are you becoming more a Collector than Listener?

[randy]

Ive got stuff I know I wont listen to till 2020. I find myself not listening to a lot of stuff I like in favor of listening to "new" old stuff
But as problems go--its not a bad one to have.

[tomfin2000]

Been there, done that, killed my love of music for six years, and finally returned a couple of months ago as an avid listener, not a collector.

Heck, I can even listen to a mp3 ripped from vinyl now without mentally screening out the music so that I could find all the surface noise, clicks, pops, and other vinyl-centric imperfections.

[2Nu]

Yep, I know what you mean..

As my music file count surpasses the 10k mark, I find it hard to wrap my mind around actually sitting down and going through it all.

Which may very well have me resort to using the music rating feature of my i-tunes or winamp software when time comes to giving these yet unheard trax a listen.

Hopefully it will provide a baseline asessment of what I got to hear the first time around.

Anyone else use or find the ratings feature useful?

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[obs]

[i]It's a worse problem with my DVDs[/i]

Unwatched DVDs I've got piling up, higher and higher [:D]. It's more difficult to multitask when watching a movie is one of the tasks.

[korova1]

Whoo, lunch break!

Yeah, I think I have begun to budget myself now. I've gone through that exact phase a few years back and now I try to only spend around 15-20 bucks a week. I do the whole "shopping process" on my terms. In the old days when I had no children it was easier to drop a hundred bucks every week like it was going out of style because I had nobody to rely on me... but looking back, buying crap like crazy wears thin... half of the stuff I bought back then (about 7-10 years ago) I hardly listen to these days. I bought it because I could. Alot of it is great stuff, but I just don't have to the time to explore an old Tortoise CD at the moment. I prefer to throw on some really old Echo instead!

As far as buying new stuff, I think society has and always will be set up to CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME! To tell you the truth, if you think about it too much it really takes the joy out of buying anything... So I avoid it for the most part. Nowadays shopping for music on Tuesdays is like a big deal for alot of people in their twenties and thirties. Ever been to a Target or a Best Buy on a Tuesday?... it is like a hundred 20-30 somethings running around the store trying to score the latest new release DVD or Fat Joe CD. So now I have been trying to back off. I may pick up a DVD a month in an actual store, other times I try to budget what I am buying. It got to the point where I couldn't watch half of the ones I already bought, so I started selling the ones I didn't open or never finished watching. Which reminds me, I've got to do that again soon....

Speaking of the old days, it WAS alot more "innocent" or whatever in those times, maybe I am just romanticizing it, but when when I was 18 years old, I had no idea that stores got their new product in on Tuesdays. Instead I would just randomly go to a store (I think I had a choice of 3 where I lived) whenever I had enough money to buy gas and drift down there and pick up something that struck my eye. Not my ear, but my eye. Usually if I was lucky I'd buy one album a month. I got into a ton of bands because of the intriguing artwork and packaging, etc... not because it was at Target under the "Hot New Bands" CD display for 8.99 or less. I'd be sweating it out in the record aisle trying to decide which album to buy because I only would have enough for one or two at a time. I miss the opportunity to go find bands and "buy blind", without listening to the release or reading about the buzz first.

Now it is just INFORMATION OVERLOAD everywhere you turn. My brain screams for mercy as far as the new stuff goes, so I have been picking up alot of the more obscure old stuff again. Honestly, the stuff is ten times better than anything new I've heard in years.

As hard as I may try I can't even LISTEN to stuff like the rap, AFI, or Fall Out Boy or even the indie stuff like the beats oriented stuff like Def Jux. It bores me to tears... and most of it is crap. That is why even the kiddies are diggin' on Joy Division these days. But I truly have had some good times in the past few years rediscovering old 80's bands like rare early 80's punk, and the crazy amounts of post-punk stuff that has surfaced in the past five years. Overall, I think we are victims of the times we live in, "THE IF YOU MAKE IT WE WILL BUY IT GENERATION"... and as a result we have lost alot of the emotions that used to go with our purchases when we were younger. Some days I wish I only had 20 records like I did when I was a kid, it really was a hell of lot easier to appreciate what I did own in those days.

[obs]

Good post!

[xtc-1957]

[quote]Originally posted by bpdp3
[br]I admit it - - there's more in my collection than I'll ever have a chance to listen to in this lifetime. And that's if I promise to only listen to things not listened to yet; I don't have the time to go back and listen to self-established classics.

(I can't remember the last time I put on something like Gang of 4 'Entertainment'....it's so ingrained that it's almost not necessary for me to actually play it - - and that's a crime).

When I was a kid in the new wave heyday you had only a few albums, and you listened over and over and made them a part of you. To copy a friend's lp you had to buy cassette tapes ($5 for two I think) and on a longer lp like XTC's 'Black Sea', you couldn't fit it in 45 minutes (and it took the length of album time-wise to copy it).

Now everything's too damned easy. Download a million songs instantly, burn a 75 minute-CD instantly, you know the drill. I feel like I'm missing an important part of the music-listening experience. I'm collecting more than I'll EVER HEAR.

Do you ever feel the same way, and a little bummed about it? (it's almost like a 'loss of innocence'.....)
[/quote]

BP.....I guess I'm lucky...I spend alot of time in my vehicle & I make it a habit to NEVER turn on the radio. It gives me the opportunity to play CD's that I've burned in the past year from the HUB.

But I hear what you're saying. When I'm home on weekends and have a lot of free time, I seldom throw in a CD anymore. That's quite a switch from how I used to spend my weekends.

[Ollie Stench]

It's funny. I have bought multiple copies of something because I forgot I already owned it.

I've got albums I've owned for 10+ years and haven't gotten around to listening to.

As for downloading... I usually only take something if it's the complete album or single. If it's just a song here and there I'll grab it, listen to it, decide if it's worth tracking down the original for, and then usually just throw it away.

I collect vinyl, mp3s are disposable.

[tomfin2000]

[quote][i]Originally posted by xtc-1957[/i]BP.....I guess I'm lucky...I spend alot of time in my vehicle & I make it a habit to NEVER turn on the radio.[/quote]

So do I, but that's mainly because I don't want to get sick in the car and ruin the upholstery. [:p]

[quote]It gives me the opportunity to play CD's that I've burned in the past year from the HUB.[/quote]

That's exactly what I've been doing. By the end of the week, I probably have over a dozen CDRs in the front seat!

[quote]But I hear what you're saying. When I'm home on weekends and have a lot of free time, I seldom throw in a CD anymore. That's quite a switch from how I used to spend my weekends.
[/quote]

I don't listen much at home these days either. There's not many oppourtunities to blast your stereo when you have a wife and three small children in the house!

[Frank_Chickens]

< looks at CD collection >

< looks at MP3 collection on PC >

Nope, don't know what you mean at all.. [;)]

Will listen to them all again one day.. [:o)]


--

"As chairman of the Cradle of Filth fanclub I'm the most insensitive man in Britain, but even I can see there's tension there"

[geoffolehane]

Well I still make it a point to listen to whatever I buy at least once. But after that it may sit for eternity.

But I'm always looking for songs to put on my mixed CD's that I burn just about on a weekly basis for my car. So I'm pretty good at listening to things because most of my CD's have certain types of sounds or themes.

So I suppose my short answer is, No, I buy to listen.

[KYYX4ever]

I'm also glad it's not just me. Argh. I MUST make an effort to slow down and listen to all that I've got.

[randy]

Ditto--as others have mentioned, the only time I listen to my cds are in the car going to work--thats about 2 hours a day -tons of cdrs scattered all over the place and usually cannot find the one I really want to listen to at the time. Radio? Whats that? Even though I have enjoyed a lot of the new music out there--most of which I was introduced to here, as my radio shut off once grunge became "alternative" and totally destroyed the term alternative-I still prefer finding "new" or "lost" gems from the late 70's and 80's. Have I missed a lot of great bands because I basically shut the radio off in 93? Maybe. Do I care? No--like I said, I have more than enough to listen to now--although I'll never turn down a good 80's tune!!

[Frau_Blucher]

I have to say that I'm a pretty voracious listener. I travel a lot and my Pod is always on. 3 hours on a train, 6 hours on a plane, 3 hours in a car, 2 hours while reading, 2 hours at baseball practice, 4 hours of paper work in the office, 2 hours of an unlistenable conference call even! I've consciously had to turn down the volume of the music - my eardrums can't be in good shape. I collect some - nothing to the degree that some you folks do I'm sure - but the listening and finding more old AND new stuff is a huge of my day, my mood, my psyche, whatever. I love listening to music almost all the time!

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[Moparmark]

This site has been invaluable for artist info.I have used the album
list as a search menu and found many deals out there on powerpop,New wave and punk lp,s.And only a few duds,gotta love it.So I,m both
listener and collector.