why do we collect all this music?

[relyles]

I don't buy many records anymore, but I'm hooked on Dimeadozen. I don't know how many shows I have digitally stored that I haven't listened to. Far too many. From any rational viewpoint, I should stop.

But you know what? It ain't rational.

I don't purchase as much music as I used to, but the bit torrent downloads and trades remain a problem. I have tried to stop on many occassions, but it never lasts very long. So my unheard back log grows faster than I can actually listen.

[BruceH]

For me, at least, it is a matter of compulsion. Once I get a jones for a particular CD or artist, I literally cannot rest until I get what I'm after. I think about it all the time. I've even dreamt about it! It's nuts! A real sickness...

Lately, I've moved my entire collection (3000 + CDs) down to the basement so that I'm at least not looking at them all the time. Out of sight, hopefully out of mind (it also has the added bonus that my wife doesn't have to look at them all the time either, and it's freed up tons of room).

Careful they don't get mold.

[ejp626]

I know that I collect because I love listening to music, but that's only part of the answer. It's the other part that bothers me.

Ain't that the truth. Some things just can't bear too much scrunity.

Even during those times I have the CD buying mostly under control -- maybe a couple a month -- then I am constantly taping stuff of the radio (BBC3) and only very rarely listening to it. I am afraid that if I joined one of the Dime-like sites, then it would be all over. It's probably too much to expect to go cold turkey, but maybe if I only tape my three favorite radio shows per week and don't even pay attention to the rest of it, I could get a little more peace of mind. It's worth a shot.

[alocispepraluger102]

I know that I collect because I love listening to music, but that's only part of the answer. It's the other part that bothers me.

Ain't that the truth. Some things just can't bear too much scrunity.

Even during those times I have the CD buying mostly under control -- maybe a couple a month -- then I am constantly taping stuff of the radio (BBC3) and only very rarely listening to it. I am afraid that if I joined one of the Dime-like sites, then it would be all over. It's probably too much to expect to go cold turkey, but maybe if I only tape my three favorite radio shows per week and don't even pay attention to the rest of it, I could get a little more peace of mind. It's worth a shot.

aloc am only burning to cd-r 95 hours per week off the internet, sometimes 168 hours a week during wkcr weeklong festivals, and only for the last 5 years. all of lazlake, all wnur jazz shows, the wkcr evening jazz, and some wgbh jazz.

Edited September 4, 2007 by alocispepraluger102

[Hot Ptah]

For me, at least, it is a matter of compulsion. Once I get a jones for a particular CD or artist, I literally cannot rest until I get what I'm after. I think about it all the time. I've even dreamt about it! It's nuts! A real sickness...

Lately, I've moved my entire collection (3000 + CDs) down to the basement so that I'm at least not looking at them all the time. Out of sight, hopefully out of mind (it also has the added bonus that my wife doesn't have to look at them all the time either, and it's freed up tons of room).

This sounds to me like an alcoholic who moves his bottles of whiskey out of the kitchen and into the basement behind the furnace, to "improve the situation."

We are all clinically ill addicts, myself included, for sure.

[7/4]

I don't buy many records anymore, but I'm hooked on Dimeadozen. I don't know how many shows I have digitally stored that I haven't listened to. Far too many. From any rational viewpoint, I should stop.

But you know what? It ain't rational.

I have a ton of unlistend to DaD shows, but I've really eased off on how many shows I download.

[alocispepraluger102]

For me, at least, it is a matter of compulsion. Once I get a jones for a particular CD or artist, I literally cannot rest until I get what I'm after. I think about it all the time. I've even dreamt about it! It's nuts! A real sickness...

Lately, I've moved my entire collection (3000 + CDs) down to the basement so that I'm at least not looking at them all the time. Out of sight, hopefully out of mind (it also has the added bonus that my wife doesn't have to look at them all the time either, and it's freed up tons of room).

This sounds to me like an alcoholic who moves his bottles of whiskey out of the kitchen and into the basement behind the furnace, to "improve the situation."

We are all clinically ill addicts, myself included, for sure.

wondering how many of us are simultaneously alcoholics, both practicing and nonpracticing.

[Hot Ptah]

For me, at least, it is a matter of compulsion. Once I get a jones for a particular CD or artist, I literally cannot rest until I get what I'm after. I think about it all the time. I've even dreamt about it! It's nuts! A real sickness...

Lately, I've moved my entire collection (3000 + CDs) down to the basement so that I'm at least not looking at them all the time. Out of sight, hopefully out of mind (it also has the added bonus that my wife doesn't have to look at them all the time either, and it's freed up tons of room).

This sounds to me like an alcoholic who moves his bottles of whiskey out of the kitchen and into the basement behind the furnace, to "improve the situation."

We are all clinically ill addicts, myself included, for sure.

wondering how many of us are simultaneously alcoholics, both practicing and nonpracticing.

I'm not. Caffeine and jazz albums are my addictions. So what if I lick the inside of empty cans of Diet Mountain Dew to get a little more caffeine out of them, I can stop anytime. And I work hard--I deserve to buy some jazz CDs and caffeinated beverages. Anyway I have stopped buying box sets and just buy individual jazz CDs, so I have the situation under control. I bought 549 jazz CDs last week--but NO box sets! So everything is under control. I get annoyed when people mention that I might have a problem--they are the ones with a problem, not me.

There was a thread on another jazz board on this very subject of "why buy so many albums", and it was striking how often one could substitute the word "alcohol" for "jazz CDs" in the answers and see that the situation was really addiction. For example: "I have solved my problem, I don't drink hard liquor any more, just several cases of beer and wine per week/I don't buy many CDs any more, just downloads of live shows mostly."

Edited September 4, 2007 by Hot Ptah

[7/4]

So is it a 12 step situation?

[Hot Ptah]

So is it a 12 step situation?

For every problem, there is an opportunity for an enterprising business person. A 12 step program with a specific focus on addicted buyers of recorded music--there's a niche market that is screaming to be filled.

[JSngry]

A 12 half-step situation if you want your answer in black & white...

[Hot Ptah]

However, if there was a 12 step solution for addicted jazz album buyers, the market share for jazz might plunge from its current 1 % to a number best viewed under a microscope.

[ejp626]

... see that the situation was really addiction. For example: "I have solved my problem, I don't drink hard liquor any more, just several cases of beer and wine per week/I don't buy many CDs any more, just downloads of live shows mostly."

True, but if the downloads are free or essentially free, that does wonders for the bank balance compared to a serious jones for CDs. Doesn't help much on the time front though -- both searching time and trying to find listening time.

[relyles]

... see that the situation was really addiction. For example: "I have solved my problem, I don't drink hard liquor any more, just several cases of beer and wine per week/I don't buy many CDs any more, just downloads of live shows mostly."

True, but if the downloads are free or essentially free, that does wonders for the bank balance compared to a serious jones for CDs. Doesn't help much on the time front though -- both searching time and trying to find listening time.

Maybe purchases decline, but the budget for blank media rises. Not as costly as purchasing an equivalent number of official releases, but there is a cost involved still.

[Hot Ptah]

The last few posts assume that spending is the problem with the jazz CD addiction.

I believe that the problem with an addiction is the addiction itself, the fact that the addiction exists at all.

Other things, such as too much spending, lying to significant other about the addiction, time stolen from work or family--those are byproducts of the addiction, to me.

So to say that it is not as expensive to buy beer instead of whiskey/download live shows instead of buying new CDs, misses the point somewhat.

The point remains that the addiction is still there, whether you are cadging free beers or finding free live show on the net.

[mikelz777]

It's definitely an addiction and I've tried to quit or reign in several times and I've been unsuccessful. Realistically, is there ever going to be a point when you own what you want to hear and not find something new or interesting? It's never ending.

Right now, I'm at a pretty good point. I own about 500 titles which translates to 600+ actual discs when you count in the box sets and multi-disc sets. It's big enough that there's a lot of variety and lots of choices to keep things fresh and new yet not so big that I can't listen to my collection in a lifetime. I know I'm not ever going to stop buying CDs but I hope that I have the strength to slow way down, revisit and get to know the collection I do have and become a lot more picky and selective in the CDs I want to buy. One thing that has been helpful to me is to put the discs I'm interested in on a wish list (Amazon for me.) and listen to the samples from time to time over the course of a month or two. After a while, I find that I can do without well over 50% of them.

Anyway, cheers to those of you with 1000+ collections and still buying. I can't see myself ever reaching that level but then again, when I hit 250, I never saw myself reaching 500.

[Big Al]

It's definitely an addiction and I've tried to quit or reign in several times and I've been unsuccessful. Realistically, is there ever going to be a point when you own what you want to hear and not find something new or interesting? It's never ending.

Right now, I'm at a pretty good point. I own about 500 titles which translates to 600+ actual discs when you count in the box sets and multi-disc sets. It's big enough that there's a lot of variety and lots of choices to keep things fresh and new yet not so big that I can't listen to my collection in a lifetime. I know I'm not ever going to stop buying CDs but I hope that I have the strength to slow way down, revisit and get to know the collection I do have and become a lot more picky and selective in the CDs I want to buy. One thing that has been helpful to me is to put the discs I'm interested in on a wish list (Amazon for me.) and listen to the samples from time to time over the course of a month or two. After a while, I find that I can do without well over 50% of them.

Anyway, cheers to those of you with 1000+ collections and still buying. I can't see myself ever reaching that level but then again, when I hit 250, I never saw myself reaching 500.

I could've easily written this myself, verbatim. I'm definitely an addict, no question about that.

[Noj]

MTV should do an episode of "Intervention" featuring recorded music addicts.

Man, in music store with a stack of cds answers his cellphone.

Concerned voice of the Mrs.: Honey, where are you?

Man: The hardware store. I had to pick up some, um, sprinkler heads.

The Mrs., sobbing: Don't lie to me! Jenny was driving down Sunset and saw you go into Amoeba.

Man: Oh come on, babe. I just need a couple of discs. I can quit anytime I want to. I'm in control.

The Mrs.: No you're not! You can't stop! You need help!

[JSngry]

When I discovered the music of Monday Michiru, it got me listening - excitedly listening, with a sense of genuine "discovery" that I had lost a loooooong time ago - to a lot of other types of music. It was then I realized just how much I had been buying music to have (as evidenced by the backlog) rather than music to hear. This became irrevocably apparent when I did my taxes and was reviewing my receipts. My buying habits demonstrably & dramatically shifted, and as a result, so did the # of things I could say that I had actually listened to & absorbed upon receipt.

That's what it comes down to - are we gathering music we want/need to hear right now, or music we want/need to have, to listen to "at some point"?

"Collecting" comes with all levels of intensity, intent, and probably most importantly, focus. Somebody who's got the bug for Hank Mobley and just has to hear it, so when they find something/anything/evrything w/Hank on it they rush right home & play that sucker right away, over and over, until they know it is functioning from a subtle but fundamentally different motivation than somebody who sees Hank's name on a date and says, "Oh look, Hank's on this one, I better pick it up then" and then goes hom and waits a few hours/days/weeks/etc to get to it.

Really, save your reciepts for a year (or less, I guess) and then get them out, put then in order, and review them. Reliving the "story" behind each purchase can tell you all you need to know if you can be honest with yourself.

[JSngry]

That's what it comes down to - are we gathering music we want/need to hear right now, or music we want/need to have, to listen to "at some point"?

I daresay that there's a parallel between how we approach one thing we love - music - with how we approach another - our relationships with our spouse/partner. If you can "get comfortable" - or keep the fire burning - with one, the odds of doing so with the other rise greatly, I think. And let's not go there as to using "collecting" as a transference &/or avoidance mechanisms when it comes to relationships.

Real passion will be obvious too all. Faded passion, or faked passion, will be obvious to all but the perpetrator.

[Hot Ptah]

MTV should do an episode of "Intervention" featuring recorded music addicts.

Man, in music store with a stack of cds answers his cellphone.

Concerned voice of the Mrs.: Honey, where are you?

Man: The hardware store. I had to pick up some, um, sprinkler heads.

The Mrs., sobbing: Don't lie to me! Jenny was driving down Sunset and saw you go into Amoeba.

Man: Oh come on, babe. I just need a couple of discs. I can quit anytime I want to. I'm in control.

The Mrs.: No you're not! You can't stop! You need help!

That is hilarious!

[JSngry]

Why, to be buried with it, of course.

I myself fully intend on having a 1000-CD-changer system installed in my mausoleum... every six or seven weeks the attendant will bring in a new rotation. Finally, a chance to listen to my collection in peace!

Would not Red Menace view Siberia as a similar opportunity?

[Hot Ptah]

There are other irrational, emotional aspects to some of my meaningless jazz CD purchases.

I like hanging out in used music stores. I enjoy the atmosphere of them. I like a good used book store too. I just feel happy being in them. Since I go to the same stores often, the owner and staff are familiar with me--sometimes they get to know me and we develop a type of commerce-corrupted friendship. In that circumstance, one can't repeatedly hang out there and buy nothing. On some of the visits at least, you have to buy something, even if it is not something you would objectively choose to buy otherwise.

I say commerce-corrupted friendships, because if the store disappeared, we'd never see each other again. In the context of my "good customer" status, we speak in a friendly way, and talk intelligently about music which is obscure to the general public. There's a certain amount of fun there--again, all ultimately based on the fact that I will be giving them money.

I also have my online "commerce-corrupted friendships." I have found a few regular ebay sellers of hard to find jazz CD gems. I follow their auctions all the time and bid on some things in most weeks. After years of doing that, these ebay sellers and I have exchanged many emails about the arrangements for the purchases, and have added exchanges of ideas on the artists and albums, and some personal notes. I would miss these people on some level if I stopped bidding on their auctions. I have never spoken to them or met them in person, but they are "friends" in some way.

So jazz CD purchases have provided some emotional, or phony emotional, experiences, which are pleasant. I have certainly bought more CDs than I otherwise would have because of this added component.

I imagine that some alcoholics keep drinking because they enjoy seeing the "ol' gang" at their favorite bar. If they started drinking Diet Cokes at the bar, or didn't go to the bar at all, they would lose those people from their lives.

Edited September 4, 2007 by Hot Ptah

[Hot Ptah]

Overtly playing on the addictive nature of music collecting, one of the used music stores in the Kansas City metro area is called Need More Discs.

The owner is actually a nice, down to earth guy. I don't think he was trying to suck addicts even deeper into their hellhole with the name of his store.

[7/4]

One aspect of buying is curiosity. That's why some disks don't get a second listen.

I'm on a bit of a budget these days, so I stopped buying for a few months. Except for some Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett I bought today, I've been listening to my collection. I haven't really missed all the buying.

I was joking about the 12 step program, I don't think we buy music because we're angry or scared of the future.