Physical CD Media Poll

dkg999

I think I'm around 1800 CD's and about 1500 vinyl LP's. I don't download music. I've got probably around 400 CD's ripped to my music server and limit the ripped CD's to the ones I really like and listen to the most often.

LessisNevermore

dkg999 wrote: »

I think I'm around 1800 CD's and about 1500 vinyl LP's. I don't download music. I've got probably around 400 CD's ripped to my music server and limit the ripped CD's to the ones I really like and listen to the most often.

Might want to include any that are out of print, as well. I already have at least one disc that seems to be becoming unreadable. There are no visible scratches, or obvious reasons the disc won't play, but I had one hell of a time getting any of my (4)computers to rip it this last go-round. My CDP didn't want to play it either.

Hard drives are cheap, back 'em up!!!

janmike

My Music Collector DB shows 286.

blakeh

What prompted me to post this poll in the first place is something one of my longtime music buddies told me the other day. He stopped buying CDs about three years ago after accumulating around 1,200 titles. Since then, he has either ripped the CDs to his hard drive or downloaded equivalent tracks from iTunes so he has, essentially, reproduced his CD collection in digital format. He told me that after two years of never physically grabbing a CD to play, he now intends on selling all of his discs.

That just kind of threw me for a loop because I am the opposite camp. In fact, we differ on quite a few things. I, for one, can't stand MP3 files because of their reduced fidelity. So I would never, EVER download something from iTunes to replace a CD. Secondly, I still buy a lot of CDs. My friend stopped years ago in deference to iTunes, but I am constantly hitting used CD stores to find more music.

Now, like my friend, I may only handle a CD for a few minutes before I put it away on the shelf. Whenever I acquire a new CD, I make it a point to rip it into lossless FLAC format the same day I get it. Some discs only get handled for a minute (while it gets ripped) before I never put my fingers on it again. But I would still never sell the original disc.

There are times when I'll go back to reference a disc because I want to flip through the booklet or look at the credits, but those times are few and far between. But, again, I would never consider selling the original disc. As I said in my original post, part of it is because I consider myself a collector, not just a listener. Another part of it is that I want to have something to show people when they come over, or pass on to my kids (should I ever have any). You can't hand MP3s down to your children!

I have definitely embraced digital music (lossless tracks that I rip myself) and would be absolutely lost without my Squeezebox Touch and MediaMonkey, but I was surprised to hear my friend (who has done the same thing, albeit slightly differently) was so eager to sell his collection.

inspiredsports

Just over a thousand and growing everytime I visit our local vintage music store. "Time Traveler" or I see a deal on eBay.

I can't remember the last time I purchased a "bad" used CD, meaning one that wouldn't play due to a scratched/marred surface. I'f got as many LP's as CD's, and as much as I love LP's, they sure don't hold up as well as CD's on the vintage front.

SCompRacer

F1nut wrote: »

Cool thread, Blake.

+1!

Being from a time when CD's did not exist, I'm in the need to have and hold category. I also rip my CD's to flac. If I had the time I'd love to do all my vinyl in high res digital for convenience. Physical storage will have to be addressed as one accumulates media.

On3s&Z3r0s

blakeh wrote: »

... Now, like my friend, I may only handle a CD for a few minutes before I put it away on the shelf. Whenever I acquire a new CD, I make it a point to rip it into lossless FLAC format the same day I get it. Some discs only get handled for a minute (while it gets ripped) before I never put my fingers on it again. But I would still never sell the original disc.

There are times when I'll go back to reference a disc because I want to flip through the booklet or look at the credits, but those times are few and far between. But, again, I would never consider selling the original disc. As I said in my original post, part of it is because I consider myself a collector, not just a listener. Another part of it is that I want to have something to show people when they come over, or pass on to my kids (should I ever have any). You can't hand MP3s down to your children!...

I'm in almost exactly the same camp. Actually, I'm still ripping CD's to the full blown WAV format but only because I use the machine that contains all the music to stream to a number of different endpoints and they don't all support FLAC (I'm looking at you Microsuck). But as far as my reason for keeping the CD's themselves I figure it's not cool to sell the CD's if I'm keeping the music. I'm not super moralistic about the whole file sharing / copying thing, but generally I bought the music because I value the artists' work and figure they should make a buck. It doesn't seem totally kosher to rip the music and re-sell the media. But there are a several of those situations where there might just be one or two decent tracks on a CD... and I have occasionally ripped those and given the CD to Goodwill.

Erik Tracy

I've got about 300+ CDs and SACDs. (Not counting vinyl).

I'm lazy by nature...me - I buy an artist's full album release, put it in a player and listen to it.

The last thing I want to do after futzing with computers all day is to copy and download source CDs, make folders, make playlists, manage disk capacities, obsess over copy formats, do backups, etc.

Like I said...lazy...

mantis

I have over 300 cd's. I have most of them stored Digitally . I only have my SACD and DVD AUDIO discs I have to play one at a time. That kinda sucks but it is what it is.