Large Music Collection Download
Peter Rayshell
For me, it is more than just a collection of music that I want to listen to. When I see album sleeves, almost always, I remember the time period when I bought the album. When I look at my music collection, I see a significant part of my life.
Of course, I am aware that I can never listen to all of my albums in one row. That was never my intention in building my collection. But just like my favourite music created the soundtrack of my life, so do the albums and the collection they form, create the memories of my life. And that is a huge value to me.
I have thousands of music cds (mostly standard issue, but also deluxe versions, limited numbered editions, SACD, MFSL Gold, box sets, etc.). Many have been played only a handful of times. I don't use them - ever - because they are all ripped in lossless to external hard drives. So the cds... they just sit there in a dark closet.
I have started exploring what would be the best way to sell my collection. A quick websearch led to Decluttr - this seems the most painless way - they will buy anything, pay for shipping, and deposit the money in your bank account. However, the prices they offer seem low, particularly for some items. Case in point: I entered the barcode number for the David Bowie, Station to Station 3 Cd deluxe box (bar code 5099964758329)(you can use your phone to scan the barcode and it makes an offer in a couple of seconds). Decluttr will pay me $4.00 for it. Checking the web I see this going for on average around $50 (and even twice that much some places).
Ahh, the old question of what is your time worth? Not an easy answer and different for everyone. Myself, I find pleasure in putting CD's up for sale with my own ebay account, but, I do so when listening to music on my fine system. It may seem overwhelming, but you will get far more $$ if your willing to do so a little at a time. Once you get a system down, it will become much easier to make new listings. Start with your most valuable items. I find in time these can change value and once not so valuable items become valuable and vice versa. The good thing about Ebay is it doesn't cost you anything for listing the first 50 or so items per month and that you can easily roll over the ones that don't sell. I would not use auctions, set your prices. Use Amazon, Ebay, and discogs for comparison pricing. Price yours the lowest, if it doesn't fetch more than $10, set it aside, move on to another item.
In the US, you own a license to the music when you buy the disc or file. If you sell/give the disc to another, the license for the music goes with it and you are not permitted to retain a file copy. The reason all those discs are in storage is that I have ripped them all and play the files.
Just FYI, the legal situation is different in Europe. When you buy a CD, you can use it in any way you want, except for certain acts which the rightholder can forbid or restrict, such as copying (outside the private copying exception), or public performance or public lending. The buyer doesn't get a license on the music. The legal stuff printed on the CDs, which reads like a license agreement, is irrelevant, it's the national law that counts. It defines the rights of the copyright holder and the limitations and exceptions to these rights.
I shipped 99% of my collection there, and I've been steadily selling things I don't listen to. I also buy new CDs there whenever they're available, just to save on shipping costs (I get the digital downloads)
I assume that there are special cd mailer boxes that I can get for eBay sales. Is a simple cardboard wrapping like box sufficient to protect them during mailing? I just remember back in the day receiving cds with cracked jewel cases because they were shipped without padding... and never being very happy about that. The alternative is to pack them in a larger box with padding, but then the shipping costs start to add up probably.
Probably the best if you don't have time to sell one by one way is to sell them to a reputable music store or Ebay/Amazon dealer in your area. Expect 50% value or less, I would think on the bulk of them. But it would be better than less than 10%... A friend of mine does the ebay thing and will look over the collection quickly in someone's home and pull out some he thinks or knows are worth something. Make offers on those, then make an offer on the bulk of the rest. Or you could pull out what you think is worth more yourself and sell the rest as a lot.
You could also bring boxes of them in to stores that buy music. You'll get better value if you ask for "trade" value than cash. Something like the Ameoba stores in the SF bay area- I would think most urban areas have something like that. They won't take everything, probably, but will take a lot.
Mine is about 3,500 individual tracks, which amounts to hundreds of albums and hundreds of artists, ranging from indie pop, jazzy shit, bluegrass, delta blues, rap, 70s soul to Slam death metal, goregrind, power violence, crust punk, straight up noise, no wave, raw black metal etc. And everything inbetween. I have yet to meet someone in person with a digital collection bigger than mine, please share your digital collections cause everybody all stuck on VinYlS and CasSeTTeS
Do you keep a record of all your music as a separate document so you know what is in your mighty collection? I use a simple Excel sheet with a record of each full album in my collection for easy reference.
By far one of the best options for acquiring digital music is Bandcamp. It usually lets you download your purchases in multiple formats including FLAC. Bandcamp is very supportive of artists, primarily independent musicians who want to release music at a low cost. The only caveat to using Bandcamp is that Epic Games acquired it in March 2022, which has caused some uneasiness and concern in the community.
If you store your music collection on a NAS device, your music library will become internet accessible and available no matter where you are. Running Linux on your NAS can be useful thanks to built-in support for file transfer systems like secure file transfer protocol (SFTP), but you can also get by with Windows and Samba (the default Windows file-sharing system) for your data transfers. We would also recommend wiring your NAS up to your router using ethernet instead of Wi-Fi to ensure a fast and consistent connection. Using a NAS you can run software like Plex, Jellyfin, or Navidrome in order to serve your music collection over the internet. In effect, you are creating your own private version of streaming services like Spotify.
One great thing about lossless file formats is that you can convert a lossless file to another lossless file format without losing sound quality. So, you could convert your collection from FLAC to ALAC and back again, all day long, losing no information.
At the time of writing this article Google Drive overs 1TB of storage for a very reasonable $9.99 per month. This gives you an idea of the costs of storing a large collection of music files in the cloud. This is what I use.
Foobar2000 allows you to install 3rd party plugins and components. These plugins and components extend the features and functionality of the media player. In our case, we must install the foo-verifier plugin as this will allow us to check the integrity of our files in our music collection.
In 1962 a special music collection for blind persons was authorized by Congress as part of its free national library program, and in 1966 service was extended to individuals with disabilities. The collection is the basis for the music program the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS), Library of Congress, administered through its Music Section. While patrons receive most NLS services through the network of cooperating libraries, music materials are circulated directly to patrons from the NLS headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Patrons may access a collection of braille, large-print, and recorded instructional materials about music and musicians. They may also obtain free subscriptions to magazines produced in audio, braille, and large print. All materials are circulated postage free, and many digital audio and ebraille materials are available for download over the Internet. Machines needed to use the audio cartridges are provided to eligible users without charge. Musical recordings intended solely for listening are not included in the music collection, as they are readily available commercially and from public libraries.
Anyone currently registered with an NLS cooperating library that serves individuals who are blind or have a physical disability qualifies to receive music books and scores and should contact the NLS Music Section directly. Other eligible individuals may sign up for service by completing the Application for Library Service: Individuals and returning it to their cooperating library or to the NLS Music Section. Once an application is approved, patrons will be contacted by their library and may contact the Music Section to begin receiving service.
Six music magazines are available by direct-mail subscription to registered users. Subscriptions may be obtained through the local cooperating library or the NLS Music Section. Several are also available via download from BARD. The magazines are:
The Music Section has a blog on the Library of Congress website called NLS Music Notes. The blog posts highlight the music collection, present newly added titles, profiles of musicians who are blind or visually impaired, and feature braille music transcribers and their work, along with a variety of related music topics and activities. -audio-reading-materials/music-materials/
Hi, another alternative is my own SongKong This does all steps listed: match songs, delete duplicates and remove empty folders. Unlike Picard that only matches from the MusicBrainz database SongKong also matches songs from the larger Discogs database giving better coverage of obscure tracks.
The Howard B. Waltz Music Library houses one of the largest and most important music research collections in the Mountain West. The collection includes music scores, recordings, books, periodicals, films and documentaries.
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