Music Hoarding: fear of an incomplete collection?

Of course this won't bother me (at least for a few months) once I can afford a new hard drive because i'll be able to resume downloading faster than i can listen, probably. If you could access any song/recording ever created at any time from anywhere, wouldn't you stop bothering with mp3s? I'm not sure I would. It would matter whether or not I owned/controlled this hypothetical mammoth database, I think. Bizarre. I am a hopeless music packrat/theif/BRINGER OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REVOLUTION.

new music to "find new experience" -- initially maybe teengage concept -- keep one step ahead of peers in "the latest" or "the more obscure" alternative music department -- i did not accept teenage pursuit of music as inherently fashion chasing -- belief that each bit of music is permanent and necessary addition that must nevertheless be owned to be experienced properly

teenage and later the belief continued that this was addition to collection as library (as knowledge) -- it still had to be owned to be experienced properly

continued mistaken belief that alternative meant "exclusive or" rather than as additive or inclusively complimentary (another potentially ambiguous word)

the xor thing meant that music collection was assumed to be xor alternative to trad. consumer commodity music and so had to be owned to be enjoyed since no one else had what i had, plus obscurity grail or shared secret society of aesthetes or intellectual/critical and moral highground assumptions (note: use of "inclusive or" here represents more hopefully sensible current thinking)

simple processing of music once owned meant the realisation that i did not need to own particular music came after i was sick of particular music, begging question that i was often actually buying a slice of time with that music that i would get bored with eventually

yet hung onto music because (a)useful for a radio show or (b)might like it eventually even if sick of it from general dislike/distaste of it or (c)might understand it eventually despite initial feeling of not understanding it or maybe feeling of not comprehension (hoping nifty extra clever stuff / hidden links might be revealed after more exposure, though when i make time for this i'm not sure)

above (a)->(c) are current excuses to keep on with seeking out "new music"

craving for "new buzz" from music is the real thing, basically an addiction based on past thrills when maybe younger and less musically experienced -- am kidding myself -- the more my musical knowledge expands the more quickly bored i become with "new music" -- current craving then manifest as pursuing "difficult", maybe even "inscrutable" music in ever-decreasing odds position of craving "musical buzz"

so i'm addicted to the "musical buzz", a sensation inherited from listening to pop music (but now this "adult" "rationalisation"), the mix of wonderment at newness and fresh musical understanding, a certain ideal mix of intrigue and familiarity that hits at a different time for each different piece of music, and a sensation for which i've continually modified listening/buying practises (or "tastes"), to continually justify the commodity/satisfaction (self satisfaction) inherent in the addiction

and i suppose impassioned participation/interest in ILM is another ancillary excuse to prop up this endless self-satisfying addiction

Over the course of a year, I'm now down to about 125 cd's and I still have about 500 records left (but they'll be gone soon). Do I really miss anything? Not really. I just mp3'ed anything I thought I'd want later, and I still don't listen to most of it.

This may not be the case for everybody, but just cleaning house on all my music made my life feel much more simple and I'm so glad I did it.

I think the closest I get to completion is Joy Div, where all that I haven't got is the Live at The Electric Circus track. In fact I actively avoid completing artists, there's something a bit cack about owning everything. Then of course, the crackpot completeists only go and change the definition of *everything* anyway by including live albums and bootlegs. Also I hardly ever get CD singles, so I don't get all the extra mixes an' ting. They're all cack anyway.

What I love is RECORDS. Or just individual tracks - maybe that's why I buy so many compilations these days - it sort of uncouples you from having to slot a record into the shelves next to *other stuff* by the same artist. Somehow this act itself feels wrong - which is why my indexing system is based on a series of bonkers rules and logic steps to avoid it.

I'd find myself always buying CD1/CD2 of every freaking single off the album and ending up with piles upon piles of CD singles I will never and would never listen to...

Recently my disposable income shrunk considerably and I had to force myself to reduce music consumption. Now, I only buy singles that don't appear on the album or only if by a band I really love. Even that's not great..

One day I just know I'm going to snap and sell the lot.. and some other crazy completist collector out there is going to wet his or her pants with delight......

Except for bands who didn't or don't release much or have handy collections of their stuff (Birthday Party, Antipop Consortium, Swans, My Bloody Valentine) and the rare band whose albums and singles are just cheap and easy to find (Techno Animal, Barbara Manning) I don't have anything close to complete collections of anybody and I can't imagine wanting to have all the works of any individual artists more than I want to hear some *new* and amazing sounding thing. That just the kind of hyperactive consumerist music slut I am.

Thankfully, my wife is most forgiving of my hobby, especially since I think she realizes I could find far worse ways of spending my time and our money. Like Internet porn. Or crack.

However, I do have occasional ph34rs that I will not eventually acquire everything out there that is "great" (let alone grebt). Especially since I don't know what I'm missing that qualifies.

But proto-record collector obsessive would be a rubbish hunter-gatherer. He'd spend all his time looking for limited edition sabre-toothed antelopes and shit and meanwhile the kids would be starving and the wife would be getting cross and end up having an affair with Barry in the next door cave who was happy just going to Our Price ie. hunting the common deer.

I've got female friends who are way worse then I am with their urges to collect everything Backstreet Boys and N-Sync have ever done so I don't buy the arguement myself.

I have a female friend with every Velvets recording, 27 (last I heard) bootlegs and I would think every book on them. That's far more completist than I ever get. I have almost everything by the Fall, but that's because I love almost everything they've done.

I am, nonetheless, a major hoarder. I know that I hardly listen to loads of my ~5000 albums, and I should perform a serious purge, but it'd be difficult - I'd feel obliged to listen to everything one last time to check that it should go, and this could take forever. I haven't sold off stuff for many years. I can hardly deny charges of anal retentiveness - I'm the man with all his music in a clever database!

I'm actually going to be moving at the end of the month, and this format is perfect for a move: you simply kick the crate back onto open-end-up config, and then haul out to the car/truck, whatever, CDs or vinyl and all. Milk crates had roughly the same properties earlier, but they warped somewhat when stacked open-end-front with several others on top of them, but with the advantage of proper handholds when you finally disassembled the wall and got them ready for moving, as well as a handy bottom lip that allowed them to lock together somewhat when stacked up. I only really got rid of them because they were warping somewhat and because the pine crates looked much, much nicer. (Even better, if you arrange things properly, you can set up the crates as your stereo stand, even.)

I realize that a lot of people prefer a slightly more anarchic record/cd collection (stacks here and there) but I've moved enough over the last decade to find this configuration preferable in so many ways.

Are you bringing a skip rather than a suitcase?

This is where international shipping, though potentially expensive, pays off. Partially this is so I can circumvent the customs limit upon my return.

Old thread, but an interesting read. It's funny how a lot of people reveal that they have large collections like it's an embarrassing secret, or at least worthy of self-deprecating jokes. Compare that to people with large libraries of books. They usually prominently display them in their homes as a source of pride. It's a mark of being well-rounded, educated, cultured, intellectual, etc. Move up to art collections and it adds even more layers of clues about one's attitudes towards class and wealth.

I love to read, but I generally only keep reference books (usually music related), and sell everything else once I've read it. I'm much less likely to re-read books, so there's not point in them taking up valuable space that could go to music!

Building a music collection has been such a rewarding experience, I really don't understand why almost everyone doesn't do it. I started slow from age 9-12, buying an occasional album with my meager allowance, and each new genre of music completely re-shaping my outlook of how much is out there. 13-17 was of course about obsessing over certain album and artists, and feeling them deeply, as teenagers do. It's also when I developed that hunger for more, a desire to hear everything I possibly can, but frustrated by my limitations of budget and access. I had to made do with taping shows from a college station, swapping records and tapes with friends, listening at the record store. And read about stuff in magazines and record guides that I might not hear until years later. 18-21 was a complete gluttonous era of hyper-absorption, having access to the music library of the college radio station, a school full of people who owned way more music than my high school friends, and a bigger city with literally dozens of great record stores (cheap used cassettes were my thing through my first year, then CDs). As I started the full time work grind, it was a delicate balancing act of trying not to spend too much on music, but enough to feed my addiction, and be lucky enough to be able to listen to music at nearly every job I've had in the past 20 years.

New albums don't hit me as profoundly as they did as a teenager. But having access to over 10,000 albums with a single remote at home and also backed up at work, makes up for that. By making new playlists or listening on random by year or genre, I'm constantly rediscovering stuff. It's like of a like a party every time I'm home, with music flowing through every room (no coctails every night, but there's at least one woman pretending to enjoy it).