Do you collect the music or the original CD? And Why?

[Dancing Divertimentian]

For example amazon.com is about to open their classical digital store with the EMI and (I think) Universal catalogues to kick things off. Eventually, I can't imagine all the CDs printed not finding their way into the pure digital medium soon.

I'd rather wait until someone can tell me (preferrably the manufacturers) whether or not the 'new' CDR medium is going to last.

Why risk it if my collection goes up in smoke in a few years?

OTOH, if CDR is a viable medium then why all this confusion? Shouldn't manufacturers have made it clear long ago their product has staying power before pushing the new medium on the market?

And dependability depending on CDR brands?? Can't think of anything more damning to a new format than unreliability at the bottom of the food chain like this.

[Mozart]

The music! If you want something to hold on to, take out your hard drive and find where it is stored 

[Renfield]

I'm a nut for collecting things, and digital recordings alone simply don't cut it, for me. As someone said above, I want something to hold on to - not to mention that nothing below lossless works for me, for classical.

And CDs are so much more fun to track down, going from store to store, asking around, finding that little plastic case with the cover you've been looking for and getting all excited about it...

Mind you, I have spent a downright obscene amount of money for CDs, over the past two years. Even if one were to split my collection evenly between them, that's still more than 375 CDs per year we're talking about. But I don't regret the things I've denied myself, over acquiring this collection; it's too important to me, my music.

[Mark]

The music is what matters. But I voted for the physical CD.

I might never have ventured into ripping, encoding ... and ultimately, downloading ... were it not for the advent of MP3 players. I'd dreamed about a box that I could carry around with me and which contained all my music since I was about 14, and lo, it became a reality. That's where the whole 'lossy' format love affair began for me. But initially, it was all about ripping/encoding from my own CD collection.

Downloading became a necessity when I ran out of CD storage space ... and money with which to buy armfuls of discs. Now I download around 12 albums a month, and buy the occasional Amazon seller bargain. In an ideal world, I wouldn't download at all but simply have rooms filled with CDs (a la Harry), and I'd only make MP3s from my own discs. Alas, that day won't come any time soon, so downloading is now a major part of my buying habit.

[Kullervo]

Both! I download things that are OOP and I buy CDs. It's nice to have the "hard copy" even though some will argue a file is as good a hard copy as any.

[Szykneij]

The music! If you want something to hold on to, take out your hard drive and find where it is stored 

Just don't go near your refrigerator magnets while you're doing it 

[mahlertitan]

Just don't go near your refrigerator magnets while you're doing it 

why would you want to do that? you should not do that under any circumstances to any electronic appliances.

[Mozart]

why would you want to do that? you should not do that under any circumstances to any electronic appliances.

LOL I love circuit city. I bought a computer and tried to install ram into it, and it didnt work...so i returned my computer and tried again...so i said ok return it again but just don't open it! Of course the problem was i was using a magnetic screwdriver and didn't realize it. Bless them for taking not 1 but 2 computers I messed up and exchanging them. I will never buy anything from another store.

[Szykneij]

LOL I love circuit city. I bought a computer and tried to install ram into it, and it didnt work...so i returned my computer and tried again...so i said ok return it again but just don't open it! Of course the problem was i was using a magnetic screwdriver and didn't realize it. Bless them for taking not 1 but 2 computers I messed up and exchanging them. I will never buy anything from another store.

Picture of MozartMobster working on his computer:

[paul]

Since I have very little money to spend and almost all of what I make at my job goes into my savings, I stopped buying CDs about a year ago and go to the library and download instead. For me, I'm happy as long as the music hits my ears and I would rather spend money going to concerts instead of on recordings. Unfortunately, this has lead to a ridiculous collection of files on my external hard drive. My iTunes says that I'm up to 362.84 GB of music or 188.8 days which seems a little pointless to me. I really need to stop adding things.

[mahlertitan]

Since I have very little money to spend and almost all of what I make at my job goes into my savings, I stopped buying CDs about a year ago and go to the library and download instead. For me, I'm happy as long as the music hits my ears and I would rather spend money going to concerts instead of on recordings. Unfortunately, this has lead to a ridiculous collection of files on my external hard drive. My iTunes says that I'm up to 362.84 GB of music or 188.8 days which seems a little pointless to me. I really need to stop adding things.

you can't help it, it's just gonna get bigger and bigger....

dude, kudos! 362.84Gb? i thought i had too much music, and i only have about 120 gigs.

[Mozart]

My external hard drive, with 160 gb of music is sitting about 7 feet away, but it has no ac adapter to plug into the wall. It just sits there starring at me cruelly..

[mahlertitan]

interestingly, about 30% of my music are either Mahler, Bruckner, or Schubert

[Mozart]

37.5 percent of my music is Mozart

[Don]

37.5 percent of my music is Mozart

That was about my percentage for Mozart until I caught the Bach bug.

[mahlertitan]

37.5 percent of my music is Mozart

no wonder you have 160 gigs, try to collect 3 different interpretations of Mozart's complete symphonies, and you'll find your hard drive FULL!

[mahlertitan]

Couch potato.

Caveman

[marvinbrown]

I voted for the real thing, liner notes, pristine sound quality, and as Thomas said the burned copies don't last that long.

 Yes very well said Harry, I too voted for the real thing cd, liner notes and of course OPERA LIBRETTOS.  WHY? because to me the liner notes, packaging, art work et al adds to the excitement especially when I am exploring new music.....gotta have the real thing no doubt about it!!!!

 marvin

[Mozart]

no wonder you have 160 gigs, try to collect 3 different interpretations of Mozart's complete symphonies, and you'll find your hard drive FULL!

No dude its the piano concertos and opera mostly. I can always have more versions of don giovanni. The thing is, if I could combine the Mozart music on my computer, with the Mozart music on my external hardrive, I would have one massive collection! I estimate it would be around 50 gb. I used to also have lots of Beethoven symphony cycles and even a nice sized Vivaldi collection...

[mahlertitan]

No dude its the piano concertos and opera mostly. I can always have more versions of don giovanni. The thing is, if I could combine the Mozart music on my computer, with the Mozart music on my external hardrive, I would have one massive collection! I estimate it would be around 50 gb. I used to also have lots of Beethoven symphony cycles and even a nice sized Vivaldi collection...

the only composer that i have lots of different versions is bruckner.