i think every music lover has this fantasy
that at some point, somebody like questlove-- a known musical encyclopedia
will come to the crib and eye the music collection.

and then, he'll look at an album you have and say, "wow, you're up on THIS? impressive."

that's not a thing that actually happens,
but I think subconsciously, as a collector, you think about dumb shit like that.
when i lurked on this forum in college, i used to think things like...
"yeah, i know soul music better than most of my peers,
but what if AFKAP or Scorpion saw my collection and noticed i couldn't talk intelligently about ____ . Oh no, i need to be up on more music."

so partially because i was interested in all genres of music,
and partially because i wanted to be able to show off...
i started digging.

i went through every list of "best rock albums ever."
i bought those records. i listened even though i didn't get it right away.
i wanted to feel what other people heard when they heard those records.
and then, something happened.

i remember the album that triggered it-- Hendrix's "axis: bold as love".
his playing was more than loud. it was; soulful. Tender.
i heard something i could latch onto in that music
that i could say, "yes... *I* can feel this."
not based on what i heard someone say.
based on what i FELT.

so then i compulsively tracked down every classic rock album i could find.
discovered a lot of great music.
even started in on different genres like jazz and punk and hip hop.


so my music collection was massive.
i was proud.




but then my roommate said, "but when will you have time to listen to all that stuff?"
i froze in my tracks because i hadn't thought about it before he said that.
but he was right. if i listened to music for 18 hours of the day,
i STILL couldn't get through my entire collection in a year.
that assumes i listen to every album once. never revisiting favorites,
never giving albums a chance to sink in.

he noted that there were probably albums i hadn't listened to in years.
but I still had them in my collection.
he was right.

then he said "isn't looking at albums you DON'T wanna hear again kinda depressing?"
he was right again.

so i did something drastic.
i sold most of my collection.
i decided i needed no more than 4 crates of albums at a time.
that's enough room to hold all of your old favorites
and still have a library of stuff you're interested in, but haven't delved into.
it's enough i browse your music collection and still find something new.



so from that point on, i never kept more than 4 crates of albums.
I discovered the joy of stumbling across a record you USED to love
in a record bin, and being able to be reminded of the MEMORY of a great album
instead of having it at home, looking at it, and realizing yet again that you
don't want to play it.


fast forward to now.
at this point, i have an intentionally incomplete music collection.
it doesn't look like a top __ albums of all time ever list.
it's seemingly scattershot.
a tune i like from a classic album here,
an unreleased demo there.


but still, sometimes you want to hear a song from WAY back in the day,
some song from an album you heard long ago,
but you don't want to buy the album again, because the will remind
you that you've heard the album too many times to justify buying.









enter spotify.



i am over here listening to Diana Ross album cuts
that i forgot existed.

no, i don't want to buy a damn copy of "The Boss."
but I can access it, look back on how dope the track is,
and then move on with my life.



that's the advantage of spotify.
it lets me access whatever without having the burden of looking
at a physical copy of an album i don't want to look at or even download.



i had these thoughts, and this place is litterally the only place in the world
that could possibly relate.

that's why I typed all of that.
i feel better now.

From leaving it running all day as I downloaded albums from soulseek.

I think it's just a general compulsion to collect things. Kind of related, but not exactly the same as, Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I just got finished with a three or four month period of that with buying guitars.

I think it was k_orr who said something on here years ago to the effect that one thread that runs through a lot of nerd/geek culture is the compulsion to collect shit: CD's, books, guitars, cameras, etc.

1. I agree.

2. I first met my current BFF after I dug through his CD collection when he wasn't at home and picked out my faves to play. His roomie, my coworker, had invited me over. The BFF saw that I'd picked out HIS faves and had to meet me bc no one had done that. We had an immediate kinship we discovered via his CD collection. That's the closest I've come to the moment you described.

Note: the BFF had a copy of the Sign o' the Times tour book and I almost lost my mind and had to know more about him bc I thought he had seen that show in person and I was thoroughly jealous. It turned out he didn't see the show and bought the book when he worked at a record store. Still him having that book was shocking bc I hadn't ever seen it and had wanted to.

fuck you.

>i think every music lover has this fantasy
>that at some point, somebody like questlove-- a known musical
>encyclopedia
>will come to the crib and eye the music collection.
>
>and then, he'll look at an album you have and say, "wow,
>you're up on THIS? impressive."

Never mind ?uest (If ?uest or people like that wanted to hang out at The People's Flat, I would be honored), but folks that pass through have a habit of mentioning that. "The CD Collection".

I'm not quite where you are with the "access". In a way the whole digital music generation has made it easier for me to reference something I need to talk about (for example, on this site -- I can zero-in to the song I want to listen to, listen to it, make mental notes, etc). If I were on a podcast where we discussed these things I think that it would be useful.

I'm OK with my collection being "incomplete". There are a few artists I'm interesting in being more "completist" (Cameo being one of them) but I'll wait until it becomes less cost-prohibitive.

I spent middle school and high school buying, collecting, hoarding CDs. I spent college and the immediate aftermath of college buying, illegally downloading, collecting MP3s and transferring them to bigger and bigger iPods as my collection grew. I spent countless hours editing my iTunes music folder so that all the music was titled in a uniform fashion, all album covers were downloaded so they'd show up on my iPod when I played them, and all albums were in the correct and full order.

So when Spotify came out, I was apprehensive and hesitant to jump on board because I was almost pissed that all the time I had spent collecting all this music and editing fucking song titles and album titles may have been a waste.

Then, Life is Good by Nas dropped and I hadn't had a chance to download it or go out and buy it, so I listened on Spotify.....

...and my music life changed for the better. I still download music to my iPod for nostalgia's sake and because, shit, I've still only used like 25% of that thing's capacity and it's something of a life challenge at this point to try and fill it before I croak. Plus, Spotify has almost served as a worthy iPod companion in that, I can listen to albums I may have otherwise ignored in the past because I didn't want to spend the money on it in fear that I wouldn't like it, then decide whether or not it deserves to be on my iPod.

And, as you touched on, it's a fantastic way to revisit music I wouldn't otherwise care to own or spend time downloading/editing in full album form. It's an easy way to make playlists for any and all occasions. It's all in all an amazing product and I'm glad I finally joined the revolution.

I've since paid for the Spotify Deluxe or whatever it's called and saying it's worth it is an understatement.

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"Fuck aliens." © WarriorPoet415