Old farts that still keep their CDs

TTony

welshboyo said:

 I wonder if CD will see a similar resurgence soon?

Inevitable, IMHO.

As soon as record companies see the opportunities to reissue "original" recordings, and charge us £50 / CD.

No more of this re-mixed, re-produced box sets with all the demos, just give me the original as-it-was 90s standard recording for proper nostalgia ... 

TheBigDipper

I still have my source CDs. I decant them into plastic wallets so they take up less space and they're in a cupboard. They're also on a NAS that gets streamed everywhere. Even if I downloaded the CD from Bandcamp I'll still burn a CD copy.  My wife likes playing CDs in rooms with a CD player, so she digs them out and puts them on. I prefer to stream from the NAS where possible because I'm lazy. I don't subscribe to commercial streaming services. 

ICBM

I still buy CDs, I have about two thousand or so. I keep them on an old bookcase which by pure luck has shelves exactly the right height for two rows and two banks of 110 jewel cases - ie four lines per shelf - so I can get about 1,760 on that, plus a couple of towers where I mostly put the stuff MrsICBM likes so we can get at it easily.

I do have to periodically cull some of the collection or it would get out of hand - but to be honest, there’s only so much music that’s actually worth owning, there just isn’t time to listen to it all. That which is worth owning, is worth owning on CD, exactly because they are almost indestructible but the content can be easily and perfectly transferred to other formats.

(Yes, I know the stupidity of the current law says even that’s illegal, but I don’t agree morally, if I’ve paid for the CD.)

I’m not a fan of jewel cases - they’re fragile and unnecessarily bulky - but they do at least have the advantage that the two rows of them on each shelf stack without the top row trying to slip between the lower ones. I did look at getting those wallets for them, but it’s prohibitively expensive for that many.

boogieman

If I had mine stored in wallets I doubt I’d play them as much. Part of the fun for me is scanning along a line of covers and picking something out, rather than hunting through a wallet. Same goes for vinyl. 

equalsql

Do any of you folks catalogue your CDs? I've got hundreds too and really need to review them all. 

boogieman

Mine aren’t catalogued but I do have them sorted alphabetically so at least I know where to start looking. 

My wife once, ahem, “helped” to sort them out when I’d redecorated the room. She’d put all the bands starting with “The” under T, which I suppose is theoretically correct but errr, yeah not quite how I’d have done it. Then she’d also done things like putting King Crimson under C and Stevie Ray Vaughan next to Hendrix, apparently because “he plays Jimi Hendrix songs doesn’t he?” Oh kaaaaaaay. 

ICBM

equalsql said:

Do any of you folks catalogue your CDs? I've got hundreds too and really need to review them all. 

Yes, which I carry on my phone, because it's the only reliable way to avoid buying the same ones twice in charity shops . Or three times once, which was the final straw that made me sit and catalogue the whole lot, which took a weekend...

I do also have mine sorted alphabetically, because otherwise it would be impossible to quickly find them - especially the ones that are on the back rows of my bookshelves.

guitars4you

Crazy - But I still have all my old vinyl - Maybe 100 albums, so not a huge selection - But have not had a record player for over 20 years 

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

equalsql said:

Do any of you folks catalogue your CDs? I've got hundreds too and really need to review them all. 

Yes, which I carry on my phone, because it's the only reliable way to avoid buying the same ones twice in charity shops . Or three times once, which was the final straw that made me sit and catalogue the whole lot, which took a weekend...

I do also have mine sorted alphabetically, because otherwise it would be impossible to quickly find them - especially the ones that are on the back rows of my bookshelves.

Admirable, but I think both those things would be too big a task for me.  I did do the alphabetical sorting once, when I built some shelves for my then-collection, but it's vastly grown since then.

I don't think I've ever bought the same CD twice - apart from remasters, deluxe editions etc - but I do occasionally stumble on a CD in my house and think "I have no recollection of ever buying that".  It's quite a pleasant surprise sometimes, when I think I've missed out on a now-deleted limited edition then realise I'd actually bought it at the time.

Sesh

Yes, I still buy cds, and am very happy to receive them as gifts, even though my wife gives the apologetically saying things like "sorry it's boring cds again." but I have a couple of wishlists on amazon, with only one visible of ones I want most at the moment. The other list has a hundred or so others to get one day.
I have about 500 cds now. I went through them once to play every one. I had a slight suspicion that some had never been played fully. 
I have a spreadsheet. One tab is the ones I have, which details whether they have been listened to fully, ripped, and a few other notes. Another tab has the ones I want. Yes, I am that sad.
I store my cds in boxes of 20 - 30 or so in my wardrobe*. They are in a-z by artist, then chronological. The boxes I have are not ideal as the cds do not fit perfectly. There's gaps, it annoys me. Never mind.

*my double wardrobe contains ~500 cds, 6 guitars, 100 decades old total guitar magazines and tan books. It's a good thing I don't have much clothes.

Do I listen to cds regularly? Of course not, I don't have time, but one day... 

darthed1981

TTony said:

welshboyo said:

 I wonder if CD will see a similar resurgence soon?

Inevitable, IMHO.

They are seeing a very slight resurgence - but as a primary way of consuming music?  Naah, apart from anything else jewel cases remain too horrible.

The vinyl resurgence may well have peaked.  Recordstore Day has become a bit of a joke, designed to publicise local record shops it's now instead the one time anyone patronises them, and major label gouging has shoved new prices towards the skies (£40 for a double album?!?!).

Ultimately, it's something of an irony that streaming music is one of the world's great bargains for the consumer - and people run away from it (including me...).

Supportact

Yes I've still got cds and records. Not as many as some people here though. I keep them on shelves in the living room. I like the physical copies because they remind me what I like. If I open Spotify my mind goes blank and I can't even think of any bands. Probably a worry, that. 

darthed1981

Supportact said:

If I open Spotify my mind goes blank and I can't even think of any bands. Probably a worry, that. 

"The what?  Sod off, who'd name their band after bugs - they didn't even spell it right..."

Philly_Q

TTony said:

welshboyo said:

 I wonder if CD will see a similar resurgence soon?

Inevitable, IMHO.

As soon as record companies see the opportunities to reissue "original" recordings, and charge us £50 / CD.

No more of this re-mixed, re-produced box sets with all the demos, just give me the original as-it-was 90s standard recording for proper nostalgia ... 

I think it's true that there'll be a resurgence, but I'm not sure how they'll make us accept a big price hike, since CDs are still widely available and a new release is somewhere between £11 and £16.  I assume you can still get back-catalogue stuff for £7.99, but most of my recent purchases have been newer releases.

Fingers657

For years I used to catalogue every CD as I bought them in a book but when I started ripping them to my music servers I stopped as the are all now listed automatically .
Everything is backed up .
I hated having to rip around 5,000 CDs a laborious job at the time.
After that each CD got ripped as soon as it arrived.
Ive got over 9,000 now but only buy something when it’s special these days .

Philly_Q

Supportact said:

If I open Spotify my mind goes blank and I can't even think of any bands. Probably a worry, that. 

I don't find that at all!  It reminds me what I've played recently, suggests albums to play today, has playlists.... and I've got hundreds of favourite artists saved so a quick scroll through those always makes me think of something to listen to.

Open_G

Kept a drawer full. Mostly ones that are not on streaming services. Bands I’ve seen live then never heard of again, or some really niche stuff. 

Kurtis

To answer the op, they'll probably be fine in a dry loft. You could put them in a vacuum bag type thing if you're worried. 

Shrews

I keep mine in the drawers under the bed. Basically if I buy a new CD I rip the tracks off it I like onto my old desktop, then burn them onto a blank CD to make compilations. I listen to them in the car, or on a player if I can be bothered to do any gardening.

Last CD brought was Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack. There's four songs on it I like so it was worth a tenner or so. 

Greatape

I love my CDs. It's a lifetime's work. Since ditching streaming and going back to cd, I listen to way more albums start to finish. Just got 'Curtis Live!' and it's awesome