Are completists disappearing?
My best mate is (or rather was) one of life's completists.
At the age of 20, he had already amassed a collection of records and CDs that was worthy of John Peel.
And, more specifically, he was a huge fan of the likes of REM, The Cure and U2, among others. So much so that he made it his ambition to get hold of anything and everything they had ever released.
He owned orange vinyl releases by The Cure that were worth a lot of money (and this was a good 15 years before eBay), odd CD singles that were only ever pressed in Outer Mongolia, and B-sides that only the band and their mums' cats had heard.
He then got married and space, his slightly neurotic wife and lack of finances meant he had to give up/sell much of his impressive collection.
This was a huge disappointment to me, simply because we had unofficially agreed that we could each have the other's music collection in the event that one of us died (a far better deal for me).
The point of all this is, has the rise of digital sales and drop in CD sales scuppered the completists of this world?
Although I'm sure there are people out there who buy everything that someone has ever released, surely they must be on the decline.
After all, it's not as much fun downloading the MP3 file of someone's latest single, in comparison to buying the physical 7"/CD single, is it?
More to the point, are there any lurking here on the site and do you still try to complete artists?
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I used to aspire to completism
And then in the 70s the record business twigged that it could put out special editions aimed purely at people like us. Henceforth it became a mug's game.
Can I refer you to ...
my shameless attempt to blag the Chris Rea donated record player on a neighbouring thread? Complete set of Apple label vinyl, a work in progress. Does this count?
I agree about the multiformat scam, which surely reaches its low in the 'Special Edition' CD that is marked out from its humdrum cousin solely by the addition of a small silver holographic sticker. Please tell me no-one has ever bought such a CD simply to acquire this sticker, or is this in fact a lucrative and rewarding hobby that has simply passed me by? (I appreciate that the whole Apple vinyl thing perhaps leaves me little room for manoeuvre should a heated debate ensue).
I recall...
going into a store (somewhere like Woolies) recently to buy a CD as a present for someone.
The regular CD was sold out, but "you can buy the 'Special Edition', if you like, Sir".
At an extra £5 for some crappy extra DVD footage and an interview. No sirree!
I used to be a completist
unitl I found out that limited editions came in thousands. I have a wall of vinyl and a wall of cd's and now i'm just selective. (But Steven C I never bought for the silver holographic sticker.)
I have unfortunately bought the same item twice on the dodgy assumption that I could retire on it at some future date.
Unfortunately I'm still bursting a gut with no big payday in sight.
Although I'm curious if anyone gets rid of their collections of part of collections for space. I haven't got rid of anything apart from a Go West CD that I got as a dodgy prize from GLR years ago. (Hide your head in shame again Mr Hepworth).
I think I may have said this before...
....but I become uncomfortable buying too much of the content of any one act. I have to fight an inner battle with myself if the 3rd CD by any artist is good, if I have the first 2. I suspect I have thus missed out on many the better third than second offering, which is surely another list?!!
Actually, I'm becoming a completist for the first time.
In the olden days I was much too sensible to ever become a completist. I only ever cared about songs rather than formats. There were songs that you could only get on 12inch b-sides but I never had the money to throw around on that sort of thing.
Nowadays I look through my digital collection and think "hang on, I must have nearly everything" by, say, Super Furry Animals. So I'm off to discography sites to see what's missing and before I know it I'm downloading "Lets Stop Smokin'" from iTunes.
If some rare track isn't available to buy then I might spend hours trying to obtain it by 'other' means.
I can tell you with confidence that I have the complete set of Beatles, Smiths, Joy Division, SFA, REM and many more.
Does it make me happy, though...