The future of your music collection?

[orbital]

-But what do you think lies ahead for your music collection?
All digital 
-Will you fastidiously rip every disc you own to MP3, FLAC or WAV, ?
Yes, I already have.
-put it all on one home 'super computer' and feed your favourite hifi separates through wired or wireless networking?
My computer is not super, neither are my cables, but that's how I listen to music %95 of the time now. You don't need a super computer really, just a good sound card.
-Will you go on finding new and innovative ways to use the storage potential of every nook and cranny in your home until your buying habits necessitate a change of address?
No. I want to keep that space for books. If they release more books on the new amazon thingie, I may switch to e-books as well. Although unlike CD's I still like books.
-Are you planning a major musical cull, stripping away everything non-essential and retaining just those discs that bring you greatest happiness - perhaps experiencing new recordings or reissues only through the medium of downloads, enabling you to decide (without committing shelf space) whether or not a disc is worthy of your newly cleaned-up collection?
I think I will be culling most if not all my CD's soon.
-Or have you simply said to yourself that downloading is the future, and that all else can go hang?
Downloading is now, rather than the future as far as I'm concerned. Resistence is futile 

[Montpellier]

Besides, if I ever did go 'computer', the first time my hard drive crashes and I lose my entire setup I'd be right back to buying "crashless" CD's again.

Don't even say it!  There's nothing more soul-destroying than powering up only to get a message like "unbootable root drive" or whatever it was.   Not so bad now that 8G memory sticks are available and you can back up at the end of the day.  People who compose on a computer should back their stuff up every night.  I've heard one or two sad stories.

[MN Dave]

I guess I can ask this here:

Does the loss of sound as compared to CDs in iTunes files matter as much in prewar recordings where the sound ain't so great in the first place?

Thanks, mateys.

[drogulus]

I guess I can ask this here:

Does the loss of sound as compared to CDs in iTunes files matter as much in prewar recordings where the sound ain't so great in the first place?

Thanks, mateys.

      I don't hear a loss of sound quality with files ripped at a sufficiently high bitrate. There are 2 things to consider, the sound quality of the player/headphone combination and the purported quality loss of compressed audio files. If you test the files on your main stereo you can find out where the transparency level is for you (probably where it is for everyone else) and stay above that. That leaves the player/phones. Once you know your music files are good you can choose a player/phone combo that gives you the sound you want. I think it will mostly come down to the phones and their sensitivity. If they are power hogs they may reveal weaknesses in the player output stage. That's where I would focus my concern.

[Daverz]

Re: lossless vs. lossy, I bought a 750G Seagate SATA drive on sale at Frys for $180, and it will take me a while to fill that up with flacs.  Once I do, I'll just by another one (or maybe they'll have 1.5G drives by then).   The real space problem I have is movies.  Even lossy non-hi-def divx files take up twice as much space than flacs (typically 700M to 1.4M per movie).  Straight DVD rips take up ridiculous amounts of space.

[Harry]

I have changed formats several times, so for my money I will stick to CD's. If it will be replaced by downloading, I will have a field day buying all the cd's from those people that will sell them for a pitance...
Or give away even.
Three types of audio tapes, the change from elpee to cd........it enough really.
The only permanent change for me in this life will be the DVD choice, Blue Ray, or HD, or another digital format, but nothing more other than a upgrade of my plasmascreen.

[George]

[Mark]

I have two of those already.

[George]

I have two of those already.

Yeah, I bought my fourth this week. I also have a medium size one and two smaller ones. I keep all my non-classical in there. 

[orbital]

How about this? 

[marvinbrown]

  Its been awhile since I have posted here and with good reason.  I have spent the past few weeks ripping ALL my ~450 CDs into iTunes- Apple Lossless format and have officially joined the digital technology age!  It was a very painful process, it took endless hours of work, usually in the evenings. I think at one point I just wanted to give up but the desire to join Mark, Renfield and company kept me going.  I picked Apple Lossless as I intend on buying an ipod for the time being.  I can always reconvert to other "universal" formats in the future should I choose to do so. My intention now is to put an end to my CD buying habits! 
  I want to start buying digital music.  During the past couple of days I have started investigating e-music, iTunes, DG and Naxos websites.  I discovered a few gems in e-music like the Bach Suzuki Cantatas but e-music work on a monthly subscription basis only if I am not mistaken.  Since I only buy a handfull of CDs every other month, I will have to readjust my purchase habits accordingly to take full advantage of a monthly subscription scheme.  iTunes has the issue with DRM but from what I have been reading that can be circumvented, DG is quite pricey for my taste but it is my favorite label.  I just wish that here in the UK amazon.co.uk would follow along the lines amazon.com and start offering the option of purchasing mp3 files. Anyway I will report back once I have made up my mind.

  marvin     

[Mark]

How many is a 'handful', Marvin? If you chose eMusic's lowest package (30 tracks per month for £8.99), you'd be averaging 3-4 CDs - maybe more - each month.

[marvinbrown]

How many is a 'handful', Marvin? If you chose eMusic's lowest package (30 tracks per month for £8.99), you'd be averaging 3-4 CDs - maybe more - each month.

  Yes 3-4 just about covers it.  But I am also thinking along other lines as well.   That £14.99  also sounds very attractive for a short term subscription (a few months) only as I am interested in a lot of the Bach Suzuki Cantatas on offer. I am also after all of Brahms Piano Trios (I have been seduced by D minor's Brahm's Brewpub thread  ) and I am missing Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" and "Trout", and a handfull of other masterpieces including some of R. Strauss' orchestral works, Tchaikovsky's the "Storm" not to be confused with his the "Tempest" and so on.  If I go down the road of £14.99 I'll have to capitalize on the benefits of that deal (75 tracks is a lot) and economically it seems to make more sense for what I want to acquire in the short term). My listening will fall behind schedule but why pay more tommorrow when you can get a good deal today! Let's see what happens. 

  marvin   

[Mark]

Well, I seem to have settled on a plan for the future of my collection ... at least, for the next 12 months.

With no new physical CDs coming in, I'll be able to concentrate my listening and really get to grips with the huge backlog of unheard music that lines my shelves. And to avoid creating a virtual backlog of listening, I've pulled a little stunt over at eMusic - something I've done in the past, actually. Basically, you go through the procedure of cancelling your subscription (not suspending it, mind, but cancelling it), and as soon as you get past the initial cancellation screen, they offer you the otherwise-unadvertised eMusic Lite subscription package: £5.99 for 15 downloads a month for three calender months, then up to the £8.99 for 30 downloads a month Basic package. This will serve me well until at least the middle of 2008, and should prevent me from amassing too much more music that I can't find time to hear. Come next July, I'll whack the subscription back up to 100 downloads a month for £19.99, and catch up with CDs I've added to my eMusic wishlists, but not yet downloaded.

On the subject of wishlists, my eMusic 'Save for later' list has been hacked in two, with now only 50 items on it. And I've created two new lists - one for interesting things I see reviewed in magazines, the other for 'core' repertoire items that I'll want to download at some stage. As for Amazon, my classical wishlist is no more. I see no point in adding to it for now, as I'll just get tempted to buy things. However, I do plan one final 'raid' on Castle Classics before the year is out, just to grab about six or seven CDs which will complete a few series' I've already begun collecting. After that, it's listening time, big time.

[AnthonyAthletic]

.

[MN Dave]

For the iTunes Users:

How do you shut off the damned "Determining Gapless Playback Information" function that boots up every damned time you finish ripping a disc to iTunes? That thing drives me bonkers.

[marvinbrown]

Well, I seem to have settled on a plan for the future of my collection ... at least, for the next 12 months.

With no new physical CDs coming in, I'll be able to concentrate my listening and really get to grips with the huge backlog of unheard music that lines my shelves. And to avoid creating a virtual backlog of listening, I've pulled a little stunt over at eMusic - something I've done in the past, actually. Basically, you go through the procedure of cancelling your subscription (not suspending it, mind, but cancelling it), and as soon as you get past the initial cancellation screen, they offer you the otherwise-unadvertised eMusic Lite subscription package: £5.99 for 15 downloads a month for three calender months, then up to the £8.99 for 30 downloads a month Basic package. This will serve me well until at least the middle of 2008, and should prevent me from amassing too much more music that I can't find time to hear. Come next July, I'll whack the subscription back up to 100 downloads a month for £19.99, and catch up with CDs I've added to my eMusic wishlists, but not yet downloaded.

On the subject of wishlists, my eMusic 'Save for later' list has been hacked in two, with now only 50 items on it. And I've created two new lists - one for interesting things I see reviewed in magazines, the other for 'core' repertoire items that I'll want to download at some stage. As for Amazon, my classical wishlist is no more. I see no point in adding to it for now, as I'll just get tempted to buy things. However, I do plan one final 'raid' on Castle Classics before the year is out, just to grab about six or seven CDs which will complete a few series' I've already begun collecting. After that, it's listening time, big time.

  Mark looks like you got this whole thing figured out!  But please let us know how you find those recordings you will be listening to throughout the Spring of 2008  .

  marvin

[Mark]

But please let us know how you find those recordings you will be listening to throughout the Spring of 2008  .

  marvin

Count on it.

Comparative listening is something I plan to do more of - I have enough versions of so much music, I'll not go 'hungry'.

[MN Dave]

I figured out from reading this thread that I can join tracks from a CD if I wish. What are the advantages of doing this? Thanks, folks.

[orbital]

I figured out from reading this thread that I can join tracks from a CD if I wish. What are the advantages of doing this? Thanks, folks.

I guess the obvious pro would be to have no gaps for mp3 players that do not have this feature (such as joining the final two movements of Beethoven's op131 makes sense that way), the downside is it will be hard to switch to separate tracks when (and if )you want to.