Friday, January 16, 2009

Racketearing

A prop from the set of "The Incredible Shrinking Woman"? No, just my latest bonehead move

Assembling the new CD rack couldn't have gone more smoothly. The directions were essentially useless -- and we did falter a couple of times along the way -- but Michael and I set out to prove our union was strong and got it put together with nary a raised word. But then a HUGE problem surfaced afterward. It seems that while I did measure to make sure the new and MUCH larger tower would fit in the two places I was considering putting it, including where I have a smaller version of the same thing, I neglected to factor in that it needs to be placed away from the wall to enable it to rotate (hence, why it can hold 1,000 CDs), and now I've come to the conclusion there's no place for this thing. (And it looks like one of those boxes magicians make their assistants get into to then make them disappear!) The 200 bucks I wasted I'll get over. Somehow figuring out how to get this thing out of my apartment is another matter all together. (It's HEAVY and did I mention HUGE????) On top of this, I still have no solution for the hundreds of uncatalogued CDs and (and a couple DVDs) I have cluttering up my house so I'm back to Square One. Ugh!

UPDATE: A reader just commented on how he was surprised that I hadn't "gone digital" yet, as a number of my friends have. I've blogged about this before but am due for another post about it, so here goes. I definitely see the reasoning for putting everything on the computer and losing the CDs, but I'm still confused by the actual execution of it all. First of all, letting go of something I've collected for the past 20 years would be pretty damn hard. (To give you a hint, I still have a number of LPs and ALL of my 45s.) Music is the only thing I collect, really, so it's not like I'm some pack rat weirdo. What's more, I feel like iTunes works really well for people who are "singles" types -- which I'd say is about 95 percent of the public (Michael's one.). They buy an album, they like one or two songs, and that's all they need. But for people who are avid collectors of albums -- I don't listen to the radio or use shuffle on my player, I listen to ALBUMS and argue with people over the merits of "Plastic Letters" vs. "Autoamerican" -- how big of a hard drive would I have to have to put more 1,500 complete ALBUMS on my computer? And then I'd need an equally big external hard drive to back it up (or I'd have to burn everything to disc -- oh, wait.) The reader asks how often I actually put a CD in the player and listen to it. The answer is every day -- more than once. Sure, that player is sometimes my computer (I have great speakers in my bedroom, too), but it's still an enjoyable (and convenient) experience to browse through my collection to decide what to listen to. (Also, I feel like that many artists and albums would be a little unwieldy in iTunes, too. No?)

So, I do appreciate your input. The truth of the matter is if my apartment were ANY larger than it is this would be a moot issue. My CD collection is big, but it's not THAT big. I just haven't quite figured out how to organize them in a way that adds up.

21 comments:

John said...

Wow WTG you guys got that up fast! idea for ya: add 4 roller wheels to the bottom and you can push it against a wall sometimes. You would probably have to pre-drill for screws to avoid wood splitting, and I would use wood glue too, if I added wheels. Still looks great though!

Anonymous said...

Ken, I am actually surprised to see that someone actually still has CD's - do you really still put those in a machine and listen to them? Almost everyone I know has ripped their CD's to iTunes and then sells the CD's on Amazon (or donates them to some charity)
This will immediately take care of your storage issue and, once you get used to it, allow you to listen to your music in a whole new way (all instantly catalogued for you). And the same goes for the DVD's - ask yourself again, when once the last time you really pulled out a DVD and watched the movie the second or third time - that's why we have the convenience of Netflix).
Just some thoughts - I know its hard to let go of these physical items but believe me once you do you will wonder why you kept all of these things.

Kenneth M. Walsh said...

John -- That's a great idea, only the thing is already on a somewhat rickety Lazy Susan, so I don't think adding wheels would be wise. (The floor in the living room is also very warped, so it could be deadly!)

James Greenlee said...

Ken, I have a solution for you, though my collection only goes up to about 450 or so.

I have a 300-disk changer, with all of THOSE in the machine. I bought a couple of those big binders that hold 200 CDs. One of them contains only the liner art, with numbers for what slot they are in in the player. The other contains liner art AND CDs.

Then, just throw away all the jewel boxes (or crate them, if you can't bear it). Works for me, and takes up just the space of a couple of binders. For you, that would be several, but they'd still fit on a book case. What do you think?

Paul Shapoe said...

Kenneth really... isn't it about time to rip those CDs and image those DVDs to the computer?

I finally broke down and indexed my entire collection and now its portable in a flash.

GL. It 2 is a chore. ;.)

mrtrblmkr1 said...

I agree with James, you can look into a CD Jukebox and cataloging the CD inserts, I'm an AV tech and would be glad on helping you in setting up a CD jukebox (Sony sells one for cheap that holds 400 CDs and DVDs) and ripping all that audio onto a PC/Mac (with thousands of CDs, you probably only need a 500GB drive at most.)

Michael said...

How high are your ceilings? Is it possible to install shelves high up on the wall for your CDs? One friend's apartment had shelves along a hallway loaded with CDs.

Plus, it might give Larry another fun place to hang out.

Matthew said...

i would get rid of all my CDs and even my vinyl (I, too, used to collect 45s and was BESIDE MYSELF when it dawned on me during collage that they were being phased out...) since I rarely listen to any of the 1,000s of CDs and never listen to any of the vinyl. But it IS hard. It is a huge time investment. I started a while ago. I should really just sell everything and start over, that would be better since I'd never re-buy things I don't really like anyway, and that would help me edit my collection, right? I have an Ion turntable that allows you to record your vinyl to the computer, but it's pretty lame (those warm pops in life are anything but warm on MP3). Jose also just got me a cassette archiver, which I can use to put audio cassettes into MP3 form, but that's more for interviews than music (I did throw away all the cassettes I had). It's a pain in the ass. I need a sexy entertainment assistant who would be willing to work in exchange for letting me molest him.

Daniel said...

Hey Ken, One cost- and space-saving idea you might consider since you have such a great affinity for these CDs is to put them on wall shelves up high, near the ceiling. A few boards (that the store will cut for you if you don't have the tools), some brackets (make sure you get these screwed into the studs), a little paint (maybe to match that desk you've been working on) and voilĂ  you have storage that won't take up precious floor space in a small place. I did this with books and it looks great.

Dan said...

A few years back, before the iPod was hugely popular, my partner and I moved to a new house. We met with a guy to set up whole house distributed audio and he turned us on to the idea of a music server, called the Imerge, which was really expensive, but held like 10,000 discs on it's memory. I had been a manager for Record Town/fye for the last 7 years so I had quite a collection of discs (around 5000 I think) that I never listened to anymore because I was too lazy to go thru them and actually put them in the player. I was intrigued by the idea of this music server and all its bells and whistles. We ended up buying one and spending hours on end burning my cd's to the hard drive. The agreement, between my partner and I, was I would get rid of the ones I didn't care much about, many were promos I got from work, and was allowed to keep some of them that I could not live without - which was less than half of them. The machine crashed while we were burning the discs and we had to send it to have the hard drive repaired...and start from scratch burning discs once it came back. It crashed again a few years later. This time, I lost everything on the machine. I lost most of my collection. Granted, the whole digital media realm has elvolved since then, but I kick myself all the time for getting rid of those discs. I download a few things here and there now, but I still think there is nothing quite like going and getting the disc!

Anonymous said...

Going digital seems great and all, but I remember when my computer and laptop both crashed in the same week and I lost everything. I know an external hard drive is supposed to be the solution, but I'm sure I would get that and it would crash too.

Chad said...

Kenneth... do it! Go digital! I'm like you, though, I've collected CDs for 20 years, but finally made the leap the packed 'em all away. (Did you see the photos on Facebook?) At least consider getting rid of the jewel cases; they take up so much room.

I also still listen to my music on iTunes as "albums"...everyone thinks I'm crazy, but that's the way my mind works. I find an "album" and play it straight through. I might 'uncheck' a song or two that I don't like, but for the most part, that's how I listen to music.

You can do it too... email me and we can discuss the 12 steps... ;)

Anonymous said...

I work with digital media quite a bit and am fairly militant about a lot of it. First, I am anti DRM and I am also anti Apple. My problem with Apple is they force you to rip your music into a proprietary format. Stick to WMA or MP3 - these can be played on a multitude of devices.

Second, as long as DRMed music has been pushed, I continued to buy CD's because I believe that if you buy something, you should have ease in flexibility in moving and managing it. There are several examples of companies with music stores shutting down that abandon DRM music so you can never move it. The shift to non DRM music is good. I don't advocate music sharing because the people who produce and distribute this stuff deserve to make a living too.

As a result, I have probably 800 CDs, all ripped and on my PC. I also have copies on two music players, a Zune and a Creative. Sometimes I listen to an album, other times I shuffle a genre.

Don't feel like you need to get rid of your CDs. Things happen, computers crash and in the future there may be a superior, more highly compressed music format. Ripping CDs is time consuming, but while watching TV or something I would just sit with my laptop and take a CD out, pop another one in.

Anonymous said...

You'll reduce its capacity by half, but slide it against the wall and stuff two sides with CDs.

415LADD said...

Hi Ken,

I'm from the same time as you, born in 65, and an avid media collector (music, movies, books). I used to manage a record store back in the late 80s, and I amassed a staggering amount of vinyl at one point and then of course CDs too. Here's the thing you need to keep in mind...CDs will not be here forever. The music industry is moving to all digital releases, my guesstimate would be sometime within the next 10 years, but probably much sooner on that time frame. A few years ago I finally made the move to start going digital myself, and it was painful and difficult. I had already whittled down my vinyl to the last two bankers boxes of what I absolutely could not give up back in 95 when I moved cross country, but I still had over 1000 CDs that were just a big weight on my life. So I started ripping, and ripping and ripping. I still have a collection of approx. 200 CDs that I won't give up, but that is manageable, and I now buy almost everything digital (unless it's like, you know, the new Cyndi Lauper or something and I still have all her CDs so I have to by the CD!). Yes, it eats up about 100GB of space on my Mac, but it's just hard drive space. And yes, I do have a back up disk, to save all my precious babies in case something happens. Bite the bullet. You are going to have to do it one day soon anyway, so why not take control over it and do it on your own?

BustersDad said...

Years ago I ditched all of my jewel cases and switched to binders. Each sleeve holds four CD/DVDs and the liner notes. You can be as organized, or in my case disorganized, as you like within binders. They are much more transportable and storage friendly! Good luck!

John said...

OMG, I can't imagine ditching all my cd's or you ditching yours. Kenneth, I can relate as I have so many. An EMI/Capitol Records factory is in my town and they have "delete" sales each year and of course I have bought hundreds just from there for $2 each--perfectly fine cds. I have been through the storage dilemma, have 5 towers and like you, don't like all the space they take up. I have done some of everyone's suggestion, some in binders (hate that when there is nothing on the cd label or if its real small), and I have many converted to digital (so time consuming!) I finally sorted and put in a couple big storage boxes the older ones I thought I wouldn't listen to as much. Yeah right, just last night I got one of those storage boxes out of the closet to find a cd. I've thought about selling some on ebay (like the Milli Vanilli--I'm one of the few who didn't destroy theirs!) And don't people realize you can also play cds in dvd players and cars? One more thing, isn't anything older than 30 years (so hold on to them another 6-8 years) considered an antique, which makes it of value? I'm holding on to most of mine (as long as I can).

Brionity said...

The ultimate solution for storage alone is the binder them. Although people feel that burning CDs is an alternative, it has nowhere near the quality aspects. I manage a record store and every week we have people back in buying from when they crashed.

Sure transfer things to your computer, but realize that if you do so with Apple's Itunes the denigration of quality of the recording is, in fact, gigantic.

Hollow mids and very unsoulful bass. You must, if doing so, not use their default settings! You must choose manual import and the highest bit rate which still a third less than a CD.

Keep your CDs and be happy with the physicality of your music collection. Making music digital has also contributed significantly to its disposability. There is no treasure to a download and artists are making less now than they ever have and the holding companies (ie Apple) making more than any label ever did.

SO sad as well that we are in a time of such musical creativity and no one is hearing that artists that are changing the face of music, due to the commercial standpoint of single sellers like Apple.

Sorry, But i-tunes has killed music not helped it. The future was supposed to be better and sure it is more convenient. . .but the quality is severely lacking.

Whew. Had to get that out! Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Like you, I am a major music lover with 1000s of CDs.
I have taken to putting them in books that hold the CDs & liner notes. I throw the jewel cases away. I have done them by category & alphabetical. The books look handsome. It is a little more work to get to a CD, but I gained lots of space.

John Mc said...

Well, my first comment on your collections - you obviously don't move much? :) Last move cleared out my albums.

I used to be a big CD guy, but then found I didn't pull out whole CDs to listen to. So of the collection of over 3,000 CDs, a small number got pulled out regularly, and an ever smaller number got played form end to end.

Itunes has been a godsend. Everything I own on shuffle. (Using ratings and playlists to do some organizing).

the stuff that was OK, i ripped and tossed. Now going through the 'good' stuff, ripping at better quality, and saving the CDs in sleeves. After getting my really really good CD player repaired 2 years ago, I still don't think I've played a CD in it...

Bradmo said...

I know where you're coming from. Here's my advice, lose the jewel cases. IKEA sells a zippered nylon-ish box that holds cd's perfectly tucked into liner notes really well. this greatly reduces your bulk but lets you keep your music.