compactdiscjunky-blog - Tumblr blog

[compactdiscjunky-blog]

But, but why??........

I am a cd collector, and proud of it, I think!!

Up until about 1 year ago I was a vinyl collector. Records records records, I was enlightened. I saw collecting records as a way to stay in touch with the many many artists and bands I so love (we will get to my eclectic tastes later). I was going strong about 5 years into my collection and my step away from the intangible iTunes library, I had amassed a really nice collection of about 600-700 albums. Had a decent vintage Pioneer turntable and a decent vintage stereo setup under it. I’m on my way I thought.......or was I?

I realized quickly that I only listen to my records about twice a week and that ,with a full time job, wife and 2 little boys ,it’s a lot of work. I spent most of my listening time cleaning and changing records. It became inconvenient and started to become more task than relaxation. I also started to notice a big focus in my purchases became variants and value. Did I need 3 variants of the same record because of value? Wasn’t I in this for the love of music? And if it wasn’t about value and collection size,why was I constantly on Discogs.com looking at the value of my collection? The whole thing started to seem very bourgeois and in the same moment sort of off putting.

I knew I wanted a tangible medium, not just a list of files on a computer screen, something to hold,something to dig for, something that could produce a smile and that same feeling vinyl gave me when I found that sought after album , something still found in public marketplaces and 2nd hand stores. But it had to be affordable. I want to collect music not valuable pieces of paper and plastic.....reel to reel? More bourgeois than vinyl,that’s a no. Tapes? All beat, stretched and torn to shit....nope. 8 tracks? No. Then I realized, if it was about the music ,it pretty much had to be CDs.

Cheap and readily available just about everywhere! So now here I am about 1 year in with a collection of about 400 CDs. Most found at goodwill and other thrift stores,harder to find stuff paid for at a premium (premium means $8.00 instead of $1.00) at record stores and Discogs .

So here we are! This blog / tumblr will be my journey through a revival of music collecting....enjoy and let me see what you find too!