 22-11-2018 09:23AM

I still have a sizeable vinyl and CD collection packed away that I can't bring myself to get rid of but for all the lazy nostalgia I have about it, I wouldn't go back to it over the portability and convenience of digital music.

CrankyHaus · 22-11-2018 09:27AM

andekwarhola wrote: »

I still have a sizeable vinyl and CD collection packed away that I can't bring myself to get rid of but for all the lazy nostalgia I have about it, I wouldn't go back to it over the portability and convenience of digital music.

Agreed. While I don't have to store more than a few hundred CDs I have a room rammed with DVD shelves at home and I find it less accessible than having instant access to the media on a computer. Physical media can be difficult to take care of too, discs get lost or damaged.

DS86DS · 22-11-2018 09:28AM

sugarman wrote: »

I don't get the attachment to physical media.

I ****ed a few hundred CDs and DVDs into the local charity shop and never looked back. As I did with cassettes and VHS before that.

I'm partially in agreement..... I love the simplicity and seemingly eternity of Spotify and other venues of online gaming and E-Readers

But part of me still wishes I had a large music collection. Perhaps it's irrationality....but there's just something about a large physical music collection that seems so satisfying.

DS86DS · 22-11-2018 09:29AM

Candlemass wrote: »

Im a big collector of Vinyl, there are many reasons i went back to physical format, but one of the main reasons was i had hard drives with thousands of albums which id never listen to half of them and id never listen to a full album constantly skipping to the next song/album.

I missed the feeling i had when i was in my teens staring for hours at the lyrics and artwork on the tape/cd inlay that was all gone when digital came about.

So now with Vinyl i always listen to albums through and experience it like i did as a kid.

The only downfall is storage and now that vinyl is popular again the prices have shot up.

But for now its Vinyl at home, CDs for the car and Digital in work.

Messiah FTW

Edward M · 22-11-2018 09:41AM

I had a large collection of CDs, Vinyl, and cassettes.
VHS and DVDs as well.
Collecting for years, I went through them one week I was sick about 10 years ago, it made me sick to see some of the muck I had actually collected.
I picked a few CDs and DVDs to keep, maybe 20 and 10.
I rang a lad I know who does bricabrac on a market stall, he called around and bought the lot I was getting rid of.
I can't remember how much exactly, but it bought my car insurance that year, which had been a bad year for work and money was tight.
I have Spotify now through Vodafone for 5.99 a month, haven't bought a CD or DVD in years.

buried · 22-11-2018 09:45AM

Big collector of vinyl here too. I love it. Love the analouge sound, love looking at the artwork, love the little ritual of taking the record out the sleeve and putting it on the turntable. Love looking at the collection. I'm the same with books. Same with blu-rays. Only downside is the space, it takes up a lot of space and if you are a fan of modern stuff being released the space is being taken the whole time, but I still keep collecting them. Should be getting another EP in the post tomorrow morning so thats another wan

facehugger99 · 22-11-2018 09:48AM

sugarman wrote: »

I don't get the attachment to physical media.

I ****ed a few hundred CDs and DVDs into the local charity shop and never looked back. As I did with cassettes and VHS before that.

Yeah, I did the same with the CD's and DVD's, - there were a few albums that I simply couldn't bring myself to get rid of.

Vinyl feels different though, even though I'll rarely put a record on, there's something about the look and feel of a record sleeve, it's almost like a piece of art. I couldn't ever bring myself to throw them out.

Sometimes I think Spotify is simultaneously the best and worst thing to happen to music. I'm mid-40's and your album collection was something which took years to build and craft. It almost became an extension of your personality.

Now you have access to almost anything at the press of a button. I would have considered it the stuff of science fiction 25 year ago and although I really love it and would never want to go back to the past, something got lost along the way.

Deebles McBeebles · 22-11-2018 09:48AM

I still like the physical edition although I don't buy as many as in the past. Have a fairly large CD and DVD collection. The smell of the liner notes, ah good times.

I'd still buy the odd one but of course have 100's of GB of digital music too. CD sounds better every time. I know they say that about vinyl and its true too but I never went for vinyl.

quickbeam · 22-11-2018 09:48AM

I love my CDs. I still buy them when I can. I don't Spotify.

Candlemass · 22-11-2018 09:49AM

DS86DS wrote: »

Messiah FTW

Mint Sauce · 22-11-2018 09:50AM

About 300-400 CDs, and about half that amount in Cassettes. Not getting rid any time soon, despite them collecting dust.

kneemos · 22-11-2018 09:55AM

Mint Sauce wrote: »

About 300-400 CDs, and about half that amount in Cassettes. Not getting rid any time soon, despite them collecting dust.

Cassettes were shoite even in the day.

Kintarō Hattori · 22-11-2018 09:57AM

I love listening to music but with my meager CD collection and now DVD's the missus insisted I put them in the attic. It's fair enough I suppose, we don't live in a mansion and the space they took can be better used until we move somewhere bigger. I've no intention of offloading them though- they'll have their day again sometime in the future.

murpho999 · 22-11-2018 09:57AM

DS86DS wrote: »

I would never ever sell away a collection like that. You're looking at €7000+ worth of music and you'd be lucky to get €1500 selling them to a second hand record store

So it's not worth €7000 then.

Deebles McBeebles · 22-11-2018 09:59AM

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

I love listening to music but with my meager CD collection and now DVD's the missus insisted I put them in the attic. It's fair enough I suppose, we don't live in a mansion and the space they took can be better used until we move somewhere bigger. I've no intention of offloading them though- they'll have their day again sometime in the future.

The day you get them all out and start looking through liner notes will be like Christmas morning when you were a kid.

22-11-2018 10:03AM

It's a pity for a lot of artists who would have had a nice little revenue stream that's now gone. But I do dislike people talking about analogue sound on records since pretty much everything is mastered digitally and then transferred. It doesn't improve the music.

Edward M · 22-11-2018 10:08AM

kneemos wrote: »

Cassettes were shoite even in the day.

Agree there, but they were the only way to play your own music in cars back in the day.
I used to make my own tapes back then too.
The first car I bought had the old 8 track stereo in, the previous owner left a collection of them in the car for me. Does anyone remember them:)

Relikk · 22-11-2018 10:17AM

murpho999 wrote: »

So it's not worth €7000 then.

Second hand record shops will never offer you anywhere near what it's worth, it's the same as somewhere like GameStop offering you half of what your PS4 is worth.

As long as your CD's and vinyl are well looked after and are in good condition, if you sell on places like eBay and specialist sites like Discogs, you'll have no problem getting what they're worth.

buried · 22-11-2018 10:18AM

Deleted User wrote: »

It's a pity for a lot of artists who would have had a nice little revenue stream that's now gone. But I do dislike people talking about analogue sound on records since pretty much everything is mastered digitally and then transferred. It doesn't improve the music.

Depends on who is doing the mastering though, engineers like Matt Colton will master a record to such a high degree you can literally tell the difference straight away between a low level MP3 or stream and a proper vinyl record. A lot of the records I buy the independent record shop gives you a free Mp3 copy to go with the physical record and I can always tell the difference. Especially if the likes of Colton or Rashad Becker has done the actual mastering.

buried · 22-11-2018 10:20AM

Show us yer stash

https://imgur.com/Ovisb2W

This is all from last year and this year. Might have a problem but sure what can you do

Mint Sauce · 22-11-2018 10:20AM

kneemos wrote: »

Cassettes were shoite even in the day.

Not when you could get the lastest single for £1/1.99 from Virgin or HMV, and when you could record the top 10 or a gig from your favourite band off BBCR1.

Relikk · 22-11-2018 10:24AM

buried wrote: »

Depends on who is doing the mastering though, engineers like Matt Colton will master a record to such a high degree you can literally tell the difference straight away between a low level MP3 or stream and a proper vinyl record.

Not to mention that original quote isn't correct. There's different methods of mastering. Mastering for digital formats, and mastering for analogue formats as both have different characteristics and ceilings with regard to sound space, and anything that was recorded before DAW's became popular would have always been recorded to analogue tape. So not everything is digitised before it's transferred to a specific format.

22-11-2018 10:25AM

buried wrote: »

Depends on who is doing the mastering though, engineers like Matt Colton will master a record to such a high degree you can literally tell the difference straight away between a low level MP3 or stream and a proper vinyl record. A lot of the records I buy the independent record shop gives you a free Mp3 copy to go with the physical record and I can always tell the difference. Especially if the likes of Colton or Rashad Becker has done the actual mastering.

Yeah and you could tell the difference between a CD or the low quality MP3 as well. It's not about analogue v digital.

dr.fuzzenstein · 22-11-2018 10:26AM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

It's a pity for a lot of artists who would have had a nice little revenue stream that's now gone. But I do dislike people talking about analogue sound on records since pretty much everything is mastered digitally and then transferred. It doesn't improve the music.

It's pub talk, pure and simple. "Ah bejaysis, when I'd be puttin' de record on, it's like de angels singing from de heavens!"
Let's take music from the 60's and 70's. If you have an old record from back then, chances are it's knackered. Snap, Crackle and Pop. And a lot of the later pressings and reissues were extremely cheap and nasty. Or the mix was hurried and muddled. Technology wasn't great back then.
I was given original Van Morrison albums to transfer to CD. Playing them back I thought "that sounds alright". Until I compared it to the CD issue of the same album.
The difference was massive. Suddenly the original vinyl sounded like dunking you head in a mud bath in comparison. It's like comparing a Polaroid to the same picture taken with a 20 megapixel SLR.
Of course you could go for those super fancy 180 gram reissues. And they sound nice.
Of course you also need to keep in mind that the master tapes were digitally remixed. So all you're getting is a vinyl copy of the MP3.

To address that "warm, analog sound".
That is because back in the day musicians used real instruments, valve amplifiers and, most importantly, analog master Tape. That is where that sound comes from
The fact that this sound then was scratched into a kitchen lino has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with it.
Also, you need really good equipment to get any good results. You need to spend serious money and it still won't sound as good as a digital sound file played back from my phone over the same stereo.

The very best quality you can get is a good, digital copy of the original master tape.
Or get a reel to reel copy. Reel to reel is absolutely fantastic.
And I have a lot of vinyl. 200+ records. But I spent a lot of time converting vinyl to CD, wav, flac, mp3. And comparing them to their digital counterparts.
The noise floor and dynamic range of the very best vinyl cannot even begin to compete with CD.

buried · 22-11-2018 10:36AM

Don't forget to show us yer stash if you got em lads. I love looking at collections

I'd have a massive CD / LP collection without Spotify and YouTube

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