How Many CD's do you own?

Adrian,

I guess I've still got around five or Six thousand or so. The bulk of the collection was classical thanks to inheriting two very large collections including an almost complete collection of Deccas from mid '50s onwards and of EMIs from the same period onwards until the early '80s. There were plenty of duplicates too. For example, on a particular Decca SXL I would have every single issue throughout its life. If it was from the late '50s or early '60s then that could be 6 SXL issues, 3 SDD issues, a JB issue or two etc...

It was a great shame to have to whittle it down, especially as I pretty much gave away most of them. However, I did keep the best ones, the ones that I either loved or felt were special.

Apart from one, where a guy turned up on my doorstep out of the blue from Korea. He'd somehow heard I had a particular LP and was determined to buy it. I told him it wasn't for sale, that he had made a wasted trip. He insisted and just started to drop £50 notes on the table. While he chain-smoked throughout, I just sat and watched saying nothing. Gradually the £50 notes slowed right down. I just watched and said nothing until he ran out of £50 notes. There was a hefty stack of £50 notes lying there on the table and we just stared at each other in silence. I relented and let him have the LP (a very rare box set incidentally). He drove away happy in his hire car. What I hadn't let on was that I had two copies...

That particular LP paid for my first solicitors bill, so thank you mystery man from Korea.

Thanks Richard, great story.

Great story, Richard.

Oh man gotta start collecting boxsets great story, Richard.



Dean..

Currently have 657 CDs and 1,277 LPs plus a smattering of 45s that never get played. Some inherited from a relative spanning the early 60s.

Pete

50% of the number of CD's I had before the divorce...

Claude

quote:

Originally posted by Whizzkid:
Oh man gotta start collecting boxsets great story, Richard.



Dean..

Dean, I wouldn't bother. Only a small handful are worth much at all. The set in question was Mozart's Die Zauberflote with Karl Bohm, VPO etc.. on SXL 2215-7. It's one of the rarest, but this one even more so by being totally mint and all with pancake pressings. I have a couple that are perhaps worth a little more but they aren't for sale. One other that I did let go and really do miss was a Columbia/EMI SAX box set of Medea with Maria Callas. Thanks to the somewhat convoluted licensing arrangements at the time, this set was available both as a Mercury and as a Columbia, depending on country. The Mercury is rare but the Columbia SAX is rarer still. I still have the Mercury but only in Mono. It is a gaping hole in my Callas collection, but again, I had an offer I just couldn't refuse...

I'm back down to a 100. Every year, I top grade my CD collection, making sure I remain at a 100.
Some years are more brutal than others.

I do rip them into Flac before selling them.

I do rip them into Flac before selling them.

Is that either morally acceptable or even legal by the letter of the law?

Just asking.

ATB from George

quote:

Originally posted by George Johnson:
I do rip them into Flac before selling them.

Is that either morally acceptable or even legal by the letter of the law?

Just asking.

ATB from George

Neither.

Joe

Joe, totally agree about it being unacceptable and illegal, which is why I raised the issue.

Amazing that anyone would publicly admit to doing it, IMHO.

ATB from George

quote:

Originally posted by Richard Dane:

quote:

Originally posted by Whizzkid:
Oh man gotta start collecting boxsets great story, Richard.



Dean..

Dean, I wouldn't bother. Only a small handful are worth much at all. The set in question was Mozart's Die Zauberflote with Karl Bohm, VPO etc.. on SXL 2215-7. It's one of the rarest, but this one even more so by being totally mint and all with pancake pressings. I have a couple that are perhaps worth a little more but they aren't for sale. One other that I did let go and really do miss was a Columbia/EMI SAX box set of Medea with Maria Callas. Thanks to the somewhat convoluted licensing arrangements at the time, this set was available both as a Mercury and as a Columbia, depending on country. The Mercury is rare but the Columbia SAX is rarer still. I still have the Mercury but only in Mono. It is a gaping hole in my Callas collection, but again, I had an offer I just couldn't refuse...

I was joking Richard but I do take your point as sometimes I do look at things for investment purposes. Really I want to keep my collection lean and mean so really pinpointing the exceptional artists in each genre I enjoy is key to that for me.



Dean..

I have one really valuable [collector's item] CD - Klemperer with the Philharmonia in Berlioz' Fantastic Symphony, and on CD worth between £200 and £300 according to second hand selling price on Amazon etc! I got mine for £12!

Not for sale! I would have to delete it from iTunes if it went.

ATB from George

Morality and legality of ripping to flac before selling a CD:

Given that I get maybe a dollar for a CD that I've paid $15 for, I honestly don't see an issue with that. 90% of the time, I don't think I've even gone back and heard the music.

The morality here is a little different: I just don't want to horde that much plastic at home.

Here's another question for morality:
How moral is it to be using so much plastic in CDs? Can't recycle it, and it's going to be around pretty much forever in a landfill once we're gone. How moral is is to saddle generations to come with our excesses?

Do you drive a car?

One tank of fuel would cover a lifetime's worth of stored CDs.

Moral is moral, and legal is legal.

END OF STORY, INHO.

I used to earn quite proportion of my living from playing and teaching the orchestral bass, and I tend to take a dim view of those who would steal the efforts of musicians, who are mostly not well paid, to earn a reasonable wage.

ATB from George

quote:

Originally posted by George Johnson:

... I tend to take a dim view of those who would steal the efforts of musicians, who are mostly not well paid, to earn a reasonable wage.

ATB from George

Hi George

A praiseworthy point of view.

How do you feel about the fact that most of the CD sales goes to the record company and that a musician only gets a very small portion, often only after years of successful sales (if at all) due to severe recoup contracts which allow the record company to spend as much as it likes and to recoup it all without the artist having anything to say about it.

Do you see any morality in this?

-
aleg

Dear Aleg,

The recording industry is not clean for sure. But that does not justify another sort of nastiness in my view.

There may be murderers, but that does excuse those who merely go in for Grievous Bodily Harm.

Musicians who record generally get a one off session payment [not the stars obviously], and after a long while may eventually start to get something back from royalty payments. But if people pinch the sales point commodity, then the basic recordings will decrease, and that means bread and butter musicians get fewer opportunities to earn their daily bread. And people are so glib about it. I am afraid it is a bit of a bugbear with me, when people shamelessly admit to it, though no law will stop the immoral practices, but sometimes it may help reduce them.

ATB from George

Sorry if this is at a tangent to the main discussion.

As a collector of bootlegs there is an interesting morality in bootleg collecting community.

The community as a whole is very against people copying legally albums, and also against people making money from bootlegs. They are generally very pro the artists releasing archive performance themselves.

I did a poll on the Dime Yahoo group a few years ago as to how collecting bootlegs had affected people's buying of commercially available albums.

"Question

Has trading/torrenting changed your buying of commercially available CDs? Please answer honestly, and not what you think people would like to see here. Please choose one of the following five options.

Responses

It has greatly increased my buying of music by exposing me to more music. 21%

I buy a little more. 29%

Has made no difference. 34%

I buy a little less as I now listen the live shows more. 9%

I buy a great deal less, since I can get torrents for free instead. 4%"

178 respondents - not the biggest poll, but still enough to be interesting. Certainly not what the BPI would have you believe.

I must say that I am surprised by the attitude of many people who think nothing of copying official releases, and one who told me off for collecting bootlegs after being given a ripped copy of a new album from a workmate. I didn't even bother to reply to them.

If at all possible I do buy releases directly from the artist, or from small specialist shops. I do give in to Amazon though.

For a different perspective, following the demise of the sharing group 'Oink', Nine Inch Nails designer posted an excellent article on his blog about the music, music lovers and the music industry. I have posted this link before, but it is worth looking at if you haven't seen it. Quite a long read, so get a cup of coffee o ea before you start.
http://www.demonbaby.com/blog/...f-oink-birth-of.html

Also a thread on the Distributed Audio section of this forum on the subject of music theft.
https://forums.naimaudio.com/ev...2903417/m/2442900737

Dear James,

If the artists concerned approve the sharing of "off-piste" bootleg recordings, then no possible harm can come of it. I even have some private concert recordings, which I have given copies to a small number of friends. In reality I asked them not to distribute them further, but the risk was minimal in any case!

And if the distribution of bootleg recordings brings about the increased sales of the official versions, then this is fine. It is certainly not something I could find morally difficult, and is probably perfectly legal. After all if any of us gives away something we made, then we would hardly be upset if it is given away again, and if, as the original creators, this means that our commercial offering become in greater demand, then there can be no moral issue with it.

But if a crafted and finished production is stolen without permission, then I suspect that few would fail to see the difference ...

ATB from George

George, I am total agreement with you, and I am saddened that so many people see no problem with stealing music that is easily, and frankly cheaply available (compared with fifteen years ago).

It is a pity that the music industry, BPI, RIAA, etc, have lumped such live recordings in with piracy, and to a point it seems where some people think that stealing an artists earnings is more acceptable than listening to something that the artist has performed in order to promote those products.

All the best.
Jamie

Ok. I'll just go ahead and delete the stuff I have. Moral delimma resolved.

Since I'm a software developer, I do expect you to go buy licenses of any software you have on your computer though.

quote:

Originally posted by George Johnson:
Dear Aleg,

The recording industry is not clean for sure. But that does not justify another sort of nastiness in my view.

There may be murderers, but that does excuse those who merely go in for Grievous Bodily Harm.

Musicians who record generally get a one off session payment [not the stars obviously], and after a long while may eventually start to get something back from royalty payments. But if people pinch the sales point commodity, then the basic recordings will decrease, and that means bread and butter musicians get fewer opportunities to earn their daily bread. And people are so glib about it. I am afraid it is a bit of a bugbear with me, when people shamelessly admit to it, though no law will stop the immoral practices, but sometimes it may help reduce them.

ATB from George

George

I don't condone the practice of piracy, but I do think the industry has lot to blame on themselves. Personally I do resent the argument that artists are robbed of their income, because, as far I understand it, they hardly get a decent income from CD sales as it is and it is the industry (often quite well paid) who benefits most and is hit the hardest by the piracy.

IMHO the argument of artists being robbed of income is only used to play on the sentiment of people to gain support, which to me reeks of demagoguery (to which I'm extremely allergic and has unpleasant historic associations for me).

-
aleg

I do have another question though. Maybe George can help me in a way that's morally non-reprehensible.

I just don't want that many CDs at home. I still like to buy CDs because you still can't buy stuff 'lossless' files for a vast majority of music.

Now that I've ripped the CD, how do I get rid of it without destroying it? I hate to see the CD go to waste?

I can't really donate the CD or give away the CD either, can I? That'll rob the industry of their chance to make a profit again...

I'm really not being sarcastic. Honest question.

Not sure what it is that keeps you from having more than 100, but why don't you get rid of the plastic casing and store them in wallets that take up far less real estate.