for other people who have 80-90% of your music solely on your computer, can we go through life without losing it all at least once?

i guess this is more of a tech question but w/e

holy shit at you only owning 15-20 cds

dude for ppl my age it's totally not at all out of the ordinary

I haven't bought music in a physical format for at least a year, except as presents for my parents.

o_O

10-20 years down the line it will be the celestial infinite jukebox. You won't "own" any music anymore.

I hope.

fetch me a dream, puppy goo-goo

I get freaked out about this all the time, too. I guess you just keep backing your collection up.

I have an exact opposite fear - that one day CD players will become extanct and I have to convert my 500 CDs to my computer and listen to them as files.

i dont get this 'problem' - I haven't even looked at my hard drive from college in over two years, when i was living at home for a year after college my family's hard drive was packed full of songs i havent listened to in one year ... and now I have an entirely full hard drive on my laptop.

How many of those songs did you pay for J0rdan? When music is devalued as much as it is (in terms of $$$) its kinda hard to get all :'( about it disappearing

unlike the dinosaurs, i think we'll have some advance warning on that, rather than all cd players seasing to function overnight.

xpost

How many of those songs did you pay for J0rdan? When music is devalued as much as it is (in terms of $$$) its kinda hard to get all :'( about it disappearing

well, probably at least 90% of the music on my computer I paid for and/or own on CD, but I'd still be pretty freaked out if my computer crashed, if only because it would take a billion hours to rip all that music again and organize it the way it was.

summer 2006 my hard drive crashed and i lost all of my music (20-30 GB). i was in LA, and my CDs were on the other side of the country. it was a major bummer in terms of the time it took me to torrent everything, but in the end i probably only redownloaded 40-50% of what had originally been on there, since i rarely listened to half of it. now i have like 80 GB and 12k songs, of which ive listened to most at least once. i back up way more religiously now and it would suck if i lost all of it, but its not like having all your records stolen (especially w/ the advent of rapidshare and music blogs). i dont think ive bought a CD since then, actually.

but my living situation isnt conducive to having a huge physical music library, nor do i have a good enough sound system to really warrant it.

dumb thing is i probably spend more time backing up the music i listen to least because i need to make room on main PC for more stuff i actually like.

well, probably at least 90% of the music on my computer I paid for and/or own on CD, but I'd still be pretty freaked out if my computer crashed, if only because it would take a billion hours to rip all that music again and organize it the way it was.

-- Alex in Baltimore, Thursday, February 14, 2008 11:46 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

it would definitely be a pain in the ass, don't get me wrong

Ive lost all my music -- which was usually somewhere around 80 or 90 gigs at the time of the computer crash -- probably five or six times. It sucks a lot.

i buy music now for 4 reasons now:

1. to support the artist (recently: clipse, freeway, animal collective, lcd)
2. bcuz it's old and i can't find it on the net (first 2 cymande albums, some older cash money stuff)
3. no one cares about the band enough to torrent their stuff right when it comes out (recently: clockcleaner, gowns)
4. i have an itunes gift card (happens like 3-4 times a year)

so maybe 10-20% of my music is paid for?

so i guess my concern is over convenience, but even if that makes me sound like a dick i can't help but worry about it anyway. i would be pretty distraught if i lost like 30 gigs of music or whatever it is i don't own on cd

i was distraught for a minute but between torrenting and rapidshare it only takes like a month or two to get back most of the stuff you want

plus if you got boys you can just grab their music

i think we're the same age

this is why i (still) buy albums. plus I like to own shit.. but in case my HD crashes and my iPod dies I still have my music.

15 - 20 cds is prettty pathetic dude lol

im still in a mp3s-sound-shit kinda place.

LOLLLLL

i think there are a lot of people (read: "the real world") who think that having 500+ CDs is "pretty pathetic"

that is pretty pathetic

So...what number of CD's isn't pathetic?

143?

yeah i mean, and for most people my age we grew up like

14-15: spend disposable income on music or going out w/ friends OR download shit for free off kazaa/limewire
16-17: spend disposable income on music or going out w/ friends OR download shit for free off torrents

and by now i'm already so used to that that the idea of buying 80-90% of my music sounds literally insane to me

yeah that is kind of true i used to buy a lot more cds than i do now

last year I only bought around 20 or so

Sounds literally sane whatever age you are - these days, I mean (xp)

but Ive started buying used records which are dirt cheap so i'm still buying lots of music

though as ive gotten older my guilt has crept up on me and i buy more stuff now than i used to

i think there are a lot of people (read: "the real world") who think that having 500+ CDs is "pretty pathetic"

-- max, Thursday, February 14, 2008 6:14 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

too many or too few!!??

re disposable income blah-di-blah -- it depends how much you listen to your 80GB of music, really! if the object is to hear everything once, i can see why owning mp3s >>>>> buying.

i think there are a lot of people (read: "the real world") who think that having 500+ CDs is "pretty pathetic"

ppl have always thought this from the dawn of radio

i don't think they had cds in the 1920s, dan.

but i take yr point.

"How many wax cylinders you got?"
"15"
"That's pathetic, dude"

losing yr music collection: somewhat bummerz

losing yr ableton warp makers: MEGA BUMMERZ :( :( :(

sorry i just am loling at the idea that a dude with 15-20 CDs is "pathetic" (when most of the country owns not even that many)

that is not true

i know tons of people who aren't really "music" people but have tons of cds - for the car or whatever

people do actually buy cds in the real world

and they physically bought them new?

i mean i know plenty of ppl with ass loads of burned cds and shit

yeah.

and then there's that yeah

sorry i just am loling at the idea that a dude with 15-20 CDs is "pathetic" (when most of the country owns not even that many)

-- max, Thursday, February 14, 2008 6:28 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

i call BS! except for oldsters who haven't converted, but shit even my parents have more than this.

for other people who have 80-90% of your music solely on your computer, can we go through life without losing it all at least once?

I'm terrified of this, so I still stick with CDs for the time being.

Even if I download an album I like, I burn it to a CD and shelve it.

like my main criteria for an external is "if my apt is on fire can i unplug & grab this on my way out the door"

my main criteria for NOT getting an external is "if someone breaks into my apt can they unplug & grab this their way out the door"

ya i'd def like password protection on any drive i got. i can't imagine it'd be that diff to implement.

my external is quite handy. i actually need to get it back from a friend who stole it two weeks ago to rape my collection.

and yeah, i really don't know anyone who buys CDs. records, yes. CDs, no. most of my friends are b/w 18 and 26.

at the moment, i have these CDs with me:
- the entirety of the belle & sebastian catalog up to 'dear catastrophe waitress'
- three NNCK CD-Rs, two of which are pretty much impossible to find outside of $30 and ebay
- the uk/worldwide version of 'feels,' which has a live bonus disc with two tracks that my friend recorded at a show i was at (still one of the best live shows i've ever witnessed)
- Rey Nols/No Rey Nols, which i have taken from the radio station (whilst slipping CDR copies into the vaults, mind you)
- Seal's greatest hits
- Everybody on Dance Floor volume 5, a 2007 collection of indian poppy progressive house i got as a present from my bf
- something by Nautical Almanac
- the best of New Order

so basically, i have just as few CDs as jordan in my immediate proximity. haven't had or wanted a CD player in three or four years. however, i do have all my other CDs stored in my parents house (about 600 of them) and another 100 or so hardcore/grind CDs in a box in a dank basement in oberlin.

that said, i have about...450 or so records at my disposal, and a mixer, and decent decks. so who the fuck needs CDs?

I've been getting by just fine on a 100 gig external and a 30 gig iPod, but I guess I don't listen to that much music these days.

i do have all my other CDs stored in my parents house (about 600 of them)

yeah, see, this was me until my folks moved. right before i was going to move into a new place, they came to town and dumped boxes of hundreds of shitty high school cds on me. :/

my main criteria for NOT getting an external is "if someone breaks into my apt can they unplug & grab this their way out the door"

-- Whiney G. Weingarten, Thursday, February 14, 2008 5:46 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

no one wants your shitty mp3s whiney

yeah my external is actually bootleg dvd of hottie or nottie so i'm not sweating anyone making off with it

Tape backup drive, if yr serious

It's a grand for a good one, but if you have a FUCK of a lot of music files, it's surely worth it.

500 gig external harddrives are worth like $200, why wouldn't someone walk off with that?

nobody's gonna check password protection before they jack your HD, hoos. and they'll just throw it out when they realize it's bricked.

Sure, but it's not the value I'm concerned about, it's the contents.

I can get a new external. I'm much more worried about losing my .pdfs of tax docs.

do you have like nuclear secrets on your external dude?

nope, porn

right but if someone jacked it and realized it was pword protected they're not gonna swing by your house the next day and drop it off

lol nah dude i'm saying i don't want a dude w/access to that shit. i've also got hard copies + my actual comp too.

Yeah, you don't want baddies getting into your tax data.

a thief stole my car stereo with kind of blue in it. i hope they didnt throw it away

Is it really so ridic that I don't want some asshole accessing important information about my identity?

No, not at all. Ignore them dumbasses.

information wants to be FREE dude.

January 2006 - http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/soulseeking/ipop-is-dead.htm

From an archival POV (speaking as a sort-of-ex-librarian) JUST having digital files in a lossy format and not backed-up (or even backed-up just once in the same format on an external) is mental.

My external hard drive is for backing up documents, photos, and software in case, as happened the other week, an internal hard disk on one of our computers dies. Also for carrying hooky films from work to home in my pocket. I have one of those Lacie Rugged things.

I point people towards this article, linked in my own above; http://www2.le.ac.uk/ebulletin/news/press-releases/2000-2009/2006/01/nparticle-wxc-b9c-7hd

give your cds/records half the abuse you give an external drive (ie, in use 24/7, dropped, thrown in a bag with no case) then youve got yourself a very lossy format (even in the case) as most of the cds i used to carry about pre ipod days will testify . ive a backup drive but i usually burn off a dvd with any new stuff on it every couple of months and then have a wallet i keep at home full of useful stuff for laptop deaths.

10-20 years down the line it will be the celestial infinite jukebox. You won't "own" any music anymore.

(cue ILM vernacular) ^^^this

when it comes to stuff i have on the comp i find its more the information wrt artists and songs that is more important than the music itself. i wouldn't mind losing the music, but i would mind losing the ability to scan thrrough my collection to help me remember all the great times we had together.

See, that seems mental to me - my pleasure comes in the point of contact, in the listening. If I'm not listening to it right now it might as well be dead to me. Names do nothing. Only actual music.

That... sounds kinda crazy to me. What about replaying music in your head? What if you're stuck somewhere with means of listening to anything?

Oh I might hum stuff or have it run through my head, aye, as a reflex action, absentmindedly. I'm not a robot! But to say you wouldn't mind losing the music as long as you kept thew list seems crazy. It's (almost) all about the listening, and always has been, for me.

Is there a better way to counter the MP3-hoarding generation than linking to an article that posits, "downloading music has dulled music appreciation"?

semi-xpost

i'm not denying that the most important thing is the listening, just that going through my collection (physical or virtual) is something i'm gonna miss when we get to the point of wirelessly streaming whatever music we want to our turntable emulator decks.

like often when i'm looking for a record i'll come across another record that exites me more. this doesn't happen so often when searching through amazon. i also hate the idea of music being tagged so reccomendations can be given to you, like today i was gonna listen to stimming funkworm on the computer and thought fuck it, im gonna listen to stockhausen stimmung instead.

i have around 40 GB of music on my computer that's backed up on an ext HD, and i also have a huge wall o' CDs numbering around 450 after selling off a couple hundred, 99% of which i never listen to. it's basically a large, heavy, cumbersome wall decoration. i can't bear to part with them.

Slice the spine off the inlays and make them into a large, less heavy and less cumbersome wall decoration.

heh, that would be kind of cool. an homage to a bygone era. this is how we used to listen to music, kids!

hoos got naked pics on his hard drive

i have!

oh.

I (clearly) have no problem with keeping huge, cumbersome wall decorations, but as it gets easier and easier to hear records you like as you get older (Rhapsody, downloading, promos), you should definitely sell off the things you don't listen to.

I (clearly) have no problem with keeping huge, cumbersome wall decorations, but as it gets easier and easier to hear records you like as you get older (Rhapsody, downloading, promos), you should definitely sell off the things you don't listen to.

-- Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, February 15, 2008 10:43 AM (39 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

i buy more records now than ever before

I've been having fun with Amoeba's clearance section over the past year -- lots of great discs at a buck each, which tells you all you need to know about music's relative value. But I'll probably start putting that by the wayside.

can i—or we—go through life without losing all of our music at least once?

Nope. If it doesn't happen to you (again), it'll happen to somebody (or somebodies) you know.

Say what you want about the space tangible music occupies, but the time intangible music steals from one—while one interminably steals and manages it—strikes me, as one learned writer might say, mental.

On balance, I'll take time over space.

i buy more records now than ever before

-- deej, Friday, February 15, 2008 11:46 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

Me too!

I really can't bear to sell off much of my CD collection. Aside from instances where I bought the wrong thing or the disc was scratched, I've really only sold a couple dozen CDs back (out of thousands bought and kept) ever, and even then that was because I was broke. Aside from a small number of promos I didn't ask for and listened to once for the hell of it, I feel the need to keep everything for my collection. With the tiny obscure indie stuff I feel like if I don't give it a home noone else will, and it's not worth 2 bucks just to put it in a used rack until the end of time. And with even the shittiest major label rap albums, I end up looking at the liner notes years later and going wow, I didn't know so-and-so produced or had a guest verse on this, I'm glad I kept it.

Looks like I have about 130 GB on a hard drive. It's not backed up, and for some reason I'm not too worried about it. To me, mp3s are easy come, easy go. I feel like if I lost it I could get back everything I cared about soon enough, and if it took a while, well, then I'd have some things to look forward to. It might force me to put on one of the many CDs or LPs I never spent enough time with. Still, it would be an inconvenience, I should probably buy a cheap hard drive and back it up.

Hard to imagine at the end of our lives that we'll be listening to mp3s. Music may be digital, but it might not migrate to future file formats.

whateva
it will be an interesting experiment
like when your house burns down

yeah i still haven't transferred all my mp3s from old laptop to new desktop, so if all the shit went down tonight (say while i was at work)i'd lose everything :( :(

OK guys I just buyed a "Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini." I had to do some extra work (hour and a half of cluelessness, frustration & "oh shit did I just brick it") to get it up & running with Ubuntu Linux, but it's happening for real now.

This thing is smaller than the moleskine notebook I carry everywhere, is virtually silent, and it's packing 250 gigs. Not mind-boggling, but more than enough to start with given that my whole mp3 collection (which, btw, is 1,300, not 13,000 lol typos) is about 26 gigs right now. I'm also about to start digitizing my vinyl, so this'll be a great start I think.

Worst case I run out of room and have to--horror of horrors--buy a bigger drive.