If you had to, could you reduce your music collection to 100 albums / CDs?

If physical space limitations in your home, or some kind of international hard disk crisis, or something or other, meant you could only have 100 albums, would you be able to choose that many? I've been very vaguely and aimlessly thinking about trying to do this. Pretty sure I never will, but I almost like to think I could.

In short: no.

Or, to put it another way, no fucking way.

I already have less than 100 albums. Most on vinyl. I have no CDs. I have thousands of mp3s but they're all one-offs pretty much.

I could reduce my music collection to 1 album/CD if I had to

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/God_Bless_Tiny_Tim.jpg

Not while I am still doing a radio show.

ive basically sold off all of my cd's in the past few years...close to 1000 gone. They were mainly taking up space in my basement and collecting dust. All my music is now in mp3 format.

if i had to, i could do anything

anything

Off the top of my head I'd say mmmmmaybe.... but when it came to the reality of deciding discs 101 thru 3000 (or whatever I own, I have no idea) not making the cut, I couldn't do it. There's a reason I'm a collector/archivist.

xpost

could you never listen to hip-hop ever again?

Nice one crut!

I dunno - I don't really own a whole lot of CDs and records any more as I gave them all away to more deserving homes. But theoretically if my hard drive crashed and all the non-pay download sites stopped working and I only had enough money to buy 100 new albums...

Well I'd be hacked off, but then I consider that when I had to back up my 300MB HD to a 500MB, I shoved everything I had into a folder and started filling up the free 200MB. I am much more likely to go int he folder of "new" music than the old one.

Could I have 50 favorites then slowly buy another 50 new ones aa they come out?

It would be much easier just to get rid of the lot and start again than to try and decide on a hundred to keep. Do you keep stuff that you have a sentimental attachment/ association with? even if they are easily replaceable? or do you keep the ones you might otherwise have no other way of hearing? It's not at all the same question as just asking you to pick the 100 favourite records you own.

If I could discard all the music I own including mp3 files, but own vinyl AND CD copies of 100 albums of my choice, for free, I'd do it in a fucking shot.

It would be much easier just to get rid of the lot and start again than to try and decide on a hundred to keep.

^^

I could technically do it, sure, but it'd be a huge pain in the ass and not something I'd enjoy. Maybe add another "0" and then we're talking...

there's a kind of catch-22 where the more the album is important to you, and therefore collection-worthy, the more you've internalized every aspect of it to the point where the physical object is unnecessary.

Like you guys could probably draw from memory the album covers of everything you'd want to keep in the collection, right?

They'd be pretty poor drawings.

ha! let's see em! at least the track listings would be spot on, yes?

i will never understand why people torture themselves with questions like this; it seems like debating whether you'd rather go deaf than blind

I think it's because the vast majority of us collect more music than we could ever listen to in a lifetime, and sometimes wonder how much of it is really necessary. Like, I can't remember the last time I played ELP (or prog of any sort) yet there it sits on my shelf. Do I need ALL the Sparks records, even the not-so-good ones?

I guess I better chuck this album based on how poorly i remember it.
http://canvaspaint.org/55b3.png

this thread:

http://media.nbcphiladelphia.com/images/397*298/PHI+hurst+license+640+x+480.jpg

+

http://www.big-t-shirts.com/ProdImages/big/792.jpg

fuck no, I'd have to get rid of 95% of my music

no, never. 1000 maybe.

^^^^^ this

also,

I think it's because the vast majority of us collect more music than we could ever listen to in a lifetime, and sometimes wonder how much of it is really necessary.

the point is not that you could listen to everything, the point is that at any given moment you could listen to almost anything. it's about variety of choice.

i've bought about 80 albums in the last 2 months and some of em I haven't listenedto more than once or twice but as a result i haven't burnt out on a single one either!

Yeah, Rhapsody + downloads + like 20 CDs that I can't find anywhere else does the trick. I'm planning to do an almost total CD purge as soon as I find time to get organized.

Dan: I need all of your Sparks records.

i've bought about 80 albums in the last 2 months and some of em I haven't listenedto more than once or twice but as a result i haven't burnt out on a single one either!

^^

I'd definitely want to keep the ones I'm namechecked in, but who wouldn't?

mick wall kept his copy of use your illusion II for that very reason.

Hahah

I think it would be pretty easy, actually. But to have only a hundred for the rest of my listening life? That would be tough.

I mean, I presume I'd have to lose one whenever I got something new, so my collection would eventually just turn into a lot of mediocre records with maybe one great song.

XP Ned list plz :)

Have you guys never heard of singles, jeez! There are very very very few albums worth having the whole thing of. imo.

Gerald and Philip, you know about this legendary thread, right?

Album covers redrawn from memory in MS Paint

That whole thread needs a London-based exhibition.

Along with : Oh, what was that one with the albums given over to corporate sponsorship/adlogos?

Thia one. Photoshop/MS Paint Nike and other evil corporations ruining famous album covers

Yes.

It is a thing of great beauty.

I probably wouldn't bother with albums very much, would focus on as broad a range of individual tracks as possible. I imagine the hard drive crisis would give me space for about 1300?

i would eat them if i had to

Have you guys never heard of singles, jeez! There are very very very few albums worth having the whole thing of. imo.

― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, September 29, 2010 6:40 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yea, if the only thing you listen to is pop (which I don't). and that's not even true of pop, either, there are plenty of pop albums worth owning the entire things of.

to clarify the above, that is to mean I don't just listen to pop (most of my collection is metal)

re: the mspaint threads -- with all the broken image links it is like looking at the remains of a once great civilization!

also, am I misunderstanding the premise in that you're allowed to listen to the albums you previously owned; they just won't be on your shelves?

i don't own that much music and am used to selling stuff i don't wanna part with, so i could probably strip my record collection down to 100 all-time indispensable LPs if i had to. i wouldn't want to, but i could do it. 300-500 would be a lot easier, though.

No

dangit the first Geirpost (tm) I can't refute, mostly cuz it's only one word

The question doesn't fit the way I listen to music. In terms of real albums or CDs, I could probably make do with 25--that's about how many I'd want to have around in case I felt the need to listen to them in their entirety (e.g., Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere). But in terms of songs, the number's considerably larger. 100 CD-700s of my favorites would cover it; that'd be about 2500 songs, and I keep about 2000 on my hard drive.

is ownership that vital if you can stream it whenever you like (particularly for digitized songs)?

We should do this: Individual threads, counting down from 100.