I'm not sure if this topic has been brought up before or given it's own thread, but I was talking with a friend earlier about possibly reducing my collection of CDs (incl. box sets). To those who have done this, what would you say is the best approach to take? For someone like myself, who enjoys a large collection I know it's not going to be an easy task, but I also know it has to be done in order to make room for incoming recordings and to get my collection down to a manageable size. I've really let it get out of hand and I shouldn't have let it get this far. For those who have a large collection, do you find this to be a difficult thing to have to do or should I reconsider? All suggestions/advice are welcomed and it'll be nice to hear from those who aren't hoarders. ;D
Quote from: Mirror Image on December 03, 2016, 05:52:01 AM
I'm not sure if this topic has been brought up before or given it's own thread, but I was talking with a friend earlier about possibly reducing my collection of CDs (incl. box sets). To those who have done this, what would you say is the best approach to take? For someone like myself, who enjoys a large collection I know it's not going to be an easy task, but I also know it has to be done in order to make room for incoming recordings and to get my collection down to a manageable size. I've really let it get out of hand and I shouldn't have let it get this far. For those who have a large collection, do you find this to be a difficult thing to have to do or should I reconsider? All suggestions/advice are welcomed and it'll be nice to hear from those who aren't hoarders. ;D
Is it that you don't want them or you need space? Because if it's a question of space, there are case slips and such that will take up much less space and take care of that problem. So that may be a consideration.
What to get rid of really depends on you and how you listen. For example, I know you sometimes like to compare versions, so if you get rid of some versions, will you be unhappy down the line that you can't compare it anymore? If you are only this way on a few pieces, then it's just a matter of getting rid of those you listen to less often or don't like (maybe the same).
You can do an experiment. Take some discs, put them in a box (shoe boxes are great) and stick them in a closet. If you don't take them out, you'll have your answer. it's a trial run of sorts. When I did this (mostly to make space on shelves), I discovered that there were some discs that I thought I just had to keep, but that I didn't even listen to (and didn't miss at all). Of course, your taste changes more quickly, and this is something to consider as well.
Or rent or buy a larger house as I did. Culling is nonsense, you bought them you liked them. Accept that it takes a lot of space. I did :laugh:
If you're not sure you don't want something, keep it. While Slatkin's Mahler, Norrington's Beethoven, and a conductor-no-longer-remembered's set of Tchaikovsky symphonies turned out to be music I neither listened to nor missed, I should not have gotten rid of Herreweghe's first St. Matthew Passion, Ostman's Mozart operas, or Lenny B's DG Mahler (I ended up re-buying them all). My big cull happened when I moved to a new city in the 1990s. Long story short, I got rid of too much stuff. I put too much of the obsessive energy I usually devoted to acquiring into divesting myself of stuff.
I like mc ukrneal's idea of testing your wants and needs by boxing your discs up for a while.
I have only done this to a very small extent. My CD collection is relatively modest, between 2500 and 3000, and storage space is not quite at critical levels yet. Whenever I do decide to have another go I usually end up finding myself very reluctant to part with the cull choices that I have made and they usually end up back on the shelf. Where I have had some limited success is in the area of duplicates. By this I mean that say if I have the same work and performances duplicated on a second CD but coupled with other works, I then examine these other works in order to see if these other works, and thereby a second CD, are worth keeping.
I have culled my book collection in the past and I have regretted it. Perhaps this is why I am so reluctant to do it with my music.
Quote from: Harry's corner on December 03, 2016, 07:18:01 AM
Or rent or buy a larger house as I did. Culling is nonsense, you bought them you liked them. Accept that it takes a lot of space. I did :laugh:
Well summarized,
Harry. You're in or out. No room here for timid melomaniacs. :blank: ;D
Quote from: Gordo on December 03, 2016, 07:27:22 AM
Well summarized, Harry. You're in or out. No room here for timid melomaniacs. :blank: ;D
I have about 22.000 cd's I want to keep, culling would take me 10 years or more, and no one wants them anyways.
I parted with duplicates and opera, and all kind of other crap that I inherited that was not for me, that must have been around 12.000 cd's. All gone to libraries, friends all over the world, etc...
These days I would not do that anymore, postage tripled in the Netherlands.
With time, I think I´ve learned to discern between interesting performances and not-so-interesting ones. At least concerning my own taste, that is.
The main reason for culling anything in my collection is that better versions of the music are easily found in it.
In a few cases also, because the music itself just isn´t worth keeping - normally it´s by obscure composers without much to say (like Zbinden´s modest piano works, for example).
Thanks guys for the suggestions. I'll definitely consider what all of you guys have written.
Quote from: Jay F on December 03, 2016, 07:20:14 AM...by boxing your discs up for a while.
This is easier said than done for me. I have thousands of CDs. Not an easy task to do something like this.
Quote from: Mirror Image on December 03, 2016, 07:45:45 AM
This is easier said than done for me. I have thousands of CDs. Not an easy task to do something like this.
Do you at least have everything on shelves in alphabetical (or whatever categorical pattern suits you) order?
There are several aspects to it. As someone already said, there are options for reduction of space without getting rid of discs. If one wants to cull discs one has to consider that to make any impact in a large collection one would have to get rid of quite a few. If you have 5000 discs and get rid of 100 this is only 2% and will not considerable reduce space. And the used market is usually a buyer's market so do not expect to get any recompensation beyond a buck or two for a disc (with a few exceptions but many others will be worth amost nothing).
I have sold or given away several 100 discs in the last ca. 15 years. But the majority were real dublettes when I had bought a box or newer issue of recordings I already owned. (As I wrote elsewhere I owned probably 20-30 discs from the big Rubinstein box, some of them I had already owned in another earlier issue in the 1990s, then got the newer one for different couplings or hoping for improved sound around 2000, then got the big box...)
Others were cases when I decided that I did not need so many recordings of the same music or was otherwise not so happy with them (e.g. I got rid of an earlier issue of C. Kleiber's Das Lied von der Erde, before the somewhat official disc appeared because I could not stand the sound). If it is a case of getting rid of alternative versions I usually think that I should listen to all of the candidates for culling which takes a lot of time and might end with me keeping them anyway.
But the rate at which I do this is very slow, we are talking about maybe 20 discs a year, except in special circumstances. (When I last moved 3 years ago I sold about 200 before the move). And they will often sit for years in their box before I find an opportunity to trade/sell/gift them away.
There is very little I got rid of and bought again. Right now I can think of one disc with organ music I sold at a time I did not really care for the sound of the organ and re-bought last winter when I got more interested in Bach's organ music.
Quote from: Jo498 on December 03, 2016, 09:26:50 AMI have sold or given away several 100 discs in the last ca. 15 years. But the majority were real dublettes when I had bought a box or newer issue of recordings I already owned.
I have found overall, i.e., in all types of music, that remasters don't always sound better than the original CD. Perahia's Mozart PCs come to mind. I only bought one of the remasters, but I realized immediately that for me, it was not an improvement. And I've discovered that lots of Amazon reviewers agree with me.
In my case, culling has mostly led to regret.
My current project is to copy CDs to computer (FLAC files with cue sheets) then store the CDs themselves in a more compact form. I throw away the jewel cases and only keep the CD and booklet. I just put the CD or CDs between pages of the booklet and stack them in small plastic boxes. They're only there as an ultimate backup. The CD tracks themselves (and scans of the booklets) are stored on hard disks, on internal two external so there are three independent copies.
Last time I moved I gave away almost all my LPs. I regret a few of them but not more than I can live with it. I have never significantly culled my CD collection, as I have used paper slips, small boxes and strict sorting for many years, so my experience comes from my books. I must have given away a couple thousand, in several batches. I have to wait for the right mood, it cannot be forced. Then, when in doubt about a given book, I ask myself the probability that I will read or reread it, given the alternatives on the shelf AND given the fact that with luck, I probably have around 10.000 days left to think. Cynical, but efficient. Keeps my collection down to around 25 shelf meters. Of all the books I have given away, I regret only a handful. I guess I could easily remove 30% of my CDs the same way in the first batch.
I do not try to sell, it's sunk cost.
Afterwards, it's actually a good feeling, because when one continuously removes the least interesting, the average quality increases and the gems are more visible.
But it hurts the first time!!
I must have a pretty good sense as to what CDs I'll never listen to again, since I've gotten rid of a couple hundred of them, and only regretted or re-purchased a handful.
If I'm not entirely sure I want to get rid of something, I give it one last listen, and decide based on that.
I usually take culled CDs to this place:
https://www.reckless.com/
and either trade them in for new ones, or get cash.
Quote from: Amore di Viola on December 03, 2016, 10:33:03 AM
Afterwards, it's actually a good feeling, because when one continuously removes the least interesting, the average quality increases and the gems are more visible.
Yes, that's a nice aspect of it. I view collecting as an ongoing process of experimentation and improvement.
Quote from: Jay F on December 03, 2016, 09:54:01 AM
I have found overall, i.e., in all types of music, that remasters don't always sound better than the original CD.
I more or less stopped buying newer remasterings for this reason. I got a few where the improvement was fairly obvious, often with rather early (mid/late 80s) CDs of older recordings. One example is the Callas/de Sabata Tosca. For others, e.g. the Furtwängler Schumann 4th and Haydn 88 I did A-B on decent equipment and there were slight differences but I could not decide which one sounded *better*.
But there are still several boxes I got where I had older singles to get rid of. (But buy now I tend to not buy boxes if I already have most of the stuff I want...)
I see my collection partly as a "library", so I don't care if there is some stuff I listen to only once or never. But I have certainly cut back on new recordings of the same material (usually standard rep). Of course there are some cases when I yield to temptation. And there are also fields I hardly cared about until recently where I could buy 100s of discs (but I will not).
Quote from: Mirror Image on December 03, 2016, 07:45:45 AM
This is easier said than done for me. I have thousands of CDs. Not an easy task to do something like this.
Yeah. Mookalafalas did that. I think I probably should. I sold three feet of discs recently to make space. But its a lot of time and work. But it would save a lot of space, and weight when I eventually move.
Do you know of any good storage cases? They need to store a large number of discs to be useful, I am thinking 500 a case or something of that magnitude.
ADDED I cull all the time, always have. Some of us picked wives we liked but culled, so Harry's argument does not persuade me :D
Quote from: Ken B on December 03, 2016, 02:14:49 PM
Yeah. Mookalafalas did that. I think I probably should. I sold three feet of discs recently to make space. But its a lot of time and work. But it would save a lot of space, and weight when I eventually move.
Do you know of any good storage cases? They need to store a large number of discs to be useful, I am thinking 500 a case or something of that magnitude.
ADDED I cull all the time, always have. Some of us picked wives we liked but culled, so Harry's argument does not persuade me :D
Does using the word 'cull' for both lead to an automatic disqualification? I'm thinking so.... ::)
Quote from: Thatfabulousalien on December 03, 2016, 01:07:57 PM
I have no desire to cull my music collection at this point, but then I only have little over a hundred CDs and a dozen vinyls :P
Expand I say!!! :laugh:
I agree. Expand until the # of discs reaches around 1000. Then go more slowly or start culling, because it starts getting unwieldy. (I remember when I first moved out of my parents' house at 19 my collection fitted in two shoeboxes, or maybe three, not completely sure, I might have left some discs in the room I still had at their place.)
Do you have a computer? My advice would be to invest in an external hard drive that can store up to terabytes of information and put your music on there.
that way you can get rid of some of your cds to make more space without losing any actual music.
Quote from: violadude on December 04, 2016, 04:12:12 PM
Do you have a computer? My advice would be to invest in an external hard drive that can store up to terabytes of information and put your music on there.
that way you can get rid of some of your cds to make more space without losing any actual music.
A good idea if I didn't have a collector's mentality. :)
Quote from: violadude on December 04, 2016, 04:12:12 PM
Do you have a computer? My advice would be to invest in an external hard drive that can store up to terabytes of information and put your music on there.
that way you can get rid of some of your cds to make more space without losing any actual music.
One useful precaution is to make a digital copy of any CD culled. Before I took this precaution there were times I got rid of a CD, decided I had made a mistake, bought it again, only do be reminded why I had gotten rid of it in the first place. Having the digital copy has prevented me from making he mistake of re-buying.
Start by looking at pieces you have more than 4-5 recordings of. It's unlikely that the other 65-297 versions are going to give you anything meaningful you don't have already. Choose the versions you like best and keep only them.
Donate unwanted stuff to your library; you might at least get a tax deduction. I probably have about 3000 CDs, of which perhaps 1000 are things I don't ever expect to hear again. Each year I donate a box or two of books, scores, DVDs, and CDs to my library, and only once have I regretted giving up an item. It's easy to get choked by possessions. Culling is not nonsense.
Quote from: Mirror Image on December 04, 2016, 04:13:05 PM
A good idea if I didn't have a collector's mentality. :)
Do you have enough room and enough shelves to just store your CDs on said shelves and be done with it? That's really all you need to do. George made very nice shelves for his CDs, and put pictures up in some thread. Maybe he'll see this and post them again. Very good looking setup.
Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on December 04, 2016, 06:33:19 PM
Start by looking at pieces you have more than 4-5 recordings of. It's unlikely that the other 65-297 versions are going to give you anything meaningful you don't have already. Choose the versions you like best and keep only them.
Donate unwanted stuff to your library; you might at least get a tax deduction. I probably have about 3000 CDs, of which perhaps 1000 are things I don't ever expect to hear again. Each year I donate a box or two of books, scores, DVDs, and CDs to my library, and only once have I regretted giving up an item. It's easy to get choked by possessions. Culling is not nonsense.
That's an excellent suggestion, Larry. Thank you. Now it's all a question of figuring what I want to keep vs. what I can do without.
Quote from: Jay F on December 04, 2016, 07:07:17 PM
Do you have enough room and enough shelves to just store your CDs on said shelves and be done with it? That's really all you need to do. George made very nice shelves for his CDs, and put pictures up in some thread. Maybe he'll see this and post them again. Very good looking setup.
I haven't seen George's setup. Yes, I should definitely invest in some more shelves. Also a good suggestion. Thanks, Jay.
"Don't cull me, bro."
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/06/Photo_of_Gustav_Mahler_by_Moritz_N%C3%A4hr_01.jpg)
NEVER! I have my own mini-collection outside of my dad's Mahler collection and it's not going anywhere. 8)
That's so wonderful, alien.
I'm listening to the Fischer-Dieskau part of the original M3 CD release on CBS. Four Ruckert-Lieder and Lieder Und Gesange Aus Der Jugendzeit. John, it was you who reminded me how much I like this, and it wasn't included in the subsequent Symphony Edition, or at least, not attached to M3. But tonight, I get to listen to it again. It's been years.
Quote from: Thatfabulousalien on December 04, 2016, 08:43:55 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/bl3UbjB.jpg)
Hah! Although the grammatical error is driving me crazy (not that I'm free of them either). ;D
Quote from: Jay F on December 04, 2016, 08:50:55 PMI'm listening to the Fischer-Dieskau part of the original M3 CD release on CBS. Four Ruckert-Lieder and Lieder Und Gesange Aus Der Jugendzeit. John, it was you who reminded me how much I like this, and it wasn't included in the subsequent Symphony Edition, or at least, not attached to M3. But tonight, I get to listen to it again. It's been years.
Oh yes,
Ruckert-Lieder is just marvelous. I'm actually listening to it now, too (the Gerhaher/Nagano recording). Gorgeous. Good to hear you're enjoying this music as much as I have.
Quote from: Mirror Image on December 04, 2016, 08:54:59 PM
Oh yes, Ruckert-Lieder is just marvelous. I'm actually listening to it now, too (the Gerhaher/Nagano recording). Gorgeous. Good to hear you're enjoying this music as much as I have.
Good case in point. I've got Baker/Barbirolli and Hampson/Bernstein, probably some other versions squirreled away in complete Mahler boxes. But I always turn to Baker. Would I miss Hampson if it were gone?
I find that as I get older and more intolerant/set in my ways/honest (I think it was Auden who said something like We must be honest, even about our prejudices) my collection seems to cull itself - so I've recently admitted to myself that really, I don't much like solo piano music, nor historic recordings, so out goes Kempff's Beethoven. Etc. Perhaps those sweets of sin, harmony and counterpoint, will be next, so by the age of 80 I'll be left with 6 discs of plainchant and the odd bit of Siberian throat music.
I drove to the used records store area district today and CULLED ;D three boxes - some 275 discs. And came back with half a box of unwanteds and ONE new item: Pettersson's 12th symphony on Caprice.
I feel better now :D. The CD-ologist told me she liked my selection. That's good because I still have 6 boxes to cart to the pawn shop used record store. That'll wait for next week.
Quote from: André on December 05, 2016, 03:20:23 PM
I drove to the used records store area district today and CULLED ;D three boxes - some 275 discs. And came back with half a box of unwanteds and ONE new item: Pettersson's 12th symphony on Caprice.
I feel better now :D. The CD-ologist told me she liked my selection. That's good because I still have 6 boxes to cart to the pawn shop used record store. That'll wait for next week.
Yes, we're going to be upping your dosage in due time. :)
Quote from: violadude on December 04, 2016, 04:12:12 PM
Do you have a computer? My advice would be to invest in an external hard drive that can store up to terabytes of information and put your music on there.
that way you can get rid of some of your cds to make more space without losing any actual music.
That way you can breach copyright law.
Putting your CDs in storage and listening to versions stored on computer is in many places legal. Creating your own copy and giving/selling the CD to someone else is not.
Get rid of the CD, and you have to get rid of what's on the CD. Want to keep the music? Then you have to keep the CD. Or buy a copy of the music in another format.
This is a big issue for me. I think that I fall into the 'timid megalomaniac'' category mentioned earlier in this thread. I am 'having an affair' with my CD collection, according to my wife who see's the compulsive purchasing of CDs as a mental health issue (surely not!)
Anyway I have decided to reduce my CD collection and have found it oddly therapeutic as there is a local Oxfam shop which is very keen to have classical CDs. I think that you spend the first part of your life collecting and the second part giving things away. I hope that this Taoist-type advice is helpful to you all. 8)
I am much older than MI so this approach seems right for this part of my life. It is no big deal especially as I have multiple copies of the same recordings, often at full-price, mid-price, budget and super-bargain (they all have different cover images you see - let's not go there). So, I am not going mad but I am slowly (too slowly according to my wife) reducing my CD collection. If I lived to be 100 I wouldn't have time to listen to them all anyway. My wife has also suggested that I chuck the whole lot out (many 1000s) having put them on to an 'iPod' whatever that is - but that is not going to happen. 8)
Quote from: vandermolen on December 07, 2016, 12:17:31 AM
Anyway I have decided to reduce my CD collection and have found it oddly therapeutic as there is a local Oxfam shop which is very keen to have classical CDs.
I'm relieved that "local" to you isn't "local" to me. Most of my purchasing comes from Oxfam shops - I'm sure I'd come away with loads. Culling? - fergeddit.
I am probably roughly in the middle between MI and vandermolen in age (44), have bought CDs since 1988, and I am not quite successful at reducing but somewhat successful at slower growth. One reason is that the used market is very slow, so the motivation can only be to save space, not to make any siginificant money for new purchases. It has been a buyer's market since I remember but between 2001-06 I sold about 70 discs on Ebay and I seem to recall that selling was not quite as slow then as it is now. If 50 or so culled CDs are sitting in a box for many years what is even the point of moving the not longer wanted from the main shelves to the "discard box"...? The corollary is that used CDs can often be bought very cheaply, so even if one sticks to some self-inflicted amount per month, one can sometimes get an amazing amount of discs. (Same holds for the supercheap huge boxes of new discs.)
Space is an issue for many people but one can get creative.
I recently visited a former colleague who has (I think) tens of thousands of books and was surprised to find a few shelf boards bearing Latin classics installed in the guest's bathroom (I am talking about a tiny toilet room, not a real bath)!
I have never bothered trying to sell things on eBay or Amazon. If I don't want something, I simply chuck it in a box and take it to my public library. I once tried selling things here on GMG but decided the packing and shipping weren't worth the bother. December is naturally the ideal time to get busy on culling and donating, so I can claim my deductions on this year's tax return. My library either adds the things to its own location or puts them out on a sale shelf. I'll probably just spend a few hours before year end going through my shelves and boxing those things I can no longer imagine wanting.
Those who want to claim a US tax deduction should be aware that unless you itemize deductions, you get no tax benefit. And the larger the dollar amount you deduct, the more likely the IRS will want documentation. Just because you bought a CD for $15, you can't deduct $15. More like $1. But overall I find that claiming $300-400 in non-cash charitable donations on Schedule A is a safe bet. If you go over $500 you need another form and more precise documentation.