why do we collect all this music?

[rostasi]

32K!!?? Are we talking albums here?

Well, CDs too...cassettes and special packagings from highly experimental music folks could be counted as well I suppose.

Oh! and 7" singles too...ummm...

[Aggie87]

Why do we cross the road? To get to the other side.

Why do we collect all this music? To enrich our lives until we get to the other side.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Why do we cross the road? To get to the other side.

Why do we collect all this music? To enrich our lives until we get to the other side.

Yes, that's the difference between collecting records and an addiction. Being addicted to cigarettes, which I am, doesn't enrich my life and I know it.

MG

[porcy62]

Why do we cross the road? To get to the other side.

Why do we collect all this music? To enrich our lives until we get to the other side.

Yes, that's the difference between collecting records and an addiction. Being addicted to cigarettes, which I am, doesn't enrich my life and I know it.

MG

It's because "music" is socially accepted as cultural value. So if a woman would spend the same amount of money on shoes she would be "addicted" to shopping, meanwhile we are "enriching" our lifes. Consider this analogy, she probably will wear one pair of shoes only once or two in her life, exactly like us will listen once or two a cd, but this will "enrich" our life. BS. Unless you're Mozart that could wrote down a Mass after only one listening, you'll never "enrich" your life if you listened to a cd only once.

An addiction is an addiction as far it generates a compulsive behavior. It may be more or less harmful, but is an addiction.

Said that I'll have to go, I've got a couple of auctions on eBay

Edited September 9, 2007 by porcy62

[Dan Gould]

So if a woman would spend the same amount of money on shoes she would be "addicted" to shopping, meanwhile we are "enriching" our lifes. Consider this analogy, she probably will wear one pair of shoes only once or two in her life, exactly like us will listen once or two a cd, but this will "enrich" our life. BS.

I think the proper analogy is how much pleasure music addicts get from the mere act of shopping and purchasing new music (or adding to the backlog through downloads)?

The woman who is "addicted to shopping" derives great pleasure from

A] Going to the mall

B] browsing her favorite stores

C] purchasing crap she doesn't really need

Aside from the value judgment of declaring her purchases "crap", does this sound like some of the people in this thead?

When I was in full acquisition mode, I surely did derive pleasure in the act of searching items out (in a physical store though, not in perusing Ebay listings or trade lists), and pawing through merchandise.

[GA Russell]

Well, listening to good music is not harmful to one's health, which I think is relevant to the topic of addiction.

I think staying within a budget you can easily afford is important. If you can do that, I don't think you're addicted.

Many of us here are bargain hunters, judging by the many posts regarding Your Music, J&R, the Concord Blowout Sale and the place in Germany that begins with a z.

Last year I read that the average monthly cable television bill in America is $56.00. I've never seen anyone suggest that the average American has an addiction for television although it has been said for years that Americans watch too much TV.

If we here choose to spend our free time listening to music instead of watching TV, that's a choice regarding entertainment, not an addiction.

You can buy from Your Music 8 CDs per month (two a week!), month after month, for what the average American spends on cable television. So if you can satisfy your desire for music with two CDs per week or less instead of watching television, I don't think you're addicted.

[porcy62]

Well, listening to good music is not harmful to one's health, which I think is relevant to the topic of addiction.

I think staying within a budget you can easily afford is important. If you can do that, I don't think you're addicted.

Many of us here are bargain hunters, judging by the many posts regarding Your Music, J&R, the Concord Blowout Sale and the place in Germany that begins with a z.

Last year I read that the average monthly cable television bill in America is $56.00. I've never seen anyone suggest that the average American has an addiction for television although it has been said for years that Americans watch too much TV.

If we here choose to spend our free time listening to music instead of watching TV, that's a choice regarding entertainment, not an addiction.

You can buy from Your Music 8 CDs per month (two a week!), month after month, for what the average American spends on cable television. So if you can satisfy your desire for music with two CDs per week or less instead of watching television, I don't think you're addicted.

Correct, and two cds per week, if you chose to listent to them instead of watching tv, are a fair amount of music that you can dig. Eight cd per month are 96 cds per year, now, considering that the our purchasing life will last for seventy years, I want to be optimistic, at the end we will leave at our heirs less then 7000 cds. That is more or less what I already have in my shelves, cd and vinyls. And I don't have enough time for it. I can't listen to music at work, so I don't have an ipod, I can't listen in my commuting time, I ride a motorbike. Before my favourite vinyl shop closed down I used to drop there a couple of times per week, asking to the owners, that were, at that point "friends", if there are something knew incoming. And I had the privilege to watch the new, used, stuff before other customers. That was the part of the pleasure: I had good suggestions from them, we discuss about music. And that was fun. Ordering on line or eBay are necessary because some titles were impossible to find over here. I placed some huge orders at Mosaic/True Blue during their sales, and I have still some sealed cds on the shelves. I even sold them sealed when I found an original pressing. I have the big Ellington set, I think I listened to four or five cds and I don't remember wich ones.

Some of the purchase are made because I think that they were unmissable: because they are, supposedly "limited edition", later on I discovered that they realesed a new remastered, better sounding edition with bonus tracks. So I bought them again and again.

Now I am focusing on my existing collection the only thing I miss is the vinyl shop, more for the people then for the records.

Edited September 10, 2007 by porcy62

[Hot Ptah]

To me, recorded music collecting is an addiction, when you are in the mode of buying and it is a habit, or lifestyle, or whatever you want to label it--it is a behavior in which purchasing more music is something that you WILL do, without regard to whether you objectively will "need" the music or even listen to it within a reasonable period of time.

The fact that it has a cultural component, or the fact that it does not cost much, are nice side points, (or rationalizations), but if there is an addiction there, there is an addiction, no matter how nicely you want to dress it up.

The relatively low price of recorded music makes it an addiction that can be managed by many--it does not lead to loss of home, retirement account, etc. If you are addicted to buying American antiques from the pre-Revolutionary War era for example, that is also of cultural benefit but you will quickly run through all of your assets, unless you are very wealthy.

To me it is the behavior of the person that determines whether it is an addiction, not the side benefits or price.

[ejp626]

To me, recorded music collecting is an addiction, when you are in the mode of buying and it is a habit, or lifestyle, or whatever you want to label it--it is a behavior in which purchasing more music is something that you WILL do, without regard to whether you objectively will "need" the music or even listen to it within a reasonable period of time.

The fact that it has a cultural component, or the fact that it does not cost much, are nice side points, (or rationalizations), but if there is an addiction there, there is an addiction, no matter how nicely you want to dress it up.

The relatively low price of recorded music makes it an addiction that can be managed by many--it does not lead to loss of home, retirement account, etc. If you are addicted to buying American antiques from the pre-Revolutionary War era for example, that is also of cultural benefit but you will quickly run through all of your assets, unless you are very wealthy.

To me it is the behavior of the person that determines whether it is an addiction, not the side benefits or price.

I think a couple of things are intertwined here in the discussion. If we define addiction broadly, then probably all of us on the board would have to cop to it. But when defined so broadly, almost everyone has some kind of addiction. Most people are addicted to TV or surfing the Web. Most people are addicted to food. I think most people in western society have a bit too much time on their hands after work and thus spend it on some kind of addictive behavior and/or hobby.

On the other hand, defining addiction so broadly reminds me of the discussion about how everything, water included, is a kind of drug because it induces changes in the body. Is this a useful definition? Not really. Thus, I think more narrowly defining addiction into shades of addiction is far more useful. Does your collecting interfere with work? Does listening to a wide variety music enhance your work experience? Is collecting/reviewing music part of your work (you lucky dog)? Does your collecting interfere with/upset your family? Does anyone else in the family like music, and will you be able to pass on the collection? Do you find that your collecting is putting a crimp into other aspects of your life? Would you be able to recoup some of the money you've spent on music if you went cold turkey? All these are questions that are far more telling (even if they are just a way of justifying your behavior to yourself) than just saying well, it's an addiction.

[DMP]

I don't know about all this, but right now I'm agonizing about whether or not to buy the new RVG of "Bass On Top" or go for the Chambers Mosaic Select. And this is for music I already own!!

[sidewinder]

Before my favourite vinyl shop closed down

Sorry to hear that Porcy. Exactly the same over here - they are getting to be an endangered species. Far too many in the past year.

[Hot Ptah]

To me, recorded music collecting is an addiction, when you are in the mode of buying and it is a habit, or lifestyle, or whatever you want to label it--it is a behavior in which purchasing more music is something that you WILL do, without regard to whether you objectively will "need" the music or even listen to it within a reasonable period of time.

The fact that it has a cultural component, or the fact that it does not cost much, are nice side points, (or rationalizations), but if there is an addiction there, there is an addiction, no matter how nicely you want to dress it up.

The relatively low price of recorded music makes it an addiction that can be managed by many--it does not lead to loss of home, retirement account, etc. If you are addicted to buying American antiques from the pre-Revolutionary War era for example, that is also of cultural benefit but you will quickly run through all of your assets, unless you are very wealthy.

To me it is the behavior of the person that determines whether it is an addiction, not the side benefits or price.

I think a couple of things are intertwined here in the discussion. If we define addiction broadly, then probably all of us on the board would have to cop to it. But when defined so broadly, almost everyone has some kind of addiction. Most people are addicted to TV or surfing the Web. Most people are addicted to food. I think most people in western society have a bit too much time on their hands after work and thus spend it on some kind of addictive behavior and/or hobby.

On the other hand, defining addiction so broadly reminds me of the discussion about how everything, water included, is a kind of drug because it induces changes in the body. Is this a useful definition? Not really. Thus, I think more narrowly defining addiction into shades of addiction is far more useful. Does your collecting interfere with work? Does listening to a wide variety music enhance your work experience? Is collecting/reviewing music part of your work (you lucky dog)? Does your collecting interfere with/upset your family? Does anyone else in the family like music, and will you be able to pass on the collection? Do you find that your collecting is putting a crimp into other aspects of your life? Would you be able to recoup some of the money you've spent on music if you went cold turkey? All these are questions that are far more telling (even if they are just a way of justifying your behavior to yourself) than just saying well, it's an addiction.

There are people who drink alcohol who are not addicts to alcohol. There are people who buy jazz CDs who are not addicted to it. Eating is not the best example, as all must eat something to keep living. No one needs to buy jazz CDs to keep alive. There are those who eat, or occasionally overeat, and then those who are truly addicted to food, with an emotional component beyond liking the taste of the food.

I think that many of those who post here have large collections and there is a "collecting for collecting's sake", "purchasing to fill emotional needs or out of compulsion to purchase", aspect to their buying of jazz CDs. Whether or not they can sell their collections some day, there is an addiction aspect there, I think.

An alcoholic who bought and drank a case of rare wine a day, and could actually sell the empty bottles afterwards to wine fanatics, or pass on the collection of valuable rare empty bottles, would still be an alcoholic, to me. The ability to make money off of the addiction does not mean that the addiction is not present.

Also, if others around you like your music, or like to drink 36 beers a day just like you, that does not excuse the addiction, if it is present, in my opinion.

There are certainly degrees and shades of this jazz CD addiction. For example, in the first few years when I was buying jazz CDs, in the late 1970s, I simply had to learn about all of the great musicians I was reading about in jazz magazines and history books. I bought a ton of jazz albums. I was probably in an intensive learning stage then, not so much of an addiction stage.

I think now I am in an addiction stage. With the exception of a relatively few musicians who are rather obscure, I have probably heard most of the leading jazz musicians in jazz history. I have more albums than I could listen to for the rest of my life. But still, I buy more albums regularly. If there is a Horace Silver album I don't have, and it is in the used CD rack, I buy it, even though I have not played most of my Horace Silver albums for a long time, and even though several of the cuts on the newest purchase are on a "best of" collection I already own. But I could not think of letting that Horace Silver gem slip by! Why do I do it? It's not rational.

[The Red Menace]

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?

Siberia, comrade, is a blissful state of mind, where one has plentiful time to contemplate the foolishness and waste of feverish, hyperconsumerist late-capitalism obsessions and pursuits that only feed upon themselves in never-ending vampiristic cycles of gnawing hunger and seething human torment!!! Displaced idol worship that thrives on destructive denial of the here and now, in quest instead of illusory immortality that shall never be gained, no matter what delusions of grandeur we may foster in the templehouse of the magnificent-but-sadly-desecrated brainpan!!!

OTOH I still find myself craving a final "pad" such as this... alas, I cannot help myself: