And I do mean large – I am at 2002 CDs and counting. Included in that number are 63 discs that were released just this year (and its only August). That’s a lot of new music to keep up with. And I have, to the detriment of the rest of my music collection. I have listened to the new CDs all at least once, but in order to do that, I have not really been paying attention to some of the older stuff in my collection (except for whenever I listen to my iPOD on shuffle in the car). However, keeping up with the newest music has meant that I have neglected the new music a lot as well. As I stated, I have listened to all the 2010 CDs at least once. But, for the majority of them, I have listened to them ONLY once. I haven’t really had time to go back and listen to them enough to get to know them, especially if it’s a band for whom this is either their 1st CD overall or just the first of theirs that I have heard. That is the “curse” of having too large of a music collection (I could always stop wanting to get all this new music, but, lets be realistic, that’s not going to happen). It also doesn’t help that I am also kind of a movie buff (although that obsession is not nearly as bad as the one I have with music, its still there), so time that could be spent listening to music is instead occupied by my Netflix subscription.
I have decided on two courses of action in order to make up for the problems listed above. The first is for the new music. I have made a playlist of all the 2010 songs that I like (I also did this for 2009 songs, since I am sure I had the same problem last year) for my iPOD and I am going to make that my go-to playlist for when I am in the car or mowing the lawn for a while. This will sort of be like my own new music radio station, to help me become familiar with the songs. I would also like to think I could hold off on listening to anything new I get for a while, but that’s not likely (although, how I have managed to hold off on listening to the new Walkmen disc, which I have read good things about, is kind of amazing).
The second thing I have decided to do is to dig back in to the rest of my CD catalog much more often. With 2000 CDs, it’s really hard to know where to start. Since I have my entire collection on a spreadsheet, I figured out an easy way – I went online and found a random number generator, and what ever number comes up, that line on the spreadsheet is the disc to which I will listen. I tried it out today, and the first disc that came up is “The Moon & Antarctica” by Modest Mouse. I haven’t heard this disc in a long, long time and I love it (despite the fact that a friend of mine recently said that this is the disc, rather than any of the more commercial ones that came out after, where Modest Mouse fell off). This is the “blessing” of having a huge music collection – digging back into it and “re-discovering” discs that you haven’t heard in a while.
I guess it boils down to this – I’d much rather have the problems of too much music to listen to rather than go through life not listening to enough.
I have decided on two courses of action in order to make up for the problems listed above. The first is for the new music. I have made a playlist of all the 2010 songs that I like (I also did this for 2009 songs, since I am sure I had the same problem last year) for my iPOD and I am going to make that my go-to playlist for when I am in the car or mowing the lawn for a while. This will sort of be like my own new music radio station, to help me become familiar with the songs. I would also like to think I could hold off on listening to anything new I get for a while, but that’s not likely (although, how I have managed to hold off on listening to the new Walkmen disc, which I have read good things about, is kind of amazing).
The second thing I have decided to do is to dig back in to the rest of my CD catalog much more often. With 2000 CDs, it’s really hard to know where to start. Since I have my entire collection on a spreadsheet, I figured out an easy way – I went online and found a random number generator, and what ever number comes up, that line on the spreadsheet is the disc to which I will listen. I tried it out today, and the first disc that came up is “The Moon & Antarctica” by Modest Mouse. I haven’t heard this disc in a long, long time and I love it (despite the fact that a friend of mine recently said that this is the disc, rather than any of the more commercial ones that came out after, where Modest Mouse fell off). This is the “blessing” of having a huge music collection – digging back into it and “re-discovering” discs that you haven’t heard in a while.
I guess it boils down to this – I’d much rather have the problems of too much music to listen to rather than go through life not listening to enough.
