Question for those whose collections number in the 5 figures...

How do you ever find time to LISTEN to 10,000 + LPs, CDs, 78s, cassettes, 8-tracks, or whatever else you have?

This is NOT a criticism, BTW...I'm curious because my OWN collection feels unmanageable at times, and I only have several hundred CDs and about 1400 LPs!

 

I don't. Tons of it is unplayed and likely will stay that way.

Trust me, my wife asks that question almost daily.

 

It's not about listening to it all, it's about having it available to potentially be listened to.

 

EXACTLY.

It's a library.

 

This. Got in a Deep Purple mood lately (hasn't happened often since 1968 either), but I've got some 45s, some CDs, and it was there when I reached for it !

I try to do the same thing with non-perishable foods. Life is short, and nobody spoils me like me.

 

I can just think about my music collection and it gives me pleasure. Plus, I can read about my great music here and watch documentaries about my fantastic music involving Pink Floyd, The Who, Sex Pistols, U2, and many others I've invested time, money and research in.

 

Best way to put it. Not that I have a 10K+ collection - though I am trying

Tom

 

Like this Dylan kick I'm presently on...when I got home from work, I knew I could pull Scorsese's No Direction Home, which only cost me $8.49 nearly 3 years ago, and which I watched once upon receiving, then put up.
Last night, because I'm more interested than I was, it was like watching it for the first time ever.

 

This is the answer. Who listens to the 30,000 songs on their 160g iPod? No one, but it's nice that it's there.

 

There may be some things I won't ever listen to again but I would never get rid of them as they have memories, like pictures.

Remember also that large collections are accumulated over time, in my case 30 odd years, and you listen as you acquire. 30 years is 10950 days, so if you listen to a modest 2 a night that's over 20,000.

 

My wife agrees. Yes, a large collection is just a library requiring care and good equipment.

 

My best friend calls my collection "The Archive."

I do listen to a lot of it, in fact with a few exceptions I'm still working towards almost all of it has been listened to at least once and most more than thrice.

I'm retired still at the moment (going to start looking for work soon) and can listen and listen and listen many hours a day.

 

tip #1: Sleep is for the weak.

 

When I was 16 (35 yrs ago) and had maybe 200 records, my Dad said to me " I bet you could get rid of half of those and never miss them". My response:"You're probably right. But which half?"

 

That's the brilliance of Shuffle! It's like having my own personal radio station in the car that either plays something I know, introduces me to a new song, or dredges the deepest, darkest bowels of my collection to find something god-awful.

The latter really helps with pruning my collection!

 

Well, if you don't have that much music, then you don't know.

The trick is to have been collecting music for a loong time. For me, i've been listening to and collecting music since the 60s. I only tend to buy what I like, so I really have heard just about everything in my collection at least once. And, since I listen to music in the morning, in the car, at night, and elsewhere, I hear it all the time.

 

A lot of the answers here apply to me, I'll only add that my taste in music is such that if I don't own it, I won't hear much of it. It's that simple. Plus the fact that buying things on a whim or unheard keeps my musical mind fresh. I'm always coming across things I didn't know existed.

I do get rid of a lot of stuff in the course of a year, and I do listen to most of what I keep over the course of many years. And I do listen to everything I buy. I never buy things just to own them. They are for listening and listening only.

 

Man, my collection is TINY ("only" about 700 CDs and 200 LPs) compared to most on this forum yet nearly everyone who comes into our house comments on how many CDs and records I have. If they only knew...

 

Captain Crunch or Chef BoyArDee?

 

Lossless files on a 160 ipod are more like 7000 songs.

 

Some people here have literal record libraries in their basements.

 

I think I'm headed in that direction, as well - been buying since the early 1980's, and probably "collecting" since the early 1990's. I'm at the point where I fully expect that some music won't be played again for at least a decade. But it will all get played at least once, and will get played again eventually. I'm sure my collections are not even close to some of the people here, but it's started to get large to the point where it's hard to keep track of what I have vs. what I don't have.

One good thing about large collections is that you can literally pull out an album that perhaps you haven't listened to in a decade, and enjoy it all over again.

 

It's about having listened to it. After that, it's just there to jog my memories. Think about it. When you first have the album and listen to it 10 or however many times you do within that few weeks or so you've gotten your money's worth. Anything after that is gravy.