. . . just dumping a bunch, maybe most of your CDs at the used music store, or on Amazon/Half/Ebay, and buying new stuff? I'm at one of those points where I feel this tremendous need to just get rid of stuff, slough off the dead weight that I can't otherwise seem to get rid of when picking things out specifically to trade in. It feels less weird to just grab an armful (careful, of course, to leave out sentimental favorites) and get rid of them in big batches. (I have 1600 or so CDs at the moment, by the way.) We're all essentially music-freaks here - does anyone else ever go through phases like this? I'm this [] close to just doing a mass purge to the point of practically starting a new collection. As disturbing as it sounds, I sometimes wish some kind of disaster would come along and wipe out my collection (but harm no one else, of course) and I could start fresh, picking out only what's actually important to me to hear, and not being saddled with those CDs that, for whatever reason, I can't actively get rid of but will likely rarely, if ever, listen to again.

Nope. I feel the need to steal money so I can buy the CDs I actually want.

yea, but this is the time when you'll pop in something you thought you were over and it'll click again...then you'll wonder why you ever stopped listening to it in the first place

One thing I did was just to rip everything to a big external harddrive and pack all of my cds up and put them in storage. That way I don't have to decide what to get rid of, but I also don't have to worry about continually buying bigger shelves.

But yeah, sometimes I'll come to the realization that I may never listen to a past favorite (or not-so-favorite) again. There's nothing wrong with getting rid of them, man, except that if you end up deciding you want many of them back, you'll waste a bunch of money. But I'm always pro-detachment from possessions. You could also think about reworking your listening patterns by subscribing to an online service or something.

Nope, not ever. Maybe get rid of some of the extra stuff, duplicates, stuff I'll never listen to again. But "most"...? You've got to be kidding me.

All the time. I have a relatively small collection too. Probably around 300-400. But sometimes I look and think why fuck do I own those.

I'm doing it right now....

Im just getting rid of stuff that I know will never play a factor in my musical life again.

CD's that I kept out of loyalty to maintaining a complete artist catalog even if I hate the particular CD. It's gone...

Stuff I have bought over the years, but never gave true listens too..I am giving them two listens and making a choice.

Im at a point in my life where I know if something will be something I might wanna hear later on or not, or if it's something that I have no need for anymore.

My collection also is about 1800, and I hope to get it down to 1400-1500, when I'm done....

no, i'm a packrat.

I try to do that, actually, and since getting an Ipod for Christmas that's pretty much all I do. Having 6000 songs on shuffle makes for some pretty interesting combinations of music. Of course, much of this question begins with the Ipod - it's made very obvious what I listen to a lot and what means the most to me and what doesn't . . . yet I feel these weird obligations to keep things, and I'm not quite sure why. It's certainly not because I listen to them much, nor are they things of any particular sentimental value.

I have noticed that I go through these phases where I either fixate on one artist or even a genre, buy everything I can possibly find, and then just as quickly move on. Jazz has become an obvious issue - for a long time I was just buying "new" (to me) jazz CDs just to explore the genre, not because I particularly wanted the music. I have since realized that my interest in jazz as a whole is much less than I thought it was, and so I have some favorites and a lot of dead weight - all of it "great" stuff that I feel like I should love, but in essence it doesn't really mean much to me personally. It's those things that I seem to have a particularly hard time getting rid of. Maybe it's a credibility issue, I don't know - does that even make sense? I get this "what the hell is wrong with me" feeling when I get rid of, say, a Wayne Shorter disc that I know is highly regarded, yet I get nothing out of other than just the experience of listening to something new. It's exciting a couple times, then I rarely seek it out. Not that I don't ever listen to jazz, but it tends to be very specific artists - Matthew Shipp, Dave Douglas, John Zorn's Masada, Bill Bruford, but not the old masters very often (you know the names - Monk, Mingus, a billion others.) I respect them and their historical importance, and I even like what they're doing, but it just doesn't make a connecting punch with me anymore.

Reading back over this, it makes the issue look pretty stupid. Sell or give away what I don't care about, keep what I do. Duh. It just doesn't feel that simple.

I can totally understand the credibility angle. But then, maybe all that Jazz-self-education you did was always leading toward you figuring out what jazz you like and what you don't... you're probably less likely to buy an "important" rock album in a genre you don't really like, right? Jazz is important and all, but it doesn't transcend preference anymore than rock.

THAT's what I'm talking about!


This will be my new tactic. It really makes sense, yet this option had eluded me all along.


I'll be happy to know I'm down to a bunch of CDs that I can point to every one and say why I love it. Right now I'm far from that. I'm stuck at your first point - tons of things that I don't particularly care for, bought out of loyalty for the artist, curiosity about the artists' "career arc," etc. Not necessarily a habit I expect I'll get out of, but there's no need to keep stuff for the sake of completion, when I don't consider myself a true completist.

I'm starting to feel better about this . . .

Give a listen to everything you plan on getting rid of just to make sure it's really not doing it for you anymore. Don't get rid of anything that is out of print or might be tough to get again if you should change your mind.

I did a major purge about 2 years ago and with just a couple of exceptions don't regret it at all.

Made a bunch of money to get stuff I actually wanted to hear and a smaller collection just gave me the feeling that I could give more time to an album rather than (and I've said this before) make a mad dash to just listen to as much as possible.

Most people call themselves music fans as they listen to a ton of music without hearing shit.

Steve

listen well tcj.

it's awesome to go to the store to drop a bunch of dead weight and walk out with $40 worth of stuff for free that you actually want. Of course, you would probably have way WAY more monetary benefit than that of course.

your dilemma is very understandable..but remember, is the point of music to collect your eyeballs out or to have fun? if you dont need something, drop it--it's sort of hard to do but after you've done it and you have 1--less shit, 2--more space, 3--more $, and 4--a collection of music you have for the right reasons (i.e., you enjoy it and not that yr trying to "get" something that you know you don't like or prove something to yourself that you don't need to), you'll be much happier.

A word of advice, when you go through your CDs and figure out which you want to get rid of- put them away in your closet for 6 months and then go through them again. You will save yourself waking up in cold sweats for months to come (believe me)

That's good advice in general, but I think most of what I'm planning on getting rid of is stuff that hasn't been touched in years in some cases! It's probably safe to get rid of anything that hasn't been listened to, or even thought of, in the last year, and maybe even the last 6 months. Beyond that is without question: it needs to go, unless I have some particular attachment (and there's a few that I never listen to, but my collection would feel incomplete without, of course.)

i made the purge when i was sick of cds taking up a whole wall in my small apt. i decided to go for cd books and ditch the jewel cases (blasphemy, i know). it did, however, make for good weeding when i told myself that i'd never be able to sell back any cd without the jewel case. it was a good litmus test to whether or not i wanted to keep an album.

c.

never.

i will keep everything until i die and nothing will convince me otherwise. it just wouldn't be worth it if i wanted to hear that ska comp from 1997 30 years from now and i could never find it.

Be sure to post those unwanteds if you do go through with the exodus.

You know, I said kind of the same thing, except mine sounded more like, 'no', and yours sounded more like 'yes'.

I do this periodically, and only a few times have I misstepped and trashed something I later wanted back, but that's usually over a single song or 2 from an album, which I now download into a singles folder, never to worry over ridding of an otherwise useless album again.

I have maybe 3-4 times over my years of collecting regretted getting rid of a CD, i thought I was tired of.....Ya know what: I went out and rebought it. simple enough.

just wanted to re-emphasize this.

disregarding my current feelings for older stuff, there are too many memories for me to ditch 'em completely

the memories don't go away when the cd is gone. . .

I did it at the beginning of this year and I haven't looked back. My collection is smaller, but I like it much better. Burn yourself a copy of anything that you are on the fence about.

Haq- have you ever considered doing a "for sale" section here on the site as most of us could find that one person's trash might be another's treasure?