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Five to 10 years ago I was a compulsive music buyer. Today there just isn't enough "new music" out there to make me want to purchase ANYTHING.
Reader Patrick Tracy claims that he's addicted to buying music: "As in the studies of lab mice and cocaine, I will repeatedly choose music over most any other pursuit. Like a longtime drug addict, I now need larger and larger doses of new music to achieve the rush that a single recording might give a normal person."<P>How about you?
I keep swearing I'll take a three-month break . . . a month break . . . then there's a sale, the magazines arrive, and I'm back in the rut! The Internet has completely changed my buying habits, I buy MUCH more online than ever. The problem is, I don't have the time to really hear and learn the new music any longer, so, yes, the habit has gone beyond reasonability. On the other hand, this is not such a horrible habit, is it?
I own 100+ CDs, plus audio cassettes (I'm a child of the '80s) and LPs. Many times I will buy a CD even if it means not eating lunch! I have always been into small indie labels; if I find a band or two that I like on any one label, I usually make it a quest to buy a label's ENTIRE CATALOG!
Yes, I buy lots of music. LPs, CDs, and now DVDs. BUT . . . I am always aware that 95% of the proceeds go to the record companies, not to the artists. If you want me to spend more, then give a fair share to the artist and I will pay them for their art.
I go to J&R on Park Row with a list of discs to fill gaps in my collection, and some discs that sound promising based on reviews, "Building a Library," or "R2D4." And, provided the list is long enough, I usually come home with no more than four or five impulse purchases, plus something suggested by Ken Harris---the very-well-informed and opinionated manager of J&R's opera department.
I'm not at all sure that, if I started now, I could play all the recordings I own even four more times before I die, and yet I buy 20-50 new recordings a month, some months more. My wife thinks that I should start selling my recordings after the next playthrough, or else we'll need either a second house for storing them, or we'll have to get rid of all our furniture after the kids leave and just store recordings throughout the building. What's an addict to do? Personally, I hope to just keep going 'til I die.