Reaching the end of a music collection

Turnaround,

I have begun the practice of swapping music with a group of freinds. We are all trustworthy and care for each others CD's as our own. This has evolved into something resembling a pyramid. Each of us has friends outside of the core group that participates and eventually the best music gets to be auditioned by each of us.

This began as a cry for help by yours truely to find the best blues without having to "pay my dues" through mis-spent funds. Not only have I discovered a treasure trove of blues this way but also zydeco, folk, celtic, jazz and some music I can't put a label on. We haven't had the pleasure of a classical enthusiast joining our ranks and enlightening us all but time is on our side.

As a vinyl junkie this practice has brought me much closer to my CD player since so much newer music is not available on LP. For some reason it doesn't bother me at all to loan a handful of CD's for a week while I would never, ever part with an LP for any reason.

This has been good for the music industry and has made me rethink all the controvercy surrounding MP3's and file sharing. Exposure sells product.

Happy listening,
Patrick

Turnaround - I think you answered the question yourself when you mentioned curiosity. As long as you remain curios and open minded, you'll never run out of stuff to buy. I find groups I like and then go explore allmusic.com, a fabulous website, and look for similar artists within the genre. I buy a fair number of CDs that I end up being less than enthralled by, but I also find a ton that are really good. I don't listen to classical music, so I get to avoid all the different recordings of the same piece, and I'll never own 60 CDs by the same artist, but I'm at 1000+ CDs and buy 6-8 once or twice a month without any letup. -Kirk

...david sylvian and his numberous projects with different figures, "king crimson" and its members. check out discipline records. the collection become topless and botomless as well.

I've been listening to classical music for over forty years now; first on lp's, then on cd's, now on lp's again with current analogue playing and cleaning equipment. I will never run out of music or software to listen to or learn about. Classical music can become a very important part of one's life.

Twl is 110% right.
Nobody in their right mind could consider that the cornerstones of 60's music could be recreated hence modern releases in terms of the popular music forms simply cannot hope to be as original or as good as that.
The mistake that a lot of audiophilles make however is that their ability to experiment on what they might like musically is not matched by their ability and desire to experiment with modifications,tweaks,cables in their system.
Their passion for their hobby endures but does their passion for new music?
Even more interesting I would guess that more audiophilles spend much more time reading about audio than music.
I have a passion for music so I read all the serious music monthlies-Mojo,Q,Uncut for new "popular" music-Record Collector for reissues etc. and The Wire for experimental/avant garde music as well as the hi-fi mags that cover music.
I am probably not a typical audiophille and I respect fully other's opinions on what they like musically but I do despair when I read things like "I don't like Jazz,Folk,Reggae "-my take on most music forms is that they meet somewhere -so if you like light music there should be some jazz that would touch you-most musical forms,even the basic ones diverge into other musical forms-"I hate Country" you'll probably find that something you love in your collection is descended or inspired by country.
We are only limited by our own imaginations.
The world of music is virtually limitless and you do not even need to go forward or force yourself to listen to stuff that you find painful-where's the fun in that?
If you like Folk-you could end up back at Harry Smiths Anathology Of Folk Music-field recordings from the 20's,30's,40's-this could diverge into World Music,early Blues if that's too far you can stop at Woody Guthrie or even go forward to David Gray,there are no rules.....a love of talking Blues could lead you to Rap,seriously the leap from Dylan's talking folk blues to the world of Public Enemy isn't that far..
Even if you only liked Classical,you could probably spend the rest of your life finding lost gems.
And if you think there is nothing new of any value being released then you are beat before you start,you might not like to admit it but your fire has went out....everything new will always be crap, forever.
This week I spent time listening to the first four Queen albums,the new Bowie record,Peter Gabriel 1,2 and So,Wilco's new record,Dark Magus by Miles Davis-pretty far out jazz,DJ Shadow's new record-hip hop/ambient,a Dylan bootleg from '98,Steve Reich's Music For 18 Musicians and of course it was nice to hear it all on a decent system.
There is great great music out there,you just need to spend some time searching for it.
Of course you can be just as happy listening to what you know-you don't need to analysis the nuances,the motivation behind a great piece of music,you can just sit tapping your feet,that is the beauty of music it taken be taken on the level of importance you want to place on it,it's your choice.
The day I walk into a record shop and think there isn't some great,new,lost or popular masterpiece waiting to be found is the day I know I've lost it.
Reaching the end of a music collection?
Some 1200 CD's in,I'm only starting.............