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One of The Ways We Gots It Better Than Those Folks in the 70/80's-Music Collection Size

M

Mister Pig

Pigamus Maximus
I was thinking about this topic this morning. The size of our music collections are huge compared to what folks often had in the seventies and eighties. Heck back then a person could be considered a serious audio person if they owned a hundred records or cassettes. Now people today have music collections that exceed a couple of thousand pieces, or more. Sure there were folks with big collections back in the day. But the average Joe with a good stereo seemed to own a couple of hundred pieces, and they were serious hobbyists. The causal owner of a hi fi seemed to have 20 or 30 pieces of music. Now with computer storage and digital downloads, and inexpensively priced CD's, it seems a few thousand is quite attainable for most hobbyists.

Yes audio has changed, and the music we have a huge wealth of music to explore.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
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Ironically, I'm thinning my collection partially for this reason. Much of it is rarely played and as archival, but with modern streaming options, acceptable options are available for a few keystrokes.

I have records I haven't played in months, years, or ever and don't need the congestion of them in my life when I can pull them out of cyberspace with a few keystrokes.

So while I don't disagree with the premise, my reality will contain much less physical media.
 
I found that as my age increases, my record collection decreases. I "m keeping a solid core of frequently played LPs, ones from my early days of collecting and some with sentimental value. All the rest are slowly being sold off or are already gone.
 
For the life of me, I just can't seem to stop bring home more music, both vinyl and CD's. And thousands of them I have yet to listen to, not because I won't enjoy them, but rather than the fact I find more than I can get a chance to listen to, at this point in time. I would imagine in the future as I get older and work less I will have more time to listen to them. I completely agree with the OP as when I was young I had the largest music collection of all my friends and they would all fit in two large tubs. Currently except for some favorites I mainly listen to an LP once, and then shelf it. Sometimes I might get back in a year or two, but with so many others yet spun, and so many more that I find for sale I usually just spin a sample of what is coming in the door. Room for storage is something to take seriously, as thousands or more likely tens of thousands take up a lot of room.
 
Ken Boyd said:
For the life of me, I just can't seem to stop bring home more music, both vinyl and CD's. And thousands of them I have yet to listen to, not because I won't enjoy them, but rather than the fact I find more than I can get a chance to listen to, at this point in time. I would imagine in the future as I get older and work less I will have more time to listen to them. I completely agree with the OP as when I was young I had the largest music collection of all my friends and they would all fit in two large tubs. Currently except for some favorites I mainly listen to an LP once, and then shelf it. Sometimes I might get back in a year or two, but with so many others yet spun, and so many more that I find for sale I usually just spin a sample of what is coming in the door. Room for storage is something to take seriously, as thousands or more likely tens of thousands take up a lot of room.
Click to expand...

I can't seem to stop buying either (vinyl and CDs), even though I can't realistically listen to all of it.

Getting used CDs is just so easy and cheap and with vinyl, there are enough different versions out there that it's too tempting to want to hear what this mastering or that pressing sounds like even if you have the CD.

Someday I'll need to start thinning both formats, but that time hasn't come yet.
 
I was thinking about that the other day ... I had 200-300 LP's back in the late 70's and I was king. Made mix tapes for all my buddies and was widely considered by friends as the "music guy". I'm up to about 2000 LP's now but it seems considerably harder to find anything I want to listen to. I finally had to inventory the whole collection, so I would stop double and triple buying records. From that master list, I made an " on the hunt" list.

So, I walk into the record store yesterday with none of that and just like so many times before ... I stood there with a blank mind, trying to remember what was on the list. Lots of good used vinyl in front of me but I was too uncertain to get carried away. I walked out with a single used LP and a pocket full of cash. It was never that complicated in the 80's ... I didnt have a smart phone, Discogs, Google or half the vinyl selection that store did. I remember the days of wanting to go wild, just wishing for the cash to buy 10-20 titles ... be careful what you wish for; now I have the money but I cant remember what I am hunting for. If I would have gone wild yesterday, I would likely have ended up with 19 copies of Fleetwood Mac - Rumors.

I suppose I could put the list up in the cloud, so I can access it from anywhere. Once again solving a simple problem with complex technology certain to fail me.
 
I am glad people are thinning their collections. It means more opportunities for the rest of us to find unaltered performances at reduced prices.

No one has called me out on my ranting about streaming quality versus the original recording, analog or digital. It applies to video as well as audio. I do a trial from a different source once a month or so. Some a pretty close some not so. My question is why should I just in the name of conveinence spend one dollar to buy a fake when I can buy the real thing? Now if its the only source for a valued performance, I can see the merits, but that doesn't make it right, either.
 
I totally agree. I've been collecting music for my collection since 2007 officially. In the 10 years since then, my CD collection is about 4-5x the size of what my dad's is and he had a ~24 year head start. Same with my record collection where he had a ~30 year head start. Of course, his "personal" collection hasn't grown since I started because the whole family listens to the same stuff, so I took over as the collection manager. And that doesn't even include the massive collections of MP3s I've acquired.
 
Mister Pig said:
But the average Joe with a good stereo seemed to own a couple of hundred pieces, and they were serious hobbyists. The causal owner of a hi fi seemed to have 20 or 30 pieces of music.
Click to expand...

This matches my experience, but I also recall that people's collections were more focused. There was "the jazz guy", the "classical guy", "the Sinatra guy", "the bluegrass guy", etc. There might be a couple of hundred records in total, but the collection often had a focus and some depth to it.

These days there are so many options for finding music in any format, it's possible to build a collection that is both wide (lots of genres) and deep (almost every record from a given artist).

I remember feeling like I'd arrived when my collection got big enough that sometimes I would find a record I forgot I had. Like a miniature Christmas right there in my Peaches crate!
 
I think it is great that we have at our fingertips and mouse clicks nearly the entire accumulated music depository. It is a little like having the entire sum of human knowledge on a smartphone and Google tho. How does one pick the truth from garbage, and who has the time to read it all? Sure music recorded doesn't out and out lie, but some versions are clearly closer to what was intended than others.

Also I find having so much available is more than a little intimidating I think., being one of those that started out listening nearly 50 years ago and having just 100 LP's, I think I listen differently than most people today do. I seem to be more particular about what I want to hear, and I tend still listen to about 100 albums at a time. That 100 shifts slowly as I discover new material and other material drops from favor but the process works slowly.

This is different from many who listen to a much broader spectrum of music, and having so much available, they don't often listen to any one track more than a few times if ever again. It sort of compairs to reading a book versus having an object of art in a room, say a painting. A book, there is seldom a reason to reread it because we know the ending, whereas a painting on the wall can be viewed for years. Music to me often is more like art in that way. And I only have just so much listening time to enjoy all its colors and nuances.
 
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I was able to fit my entire record collection ... back in the day ... inside a single peach crate. Most people thought I had a lot of records.

Now I have two of those ... just for Audiophile LPs & Newly pressed 180gram Vinyl. Legacy Vinyl stored on shelves.
 
Im always dragging new music in. Everything from 70's and 80's music from artists I really should have listened to but didnt to people I never heard of till now to new artists. My son has been a big help with new musicians. Growing up with music always playing he has a good ear for what I might like.
 
I think John is spot on, back in the 80s I had maybe 40 LPs, 20 taps... and radio.
Today 6000 LPs, maybe 120 R2R tapes, 300 CDs, rips to the computer, free Youtube and radio.
 
I think what allot of people do is based on need of what other people think based on social definitions. Many feel that so many records is an unwarranted excess. Others want the recorded music for whenever they want to hear a song even if it's only once a year. Of course if your living in a small home and don't have room to walk around the right thing is to get a bigger house......just joking, but people are overly concerned with how things appear to others. Now for the rest of us that are not concerned with how we are socially defined and live our lives on our own two feet, we have an ever growing record collection that possibly has it's own room.
 
I couldn't care less what others think; I just don't see the need for me to keep LPs I rarely play when I can stream them acceptably for my needs online. I can put that space to better use as well as the proceeds from the sales.

I got rid of all my cassettes and RTRs a while back for streaming and digital media, and know other folks who also have sold off all vinyl for digital. I just didn't see the need for 5 formats, LP, CD, digital, cassette, and RTR, Right now I have perhaps 2000 LPs and 1000 CDs and I could easily lose over half and use the funds to upgrade hardware.
 
My collection has grown due to a renewed interest in Classical Music, and a new found appreciation of Mono records, not to mention R2R tape. Why get rid of LP's you can probably not find a copy as well cared for as the one you own? Just my thoughts.
Regards,
Jim
 
I had around 70 LPs that I sold a few years back.

I now have all my CDs ripped to my computer. I have access to ALL my music with a couple of clicks. Love it!
 
Although I've ripped all my CD's (1600+) as FLAC files to an NAS, ripping my LP's (3500+) is a task I'm not willing to take on. So, I'll continue to use my VPI TT for listening to vinyl and my Teac for cassettes. I must admit using a computer server is incredibly convenient.
 
Well in the last day I have Streamed ,Spun, and tuned FM, no cd's played but had some 25pcs.or so of some old cassettes in my hand that I found in the basement.
Humm could there be a cassette player on order soon.:idea: Choices glad we have them.

Best-

Boozehound
 
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Since I got back into vinyl less than two years ago, my collection has approached 1000 records....many times more than I had in the 1970s. The resurgence in interest has made vinyl more readily available... especially since I found an eBay seller whos records are clean and reasonably priced...and gives me free shipping with 5 or more. ( I currently have 14 inbound from him ). I predict my collection will grow to unmanageable proportions before too long...:music:
 
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