Collectors and Listeners

[chris]

Discussion about reissues and desires that items stay in print forever has brought to mind a question I've thought about often-- am I a collector (fledgeling) or a dedicated listener? Or both.

I wouldn't want all CDs to be in print all of the time because then some of the fun of searching for that rare title-- the "joy of the chase"-- would be gone. And on the collector's side, I do catalog all my collection in a database and I rarely get rid of anything except an exact duplicate. I even keep a few titles that are also represented by, say, a Mosaic collection. I like the collector aspect, making it kind of a hobby rather than a contest about who has the most money.

But at the same time, I am not a completist by any means. I don't purchase CDs that I don't plan to listen to or just because they are by a certain artist or complete some kid of theme. I don't feel like I am in competition with anyone else. I love the music. And when I want something that is OOP, I am ok with procuring a CD burn, because it is still about the music (however, if I can find the real thing later, I will take it!).

And while I think I have a collector's impulses, Jazz (and books) are the only areas that have really stuck with me, whereas other obsessions (fountain pens, chess sets and memorabilia) have come and largely gone.

[AfricaBrass]

When I got into jazz, I was a listener.

After a while, I became I collector. I think the Conns got me started down that road.

I collected jazz very seriously for about 8 years and realized that it had lost its joy for me.

Now, I'm a listener again. I'm enjoying the music more than I have in years.

[Rooster_Ties]

80% listener, 20% collector. I never give a rat's ass about getting the "original" or more "valuable" version of anything. I'm mostly all about the music. I don't care about getting LP's, as CD's are quite good enough for my purposes.

Now when it comes to a few things, I will admit that I probably have picked up some titles that I might otherwise have not gotten, if it weren't for the completest in me.

And I've laos picked up some Blue Note dates that I probably wouldn't have been as quick to purchase, if they hadn't have been on BN.

But other than that, I'm really probably 80% or even closer to 90% a LISTENER.

[Jazzmoose]

There's an element of the collector in my approach to music; I can't help that...I just happen to have that silly hardwiring in my brain. I try to keep it confined to my U.S. Coins and Scandinavian stamps, but sometimes it pops up. Like when I see a complete list of Conns posted here...

That said, it's pretty easy to knock down, and I'd have to say that the listener side of me is more excited than the collector ever was. I'd go with 96% listener, 4% collector. Just enough of a collector that I have trouble getting rid of anything...

[jazzbo]

I'm more of a collector than I want to be, but I'm a lot less of a collector than I had been even a few years ago.

Now I just want the music, in the best sound possible. If I get a version that superceded another version I don't keep a duplicate. I'm finding duplicates and moving them out of the collection. It feels good. But. . . I still have a huge storage problem. . .that isn't going to get better.

[John Tapscott]

If you looked in my music room you would say I was a collector, but I don't consider myself a collector in the classic sense. I buy music not to collect it but because I am genuinely curious about it and want to hear it. I don't have anything unheard in my collection at the moment (well except the CD that arrived in the mail today!). I am also quite selctive about what I buy now, just because there's so much out there, and I don't exactly have money to burn.

[BeBop]

The best move I ever made was to quit buying. (My music bucks now go to live concerts and other direct support to musicians.) With the good fortune that comes from having a large collection, I can find continuing enjoyment without digging through the crates at the local record store. Okay, I missing out on the newly issued material, but the pressure that comes from obsession is relieved. Highly recommended.

[Noj]

I'm constantly in the hunt to hear more of what I missed, so I think that puts me in the listener camp. However I buy cds all the time so I guess I'm a collector too--albeit a collector of music I intend to listen to repeatedly for years to come. I sell cds I don't like. Definitely not a completist.

Am I disqualified from being a listener because I collect?

[Chrome]

CDs and books are my weaknesses, too. For music I'm a strict listener, couldn't care less about collecting per se.

For books, I do a little "accidental" collecting. I don't put out big money to buy old first editions or anything like that, but if I find something interesting while I'm haunting the used book sales, I'll pick it up even if I already have a copy. For instance, I recently found a 1st edition of Hemingway's "Across the River and into the Trees" at a library sale and bought it even though I already had a paperback and a different hardcover version.

Part of the problem for me is mental I guess. I have a hard time thinking of CDs as something collectable.

[relyles]

When I think of the hundreds of CDs, LPs and CDRs that are in my "unheard music boxes" in the basement of my apartment, the rare at which I actually listen to the music and the sad truth that I hardly ever listen to any recording more than once before I feel obligated to move to the next unheard recording, I think I should admit to myself that I have constructed an impressive library of music that I am not sure when I will be able to fully appreciate.

It was not always this way. Other responsibilities in life have reduced the time I have to listen to music, but my insatiable appetite to get the music has not subsided. Embarrasingly that probably makes me more of a collector these days, but I must say that I only purchase music that I really want to hear by artists I genuinely appreciate. Maybe one day I will catch up. Its a constant battle, but recently I have slowed down the pace at which I obtain new music.

[Sundog]

I'm a listener interested in obtaining the best possible sound quality. However, I treat myself to rarities a few times a year, but that's about it. I really consider myself more of a student of music who's trying to obtain a doctrate. I currently consider myself in about 3rd grade. B)

[Jazz]

I am soooo far away from a collecter. The main thing that fueled my Jazz listening were my theory studies and the desire to be a Jazz musician. So, now that I'm neither a theory student or a Jazz musician I am left in this weird twilight phase of listening. I tend to be not interested at all in collecting albums or even sound quality as much as wanting to hear what those cats are doing musically. I don't think that will ever change even though I'll probably never have any practical use for whatever miniscule observations I make about a particular recording or style...

[Jazz Groove]

At fist I have to say I was a collector. Buy what I can. Then I got married. Soon after that the wife popped out some kids, and I realized I could not afford to buy all those CD's like before. Now I am mostly a listener. I would say 80% to 20%.

Edited December 11, 2003 by Jazz Groove

[Dave James]

Question for AfricaBrass. How did you go about becoming a listener again? I fear that sometimes I'm way too much the collector and not nearly enough the listener. I also seem to be "acquisitionally" hardwired. Don't get me wrong, I love to listen, but when I think about the number of unlistened to or just listened to once items in my collection, I get a little concerned that I've gotten upside down with the music.

Up over and out.

[White Lightning]

I'll be interested to know your (everybody's) definition of Listeners and Collectors. It seems to me everyone has a diferent definition thus categorizes oneself differently than another would.

[Jazz]

Well, I guess the way I defined it in my head had to do with acquiring physical property versus valuing musical content. To what degree you balance those or value one over the other would be to what degree you are a collecter vs. listener...

[Alexander]

Well, if you asked my wife, she'd say I'm a collector, because I've filled every square inch of our home with books, comics, and CDs. But I see myself as a listener (and reader) because I'm not interested in the monetary *value* of my books, comics, and CDs, but rather in enjoying them while I can (knowing full well that I am mortal, and don't have unlimited time). I have a very real *sentimental* attachment to my stuff, but I don't let that come between me and the things that really matter...my wife and daughter. Or at least, I don't want it to.

I'm not a completist, but I do enjoying hearing a LOT by the artists I admire. One Stan Getz CD wouldn't do, so now I have 50. On the other hand, I feel like I have enough Getz right now, so I don't feel any compulsion to pick up any further CDs by that artist, even though there's more I don't have.

[JohnS]

With some things I'm definitely a collector. But I really want to be a listener but I find that time is always limited. So things get played, I listen but don't always hear. That why there is always a pile of cds on the floor awaiting "listening" rather than just playing. I guess I have to class myself as a reluctant collector.

[mikeweil]

Collectors are at least in part completists. Otherwise they wouldn't go out hunting for that last session missing in the collection.

Listeners just enjoy the music and buy anything that comes across their way, maybe go after more from the same artists, but without any serious system.

Collecting gets dubious IMHO when searching and finding becomes more important than the music itself and listening to it for enjoyment.

I was a collector for a while, tried to assemble a representative collection of every style and important musician, but gave up on it. Couldn't afford all that stuff. Now I collect only certain musicians I really dig, and thumb through my racks twice a year to get rid of stuff I rarely listen to or listened to often enough to get what I wanted from it. Space is limited, so I try to keep it on a certain level. I keep stuff that still excites me after many spins.

[Jazz]

Collecting gets dubious IMHO when searching and finding becomes more important than the music itself and listening to it for enjoyment.

I think that collectors probably have really driven the life of this music on. Without those guys, there might not be any market to speak of for record companies to even bother putting out any kind of Jazz at all. I wouldn't feel bad at all about being a "high percentage" of collector.

[marcoliv]

i´m 100% collector, 100% listener

Marcus Oliveira

[chris]

I certainly class myself as being both listener and collector. I love the former and have impulses to the latter, as my house full of stuff will attest to. On the other hand, I often wonder what I would be if money were no object. Would I still want to collect or would half the fun be taken out of it if I didn't have the parameter of "budget" to work with when purchasing? I'm too enthusiastic about too much to be a real collector-- yet

[Jazzdog]

Not as much a collector as I am more obsessive/compulsive about the music I buy. I guess any purchase has to fit in to some asthetic value which I ascribed to myself at some point, but I guess I have my weird reasons to get the stuff I listen to. I also sell a lot of stuff and have a lot of promo copies of various things. My turnover ratio is pretty good, so I don't really know if that makes me as much a collector as much as I am a listener. But in general I don't have as much time as I would like to listen to music, but when I do, I enjoy it if I can help it!

That being said I would much prefer having the best version of whatever is out there, if possible. If it's not possible I just get it, if it strikes my fancy at the time.

[medjuck]

If on-line music gets a little better audio quality it could mean a big change for me. What do you do when everything is available all the time? Already there are some kids who don't feel a need to own a physical object to listen to music (except a player) and I now have many things on my ipod that I don't own as a cd. (A good thing since I'm running out of shelf space.) But I'm still looking forward to Seven Steps to Berlin to complete my Miles box set collection.