Overwhelmed by the amount of music that exists?

Anyone else feel this way? I've listened to many albums in my collection but haven't come anywhere near close to all of it. I'm definitely more of a collector/completist than a listener and accumulate way more than I can keep up with.

 

Nope,I've listened to all the records in my collection..[not on the same day of course,hehe]but I play em when the mood hits me and sometimes it hits me often.

 

I do too. I used to buy a lot of music but now I purchase much less. Often, my purchases are just by hole fillers (I used to have the song/album on LP, 45, 8-track, cassette and I'm re-buying it in a digital format), songs I've discovered via on-line sources like YouTube, or albums based on recommendations. Now, I've got enough music to last me the rest of my life.

 

I make it a point to listen to every record in my collection.

 

Yes overwhelmed but grateful at the same time. Got to get stuck-in and listen whenever you can. Being single with no dependents is a bonus. Music is on every time I set foot in the flat and plugged into my ears when I leave it. Unfortunately I have to go to work and cannot listen to music for those 40 hours a week.

 

Technically I do too,but I would be bored out of my skull if I could not buy music for at least the rest of my life...and who knows maybe longer!!

 

It is overwhelming, and Im still open to what is coming down the road.....

 

It's important to show the total amount of available music who's boss by not letting the impossibility of experiencing all of it make you feel intimidated, neurotic, and twitchy.

You can only listen to one piece of music at a time. Music, however, can't listen to music at all. You almost have to feel sorry for music.

 

Not overwhelmed at all. Realizing that you can't listen to it all and that what matters is that you enjoy what you do listen to is very empowering.

You can't ever do all of anything, no matter what you're trying to do.

 

I largely buy music (if any) these days as a hat-tip to a busker. I'm not buying something for eternity or "the collection" anymore. I liked St. Vincent's and Jack White's latest as complete performances and after three or so streams of each decided it was worth a coin toss into their respective guitar cases. (And yes, that does mean I find music somewhat more "disposable" than I did in my younger days.)

 

If you're anything like me a mood will hit you out of nowhere for certain artist and you'll be glad you can go to your "collection" and it's there at your fingertips. Enjoy what you have and be glad you had the means to get it.

 

More than once I've done A to Z listening through my LP collection to make sure I know/like/remember everything that's there (1500 piece collection, i'd say, not counting 45s). Because of doing it this way, sometimes I'll find myself listening to something I'm not entirely in the mood for but it does make me more consistent in my thoughts/views towards what I own. When a record isn't doing it for me, I'll put it in a designated box I call 'the doghouse', which doesn't necessarily mean SELL, but could.

I used to be a completest until I found myself collecting too many songs/records I didn't ever even like, which made less and less space for new things I was discovering that I loved, naturally. Best of luck to you.

 

I like that there's always stuff to discover, always music to listen to that either I've never heard before or that I don't know very well.

I'd much rather it be that way than any other.

 

I've gone ape for Miles Davis, Dylan and Zappa over the last three years. Their back catalogues are huge. It's kept me busy but very happy.

 

Another way of thinking ...

In Life, there’s Too Much Of Anything; here’s just a fraction:

Travelling: Destinations, Cities, Landmarks
Cuisine: Food, Recipes
Visual Entertainment: Movies, TV
Live Entertainment: Concerts, Plays
Music: CDs, Vinyl
Social Interaction: Family, Friends

Not enough time

 

No. I'm virtually listening all the time the same few records

 

I feel this way almost every day. I'm trying very hard not to be one of those people in their late 30's who stops discovering new music and just plays the same stuff over and over again, but it's...daunting. And then I always feel like i'm ignoring my favorites...stuff I used to know by heart I suddenly don't remember very well because I haven't listened to it in years. It very much falls under the "first world problems" category, but I struggle with it all the time.

 

The volume of music is so overwhelming to me that I've been firmly stuck in the 1966-1967 musical time range for the better part of the last year.

 

For many years - like a few decades - I was like a classic rock radio station. Played the same two or three hundred albums from my favorite few dozen artists over and over and over again.

I came to realize this was largely for two reasons:

a) I was still discovering music like it was 1970, on the major radio stations, and, most was not to my taste.

b) I was also stuck in the old paradigm of being interested in a band because they had a following. Let's face it - even the counter-culture, anti-commerical bands of the 60's, 70's and 80's were based on developing a following. You didn't just like a band's music, you identified with them in at least some way. And you found out about these bands through gate keepers like the media or local venues.

So I have started to try and break out of that. With the internet, truly the floodgates are open. Yes, this definitely has the one effect of creating an overwhelming tsunami of music to discover. But by freeing myself of any concern of whether anyone else likes or cares about it, now I'm finding a different relation ship to the music. If Joe Blow makes music in his basement that no one's ever heard, it's now possible that I may discover it through the many online sources. And if I like it, then that's all that matters 'cause there are no gate keepers on Joe's music to stop me from enjoying whatever he creates and posts.

I just have to not worry about the huge mass of music out there. Consume it at my pace.

 

100% agreement. There's sooo much to do in this world. I need 300 years.

 

too much.

i have went on a purchase rampage ini the last 3-5 years, boots, official, used, new, etc etc. i put them all on my iTunes, and iPods, but have not listened to even %10 of what ive purchased. i usually do shuffle on my iPod with my dock at bedtime, so if i hear anything new im asleep and can't hear it anyway.

i have too much. i may never g et to hear it all. just like music, records, cd's etc etc. i have a problem ...........

 

I was doing OK until the really big box sets - like the King Crimson boxes, the Family box set of a few years ago, and the recent Wishbone Ash box set, all containing dozens of discs - started emerging. I buy these because I have the sense that they are here now and likely will never be reproduced, so some day I may have a chance to hear all of them.

Then again, if not, there is fun in just grabbing one of these sets and pulling a disc at random out - as I did yesterday when extracting a picked-at-random Crimson show from 1973 pulled from the Starless box for workout accompaniment. There's one disc down!

 

Overwhelmed by the amount of music that exists?

No way, grateful. Gives us a lot of material to be exposed to, pick and choose what you like. I stopped trying to have everything, and focus on what I like and what I will repeat listen to.

 

Used to feel that way somewhat.

Today I just enjoy whatever is on my radar at that moment, and the other hundreds of millions of tracks take a backseat. I'll never get to listen to everything, I will miss albums before I die that I probably would have loved. But that's OK, I just enjoy what's in front in me.

It also helps that I don't have a completist mentality.

 

Plenty of music isn`t even documented on discogs or fan sites.
I have fun just finding something on my shelf that I haven`t played in a while.
I have a bunch of sealed albums I`m still getting around to.My buying has slowed way down too.