I often joke that I invested in CDs all my life --- they
just didn’t come from a bank. Mine came from music stores across America. If I
took all the money I spent on music CDs and put that intobank CDs, it’s
possible I could give Warren Buffet a run for his money. It’s a true statement,
humor aside. I invested in the wrong type of CDs for too many years.
It started in junior high school when cassette tapes were
all the rage and I happened to have a drawer under my bed that was perfect for
holding them. That was also the same time I fell deeply in love with music,
specifically hard rock music. It was also the time where I said goodbye to boyish things like baseball cards and embraced the teenage manhood love
affair of music.
My parents hooked me on music early. I was rocking out to Bob Seger before I entered pre-school and I had a deep appreciation for Billy
Joel, Fleetwood Mac, and the Righteous Brothers by the time I was seven. Music
always had a special place in my house and the joy it brought was something
that resonated with me eternally. Thus, when there was a chance to add that
much joy to my life in the form of an actual music collection, I had to do it.
It was my father’s music collection that set me down the
path of physically hoarding music. Prior to basking in his collection, I was
happy to buy cassette tapes and maybe work my way up to 100. 100 music albums all
in one place? That was a lot. More than I could ever imagine, actually. Who
would need more than 100 albums to listen to?
Then I spent a Christmas break with my father in Florida.
And I sawhis entire record collection for the first time. There were literally
thousands of records all in pristine condition. A spectacular stereo system to
play them on, and of course a brush and liquid solution for the needle before
any record was played. I was in awe. I must have spent half a day just staring
at his collection, going through it, and asking to play certain records. I was
amazed. My father’s collection caused a pang of jealousy and I knew that I
wanted to have a record collection that rivaled or even outdid his.
I slowly worked my way toward adding more cassettes to my
pitiful collection in as many ways as I could. When there was money in my
pocket, I would buy a record I really wanted. If a friend had an album that I
wanted, I would ask to borrow it and make a copy. Blank tapes were only seventy-five
cents, whereas actual albums were $7.00. There’s some easy math for ya! And
yet, things still grew too slow. There had to be a way to grow my collection
faster, even if I didn’t have money to spend.
And that’s when I discovered record clubs. I jumped all
over that 12 for a penny deal and even added in the grand bonus of buying my
first album for the low, low price of $3.99 and getting 3 more albums FREE!
Whoo-hoo! What a deal! For years, I would relish record clubs as a great
opportunity to add music to my collection in bulk. I belonged to all of them,
and though I didn’t realize it at the time, they were costing me a small
fortune. It didn’t matter though. Each package delivered to the house was a
small treasure trove of greatness in the form of new music. Nothing was more
exciting than that.
In the late 80s, compact discs came out and slowly but
surely became the new rage. They were portable, virtually indestructible, and
had much better sound quality than cassettes. I got my first CD player at 16
and it was one of the greatest gifts I ever received. Soon after, CDs for the
collection would follow. These could also be purchased through record clubs and
purchase I did. A lot! By the time I moved out of my home and into my first
apartment I probably had around 300 cassette tapes and 100 CDs. A 400-album
collection. Not too bad, but nowhere near the thousands that my dad had. I
would have to keep working at it. And even with record clubs and CD sales at
the mall, the collection wasn’t growing fast enough. There had to be a way to
grow my collection faster, even if I didn’t have a lot of money to spend.
Being introduced to record shows was a magnificent
experience for me. Here was a place that had an endless limit of compact discs
and vinyl records for sale at great bargain rates. There were some discs that
could be had at the low, low, price of 2, 3, or even 4 for a dollar. A quarter
for a CD? Sign me up! And even the known bands that had popular new releases
would only cost $5 – a bargain if I ever heard one. The record show was monthly
and for many years I was a regular attendee. So many albums so little time.
The collection grew and grew and grew. I had a
spreadsheet to track all my music, what format it was in (tape, CD, vinyl, etc.)
and of course what year the record was released. Through years, I kept adding
and adding to my collection. Building and building until it nearly overtook a
room in my house. By that time, I had close to 2,000 CDs and I was on my way to
overtaking my father’s collection with a massive one of my own.
Storage became an issue though. Where on Earth could you keep that many CDs? Large CD racks were purchased, and one section of my house looked like a never-ending CD sale. And when it came time to move from one place to another … let me just say that CDs are not light when bundled together into moving crates. And having to reset them every time I moved became an unwanted pain. I would have to re-alphabetize them once I set the racks up in the new home, and that could take days or even weeks. Sure, it would give me an excuse to listen to some of them, but ultimately it would be a painstaking chore. And not one that I looked forward to.
Then one day, MP3s came out. There was no longer a need
to have a physical piece of music, you could get what you wanted digitally and
store it with ease, because it did not take up any space. I resisted the
digital movement for as long as anyone, but in the end, of course, it consumed me,
and I was sucked up with the rest of the music junkies. I got my first IPod and
worked on the chore of converting my physical CDs to a digital library.
The biggest issue with the digital movement was the loss
of holding an album in your hands. I always loved the smell of a new cassette
tape, or the triumph of getting the factory sealed plastic off a new CD,
followed by that annoying sticker label that was put across the top. And being
somewhat OCD, I had to make sure that all
the sticky tape was removed. Otherwise I would sit there with that jewel case
in my hands until it was.
Collecting music was an unhealthy obsession at times.
Anytime I heard a new song that I liked even a little, I had to have the entire
album. If I heard the song more than a couple of times and really get into it,
I would usually find a way to run out and get the album immediately. Nobody
Beats The Wiz had even given me a credit card with a $750 limit. I went CD
shopping there at least twice a month. Classic albums, modern albums, and even
new “super audio” CDs were all whisked into my collection. Disc after disc.
Album after album. Artist after artist. I had to have them all.
Nowadays, the youth doesn’t know anything about growing a
music collection. Between the digital age of streaming on demand and listening
to whatever song they want to hear on YouTube or some other similar path, there
aren’t many music collections like there used to be and there certainly aren’t
as many collectors as there used to be. Some are still out there, but they are
few and far between. I myself have gone digital. I subscribe to Amazon Music
Unlimited and have recently thought about joining Spotify.
Occasionally, I will still buy a CD to add to the
collection, but it must be one from a favorite band or a disc that I really
want to listen to repeatedly. The only place I play CDs anymore is my car. I
still have my stereo, my 5-disc changer, and my 300 Disc jukebox, but I never
use them. It’s like we’ve gone backwards in time and regressed to a machine
with headphones to play music back on. From the Walkman to the I-Phone in two
generations.
And while I still have most of my physical music
collection, it is just collecting dust. I sold the vinyl. There’s been a
resurgence with collector’s looking for vinyl and I was more than happy to sell
mine and pocket the money. I’m eyeing up my cassette collection to sell next.
There is a slow growing movement of people who want cassette tapes for some odd
reason and I do still have over 400 cassette tapes – all in pristine condition.
If I price them right and someone wants them, I have no problem selling those
too. A large part of my life and one of the most important parts of my youth
would be gone forever, but that’s all right. The collection has become nothing
more than a status symbol. A, hey, I did it, moment that not many people care
about anymore. A huge music collection used to be impressive, now it just means
you spent too much money on something that is bulky and hard to move and most
likely going to be thrown out once you’ve died. The kids can stream it, why
would they want to move 2100 CDs?
I’ve yet to decide on what I will do with all my CDs. I
changed the way I store them from multiple racks in a room, to several leather
zipper cases that hold the CD and the booklet that came with it, but all the
jewel cases have been recycled. Even if I were to try and sell the collection,
I don’t think there would be many buyers for a CD collection without the
original jewel cases. And thus, I am probably stuck with the massive number of
CDs I’ve acquired over the years. So, yes, I was a physical music hoarder. And
that’s okay, I suppose. It will serve as a constant reminder of a fond period
of my life. Like looking at old pictures in a photograph album and remembering
great times from days gone by.
