How many CDs did you acquire in 2012?

[Lance]

I am just about do calculate mine to add here, but I have a feeling it is decidedly less than in previous years, unless, of course, I miss my guess. Hang sec ... and I'll bring forth my numbers.



Truly, truly, I am shocked at how much there is in the final analysis. I have decided not to share this information. You should know that I am making a concerted effort to drastically reduce new acquisitions in 2013 except very special artists important to me, mostly singers and pianists, and above all, historical recordings. No more conductors, Beethoven symphonies, and the like - as I'm leaving all those purchases to newer and younger collectors. I can now be entirely satisfied with that I have.


Major labels: 1,388 CDs, includes all CDs within sets (Frankly I'm shocked, but there were many sets with many discs within, like the Rubinstein, Kempff, Toscanini, etc.)

Minor or Independent labels: 756 CDs. includes all CDs within sets

[sans maitre]

Maybe half a dozen, have gone mostly digital

[IcedNote]

I'd guess about 20. Various things I needed to study for various reasons.

-G

[Seán]

I bought less than 40 cds in 2012, twenty-seven of these are the Herreweghe Bach recordings and they are magnificent. I also bought Grieg's complete orchestral works with Ole Kristian Ruud conducting the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Quartetto Italiano's Mozart SQ cycle. I am very happy with these purchases.

[John F]

None for myself last year, a few as Christmas presents. Same story in 2011. Come to think of it, the only big CD purchase I've made in recent years was the Metropolitan Opera set, "James Levine: Celebrating 40 Years at the Met," produced by Polygram Records. 32 CDs containing prime Levine repertoire, much of which the commercial companies never recorded, in broadcasts chosen by himself.

Such as: Benvenuto Cellini, Pelléas et Mélisande, Wozzeck, Lulu, the Stravinsky and French triple bills, Moses und Aron, and The Rake's Progress. Also some repertoire duplications that surpass Levine's commercially issued performances on DVD: Les Troyens with Ben Heppner and the great Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and Lohengrin with Ben Heppner and Deborah Voigt in a proper role for her. Plus Harbison's The Great Gatsby as a token of Levine's commitment to contemporary American music, which he had little opportunity to explore at the Met.

This set can now be had from Amazon for $142, from the Met Opera Shop for $130. Not to be confused with the DVD set with the same title and look, 21 DVDs of 11 operas and excerpts from 3 concerts; a mix of essential and not so crucial telecasts, the former including Wozzeck and Lulu again plus John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles. I passed on this one but if you're interested, Amazon's price is $246, the Met Shop's is $200.

[josé echenique]

My guess is between 300 and 400. Like many others I swore never to buy another Beethoven symphony cycle again, but here comes the new Frans Brüggen in GLOSSA and it becomes a mandatory purchase.
But then, most of what I bought are things never recorded before: Leonardo Vinci´s Artaserse, Vivaldi/Giacomelli´s L´Oracolo in Messenia, Kreutzer´s La Mort d´Abel, Dauverge´s Hercule Mourant, etc, worthy purchases I think.

[maestrob]

Well, since you asked.......

I like to keep up with an occasional gem, but I'm really picky, so it averages out to about one new disc/week, plus an occasional very fine set (Bolet's Liszt, Dvorak's Symphonies on Supraphon, the Heifetz Box).

Total acquisitions, roughly 100 CDs (plus Heifetz), and about 6 opera DVDs.

To make room, I'm ridding myself of some old reel-to-reel tapes that I simply can't play anymore, due to a breakdown of my old friend, a Pioneer deck I've had since the 70's.

[slofstra]

About 200 CDs on 30 titles. I don't record date of purchase, so that is +/- 20%.

[ContrapunctusIX]

Likely about 80 physical discs, 50 classical and 30 rock. Probably another 100 or so digital FLAC downloads, the physical medium just isn't very important to me anymore.

On a side note, Lance may have a problem

[Guitarist]

I'd say around 125-150: all classical, and about 90% SACD.

[Ken]

Not too many. About five to six, at the most. I've been on a pretty tight budget for the last couple of years but must admit to having delved more and more into "other" genres of music that interest me over the last year or so. Which really isn't a bad thing, since I've noticed being able to "rediscover" many pieces now after not having listened to them for a good while.

Interestingly enough, I really don't feel a need to expand my music collection to a great extent -- for the time being. I know that I'll slowly build up a list of must-buy records over the next few years (especially considering there are always great new records coming out each year) and then the catching-up game will begin!

[slofstra]

Not too many. About five to six, at the most. I've been on a pretty tight budget for the last couple of years but must admit to having delved more and more into "other" genres of music that interest me over the last year or so. Which really isn't a bad thing, since I've noticed being able to "rediscover" many pieces now after not having listened to them for a good while.

Interestingly enough, I really don't feel a need to expand my music collection to a great extent -- for the time being. I know that I'll slowly build up a list of must-buy records over the next few years (especially considering there are always great new records coming out each year) and then the catching-up game will begin!

Personally, I am up to the gills with box sets I haven't listened to. I buy them for "inventory" and I should get to them in time. I do listen to all the single/double CD/SACD recordings I purchase. Frankly, if I never bought another CD or SACD I am set for life, especially when I consider the number of streaming sources now available on the Internet, along with venues like the BPO private streaming service, and also the various live concerts we attend.

[barney]

Well, it was a big year for me because the record companies dug deep into their archives. I got 820 CDs last year and a couple of dozen DVDs. If you got more than that, Lance, you were busy. I'm ludicrously behind in cataloguing them, and certainly haven't listened to them all.

Most of them were sent to me for possible review, starting with the 50-CD Mercury Living Presence. Other biggies were the 50-CD Magnificat collection (I actually posted that review on this forum), the 82-CD Karajan set, the 50-CD Archiv Baroque set (as yet unopened), 23-CD complete Clifford Curzo on Decca, 82 CDs of Solti opera sets by composer, the 55-CD DG Mozart 111-year anniversary and 55 CDs Philips original jackets. I paid for the 100-CD Konzert Meister set that someone recommended on this forum (I'm so sorry I can't remember who right now) with its great collection of performances from the 40s and 50s.

Happy to have them, but ran out of storage space several hundred CDs back.

[barney]

I've already put my request into Universal for the new complete Verdi edition, because there's so many I've never even heard, let alone own.

In my early years I bought highlights LPs of Attila and I Lombardi and a couple of others.

I've never heard in full, either recorded or live: Oberto, Un giorno di regno, I Lombardi, Ernani, I due Foscari, Giovanna d'Arco, Alzira, Attila, I masnadieri, Jérusalem (alternative I Lombardi), La battaglia di Legnano, Luisa Miller, Stiffelio, Les vêpres siciliennes, or Aroldo (Stiffelio revised). Probably none of us have heard them all live.

But this is probably worth its own thread, and I may open one.

[slofstra]

Well, it was a big year for me because the record companies dug deep into their archives. I got 820 CDs last year and a couple of dozen DVDs. If you got more than that, Lance, you were busy. I'm ludicrously behind in cataloguing them, and certainly haven't listened to them all.

Most of them were sent to me for possible review, starting with the 50-CD Mercury Living Presence. Other biggies were the 50-CD Magnificat collection (I actually posted that review on this forum), the 82-CD Karajan set, the 50-CD Archiv Baroque set (as yet unopened), 23-CD complete Clifford Curzo on Decca, 82 CDs of Solti opera sets by composer, the 55-CD DG Mozart 111-year anniversary and 55 CDs Philips original jackets. I paid for the 100-CD Konzert Meister set that someone recommended on this forum (I'm so sorry I can't remember who right now) with its great collection of performances from the 40s and 50s.

Happy to have them, but ran out of storage space several hundred CDs back.

Yikes, and when I look across your list, I really should have the Magnificat collection, the Curzon and the Philips sets. I'll forgo all the others, because I won't even get to some of the sets I do have for a few years. I look at it this way. The entire recording ouevre of 20-30 years is purchasable on the very cheap at this moment. These sets will go out of print, and I doubt very many will stay in catalog. That's why I'm buying a number of these sets now. Hopefully, I'll be mining these CDs for years to come.

[Jared]

including those within box-sets, it will probably be about 150 CDs and about 20 opera DVDs/ Blu-Rays...

I would say however that I have been listening avidly during 2012 and am pleased to be in a position where I have cleared the whole backlog of CDs which I hadn't heard... last spring, I had about 90-100 unheard CDs and now it is around 10 new purchases which have recently arrived...

I do however have a large catalogue of unlistened to BBC Recordings, with which I must make some headway during 2013.

[bigshot]

Over a thousand for me. Almost all classical this year.

[barney]

Well, it was a big year for me because the record companies dug deep into their archives. I got 820 CDs last year and a couple of dozen DVDs. If you got more than that, Lance, you were busy. I'm ludicrously behind in cataloguing them, and certainly haven't listened to them all.

Most of them were sent to me for possible review, starting with the 50-CD Mercury Living Presence. Other biggies were the 50-CD Magnificat collection (I actually posted that review on this forum), the 82-CD Karajan set, the 50-CD Archiv Baroque set (as yet unopened), 23-CD complete Clifford Curzo on Decca, 82 CDs of Solti opera sets by composer, the 55-CD DG Mozart 111-year anniversary and 55 CDs Philips original jackets. I paid for the 100-CD Konzert Meister set that someone recommended on this forum (I'm so sorry I can't remember who right now) with its great collection of performances from the 40s and 50s.

Happy to have them, but ran out of storage space several hundred CDs back.

Yikes, and when I look across your list, I really should have the Magnificat collection, the Curzon and the Philips sets. I'll forgo all the others, because I won't even get to some of the sets I do have for a few years. I look at it this way. The entire recording ouevre of 20-30 years is purchasable on the very cheap at this moment. These sets will go out of print, and I doubt very many will stay in catalog. That's why I'm buying a number of these sets now. Hopefully, I'll be mining these CDs for years to come.

Yes, that's exactly the way I see it. The downside is that you may get - say - Abbado's Simon Boccanegra (an excellent version) in several different sets. I have it from the first time I bought it on LP, then again on CD, then again in 3 different box sets. Duplication is a subject that often comes up on this board. But I hope, fingers crossed and belting my own skull as a "touch-wood", to have many years to keep listening to them. Eg the Schumann box raised on another thread I have only dipped into really.

[barney]

Over a thousand for me. Almost all classical this year.

Here the problem is the law of diminishing returns. If you can afford 1000 +, you are probably some sort of big shot, which means you are really busy, which means fewer hours for truly dedicated listening. Unless the wealth is inherited, which would have been my favoured path, had I been consulted!

[slofstra]

Over a thousand for me. Almost all classical this year.

Here the problem is the law of diminishing returns. If you can afford 1000 +, you are probably some sort of big shot, which means you are really busy, which means fewer hours for truly dedicated listening. Unless the wealth is inherited, which would have been my favoured path, had I been consulted!

I've found it axiomatic in life that I have had either a surplus of hours or of money, but never both at the same time.

[springrite]

My guess would be around 200 to 250.

[bigshot]

Here the problem is the law of diminishing returns. If you can afford 1000 +, you are probably some sort of big shot, which means you are really busy, which means fewer hours for truly dedicated listening. Unless the wealth is inherited, which would have been my favoured path, had I been consulted!

Actually, I'm not rich, just obsessed. It wasn't hard to get that many disks. I didn't pay more than a buck or two apiece. It was a megabox year.

[barney]

Here the problem is the law of diminishing returns. If you can afford 1000 +, you are probably some sort of big shot, which means you are really busy, which means fewer hours for truly dedicated listening. Unless the wealth is inherited, which would have been my favoured path, had I been consulted!

Actually, I'm not rich, just obsessed. It wasn't hard to get that many disks. I didn't pay more than a buck or two apiece. It was a megabox year.

Yes, it was, and 2013 may be the same. At least storage is easier in a 50-CD box rather than 50 one-CD jewel cases. But then you have to keep track of what is in each, and you don't get good notes and libretti.

[stenka razin]

Too many!..........lol.......


Regards,
Mel

[7flat5]

including those within box-sets, it will probably be about 150 CDs and about 20 opera DVDs/ Blu-Rays...

Umm... box sets only count as one, right?

So, as far as my wife is concerned... 6 this year. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

[bigshot]

But then you have to keep track of what is in each, and you don't get good notes and libretti.

I rip tem to my edia server, so packaging and organization is easy. I've actually ripped all 1000 of those CDs, plus a thousand more from my collection. Still working on it.

[Jared]

including those within box-sets, it will probably be about 150 CDs and about 20 opera DVDs/ Blu-Rays...

Umm... box sets only count as one, right?

So, as far as my wife is concerned... 6 this year. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

that's a very sensible policy...

I seem to remember that I started 2012 with a huge collection of unlistened to material, whereas now, I'm actuially down to less than 10 CDs which have yet to be opened. that, and the fact that I've been ploughing through my BBC Music library I think has contributed toward the slowdown in purchases last year....