Continuing with CDs?

Bah. I suck at this.

damn fine looking wall of discs there, love to see it

I had a similar set-up for awhile, possibly the same exact number of shelves too, but due to various reasons, I had to toss the shelves (all damaged anyway) and replace them with revolving towers. I miss the wall of music though, I was hoping to one day put in better shelves (like after settling down and buying a home) and having an audio-visual equivalent to those impressive home libraries I'd see in some of the fancy brownstones I'd pass by at night (always prominently displayed in the large, well-lit ground floor windows).

A most excellent CD, rug and cat combo.

Sorry you lost your shelves. I actually never had my CDs on shelves, between leaving my childhood home at 18 and last year at 41--moved too often, and never had a spare wall for them. And it took me a long time to find sturdy, deconstructable/movable shelves. I even designed my own and tried to commission a cabinet maker to build them (he flaked out). So for all those years they basically got ripped and immediately boxed up.

Sort of sad that by the time I actually had space, stability, and found shelves--I'd basically gone to 97% digital purchases on Bandcamp. Probably bought fewer than two dozen CDs each the last three years--not long before, would've been hundreds a year. But then again, there's room for literally about 30 more CDs on the shelves--so maybe it was time.

If I continue with CDs any further, I'll probably have to start instituting a one-in-one-out policy.

(Getting perilously close to filling up the blu-ray shelves, too--which I've had a huge resurgence of buying in the last two years, replacing dozens of old DVDs and buying probably 200+ more, after getting a UST 4K projector because the apartment had a 17' high blank white wall and I just had to...)

I've had a huge resurgence of buying in the last two years, replacing dozens of old DVDs

Been doing the same. But they all go in binders and I file the booklets (which given what I normally buy means I have a lot of good ones) in a bookcase.

Yeah, I'm in a similar boat with DVD's though now UHD's are complicating things! I was upgrading too many things that to make things cost effective, I had to start weeding out titles - like, do I really want to keep this and continue upgrading or just drop it from the library? It gets annoying with the large box sets where you have to buy films you weren't planning to but otherwise must in order to acquire the rest.

wow that is some wall

great looking cat too

going to be visiting NYC from UK in april - where's the best spots for CD shopping?

Academy on W. 18th

Yeah definitely Academy, ESPECIALLY if you're looking for classical, that selection of CD's is pretty enormous. Outside of classical music, they still have a good selection of CD's, but it's kind of sad that's as good as it gets in NYC now - Amoeba in Los Angeles probably has 100 times the selection, and virtually any Newbury Comics in any suburb of Massachusetts will be even greater too.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, NYC is definitely not a destination stop for CD shopping. Definitely is for vinyl though.

book-off midtown https://www.bookoffusa.com/bookoff-49-w-45th-ny-store/

they've got lots of CDs, probably not the super rare stuff but also better than your average thrift store

https://s3-media0.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/Js4Y6NavKn9vdx3MVLY2nw/o.jpg

If all these rumors I'm seeing about vinyl prices about to skyrocket in the next year or so, I wonder if the CD renaissance will be sooner than people expected.

lol I hope so, then I can sell them

Saw this story from earlier this month about Canadian labels, can't imagine this wouldn't also impact US prices:

Independent music stores shared the heartless news Wednesday that major record labels like Universal Music Canada and Warner Music Canada are increasing their prices for vinyl albums two days after Valentine’s Day.

“So, Universal, Warner (and likely Sony soon) are all raising their prices considerably over the next month,” Ottawa music store Vertigo Records shared on Instagram Wednesday afternoon.

“We always keep out prices low, but will have to adjust,” the store added. “The major labels need to get every last drop of blood from that stone. Sorry!”

I live in the Boston area, and the CD stock at the Newbury Comics stores has seriously shriveled over the last few years, to make way for more vinyl and tchotchkes. Like, the entire CD section now is typically about 8' wide, including all genres.

Yeah, seems like it's happening to so many chains. The few Barnes and Nobles that still even have a music section are increasingly turning space over to vinyl. A new B&N recently opened near me and I was happy to see they still even had a CD section at all, even if it was only a 4'-0" wide stretch of shelf space. Bafflingly, however, they stocked it by jamming every inch with only the spines facing out. Hello neck pain for browsing.

Some stores still have incredible CD sections. I really loved Music Millennium in Portland when I was out there, they managed to have ample space for huge floor space for both formats.

Music Millenium is one of the last places I've found in the last 5 years to still have a good CD selection. Not long before, the Rough Trade in Brooklyn still had lots of good CDs, but I'm guessing they've gone all vinyl since moving into their smaller Manhattan space. I'm hoping Dusty Groove in Chicago hasn't gone all-vinyl... Ah, for the days when Other Music's mostly-CDs shelves weren't even the best in New York. Would be a miracle to see well-curared CD shelves, today. Guess I need to take a trip to Japan...

The Barnes & Noble near me moved from a large space to a smaller space a few hundred feet away recently. Before the move, cashiers told me that the movie/music section would not be in the new location, and that’s technically true, as the original section was a good chunk of the store (albeit one that shoppers rarely visited).

In the new space, there’s a sort of CD/vinyl shelf or wall stocked with a bare minimum of music that they know will sell, primarily Taylor Swift. But there’s also a floor to ceiling shelf that’s entirely k-pop CDs.

Haven't been to the Dusty Groove store in a few years but they still show a good number of new/used CDs on their weekly mailout. Another place in Midwest that's still great for CDs is Dearborn Music near Detroit.

Yes, Dearborn Music is absolutely amazing for CDs. My hometown! And where I first bought music (45 rpm singles) many years ago.

Silver Platters (3 locations in WA) is great for both new and used CDs, and used CDs are usually in good or great condition

going to be visiting NYC from UK in april - where's the best spots for CD shopping?

― maelin, Friday, January 20, 2023 8:25 AM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

yesterday I went to the Jazz Record Center for the first time in a few years. It's on the 8th floor of a building on W. 26th St, so it feels off the beaten path and like a bit of a time warp. mostly older folks in there. anyway i didn't look through it much but they have a decent sized CD section, mostly jazz as implied by the name. although they have new and used CDs together, which bugs me.

I think I bought a Mingus CD box set there in the mid 00s. It was really a weird setup iirc, like it's in a random old office building. Does the elevator just dump you off inside or am I making that up?

No, there's a hallway and a door into the shop. there must be other things in on the same floor.

Bought my first CD in a long time recently, tricky’s nearly god album (not on streaming) and it was only $2. A steal.

Silver Platters was where I bought my first CDs when I was a Seattleite. Happy to hear they're still extant.

although they have new and used CDs together, which bugs me.

There was a point where that bugged me, but at this point I actually prefer things this way, as long as they do a good job of delineating new and used CDs at a glance. Especially since more and more people started dumping their CD collections, I'd prefer to only have to look in one location for, say, all of the Miles Davis they have, new and used. The best stores will have like a "Miles Davis" divider, then a sub-divider within between the new and used product.

Recently bought a new CD for the first time in like 10 years or more I think. Was very nostalgic...

I inherited one of those little Bose CDs players recently and hooked in up in my office. More enjoyable than headphones for me. Sounds better than it looks.

Re: NYC: just remembered Westsider Records on W. 72nd - they're definitely CD-heavy. Might be worth calling ahead to check on genre.

In October I sold early my entire record and CD collection to a store for 12 grand. It’s paying for my wedding, but I can’t lie it stings a little. But my collection was becoming a burden rather than a joy and moving was the last straw. I’m happy with less, I am convincing myself. It’s like mourning a pet.

in my will i am going to have to put an apology clause re my cd collection for my lads.
i am like a secret hoarder, with boxes and boxes hidden all over the house/attic so that they are not on display to the casual visitor.
there are a lot of of special/$$ cds throughout the collection but i know that they will just dump the lot.
that said, i have put my FAX collection into a special box and explained the situation.

Crazy to look at 30 years, all in one spot:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fm2txKeXEAAx5st?format=jpg&name=large

My wife and I live in a wide-open loft apartment, so it's super cool of her to be open to letting my CDs dominate an entire wall.

― Soundslike, Thursday, January 19, 2023 7:24 PM (one week ago)

Another box of about 150 more showed up, somehow separated from the other 8 boxes my folks sent with the last of my CDs, and messed up the whole shelves, because I had room for about +/- 30 more. So piled as many more small box sets as I could on the top. Bit stilleans I'm going to have to get rid of maybe 80 to 100... First cull I'll have done since my early 20s...

I'll probably just try giving them away to the one shop in all of Rhode Island that still sells CDs. Combined with the doubles I already culled out, bound to be some really good stuff.

For any nerds who like lookey-louing through other people's collections (like I do), here are all my CDs (well, minus the 150 that showed up yesterdsy and the hundred-odd that seem to have gone missing)

https://www.twitter.com/musicophiliamix/status/1616208899887230976

my physical collection is much smaller (according to discogs it's like 600 pieces which sounds surprisingly big) but i was still able to cut a couple hundred off a few years ago pretty easily by feeling confident about what I really don't need to hear ever again (but could via the internet anyways). Do you miss some things you got rid of in your 20s cull.. or am I missing the point?

I think I still love most of the music I've ever loved, but I dunno, some detritus builds up. And it's not as if I'm only hanging onto the alll time faves, that would be boring

Weirdly enough, I ran across an email from 2005 with a list of the CDs I sold at the time (partly to fund a move across country) and yeah, there were a good number I would've liked to still have. Looking through last night to begin culling and honestly there weren't a lot I could readily identify as chaff from the wheat, or "detritus". Since I have almost everything ripped and don't actively pull out the CDs to play, it's all a bit abstract, I guess.

But I like not culling the music based on my taste at a given time--I tend to find that many things return to personal relevance at some later date (for example, recently reconnected with a Geoff Farina album I would likely have jettisoned at 25 in my anti-indie zeal, if it'd sold for the $3 I was asking; found it clean and affecting, now). So now I'm eying to cull a lot of 2010s neo-post-punk that leans more "darkwave" or Joy Divisiony, as even the original era post-punk of that flavor was never my favorites. But imagine in 10 or 20 years they might speak to me more.

All very 1st world "problems," obviously. But I find collecting music is like collecting versions of ourselves over time, and I'd prefer my collection not just reflect my current self, but the sum total, the detours and cull du sacs included.

I had a habit of buying used LPs that I kinda liked rather than new ones that I knew I liked, so I have a lot of mildly appreciated LPs that I should get rid of now (Swedish death cleaning idea). But I have a lot of stuff that I don't like so much now but loved when I was younger that I want to hang on to, for the same reason - that was "me" way back then.

And same with CDs, since is the CD thread.

You are not a curator for music you MIGHT like one day.

Try not to be a completist and be honest about what you love and what is merely a hole filled, and ditch that.

Or just keep it all and replace the jewel cases with folding plastic sleeves, you'll double your rack space.

To each their own, I'd say re: curation of a library.

I don't have anything in my collection I don't at least "like," that I don't see something of value in. Certainly, the vast majority is a lot more than that. But certainly I've never seen a music collection--or life, generally--as something to whittle down to only the most rarified. I want to experience a much fuller gamut, even as of course I build within the broader library a collection of most favorites. But it all adds to the sum, for me.

And I have to say, I don't get those mylar sleeve things at all. Whatever aesthetic value there is to a bunch of CDs on shelves comes from the patwork tapestry of colors their spines present, no?

if you have the space, yes.

mine are in two rotating towers, four other waist high towers against two different walls and two head height towers behind the bedroom door and split up like this you don't get the same effect

Having recently moved house for the first time in many years, and now on the cusp of moving again (this time overseas), I've decided to give the CD collection a trim round the edges. I pulled out around 450 from a total of 2500 or so, and am in the process of flogging them off as we speak. Almost none of them are actually bad, they're just not things I'm too likely to play again and are often discs I randomly picked up in charity shops or when I was out and in a buying mood. Either that or records I liked when I was in my 20s and I've moved on in one way or another.
The collection looks far more pleasing to me now as a result! So sorry Nels Cline/Violent Femmes/Secret Chiefs 3/Edgar Broughton Band/Shiva Burlesque/bunch of free jazz, 2nd division Krautrock and remnants of the late 90s post-rock phase etc etc, but I can probably live without you. Harsh but fair. Also surprisingly profitable!

re: collecting and culling: I think a lot about the standard posed in an ILX post by (i think) scott seward), where you only keep things that when you pull them out and look at them, you immediately go "what a great album." thing is, i enjoy way too many mediocre albums, or albums with a few songs i love enough to tolerate some middling-but-charming album tracks in between. i like getting into artists, quickly or over years, and getting to know their less-than-great material. part of the fun and the journey.

so long as you have the space, keeping things that you might only listen to a few more times in your life seems okay to me; in the grand scheme, the space devoted to retaining a particular LP or CD isn't closing off that many avenues in your life. so long as you have the space!

i think the trickiest stuff is where i really haven't listened to something in ages, not sure i really would like it all that much if i did again, but feel some kind of 'loyalty' to it, either because i loved it back in the day, or wanted to love it back in the day, or saw the band live on that tour, or whatever. this is where Konmari standards probably should come into play - it's not sparking joy, so thank the item for what joy it once brought you, and send it on its way. easier said than done. i've done some rounds of filling the 'upcoming listening' rack with stuff i'm not sure i like any more, and basically being like "you better impress me this time or it's out the door with you." not sure that's the best way to listen to any album, but it's produced some purges and some surprise "oh, this is way more my jam now than it was 10 years ago!" moments.

You folks with too many CDs can mail them to me and I'll pay the shipping. I am happy to do you the favor of taking them off your hands.

I don't get those mylar sleeve things at all. Whatever aesthetic value there is to a bunch of CDs on shelves comes from the patwork tapestry of colors their spines present, no?

I completely agree, but practical reality forced my hand when we expanded the bathroom adjacent to the music room and I had to eliminate two racks worth of space. It was ditch jewel cases or ditch CDs, so I chose the former.