I thought it might be interesting to know how many CD's (approximately ) each of you own. You can also estimate cassette tapes and vinyl.

I have about 70 Cd's, about 100 cassette tapes, and about 50 records -- almost all of it's jazz or cjazz.

Aprox. 600+ cd's, 400+ cassettes and 100 lp's. I had more lp's but sold all my non-jazz stuff to a Pro DJ due to not having enough room in my small apt.(at the time). (Yeah, I'm still kicking myself in the @$$ over that one). Even got rid of my Pioneer speakers (huge, 15" woofers, etc.)Sigh!!

I'm about where you're at, bward, except don't have that many cassettes.

I used to have tons of 45's, got them at the local dimestore for 77 cents each! My mom sold most in a rummage sale.

Got rid of all the LP's, 45's, cassets and 8-tracks years ago. Have around 600 cds at the moment. I had hit 900+ at one point but had to unload some when a found myself among the unemployed a year or so ago. The collection is 90 per cent jazz of one kind or another with a few rock things mixed in. Most of rock is of the greatest hits variety.

At one time I had well over 1000 LPs but lack of space and the fact that I could only take so much of Herman's Hermits, Buckinghams, Peter and Gordon ect. I have been kicking myself for giving up all my Beatle LP's however, should have kept those.

I carried this one over from the thread on Contemp Jazz General that LLB aka Laura started called "How Do You Not Overplay a C.D." or something like that....is that where you got the idea, Brent? Here it goes....

I have like 400 C.D.'s, 200 tapes and about 400 L.P.'s...when I get bored, I pull out something I haven't heard in AGES and get into it like it was still the newest thing in my collection. Or, if I don't want to do that, I turn on my DirecTV satellite dish and cruise the selection of music and tune in something good (I have like 18 or so different channels). Just a suggestion, sure beats the hell out of MOST radio these days, smooth jazz one's or not! ( I think I seriously need a whole room of a house for my music collection. I saw something on VH-1 once on Elton John and his mansion in France had one!) I want one of those for Christmas-LOL! yeah right, in my DREAMS!

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Anita Bonita

Tapes, probably less than 100. That, of course, is not counting tapes I recorded music onto.
Vinyl, there may be a 45 or two in there and well over 100 LPs. I'm not really sure anymore as they never get played. (Something about having a constantly broken stylus and an entertainment system in a room where everybody congregate keeps me from using it.)
CDs? Heck I lost count after the first 200. Let's see. There are 14 in the CD stack at my computer; about 50 stacked on a shelf at my computer printer stand (not counting software); another 50 or 60 in the crate-like rack on the floor next to the computer. That's just in my bedroom.
Call it 115.
24 in my bag, for a subtotal of 139.
In the living room, and this is all quess-work:
30 in the mobile CD rack on the floor; 40 in the fixed CD rack on the entertainment center; between 30 and 40 in the entertainment center cabinet.
Call it 105 for a sub-subtotal of 244.
Finally, there's a box in storage that has - guessing again - 60.
So rounding it off, I'd say there's 300. This may be a conservative estimate. (Guess I need to take inventory. Darn you, bward.)
Oh, and I got 8 more coming in from BMG.

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Woody
jazzwriter23@yahoo.com

I'm embarassed to admit it, had to look it up, 1796 CDs, catalogued in a database. I have been thinking about a special wall sized rack for them because they're stuffed into 4 racks which hold 525 CDs each.

I can index by artist, title, song, label, instrument, genre, year, and some are cross catalogued for solo artist from a band type efforts. Some of my genres are what you'd expect like Blues, Traditional Jazz, Jazz Vocal, Contemporary Jazz, Pop, Dance. But then there are the genres for Psychedelic 70's rock, Southern Rock, 80's hair bands, indie music and the like.

That's what happens when you're a geek.

PS. I burnt my vinyl and tapes onto CD, so now I only have about 50 LPs.

[This message has been edited by Kat (edited February 26, 2002).]

I've got, you ready for this...?

About 45 CD's!

Well, I'm young. I also hardly have any money, what can I say...

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apmkk@hotmail.com
Japop Radio = the best upbeat contemporary jazz on the net @ japop.iscool.net

[This message has been edited by apmkk (edited February 26, 2002).]

First let me say that I was never really a music FANATIC until I discovered jazz, which hasn't even been 10 years yet. Before that, I had maybe 20 or 30 or so vinyl albums from my early "rock" days.

I'm now up to about 170 CDs, which are 99% jazz. The only cassettes I have are compilation tapes I made from some of my CDs, so I could have a variety to listen to at work. I think there are about 30 of those.

You guys with the 600 of this and 400 of that...can you imagine how much money you must've put into those collections??? You wanna send ME some of that $$$??

WHOA, KAT!! Just read YOUR post!! Almost 1800 CD's?? You must be either very wealthy, or extremely broke!!



[This message has been edited by smjzzfan (edited February 26, 2002).]

Well...I wish that I was wealthy! let's just say that CD purchasing is part of my weekly budget. And I'm lucky enough to get freebies here & there. I replaced much of my vinyl collection thru the years and what I couldn't buy, I converted to CD for myself.

Once I did the math and scared myself for how much I had acquired thru the years. I had to re-do my inventory for my homeowner's policy to include my CDs & audio equipment.

This is a safer hobby than the black boot collection that I had going. it doesn't affect my wallet as much.

Black boots?? Now, why would this be safer?? Hate to ask, but just how many pairs of black boots did you have, Kat??

Should we be worried about you??

Kat...I hope they're not military style boots...(not that there's anything wrong with them )...just kidding.

apmkk...dont worry dude...but you have to be proud of your Internet streaming station.

[This message has been edited by Joel (edited February 26, 2002).]

nah Donna,not wealthy and broke,yes, but not because of my music collection. I've been collecting most of my music since I was a teen and I'm 41 now,so this is YEARS of collecting this stuff ( and yes, due to being EXTREMELY broke to the extent of not being able to pay rent or eat, I've had to sell a few music collections-mostly L.P.'s and a long time ago, to be able to get by-man, those still haunt me,some of that stuff I can no longer get on any kind of playable medium, but sadly, life goes on! ) Started a lot of my early C.D. collecting through BMG and Columbia House.Now that's where you can start collecting a lot very quickly for very little money!

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Anita Bonita

The cds have been acquired over 14 years of collecting, so if you do the math, that's about 125 - 130 cds per year or at least 11 per month. At the beginning, there weren't a lot to buy (remember the stores still caried vinyl & cassettes). There were a few years that I acquired at a faster rate. And I picked up the pace when I started converting my vinyl to cds on my own. So, it's all cumulative.

As for the black boots, I always wore boots when I was on stage - and even though I don't play anymore, the habit stayed with me. I looked in the closet and counted 16 pairs, including a pair of platform boots from the mid 70's and a pair of over the knee black suede boots from the late 70's. One pair is military style Doc Martens. I have granny boots, platform booties, soft leather booties, boots for long skirts, stiletto boots. And I never get rid of them. The problem with the boots is that I abandon all reason when it comes to the price, so my budget becomes an endangered species.

Well, I'm not showing off here but i have 1,200 LP'S and 1000-Something CD'S.

Still have like 200 cassettes that soon i will get rid of and some "collector's item" 8 tracks.

Lots of music for the soul!!!!

Eril.

Well if we're counting 'self-burned' cd's, then add maybe 300 to my 600 and I'm close to Kat!! And I still have several downloaded cd's yet to burn. By the way, did anyone notice that Morpheus/Kazaa has now gone to a subscription service?? Now am using Bearshare and WinMX.

Hey Kat it is a relief to know that I am not the only one going to such measures. Have not gotten to your size yet, but I am working on it! I have been working on indexing my since before Christmas, but it is the only real way to keep track of everything. Been a gas because I listening to things that I have not played in years.

Hmmm . . . CD's . . . How Many?

Probably around 500. Actually my purchasing habits have declined in the past two years, but there was a time when I was in "maximum-CD-buying" mode. I discovered that I had missed out on a lot of great recorded music in the '70s and '80s, and this triggered that mode. Most of my CD collection has been acquired in the '90s and primarily been a "mining" process.

Raised on so-called straight-ahead jazz and broadening out into fusion and c-jazz, my CD collection is probably 40% SA jazz and 60% contemporary. The reason for this is the discovery of Spyro Gyra, Pat Metheny, Yellowjackets, Rippingtons, Dave Weckl, Tribal Tech, New York Voices, and a host of others.

So much music ... so little time ...

About 100 cd's, 100 cassettes and 200 albums.

I recycle my cd's. I get depressed when I drop $18.00 for a lame cd. Then I relive that depression when I trade that perfectly good cd in for like 3-4 dollars store credit. But I am the opposite of a pack rat. My motto is it doesn't get used, played, played with or worn it gets tossed after a year or two.

Well, I'm a little north of Kat's #s with 2,346 cds. I have whittled my vinyl collection down to about 250 but don't play them anymore. I had 50-60 cassetts but gave those away since I have a cd player in the car and at the office.

Yes, this looks like a lot of $$$ but like Kat I have been collecting for some time (since 1982). As a matter of fact, I had over 200 cds before purchasing my first cd player. In one of my prior lifes, I use to be a counsultant to the Audio Trade and got some great deals on Sheffield Labs, MFSL, Telarc, DA and more during the Audio shows. Another lucky break for me was a guy I knew who had over 5,000 cds decided to get rid of about half his collection in 1992, so I picked up most of the fusion and rock part of my collection for an average of $3.00/cd. Then in 1996 the local Smooth Jazz Radio station in western MI changed its format so I got a lot of the station's cds for $2.00/cd.

So when you take those out of my collection it drops down by about 50%. As a matter of fact, when GRP dumped a lot of their stuff four years ago I bought duplicates of what I had for my younger (by 10 years) brother's collection at $1.99/cd. I had picked up some for him when I purchased them from the radio station. So his jazz collection mushroomed in two years.

For those just starting out in their collection, the internet is a frugal person's dream come true. I see so much music out there at reasonable prices.

Kat, I also have my cds in a data file but not to the extent that you do. Once you go past 600 cds and age 40 I found that I had to have them in a data file because I forgot which ones I had. In addition, due to storage issues, I purchased "slim line double" jewel cases and paired up cd titles by the same artist. So if an artist puts out more that one cd, and most do, I can save 50% space in my storage rack.

Happy listening.

Oops! Make that 307.
I forgot my bag holds 30 CDs ... First, I counted the divider slots but not the open space at the front part of the bag; then I failed to account for the two slots that were unoccupied because I one CD was in the player and another I had out because the cover arts was being scanned for use with my review of Tom Schuman's CD. Plus, I had another CD to get a photo from its liner. So that's 7 more than last night's estimate.

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Woody
jazzwriter23@yahoo.com

Hey, thanks Joel!

I keep tring to make the station better. Someday I will have more CD's, but not until I get something more than my 'wonderful ' part-time job.

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apmkk@hotmail.com
Japop Radio = the best upbeat contemporary jazz on the net @ japop.iscool.net

[This message has been edited by apmkk (edited February 27, 2002).]

Dave & lngbruno2,

I had to resort to Microsoft Access for the cd catalog project, so I could index on the content (artist, year, title, label, song, rating etc). Anita remembers when I finally got around to the project last year because I was discovering things that I forgot I had. Or I would see the liner notes and start looking at the pictures again. And yes, I had doubles & triples, because I would forget what I had - so the database helps.

I was lucky enough to get freebies from various sources which helped the total.

And I have some real clunkers in there, many of then gifts from friends. Like Color Me Badd, Bell Biv Devoe & Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch, which get the "clunker" rating. I know a lot of folks like Yanni & Jim Brickman, but the effect on me was pure valium, so that's the rating. I also have a "bubbly" rating for boy "bands", Britney Spears & Jane Monheit. It's my database and I figure it should be rated for my ears, the intention is not to force an opinion on anyone.

Well, here's some bad news I just found posted on another site...I certainly had never heard anything about CDs going BAD before!

http://twcny.rr.com/technofile/texts/cddestruct90.html

[This message has been edited by smjzzfan (edited February 27, 2002).]

I've got about 400 CD's, 400-500 Vinyl LP's, about 200 45's, 200-300 Cassettes, and I even have ONE 8-track, not that I have anything to play that in, it's just a collector's piece or a conversation starter.

And please, let's not get started on black boots, black dresses or black shoes,or black leather anything--most of my clothes are black and I do love nice clothes.

Kat, I have been using a program within works to due much of what you described. Not a lot clunkers at least in my mind. If I find something I do not like it is usually off to the used cd store for an exchange. Now I do have some that I like that others here have stated they don't but that is a matter of personal taste. When I worked in radio years ago, i used to get a lot free stuff and tried to catalog it all. That was of course in the pre IBM days and so it was a 3 X 5 card system. Talk about a pain in the.... I am not sure just how big it will get, space is allways a consideration, but hey I can always add on another room!

Just took a look at the article on the aging problem. I been collecting since they first came out, I have some that are close to 15 year old. Thus far no problems. Keeping my fingers crossed. Anybody else notice any problems with older cds?

[This message has been edited by Dave Shrader (edited February 27, 2002).]

Time for a little reality check and info. Go to www.mscience.com, click onto the FAQ section and read to your heart's content. CD-R's and mass produced cds will last 50+ years. Some even state 100 years. The key is that you avoid the extremes of temperature, humidity, and exposure to sunlight and liquid water - since polycarbonate will absorb water molecules. If you are not being careful with how you handle your cds, then degradation will occur. It will often be gradual. I have not experienced any degradaton of any of my earlier cds. However, I have noticed that the EQ has been changing by the recording engineers and that can explain why some of the older cds are not as high in volume on a comparative analysis with the 80's cds.

In addition, a friend of mine had an aluminum oxidation issue on a couple of his cds from the 80's. This was due to poor production/manufacturing and not the way they were handled or stored. Even today there are poor quality contol issues/problems at the time of mastering which results in cds that fail to play or sound horrible (especially those with anti-copyng incorporated into the music). I believe ICE Magazine has a column dedicated to quality alerts.

I hope this helps readers to understand this media software disc storage concern. In the mean time, I still collect cds with unbounded exuberance (picked up some reissues of Passport; got the Jim
Savitt * Hear & Now cd and ordered some used Gregory James cds).

Happy listening.

2400 CD'S, Ingbruno???? As in "two thousand four hundred"???? I'm speechless. Wow.

btw, I'm in western Mi. as well, southwestern, actually. No wonder you have so many cd's, you'd need them to keep yourself entertained through these long, cold winters...

Whew!! Thank you for this info! I was feeling a little ill for awhile there!! So, basically, all we have to do is take reasonable care of our CDs, and they ought to last a good, long time.

I feel better now.

Hey sounds like my cds will last longer then I will. Guess I can sleep well tonight!

Found out yesterday that my tax return money has been sitting in my bank account for a whole week now, and I didn't know it!! (I filed my taxes online through H&R Block on 2/12, and the money was Direct Deposited into my account on 2/22...only 10 days processing time!!

So, guess where I'm headed this weekend?? Out shopping for that new multi-disk CD player I've been dreaming about for like a year now! Guess I'll get the 300...unless the salesperson can talk me into the 400.

Hmmm, I wonder...if someone has a HUMUNGOUS collection like some of you guys have, can you hook up 3 or 4 or 5 of those machines to your stereo system??

Yes Donna, you can buy the base cd changer and daisy chain (link) additional changers to it. but the units that have daisy chain capabilties are not cheap.

All totalled (LP's, 45's, Cassette's, CD's it's well over a 1,000

But only 3 are by the Rippingtons, I gotta do something about that, and soon!

Interesting question. I've been away for a while so I've got a lot of catching up to do. As far as numbers? First let me say that I'm 50+ years of age and have been collecting since I was 13 or so. Started with 45's and graduated to LP's. Music styles run across the spectrum. I'll admit to owing a few 78's as well as a 20 or so 8-track tapes. The collection includes well over 4,000 45's, 2'000 LP's but only about 600 original (I made my own from the LP's) and by rough estimate - counting the racks (3@500, 4@90, 6@60,3@30)= 2,310 cd's. Did I fail to mention I started DJ'ing in 1975? Adds up fast when you're buying stuff to play for others. I officially went out of business 2/28/2002. Anybody want a sound system?

Billy G.