too many records/mp3, too much information ...
spc
534 Posts
How do you deal with it? I only got around 900-1000 records + cds and a lot of mp3s (which I already pre-selected), but I have many records on my shelf that I never ever had the time to listen to but had to buy. I know that there is a limit to the amount of music I can listen to in my whole life, but I can't stop buying and download and start to listen to the stuff I already have, kind of a collecting thing. It's the same for me with information, I stopped reading so many sites and forums, only 3-4 websites left that I check daily, but the time keeps running out too fast. When is too much too much? The good thing with all the masses of information is, that I don't have to bother with buying music that is just ok (for my ears) because of nothing else is available, now I can go after the stuff I really like and unerringly buy it. But to stop buying and to start listening is very hard for me. I got much respect for people who say that they only buy/download a few records, listen to them and then go for the next joint, I think that requires a lot of self-control.
Comments
I do the same. My mp3s are kind of a shopping list for me, and when I got it I delete the mp3 and record it with my pc to store it away in 24bit/44.1khz and to make 320kb mp3s for my portable mp3 player. I know that "I might need this in a year or two" very good
I don't listen to MP3s a lot. Mainly because I don't want to get addicted to buying new stuff all the time. I have plenty of time left. I'm addicted to buying records at record stores and to finding cheap stuff on eBay, but luckily, I'm not addicted to seeking info about rares or buying records right after I heard about them. Maybe, you should have a break from buying and finding new stuff and get back to the records and MP3s you already own. Listening to your own collection is probably one of the most important things in this business. It can be inspiring too. It's the time you really learn to appreciate your records. Collecting only can become a very annoying thing. Don't forget to enjoy.
I feel you though. I'm really addicted to buying records I actually see at shops. No matter what the price is. If I need it, I need it... I'm ruining myself financially.
I'm trying to have a break, I've been off soulseek for more than a week, but then the album thread started here (I'll upload something too when I'm throuhg) and it was all over me again. It's the same with movies, whenever I see something I like (it's b-movies, trash, kung-fu, *whatever*ploitation, sci-fi, 70s porn 99% of the time) I always think "Damn, you got to get that, that's some rare out of print stuff you'll never see again in your entire life". I got some many gigs of non-mainstream stuff left to watch, it's not funny anymore.
Anything good that I hear being shared always gets hunted down on wax.
As much as I like playing digital files to check stuff out, I'll always prefer dealing with vinyl.
I hope so much that there will a medium that looks like a laserdisc, has the dynamic range and resolution of the vinyl and the accessibility of a digital medium like a cd. And perhaps that it doesn't melt when laying in the sun
feel free to send me the stuff you won't be able to watch or listen to
are you digging in mannheim only? do you folks ever go to stuttgart or frankfurt? i'd love to meet you and Seb. You both seem to be
Mannheim must be great. I've only been there once. I bought a EKO Tiger organ in Mannheim...
I was literally drowning in music, listening became a chore. I got given like 5 CD???s in one week and I???m like how am I going to really ???listen??? to this stuff.
So now I???m revisiting my own collection but will still dig/and check out sound clips on the net (in search of new things to buy) but I will not download albums anymore.
An album is something that (can) get better over time with repeated listens.
Sometime the tacks that appeal less instantly often tune out to be the beat tracks, but without spending time listening these gems wont be discovered.
I feel you, for it was not 5 cd's a week but perhaps a few gigs a week. I got around 100gb or selected mp3s I've got to listen and then to buy. The good thing about that is that I can concentrate on the best stuff I like and try to hunt it down.
I'm "digging" in mannheim, ludwigshafen, heidelberg, frankfurt and karlsruhe (only new disco/house/edits/brokenbeat stuff here) and the fleamarktes around. Sebastian is really
Most of the stuff I buy is new stuff or over the internet. I can send you some stuff if you want, I'm not secretive about stuff I have, and not even remotely about stuff I'm not even really owning.
well, thats what they were saying about cd's ten years ago. and the discs i bought ten years ago still play. so with all due respect, i hope we can put that funky old myth to rest.
it aint no myth.
i think what you have to do is prioritise.. there was a time when i was sitting on a couple thousand lps and clost to a thousand cds.
the cds went out the door.. paid for my ipod, paid for new decks, paid for a new mixer... i still have a few expensive import cds that i didnt want to just take down to the used cd shop.. but 90% of them went.
obviously they all got burned as mp3's and backed up.
add that ontop of my mp3 stack... dude who complained about getting 5 cds a week off peeps... man my buddy once gave me 65 cdrs packed with mp3's. So by now im up to over 100 cdrs of mp3s all catalogued.
i have about 30gigs of mp3's on my old imac and that's my itunes library so it goes on random all day, plus my ipod is filled, and my wifes ipod.
its all about random.
i work 5 feet away from my decks so wax gets thrown on too throughout the day.
as for the records... those are next to get the reorganisation... when i play out i only play 12"s, and those are the only records ive been concentrating on for the last few years... very few lp's make it through the door anymore.
so my next step is to weed out a good chunk of lps that i just havent listened to in at least a few years... shit i got on credit / free when i worked at a record store etc.
think ill make a list and either put it on the trades board or just do a straight up lil dude set sale.
my theory is i don't need it that bad if it's way out of my price league. if i stumble across it diggin', then so be it. i might buy 10-20 records sometimes at a clip, and have a dedicated crate for "new stuff" that gets listened to first.
so how come it hasn't happened yet?
(remember, they were saying fifteen years ago that CD's would erase themselves too)
At my local spot, i sometimes see people buying 10 records for 100 Euros right after complaining that one of their most wanted records which is priced at 50 is way too expensive for them. They won't buy that record. Just because they think it's overpriced (my local spot hardly prices record above the current market value). At the same time, they spend 100 Euros on random records, they don't even like that much (I heard them say it). That is one thing I'll never understand. I'd skip on the random 10 records, buy my most wanted and leave that store with 50 Euros in my pockets. A record I really need and I would listen to a lot, is going to make me much happier than 10 random records I won't even listen to that much.
I guess some people generaly refuse to pay more than 20 bucks on a record. But if it's a record that is still priced way under the current market value and they got the money, why don't they just take it? Won't they be happy to buy a record that they have been after for years?
well you must be a lucky dude man cause i had it happen with plenty of things.. discs that looked crisp and clean that i hadnt been playing often you'd slap it on only to have it skip like a mo fo...
i had loads of discs that wouldnt play in my discman for no apparent reason...
obviously the better your cd player the better results you'll have but i had loads and loads of things i couldnt get to play on my home decks.. i was able to rip them on a computer burner but i couldnt get them to play without skipping on the same drive.
secondly its a dated / obsolete technology and im glad to have offloaded them before they go the way of vhs tapes.
But dude, you live in Europe. Music & culture is valued more there than it is here...
It surrounds you there, here we have to create
I do a radio show/play in clubs & interview/write/review about music for street press/magazines, so I get sent a stupid amount of CDs each week. It does become impossible to listen to them all correctly. At the moment I have about 30 unlistened to CDs sitting on the floor. Since the album thread went up I haven't played a freakin record or a CD. I'd say that 95% of what I actually buy is vinyl. New & old, so it's constant. I too wish I could be like the normal people & just adopt 3 or 4 albums a year & rinse them & be happy, but I just have this insatiable appetite for discovering stuff. I'm just so glad that I am not infatuated with reggae, because that is a world of pain to discover properly. Trying to find which version that I like most would drive me spare.
And yes, I'm the same, I put iTunes on Random as well. This is the best way to hear something objectively, without any preconceptions. So I am not swayed by my own or others views.
I suffer from the disease of, 'Waiting for the right moment' to listen or watch something that i have bought. It never seems to friggin' arrive. Something else will always jump in front...
...and I don't see myself retiring anytime soon to sit around & listen to it all. My record habit has seen to that impossibility. Fucken great!!!
Oh & I picked up my Raw Fusion 'Live at The Styleetron' CD the other day & it had gone all black with CD cancer. When played, it just skipped like a crew of girls in a playground at lunchtime.
Dead. After almost 15 years.
I suffer from the disease of, 'Waiting for the right moment' to listen or watch something that i have bought. It never seems to friggin' arrive. Something else will always jump in front... I can so feel you! That "Waiting for the right moment" haunts me my entire life. It's the same with movies, book, comics and the worst it's with sneakers. I buy them and then they sit in their box ontop of my record shelf and I'm frightened to wear them, and then I'm waiting for the fucking right moment. I'm happy I don't have a real shoe collection, because then it would be even worse, but with the 10 pairs I got waiting to be worn it's a real pain and four pairs are deadstock 80s sneakers, even more worse.
I think I just have to accept that I can't take them into the grave and that all the time I wait and buy more records and stuff I could use to spend some quality time with the stuf I already have.
But it's so hard to do.
But that is a good thing...for your store yeah?
You wouldn't want them to come to this realisation now would you..? Just saying...
It??s all about the drugs my friend ...