Let's Get Physical: Your Music Collection

[The Mollusk]

I've been collecting CDs ever since I first started getting into music when I was around 14, which is basically 20 years. In 2000, the trendy vinyl resurgence wasn't a thing and CDs were deffo the main music format. Digital music was certainly a thing but streaming was not. People ripped their music onto their computers as a matter of convenience. I got really into that but I still kept collecting CDs because physical media is really meaningful to me.

As I mentioned in the Dinosaur Jr. thread, having stuff on my wall in physical form will bring that music directly into my life at any given point when I might have forgotten all about it, or it will remind me I need to check it out because I paid money for it and it's taking up space in my home and so it deserves my attention. A few times over the years I've gotten rid of stuff I don't like any more and to be honest, this is the only instance of purging myself of my possessions that I really regret it. I'm not ashamed or embarrassed by the music I used to enjoy and I think it's really important, if you're going to catalogue it all like I have, to feature as much of the past alongside the present. Music is my life, but some of it isn't "here" any more. I wish I'd kept it all.

Still, though. I moved to London with probably around 200 CDs, a collection which had been added to and whittled down steadily over a long period of time. Then I discovered London charity shops and record exchanges and over the last 10 years my collection has gone up from 200 to roughly 1000. This year, I finally got adequate storage space to have it on display.





I do really worry that one day they'll stop making CDs. I hope they don't. It's too late in life for me to start collecting fucking vinyl now.

Tell me about your music collection.

[thugler]

I have quite a lot of CD's, but I can't be arsed to use them anymore, it's not convenient and doesn't feel worthwhile to display them either. I have a hifi and it's hooked up to my digital collection, which is way bigger than my cd/vinyl beyong anything my budget would allow. I've also been collecting vinyl for a while, not seriously, just picking stuff up when I come across things. That feels much nicer in terms of objects to display and look at, I regularly get rid of stuff i don't want or am sick of and get new records so the collection doesn't get too huge to store. It's also a nice way of remembering places I've been on record hunts. I wouldn't claim that Vinyl is technically superior, but it does usually sound different, either due to the limitations of the format or the original versions of albums being different to what was later put on the CD. I kind of feel the way you describe about my digital collection now that streaming services are becoming the norm, I was very obsessive for a good few years in tracking stuff down, but it's likely to all be available all the time to everyone eventually. I think I have the first few shitty quality mp3 files I downloaded back in the early days of napster and feel weirdly nostalgiac about them, and way back before then I used to tape stuff off the radio and make little mixes.

DVD's as well, god I have quite a few but I cannot imagine ever getting them out again.

[The Culture Bunker]

Up until beginning to work from home at the end of March, I was buying usually a couple of CDs a week, mostly used ones from Vinyl Exchange in Manchester. It was a good excuse to have a brisk walk on my lunch break, and they would cost a fiver at most, usually two or three quid, so it always felt a low risk thing to buy something on which I knew none of the tracks based on vague recollections of the artist name.

That's probably the one thing I miss about the old routine - I've not bought a CD in four months now. I did spend a fair whack of cash when I moved into my own flat getting purpose built shelves built on one side of my living room for all my CDs, DVDs, Playstation games, vinyl and books and I admit I do like how it all looks. I also spent a bit on a half decent stereo system from Richer Sounds - and given I am now working at home, I can happily get through listening to ten CDs a day.

[Egyptian Feast]

I have a few hundred LPs, a couple of hundred tapes and honestly fuck knows how many CDs. The records sit in the living room and the CDs are in towers and piles above towers all over the flat. Here's the 'recent(ish) purchases' CD shelf and the LPs. Excuse the mess.



My very first LP (other than my brother's discard pile) was either a disc of Wally Whyton doing nursery rhymes or Leo Sayer's Endless Flight (purely for the cover - he looked like an absolute wally, so 5 year old me could relate) from a department store in Strabane circa 1983. Not sure what happened to them, possibly smashed to smithereens like Saturday Night Fever. I recall liking one of the Leo Sayer songs because I thought it was about licking your own tears, but fuck knows where I got that from. I was an odd kid.

The first album I got for Christmas was The Hits Album ('Ghostbusters' was the first current single I remember going mad for). I'm happy to say I still have that somewhere. My first tape was Now That's What I Call Music Vol 4; the second track on the first tape, 'Electric Dreams', was the song that made me truly fall in love with music. My first single might have been 'All Night Holiday' by Russ Abbot (for the cover) or 'Thank You Very Much Mr Eastwood' by Dermot Morgan. Whichever came out first. Both crap, but they were on the telly. I had the dubious pleasure of being bollocked, then fulsomely praised in the same phone conversation by the actual Barney Eastwood years later. When he told me I was "fucking good" for successfully advising him how to fix his FOBT, I did say "thank you very much, Mr Eastwood" but he didn't bite.



The first album I read about in the music press and bought with my pocket money was The Stone Roses. Smash Hits had described them as the best weirdo band since The Jesus And Mary Chain, whoever they were. The song that got me into them was 'One Love', a few weeks previously. Not one of their most beloved songs, but it was my entry point into 'cooler' music, so I'll always have a soft spot for it.

My first CD was Rage Against The Machine (after seeing them on The Word) and from that point on I started collecting albums properly. CDs were fucking expensive, so I'd still get the odd record or tape if they were cheap enough. Most of my burgeoning CD collection got nicked when I went to college, but luckily they didn't nick my Ween or Liz Phair CDs (and only one Zappa), so I wasn't too heartbroken.

When I moved to London and discovered charity shops and the deeply missed Sellanby in South Harrow, my vinyl collection began to swell dramatically, but CDs were my main format until the last few years. I still pick and choose between vinyl or CDs for new purchases on a case by case basis though. I too hope they don't stop making CDs, they're a fucking bargain these days. Those five albums boxsets you get for a tenner - if CDs had been cheaper and sets like those available, I would've taken a punt on, say, Scott Walker or Dr. John (recent 'discoveries') much sooner.

The last CD I bought was The Very Best Of Sweet (inspired by the Chart Music podcast) and the last record was Bish Bosch by Scott Walker, which hasn't arrived yet, but will be the soundtrack to tomorrow's scorcher. Suck on that, oppressively sunny day!

[magval]

Noticing a theme of no Sabbath albums after Sabotage in these photos lads.

Was there just some unwritten rule about this beamed into our minds from beyond time

[Egyptian Feast]

I've got Technical Ecstasy on tape! The Sabbath CDs are actually my partner's, so if I'm being honest, the only other Sabbath album I own is a fairly fucked copy of Vol 4. I love them, but I didn't really listen to any of the albums bar We Sold Our Souls... until I met her and discovered 'Children Of The Grave' was an actual song, not just 50 seconds of creepy noises.

My brother was a huge fan in the early 80s and had both the Dio albums plus Born Again and Seventh Star, but only Sabotage and We Sold Our Souls For Rock N'Roll to cover the Ozzy era, as the early albums weren't easy to find then. The cover of Born Again used to creep the fuck out of me when I'd go through his collection. He had a lot of albums that terrified me - The Scorpions' Blackout was another - and made me wonder what kind of evil sounds they contained. The worst was some NWOBHM compilation that had some poor fella getting his head crushed by speakers.

I'd love to go back in time and see his early 80s bedroom again in all its glory - every inch of the walls covered with horrible clippings from Sounds and Kerrang!, plus old jeans and strands of his hair (he got his hair cut short and took it home with him) pinned to the ceiling and a painted bird skull nailed to his left speaker. I have a false memory (it's got to be false, I've never found the image on the internet) of him having a pic of a manic Ozzy standing next to a dead elephant with blood all over his chops like he'd taken a chomp out of its neck. I hated Ozzy back then. Him, fork eyes from The Scorpions and The fucking Damned covered in pie. Horrible people.

[holyzombiejesus]

My (dusty) CD collection:

[The Mollusk]

I have quite a lot of CD's, but I can't be arsed to use them anymore, it's not convenient and doesn't feel worthwhile to display them either.

Give them to me :P

I too hope they don't stop making CDs, they're a fucking bargain these days.

Yeah that's a big part of the appeal to me, as well. There are two record exchanges run by the same group (one in Greenwich by Cutty Sark station, and one outside of Notting Hill Gate station), both of which have fantastic bargain basements. The Greenwich one is cheaper, and every CD in their basement is 50p. They're all completely disorganised but there's some serious bangers in there. The last great purchase I got there before lockdown was the full "Oscillons From The Anti-Sun" box by Stereolab, which is 3 CDs and one DVD and a load of stickers. For 50p!! I've also found some really great quirky stuff down there like "Black Up" by Shabazz Palaces with its lovely black fuzzy felt sleeve or the belting psych-hip hop album "Paul White and the Purple Brain".

I could spend hours in those places (and I often have, sat shuffling cross-legged along the basement floor, building a tall stack of purchases) spend about £20 and come out with a rucksack full of about 30 CDs. As I touched on before, I love buying stuff based on the titles or the cover art or if I've vaguely heard of the artist, and when the music s that cheap, the risk is entirely worth it. I'm sure this way of excitedly discovering music is mostly sentimental due to the fact that I have spent most of my life doing it, but nevertheless it's a thrill for me and I love it. One of life's great joys.

[BeardFaceMan]

The only way to hear new music before the internet really was to buy CDs so I had a lot. Got to the point where I had no space left on my wall to put CD racks so they were in piles on the floor, final count was around 3000 albums and 500 singles. Then I got a computer, ripped all my CDs to my hard drive, stored all the CDs in the attic and then sold them all on ebay. It took me a while to get used to the idea after so long buying CDs (didn't buy music a lot as a kid so I've never really cared about vinyl) but I'm fully digital now, I don't buy any CD's at all. I'd much rather go browsing around bandcamp than a second-hand music store nowadays. I still like collecting the music and hunting down the b-sides and all that, but I'm much more about collecting the music than collecting the bits of plastic they used to come on now.

[Puce Moment]

I sold all my vinyl to lazyhour of this parish, as well as a load of CDs. The rest I have donated to charity. I think of my music 'collection' only in terms of gigabytes.

[holyzombiejesus]

The only way to hear new music before the internet really was to buy CDs

???

[holyzombiejesus]

These photos make my room look like a shithole but it's not, honestly.









I've had to move some in to the spare room and some are in the living room too but I won't bother photographing those.

[BeardFaceMan]

???

I more meant non-mainstream music. You got tracks off CDs given away with magazines but if you wanted an album, you had to buy it or know someone who had it because you'd never hear the music on the radio or see the video on tv, unless it was some obscure genre show on at 2am on Wednesday or something (the likes of John Peel were the exception not the rule).

[holyzombiejesus]

I more meant non-mainstream music. You got tracks off CDs given away with magazines but if you wanted an album, you had to buy it or know someone who had it because you'd never hear the music on the radio or see the video on tv, unless it was some obscure genre show on at 2am on Wednesday or something (the likes of John Peel were the exception not the rule).

I meant that you could buy records. I know the majority of labels cut back on vinyl in favour of CDs but the vast majority of stuff I wanted could still be bought as a record.

[BeardFaceMan]

I meant that you could buy records. I know the majority of labels cut back on vinyl in favour of CDs but the vast majority of stuff I wanted could still be bought as a record.

Oh, I wouldn't know about that. Like I said, I didn't really start buying music until CDs came out, I didn't have much vinyl to speak of, I was just using "CDs" in that sentence in place of "albums", because I just think of albums as CDs because when I started buying them, it was all CDs. Even now I've gone digital, I still usually refer to albums as CDs rather than albums, just out of habit.

[Pauline Walnuts]

I've got far too many vinyl records. It's getting me down, all this 'stuff', And it's easier to just to go to Youtube to listen to something than it is to walk to the shelf and listen to it, in far higher sound quality, but who cares about that. Give me Convenience or give me death. They just sit there gaining in value.

Even worse, I can't stop buying the things.

I feel the sadz now.

[Egyptian Feast]

The last great purchase I got there before lockdown was the full "Oscillons From The Anti-Sun" box by Stereolab, which is 3 CDs and one DVD and a load of stickers. For 50p!!

Fucking hell, I thought it was a bargain when it came out (I picked it up in HMV for about £14), but that's just ridiculous. That must be about 1p a song.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I flac'd all my cd's so that part's easy.
https://pastebin.com/qrCewUvP

Records I am cataloguing as I am cleaning them, which has stopped at S but also omits new purchases.
https://www.discogs.com/user/gormo/collection

[Better Midlands]

There are two record exchanges run by the same group (one in Greenwich by Cutty Sark station, and one outside of Notting Hill Gate station), both of which have fantastic bargain basements.

I made a living for a few years early 00's flipping 50p dance 12"s out of these basements (and the now closed Camden branch) on eBay.

Salad days my friend.

[NattyDread 2]

Got a couple of thousand records or thereabouts. I had a massive cull of the collection before a move years ago. I used to live right next to half a dozen charity shops and not far from decent record shops in Edinburgh. I would've been bringing at least 2 or 3 records in every few days on average. Used to dj too so I would go mad with the disco 12"s. Now I'm in the sticks and online is pretty much the only option for vinyl other than the odd rare find (got an amazing jazz haul on skye a couple of years back - uk original Giant Steps and Coltrane Jazz!).

I really want to pare the collection back a fair bit. Get rid of some 'one trackers' and stuff I'm very unlikely to ever put on. I've completely run out of space. There are 3 rooms with records and they're spilling over onto the floor in every one. The prospect is really quite daunting though. I need to just start picking away at it and see how it goes, at least to get to the level where I'm not tripping over shit.

Could probably get by with fewer turntables too.

I'm thinking about knocking up a diy record cleaning machine. Anyone here done that?

[Johnboy]

about 550 LPs. 750 7"s. 150 12"s

about 800 CDs maybe more, gone crazy on them lately at the car boot and the chazzas, just can't resist the one euro price tag

I have to stop though because it's just going to be shit my kids will have to wade through so I can already see myself passing them on bit by bit over the years

add to this all the stuff I want to listen to that I've gathered on spotify and youtube and it's just head exploding

might just head for silence



 

[turnstyle]

I've got boxes and boxes of essentially 'indie' stuff from the 90's and 00's, CDs and vinyl. Mainly US stuff. There are huge sections of it I don't remember buying. Who the fuck are Franklin Mint, and why did I buy their album? Maybe because the packaging folds into a pyramid? No, exactly because of that. That's exactly the sort of gmmick I would fall for.

It's a monument to the disposal income that I had in my teens and 20s, but is probably now worth a quarter, if that, of what I paid for it. As a random grab bag, here's what I can see peering into the closest box - Man or Astroman 7-inch singles. A Mount Eerie LP. A CD by a band called Flossie and The Unicorns (me neither). More Sebadoh stuff than Lou Barlow has in his house. A 3-inch CD called '99 Great Lifts and Drops', which is, if I recall,  recordings of someone placing and lifting a stylus on a record? I think it was related to Elephant Six somehow.

Sometimes I flip through it for a pure hit of nostalgia, but I don't ever actually PLAY it. And yet I can't being myself to sell it.

[turnstyle]

My (dusty) CD collection:

The Galaxie 500 boxset!!! I have that, and I don't mean to dust-shame, but mine is marginally cleaner.