How big is your digital/iTunes library?*

About 8TB but being in Dubai all my physical collection is in storage. I have 6TB of high resolution 24/96 and 24/192 and then another hard drive for live shows and flac files. I bought a Naim system when I moved here and it has been a lifesaver as far as the only source of music the last 3 years.

 

11,165 items.... amateur!

 

It's less a library and more an empty room.

 

I bought 2 unreleased songs by The United States of America from Sundazed's website a few years ago. I used Itunes to burn the two songs to a CDr and then I uninstalled Itunes.

 

Woah, is that 8TB of just music do do you have video files on there? I was actually born in Abu Dhabi, spent most of my childhood there. Great place although I'm not sure if they have any good record stores around there.

 

Hope you don't mind me asking - what tagging routines etc., do you use to separate out the different pressings and masterings?

Best Wishes,
David

 

I ripped and sold my CD collection years ago, but really only use iTunes to load my 160gb iPod for the car.

I have just less than 20,000 songs, almost all lossless.

 

I add it to the album title and put it in parentheses starting with the year.

Fragile (1971 Flat Transfer)
Fragile (2003 Rhino Remaster)
Fragile (2005 Japan SHM)
Fragile (2015 Wilson Remix)

For example

PS I I am not in front of my music computer right now so I completely guest at those dates and descriptives.

 

Many thanks - much appreciated.

And thanks also to the other posters in this thread who responded to my queries.

Best Wishes,
David

 

Not that big. The bulk of my collection is in vinyl. Currently in the process of recording all of my vinyl albums, but its gonna take a while as I figure I probably have 300-350 albums.

 

I've listened to almost all of it although admittedly not as files yet-- I have pretty broad tastes, lots of 50s, 60s, Beatles, jazz, new wave, modern stuff etc. I think it's pretty eclectic but I am sure there are many great things missing from my library!

 

Mine is quite small; most it is McCartney tracks that were available only as downloads or other artist's tracks that came with the purchase of their LP or CD. A few are single tracks where Elvis Costello appears as a guest on someone else's record. I used to collect those CDs, and would still like to, but can't justify the expense.

 

That's a cool avatar. Im currently listening to All Things Must Pass while reading your comment

 

4.5 TB - all HIRES !

 

Whilst I don't include different masterings in my digital library, I do include remixes and revised versions. Like most people probably I have multiple versions of the same title by the same artist. Below is a screen shot for one such song:



By using the methods I do I can easily create smart playlists that:

- are the original recording (stereo and mono versions if applicable)
- have only singles,
- have only studio albums
- have only live albums
- have only live recordings
- are non-English recordings.

ps. Missing from the list are:
I Want To Hold Your Hand.........................1963 stereo mix - "I Want To Hold Your Hand / This Boy".......(1976 edition)
I Want To Hold Your Hand.....(remix).......1965 stereo mix - "The Beatles Greatest Hits Volume 1".......(1966)

 

Thank you for sharing. Very interesting.

 

I can't help but join in the p***ing contest...

5,600 albums, mostly lossless CD rips 1.5 TB - apart from my own early collecting, since '86? - Now I say - thank you thrift stores! This is the time to buy CDs if you have an inkling what to look for. Absolute diamonds to be had if you can stand trawling through the many dungheaps.

 

At the moment I am blocked from adding new items due to my PC being in storage (moving). So I am starting to get quite a backlog to ripping and adding my purchases to my iTunes library. This means I have been at 283.639 items, 7.2 TB and 2.26 years for a while now. All lossless with most 16/44.1 and some at Hi-res.

 

Thank you for taking the time and for the detailed response.

Much appreciated!

Best Wishes,
David

 

I'd greatly recommend the "SongsInfo" app. Sorts your music by playbacks of songs, albums and artists and you can see plays and individual skips. Sorts all data in seconds (less than 45 seconds for me and I have 50,619 songs).

Only negatives are it's not very intuitive (easy once you play with it--if you are listening to a song, scroll down towards the bottom and select Total Playbacks and everything will pop).

The other negative is it's limited to your top 300 songs, artists, albums. I mean if you played a song by your 500th most listened to artist you can view how you've listened to them but they won't appear in your overall list until they are your 300th listened to artist....but that's petty.

I used to live and die by MusicRazor which stopped working with ios10. I found this guy after searching for a replacement and overall it's better. I did like that musicrazor did a better job of showing the overall aggregate (total play count, % of library played, skip count), but overall SongsInfo apps focus on time spent playing is a nice eye opener.

Makes going digital fun for this math nerd

 

411 gigs. 103,101 files in 5,733 folders.

 

About 1200 albums. I use iTunes to supplement physical media (most of my music is on CD/SACD). Obscure repertory, stuff I wouldn't listen to often, offbeat live material, that's the sort of thing I use iTunes for.

My local public library is my source for iTunes-loaded CDs. I can request any item in any library in the Boston area, a really great deal.....

 

If you have 30,000 tunes stored somewhere and listen to 30 tunes a day it would take you the better part of three years listening to music maybe two hours a day to listen to all your files.

I can sort of understand owning a CD or LP I never listen to but don't understand why anyone would store digital files of music he will never actually play.

I'm in the dark about the appeal here. I don't own any non-physical music and only about 700 CDs and LPs and listen over and over to maybe 200 of them.

Somebody enlighten me.

 

Three years isn't a very long time. By your own estimation, it wouldn't take very long to go through an entire collection.

Same goes for physical media, it turns out.

 

How do you get to know a tune well enough to want to own a file of it if you only spend four minutes every three years with it? If that? The music I love occupies a different place, a different KIND of place, in my life than that. I can't count the number of times I've listened to Beethoven's third symphony or Kind of Blue or Saxophone Colossus or The Four Seasons. Different strokes of course. I'm not critical. I'm just trying to understand another approach to collecting that obviously appeals to a lot of people.