Back in the seventies when I had an average sized (300 ish) record collection I could have named every track and hummed along to every nuance of them.Now,30 years later having a ridiculously large sized collection I have probably only played 75% of them more than a couple of times.Perhaps nowadays less is more.

but how many of us are prepared to batten down the hatches and say enough is enough? I'm adding at a rate of 20 tracks a day, on average, week in week out, weeding out a few, it's true. And let alone recognise, there are probably songs I barely hear twice, however much I liked 'em at rip.
I could always stop reading this blog, this magazine, all the others and stop, stuck in now.
Don't want to.
There you have it.

brings this home more than when you hear a track on the radio & think I must get that & find you already have. Happened to me the other day with a Michelle Shocked song. I love having my 180g ipod on shuffle in the car & playing guess the artist, doubt I get more than 75%.

When I have my ipod classic on shuffle in the car just about every third track I don't recognise. I end up scrolling up and down to recognise an artist and then guess who it was based on the letter of the alphabet the artist I recognise starts with.

Always throws me though as first names are used to list the tracks alphabetically!

..i lived for many a year in bliss with my 500Mb mp3 player.
it meant i kept to within a working limit and forced me to listen to albums more than once.
unfortunately, the beast got poorly earlier this year, and my wife got me a 2Gb replacement.
which even now, feels way too much space.
however, i am finding old habits die so i rarely put more than a couple of albums on it.
less is more.

I currently have 3,781 tracks sitting in a folder on iTunes which I have entitled "Suspended" as there's just no room for them on my 80GB Classic. I'm loathe to remove stuff I've only heard once, as most of the best music I find can take a while to grow on you, but what can you do.

If Apple don't come up with a model with a minimum of 250GB this year, I think I'll sue...

your ears are always open to new stuff.

When I first started collecting, I was like the others on here. I knew every word to every album and then you could only listen at home.

I'd not say they were better days, you relied on the radio and reviews and how many album duffers did we buy through the years on the strength of a killer single?

I think those early albums always stay with you, becoming a comforter and reminder of what got you started, but I wouldn't change now for then.

I do love it when you guys relive the seventies. It almost makes me yearn for a time before I was born. Pretty good going.

I have a 160GB (though this only takes up to 147GB) and have filled that. I'm trying to get through everything before the end of the year. It is possible, you just need to listen to a lot of music.

The number of albums I know inside and out, is, granted, probably less than when you were young-ens. But that doesn't mean I like the rest less, just that I have a very wide taste.

And that's not a bad thing is it?

This thread seems to confirm my theory that the principal activity of the music fan these days is not listening to music but curating their collection. I love modern technology for giving access to such a broad musical spectrum but I miss the joy of being able to sing along to every track on an album. Swings and roundabouts, innit?

i've been purging my collection
maybe 4000 cds binned or sent to music magpie
and with spotify (and more shelf space) i haven't bought music in months
but i'm probably hearing more than ever

Being all of the above, I acquire far more new music than I can reasonably listen to and have heaps of stuff on my Mac/iPod that I may have listened once, if at all.

This used to actually bother me, until I realised that it's not hurting anyone, is a cheaper hobby than smoking, and means I will dig up the occasional gem more often than if I was more picky.

I do make an effort every now and then to go back to something that didn't grab me straight away to see if my opinion has changed and I often rediscover good stuff that way - Howling Bells, Interpol, Fleet Foxes and Woodpigeon are all recent(ish) examples of that. And sometimes my wife will like something I've downloaded a lot more than me (The Decemberists, for instance), so then I can at least take solace from the fact that someone in the household is getting value from my whim purchases.

I do think that Spotify (or a similar service) might break my acquisition habit, but as long as I am seconded to New Zealand, I'll have to wait to find out!

I like Dials_mavis' view of curating my collection. As I did a history degree, I can now see why I have such a vast musical library - it is my museum effectively.

I also like collecting the entire works of artists I like, as sometimes you discover some absolute gems that you wouldn't necessarily have come across otherwise.

For example:-

Fatboy Slim - Praise You (Mike D And Adrock Remix)
Radiohead - Gagging Order
Oasis - Falling Down (The Prodigy Version)
mum - The Amateur Show
Mos Def - Ms. Fat Booty (DJ Kim Morrison Remix)

Tracks I really love, but without having gone that extra mile and getting stuff I hadn't heard of an artist I would never have discovered.