Sun 30 Dec 2007
I’ve been plagued by thoughts of what will happen to my music collection in 2008. I think I’ve lost my musical roadmap. I wonder if there is a musical GPS I can buy to get back on track? It used to be that I followed the historical branches and roots of rock n roll to guide my purchases and that has led me to collect a very healthy music library (first on lp then on cd) that can take you on a trip from the “Georgia Pot Lickers” to “Radiohead”. So where do I go from here? That is what is keeping my awake at night.
Do I….
- Buy another round of remaster / reissued / bonus tracked titles that I already own? That cul du sac of collecting is getting a bit old for me. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve purchased “My Aim Is True”. I will say that I’d be first in line for remastered Bruce Springsteen and Beatles catalogs since they now sound compressed and flat compared to current production standards. But I’m bored buying the same title again and again.
- Save all my money to buy the long rumored Neil Young rarities box set? Maybe as a protest I’ll not buy another release until Neil’s. I’ll withhold my rock n roll dollars and force the industry to release it as they see their revenues plunge by my bold stance.
- At what point do I stop buying physical cds and go straight download? If I go straight digital download then I’ve essentially turned my cd collection into a mere back ups. That seems to devalue their status as my collection.
- How many hard drives to you need to feel safe that your entire collection will not just disappear in a computer crash
- What is the music format of the future? Is the cd dead? Will we now either download music or buy it on a flash drive for loading on to our computers?
No wonder I can’t sleep at night. I think I’ll go have a nap.
They say if you put an infinite number of cranky old ex-record store guys in a room full of typewriters, they’ll eventually come up with a top ten list that includes a Bob Dylan album and at least one obscure release by some artist they found out about by reading the reviews in some snobby music magazine - even if the list has nothing to do with music! Well, we did that and once again proved the theory to be pretty much true. Then we put an infinite number of young Internet downloading junkies in a roomful of typewrites and they had no idea what an album was or what to do with a typewriter. But they did recognized Dylan from his iPod commercials.
Once again we asked the only people who would still talk to us to come up with a list of their top ten albums of the year. And once again they crouched behind the drapes and pretended not to be in the room. But we were persistent and finally after much cajoling and name calling, we got them to fork over their selections. Then we took all the list, squished them together and came up with an overall top ten that will make your head spin. Ya dig?