12th Apr 2004
The CD Epiphany
Big CD Music Collection. Binder Insanity. What do you do? The iPod has caused me to come full circle on something.
(allow me to mix past and present freely here)
In the 70’s and 80’s, I collected a couple hundred albums. Licorice Pizza. 12″ Vinyl that
you don’t easily carry around. You bring your 5 favorite albums to a party, and that’s about it.
20 is just about out of the question (unless you wanted to impress some cutie with
your musical taste - “see? it’s not just Led Zeppelin!”)
Afterwards, I started amassing lots of CDs (and yes, cassette tapes). At some point in every music collectors
life, they utter the following: “What the fuck is it with all of these jewel cases!”
One goes out and tries various strategies for shuttling their favorite 20-50 cds
around. Technology had progressed from the vinyl days. One finds access to a half dozen CD players
over the course of the day (home, car, computer at work, friends house, and so on). Rare
is the moment where every last CD is accounted for, filed away in order.
At some point, a few hundred CDs end up in a couple of big binders, because
taking a family driving trip with a little wallet of 20 isn’t cutting it anymore.
(and we all know the bit about carting those stupid jewel cases all over creation)
But hey …
Enter the iPod.
Enter laptops with a lot of disk space.
Enter some clever cables, and wonderful devices like the iTrip! (leaving aside the whole “put music up on ones server for access on the net from anywhere” bit
- just assume that life still entails going to places where broadband isn’t)
All of the sudden, it hit me. The Epiphany.
I can put my CDs back in their Jewel Cases! I can reunite them with their little booklets,
and put them up on the shelf as historical reference material! I don’t have to do this
stupid physical sorting algorithm on 100’s of pieces of shiny plastic anymore.
So I think I am done with Binders. My CDs have gone full circle. Their traveling days are through.
I will continue to buy them (I know of a really great used CD store in NYC on Bleeker Street), rip
them to my ‘puter, and file them.
