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Under 100 I shouldn't be using MC

6 (7.9%)

100-500

24 (31.6%)

500-1,000 (Ben's here)

18 (23.7%)

1K- 2,000

20 (26.3%)

2,000-3,000

6 (7.9%)

Few million songs--everything iTunes has

2 (2.6%)

Total Members Voted: 74

[benn600]

I am interested in learning how large the libraries are for users of MC.  However, this is only referring to true CD owners.  I am interested in learning more about how the huge collections have been created for MC users.  Please vote about how many CDs you have and feel free to post more info based on how much money you probably paid, on average, for each CD.

I personally, combined with my family, have around 600 CDs but we paid, on average, around $4-$6 each because many of the CDs were used (eBay has sellers with CDs for $2) and others were purchased through promotions through music services to get great deals.  This gets me to more than 8,000 songs (I'm not finished ripping the CDs--that's an estimate).  It almost becomes addicting--trying to collect em all!

Now I wonder how many CDs exist.  It seems like around 5-20 CDs are released from music labels every week--but I'm probably way off.  Plus, that doesn't include the smaller, indie bands which probably should be included.

Also, I sometimes worry that my collection focuses too much on the mainstream artists which you hear on the radio.

Now my biggest question of all.  I have always wondered how songs become singles--but also how they become the song that is played on the radio all the time.  A quick example that comes to mind is "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt.  Many fans of his music find the entire disc pleasing.  My initial guess is that either the record label picks a song or two.  However, I am even more inclined to wonder if most every song on CDs has been played but then the audience selectively picks the best song or two and therefore, it is requested much more and the radio companies (1, lol) decide that the requested song must be it.

Lots of info!

[hit_ny]

Umm..so what's the title of this school report

going by the number of polls you had recently

[jgreen]

Give him a break--at least he didn't put "Urgent" in the title of the post.

[benn600]

Oh, so polls are available but we aren't supposed to use them?  Forgive me.

[gappie]

of course you are but the last period the amounts of posts on this board tripled, and that is not nessesarely bad. but we are not all very quick in reading. 
btw, i just voted. im just above 1000.

[Doof]

Yeah, I think benn600 is trying to break the Highest Number Of New Topics Created record.
 
Somedays I log in and the Started By column is just filled with "benn600"

Just for a quick comparison, benn600 has 212 total posts, 72 of which were new topics. So 34% of his posts are new topics.

KingSparta, the user with the most posts made, has 15,546 total posts, 522 of which are new topics. So only 3.4% of his posts are new topics.

And then there's me, with 4448 total posts, 131 new topics, for a 2.9% score.

You're wrecking the curve, dude.

[jgreen]

Here's to benn600!  He wins the prize for enthusiam (trophy awarded by Mr. ChriZ, IMO).

[benn600]

I can promise you one thing.  I am going to try to lower my percentage.  That shows one thing and one thing only.  I don't like to follow other people's ideas as much.  I rather create my own new ideas and run.

[LonWar]

1 question Benn,


If you have less then 100 cd's why shouldn't you use MC? MC is more then just a ripper,



Just curious to know your reasoning...
Oh, I'm in the over 1000 range.

[benn600]

Because people who are serious about music are much more likely to spend money on MC ($100? with upgrades) vs. free iTunes if they don't really care that much.  Just a generalization that I'm sure has flaws but it seems to be somewhat true.  My friends who have small collections would never be willing to buy MC.  Also, the ones who would be likely are those who are willing to spend weeks ripping their entire collection and therefore, more likely to put more of their hard earned money into buying CDs or digital music....

[dlone]

I can promise you one thing.  I am going to try to lower my percentage.  That shows one thing and one thing only.  I don't like to follow other people's ideas as much.  I rather create my own new ideas and run.

There's a few people that post stuff that just plain interests me - just seeing their name in a topic will prompt me to read it because I know it'll be interesting at worst

KingSparta, Hit_ny, Doof, Jgreen, Imjustagamer and Benn600 are probably my most essential reads - if any of your posts are not of real interest to me, I still admire your enthusiasm
(weeellllll.... KingSpartas doom'n'gloom approach makes me giggle a lot as well  only kidding King)

Remember when we all first started with MC?
There were just so many things you could do that it was worrying in case we messed it all up
It seems to me that Benn600 doesn't feel afraid to ask questions
And that can't be bad - most people are worried that they'll look like an idiot (and I hold my hand up here), but I really can't say that the post's I've read from Benn600 are friviolous or really stupid
On the whole I'd say that either I can give an answer that tries to help or I just don't know the answer - but I've never looked at his posts and thought 'who cares?'

That's gotta be a plus point.....

[Doof]

Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying he posts frivolously. I just find it amusing when I log in inthe morning and see 7 new topics all with benn600's name in the Started By column.

[dlone]

You gotta admire enthusiasm 

[KingSparta]

weeellllll.... KingSpartas doom'n'gloom approach makes me giggle a lot as well

My Dr. never said I was Optimistic

He had a few other words like Narcissistic, schizophrenia (Bipolar), basket case, etc...

The meds help keep the voices down on a low volume

[dlone]

I dunno, my prozac helps a little bit not as much as i'd like 

[Jakester]

Over 800 CDs - a bit more than half from my single days and most of the rest from my wife's single days.  Since I've married and had kids the purchase of music is way down (and the purchase of movies, especially kids movies, is way up).  When I do buy music now it's still via CD (other than the whopping 2 songs I downloaded via iTunes just to try it out.)  I can't stand to pay Apple for relatively low-quality rips with DRM.  Drives me nuts.

Most of these 800 CDs were brand new, some from those clubs where you get 12 at one time.  Average cost probably between $10-$12 each all things considered.

My entire 10K song MC library is directly from these CDs ripped to .ape in secure mode.  I use ASIO for bit-perfect playback on my Home Theater rig.  The "audiophile" route.

I recently bought an iPod so I can take my collection onto my boat.  I use VBR .mp3 "extreme" setting with O.K. results but wish iPod supported lossless (natively, not using RockBox).  And I REALLY REALLY REALLY wish JRiver would support multiple formats of the same song via some sort of pointers in their database so I didn't have to re-convert the songs everytime some glitch wipes out the darn database on the iPod.  [/rant]

[JimH]

... I REALLY REALLY REALLY wish JRiver would support multiple formats of the same song via some sort of pointers in their database so I didn't have to re-convert the songs everytime some glitch wipes out the darn database on the iPod.

We recognize the need and would like to do something in this area.  It will probably be a cache of the files converted and we'll check the cache first before converting.

[BullishDad]

Over 800 CDs - a bit more than half from my single days and most of the rest from my wife's single days.  Since I've married and had kids the purchase of music is way down.  [/rant]

Jakester, you still purchased CDs.  Children's Diapers 

[Noman]

You all talking about ripping CD:s. 75% of my music in MC comes from my own VINYL records.I have "ripped" and restored close to 5000 songs (it has taken 3 years) and I'm not halfway through

[benn600]

Wow--are a lot of those records rare items which have not been released on CD?  I am so careful to make sure my CDs rip perfectly that an analog medium would be tough for me to accept!

[Krazykanuck]

Here in Canada alot of the record companies Canadian artist catalogs never made it to CD so the only choice is to rip/restore from vinyl. We're not talking old/rare just not mainstream enough to warrant widespread cd release. I have coverted about 250 albums with approx 600 to go.

[benn600]

That is a huge project.  Make sure you get good backups offsite so you don't lose all your work!  I lost a drive 1 week into purchasing it--thank goodness I had two backups but they were a few days behind so I did lose a little bit of data (not important, luckily)

[Galley]

According to my records I have purchased 198 CDs in 2006. 

[benn600]

Were all those brand new?  What was your average cost per CD?  I've purchased around 300 in 2006 so far and average around $4 each.

[KingSparta]

In The past i have bought so many CD's (CDs) I was left with a dirty taste in my mouth (Like rice bars). This was due to the CD sucked or there was normaly only one good song on the complete cd.

I now tend to think buying online at .79 - .99 cents per track is better than paying $14+ for a one song CD where the rest of the CD is nothing more than filler.

[hit_ny]

I now tend to think buying online at .79 - .99 cents per track is better than paying $14+ for a one song CD where the rest of the CD is nothing more than filler.

How do you know which track is worth the money ?

[KingSparta]

How do you know which track is worth the money ?

you play it, and decide

[Osho]

Over 800 CDs - a bit more than half from my single days and most of the rest from my wife's single days.  Since I've I recently bought an iPod so I can take my collection onto my boat.  I use VBR .mp3 "extreme" setting with O.K. results but wish iPod supported lossless (natively, not using RockBox). 

Don't the new iPods support ALAC? Right now, I have converted all my Music to FLAC and then I plan to copy them to iPod using ALAC (or FLAC with rockbox).

And not to be too off topic.. I have around 800 CDs...

Osho

[Magic_Randy]

2 people responded: Few million songs--everything iTunes has.

Where do you get that many (assuming this is not a joke response)?  Downloads - CDs - ?

[Bizarroterl]

Many more if I caould get the cover art lookup to work reliably.

I just don't have the time to manually look up every third CD.

[wilfredjg]

I have 1100 cd. But what I would like to see is download cd off the web. I would pay 1.99 per song  or the 11.99 I pay for in the store. You get whats on the cd, and cover art. The music industry says the are getting rip off. Hell industry jump into the digital age. price per song or full cd download. But none of this 196 crap.

[Galley]

Were all those brand new?  What was your average cost per CD?  I've purchased around 300 in 2006 so far and average around $4 each.

The majority of them came from YourMusic.com; the rest come from Amazon MarketPlace, eBay and Half.com.  That brings my average cost per disc to around $6.00.

[benn600]

Thank goodness!  Yourmusic is pretty good.  I also find BMG is good for getting them at around $4.12 if you are smart in how you purchase them in the 12 for 1.  Then, they allow you to cancel and create a new account--supposedly limiting you to some number per year.  I just started by having everyone in my family create an account and have gotten a lot that way.  My dad got much of his collection built up through BMG and other clubs, getting good deals and running on a six month cycle of signup, cancel, re-signup.  It's a bit of work and somewhat slow at times, but it can really allow even those who aren't willing to pay top dollar have very large CD collections.

[Jakester]

We recognize the need and would like to do something in this area.  It will probably be a cache of the files converted and we'll check the cache first before converting.

Amen!

[Jakester]

Jakester, you still purchased CDs.  Children's Diapers 

yepper for 4 years!  but over that now!  darn they cost more than the shiny music type CDs!

[benn600]

and they can only be used once, unlike the music type CDs

[jgreen]

benn--

That's an interesting tip about BMG music club.  I went over there and had a look around, and the selection seems similar to yourmusic.com.  Does the shipping and handling on the "free" CDs end up being $4/per?

[iajim]

"Wow--are a lot of those records rare items which have not been released on CD?  I am so careful to make sure my CDs rip perfectly that an analog medium would be tough for me to accept! "

It's not the ripping of the vinyl's that takes time it's the restoration to remove noise. But most of the Classical's that I have the same performances as both LP & CD the LP's are superior because some recording engineer hasn't been messing with the signal to make it sound better on boom-box type equipment.

When finished I will have about 400 CD's and about the equivalant tracks from LP's. Prime  reason for doing it is to get it all on a 500gig hard drive accessable from my LAN & WLAN anywhere in the house on any PC. MC is the greatest for that application.  Use DC-6 for the restoration.

[Galley]

While the regular BMG Music Service is slightly cheaper, YourMusic is much easier to use, and there's no limit as to how many you can purchase at once.  2-disc sets are $11.98, and boxed sets are priced at $5.99 per disc.  Of course, all of the discs come from the same distribution center here in Greenville, SC. 

[BullishDad]

I've been a BMG member and the majority of my CDs are purchased from them.  YourMusic.com is appealing and I've been tempted to join that too.  Every so often BMG will have an offer that beats Yourmusic.

For instance, this past weekend I received 2/3 off and free shipping when you order 5 or more discs.  I purchased 6 different titles which contained a total of 11 discs.  My order came out to $42.63 plus tax as opposed to $65.94 plus tax from Yourmusic.

However, this was one of the best offers I've ever seen from BMG.  Most of the time as an ongoing member CDs will average between $7-$8.  As benn600 described, you can bring the cost down by cancelling and signing back up, but I can see why some people don't want the hassle.  Actually, I was thinking of resigning myself recently, but the 2/3 off offer was too tempting. 

[hit_ny]

If your tastes are really mainstream ie RIAA then the above two sites mentioned might be ok, i wonder how current the stuff they have is even, looks to me like mostly classics only.

[Ron2b4]

Why "pressed CDs?" What decade are you from, stranger?  Pressed CDs are not the currency of the 21st century. Ask how many songs we have. Of course, we won't tell you that, either

ron

[benn600]

I did the BMG club a few times and if I remember correctly, the average cost per CD was $4.10 after everything had been charged, paid, and my account canceled.  It might have even been cheaper.  I found that if you play the cards right, you can get a better deal.  Some titles are only $15.95 instead of the usual $18.95 and they say they are Premium titles.  Those, however, count as a purchase title--so right there you're saving another $3.  It's all small amounts, but the price comes down to about $4 or less per CD.

[modelmaker]

I'm still hackin' away at my 8000 LP's. After 3 1/2 years, I've got about 3000 recorded and cleaned up (using Magix' AudioCleaningLab). I made CDs of each one (for permanent copies) before converting them to 256-320 kbs mp3s. The PC library has 2 backups.

I have also ripped about about 250 CDs for a total of 44k tracks.

There are really 3 reasons I recorded the LPs: 1. I can't afford to replace all those LPs with CDs, 2. I still prefer the sound of most of the LPs, (my converted LPs/CDs still sound better than most of the overly compressed  CDs), and of course, a lot of the LPs were never re-released as CDs.

Fortunately my LPs have always been keep in pristine condition so they didn't require a lot of cleanup.

I have to also say that over the years, my listening habits have changed. In my 20s and 30s, I was an audiophile and worked as a roadie and eventually as a live show sound engineer (before the days of earplugs!), later becoming an audio tech-rep. In those days we played it LOUD.

Over the last 15 to 20 years the volume has come down considerably and at the general volume levels I use today, the high quality mp3s sound great. Now if occaisionally want to crank it up, I can easily grab a CD if the mp3 isn't up to it.

To be honest, I'm so used to listening to the mp3s, that unless I do an A/B comparison, I don't notice a difference much anymore.

Sorry to ramble a bit off topic.

[newsposter]

Why don't you guys just go to the local used CD place and buy $100 of disks once a month or so.

Take them back, get 50% trade-in credit, and do it all over again.  Don't forget to scan in the cover art.

My annual spend for stuff like that is about $500 but it's a spend I can control, I decide what discs to buy when.

I also keep a list of 'music I want' on my PDA just in case I'm near any of the local stores.

Yes, I stull buy CDs for 'keepers' but for the most part, it's the used market for buy/re-sell activity.

In Minneapolis, we've got two small local used disc chains and at least four independant shops.  One side benny of it being a large Univerrsity town.

[benn600]

that is obviously suspicious illegal activity that I will avoid alltogether assuming you rip the CDs before returning them

I rip them but also keep them.

[Galley]

Gotta love Cheapo in Minneapolis!

[modelmaker]

Why don't you guys just go to the local used CD place and buy $100 of disks once a month or so.

You wouldn't be asking that question if you'd ever heard an LP played on a high-end system. I'm not talking about some little computer speakers either.

Why should I pay for my media twice, even at used prices? And I am still buying new stuff.

[Magic_Randy]

that is obviously suspicious illegal activity that I will avoid alltogether assuming you rip the CDs before returning them

I rip them but also keep them.

To me it sounds legal - newsposter can confirm if I have this correct

He is saying to buy used CDs from a place that sells used CDs (that is legal)
RIP the CDs you just purchased (that is legal)
Go back to the store taht sold you the used CDs and sell them back - these places buy used CDs (thats legal)
Buy more used CDs and keep the cycle going ....

Am I missing something that you are concerned about?

[dlone]

He is saying to buy used CDs from a place that sells used CDs (that is legal)
RIP the CDs you just purchased (that is legal)
Go back to the store taht sold you the used CDs and sell them back - these places buy used CDs (thats legal)
Buy more used CDs and keep the cycle going ....

To the best of my knowledge once you sell the cd you don't have any legal right to the copy - fair use laws only cover you if you own the product