What % Of Your Collection Is Never Listened To?

[emtee]

I'm guessing mine is around 95%. Sad but true. Maybe it's time to finally get serious about saying goodbye to a large chunk of my musical history.

[TAC]

I'm guessing mine is around 95%. Sad but true. Maybe it's time to finally get serious about saying goodbye to a large chunk of my musical history.

I posted something about this a couple of months ago, because it's not so much about the physical stuff that I have, but more about the amount of time left in my life to afford as many listens as I would ultimately like.

[Orbert]

Maybe 30%, definitely less than half.  I've been working from home for almost three years now (pre-pandemic), which means I'm connecting to work from my PC, the same PC that has gigabytes of music that I've ripped and/or downloaded.  I need to fill eight hours a day or more with music, so I have dozens of playlists.  Every day I have to decide what I'm going to listen to, and I make it a point to occasionally venture into stuff I haven't listened to in a while.  There's no point in having the music if I'm not going to listen to it.

[cramx3]

I'm a bit confused about the question.  When you say never, does that mean i bought an album and never actually listened to it?  Or are we talking about music in our library that we don't actively listen to but have some time ago? 

If it's music I bought and never actually listened to... I'd say that's pretty low.  Maybe 1%?  If it's music I own that don't actively listen to, well that could be around 60%.  I'm usually only actively listening to so many different bands, but I do often do full library shuffles at work to hit some of the music I own but hadn't been on my mind recently. 

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

The only time I use my physical CDs is in my car and I drive a couple of times per week and shuffle my collection so I actually do listen to alot of stuff however there's definitely things I never listen to from my collection. Somewhat of a number would be about 40% I guess.
I don't even own a CD stereo anymore. 

[goo-goo]

I'm guessing mine is around 95%. Sad but true. Maybe it's time to finally get serious about saying goodbye to a large chunk of my musical history.

That is one of the reasons why I'm downsizing my collection. I had too many albums that I just bought but never got to. Also had multiple copies of the same album for whatever reason.

[WilliamMunny]

The way I cycle through music is largely based on subconscious whims—something in a movie score might remind me of a section from Learning to Live and bam, I spend the next six-weeks listening to the DT catalog cover to cover for the first time in a decade.

Because of that, I would never say never  when it comes to music.

Of course, most of my collection is digital, so perhaps my perspective doesn't really apply to the OP.

I did a massive culling years back, reducing my massive collection to about 200 cds. At this point, if I 'have' to own something, I buy it on vinyl. Of my 150 lps, I routinely listen to the vast majority of them, as 'repeated listen value' is high on my list of qualifying factors.

[goo-goo]

Of my 150 lps, I routinely listen to the vast majority of them, as 'repeated listen value' is high on my list of qualifying factors.

This is what I'm doing with vinyl. I'm buying the ones that have meant a lot to me over the course of my musical journey and the ones that have a high repeated listening value as you state.

[cramx3]

Of course, most of my collection is digital, so perhaps my perspective doesn't really apply to the OP.

Yeah, all my old CDs have been digitalized long ago, so my collection is exclusively digital at this point which does make it easier to check out stuff I'm not actively listening to like when I do my random library shuffle.  My entire collection is on my phone in mp3 format on a microsd card.

[425]

I'm a bit confused about the question.  When you say never, does that mean i bought an album and never actually listened to it?  Or are we talking about music in our library that we don't actively listen to but have some time ago? 

If it's music I bought and never actually listened to... I'd say that's pretty low.  Maybe 1%?  If it's music I own that don't actively listen to, well that could be around 60%.  I'm usually only actively listening to so many different bands, but I do often do full library shuffles at work to hit some of the music I own but hadn't been on my mind recently.

This, except that for me the "bought but never listened to" percentage is somewhat higher, maybe like 5%. Usually this is because I bought a limited run box set for a particular artist, but haven't been into their style of music enough to go through the entire box.

I also listen to less music quantitatively than a lot of DTF users, in part because it's hard for me to listen to music while doing my job.

[pg1067]

I'm a bit confused about the question.  When you say never, does that mean i bought an album and never actually listened to it?  Or are we talking about music in our library that we don't actively listen to but have some time ago? 

If it's music I bought and never actually listened to... I'd say that's pretty low.  Maybe 1%?  If it's music I own that don't actively listen to, well that could be around 60%.  I'm usually only actively listening to so many different bands, but I do often do full library shuffles at work to hit some of the music I own but hadn't been on my mind recently.

Same.  I don't think there's ANYTHING in my collection that I bought and NEVER listened to (the possible exception to that is that I once bought a half dozen $1 each Chirstmas CDs, and it's possible that 1 or 2 never actually got played).

I would GUESS (and it really is just a guess) that 90% of my music listening comes from 30-40% of what I have.  For example, I own a Celine Dion greatest hits CD.  I have a couple songs from that album that are in a random playlist that I listen to occasionally, but I don't ever listen to that album otherwise.  There's also stuff like Lock up the Wolves by Dio.  I vaguely recall trying to listen to the album a couple years ago, but otherwise, the only song on it that I've heard in the last 30 years is My Eyes.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

This is a really hard one to guess.  What's actually in my "collection" is kind of nebulous.  I have thousands of CDs, albums, and cassettes, terrabytes of digital music, and access to nearly infinitely more with various streaming services and such.  There are definitely CDs I've spent money on and still haven't even unwrapped them.  Certainly too many I either haven't gotten to or haven't listened to in years, decades in some cases.  But that's just the consequence of having broad interests and a penchant for exploration.  As long as I have the physical space I couldn't bear the thought of getting rid of any of it.  I never know when a spontaneous urge to hear something I haven't heard before or in a long time will arise.  And streaming is unreliable, some albums just aren't available, and they're pulled down for various reasons all the time.  So I wouldn't want to part with anything I don't have to, there's no guarantee I can access it again. 

[emtee]

I'm a bit confused about the question.  When you say never, does that mean i bought an album and never actually listened to it?  Or are we talking about music in our library that we don't actively listen to but have some time ago? 

If it's music I bought and never actually listened to... I'd say that's pretty low.  Maybe 1%?  If it's music I own that don't actively listen to, well that could be around 60%.  I'm usually only actively listening to so many different bands, but I do often do full library shuffles at work to hit some of the music I own but hadn't been on my mind recently.

Just accumulated over time. And maybe years ago it was spun often but with the passing of time...never.

Many 80's hair bands fit this criteria. Also, like VDGG Trisector for instance. And thousands more. Bought, spun either a few times or even many times but not in many years.

[Crow]

my process is to buy CDs, spin them like 10-12 times (or more depending on if i really like them) then put them on my shelf, so i'd be hard pressed to say i own a single CD i haven't heard front-to-back a dozen times

that being said this does not give me a ton of time to go back and revisit older stuff, but i've been buying less as of late so i'll likely get that chance this year

[jammindude]

For too long, there was a lot of stuff that gathered dust. But ever since I went digital it’s been less and less.

I have a Sony Walkman with a 64GB card. About once a month or so, I load it with a bunch of favorites I’m in the mood for, and then I will intentionally leave room to fill up remaining space with random stuff that I haven’t heard in forever or rarely get the chance to visit. I usually end up with about 2000 songs that I can put on shuffle and that keeps me happy until it’s time to refresh.

But honestly, I don’t understand the concept of getting rid of music just because you’re currently not listening to it. I look at it this way: Why do people sometimes have libraries? Is it because they constantly read all the books in their personal library? No. Because that’s not the reason people have personal libraries. The reason that they do have personal libraries is so that when the mood does strike them that they feel like reading “such and such”, they don’t have to go out looking for it. All they have to do is pull it off the shelf.  It’s the same with music and movie libraries. It might sit there for 15 years. But when I get that itch I feel like scratching, I don’t have to hunt it down or pay for it. It’s right there.

[lonestar]

Mine is all digital now... The only physical copies I've kept are my main bands (DT, IQ, Marillion) a few hard to find disc's, and anything signed,totalling about 40-50 albums.

As to how much of my digital collection I haven't spin in a few years, I'd say it's at least 60%. There's a huge chunk of stuff I received as promo materials that just doesn't appeal anymore.

[jingle.boy]

The whole "never listened to" vs "never listened to anymore" question is the distinction for me.  Never is a powerful word.  There are only so many hours in the day/month/year for music listening, and there's lots of stuff that I haven't listened to in years, or maybe a decade +... but that doesn't mean I'll never listen to it again.  This is part of the reason I'm doing a year-by-year rundown of my library as my current listening habit (doing 2013 atm).  My library is 20,584 items in iTunes (89.1 days), and another 800 or so albums saved on Spotify.

"Never" is a long time, and I can't say there's much in my library that I'll *never* listen to again.  I did purge a few albums during my 2010-2012 listen stages earlier in the year though.

[HOF]

But honestly, I don’t understand the concept of getting rid of music just because you’re currently not listening to it. I look at it this way: Why do people sometimes have libraries? Is it because they constantly read all the books in their personal library? No. Because that’s not the reason people have personal libraries. The reason that they do have personal libraries is so that when the mood does strike them that they feel like reading “such and such”, they don’t have to go out looking for it. All they have to do is pull it off the shelf.  It’s the same with music and movie libraries. It might sit there for 15 years. But when I get that itch I feel like scratching, I don’t have to hunt it down or pay for it. It’s right there.

Yep. This is it.

[cramx3]

But honestly, I don’t understand the concept of getting rid of music just because you’re currently not listening to it. I look at it this way: Why do people sometimes have libraries? Is it because they constantly read all the books in their personal library? No. Because that’s not the reason people have personal libraries. The reason that they do have personal libraries is so that when the mood does strike them that they feel like reading “such and such”, they don’t have to go out looking for it. All they have to do is pull it off the shelf.  It’s the same with music and movie libraries. It might sit there for 15 years. But when I get that itch I feel like scratching, I don’t have to hunt it down or pay for it. It’s right there.

Yep. This is it.

When I was young, I would resell CDs I no longer listened to get some money to buy a CD I would listen to.  My father said I would regret that, and I did.  These days, I just buy MP3s now so there's no reason to ever get rid of the music.  But I'm at a point where if I buy physical media, it's because it is either signed or has something special about it.  I just don't care to keep a collection of physical media anymore.

[ChuckSteak]

0%.

[JLa]

I have listened to every cd in my collection. Nowadays I only use Spotify, the cd's are just collecting dust. There's no way I'll get rid of them, though. Too much sentimental value, and some of them aren't on Spotify (which means I "never" listen to them ... but I listened when I bought them).

I suppose I currently have 10-15 albums on regular rotation in Spotify. Not a lot, I know. I use the auto generated playlists a lot, or I pick an album and create a "radio" based upon it.

Let's say I listen to ... ~10 % of my collection? Looks bad when I write it down like that!

[emtee]

But honestly, I don’t understand the concept of getting rid of music just because you’re currently not listening to it. I look at it this way: Why do people sometimes have libraries? Is it because they constantly read all the books in their personal library? No. Because that’s not the reason people have personal libraries. The reason that they do have personal libraries is so that when the mood does strike them that they feel like reading “such and such”, they don’t have to go out looking for it. All they have to do is pull it off the shelf.  It’s the same with music and movie libraries. It might sit there for 15 years. But when I get that itch I feel like scratching, I don’t have to hunt it down or pay for it. It’s right there.

Yep. This is it.

Yep. And this is me too. I've held on to everything while moving from house to house through my life. I keep thinking....maybe I'll want to hear that again but at almost 60 years young the desire to hear most of it is dwindling. There's maybe a core of 200'ish bands I would keep but if I haven't spun an album in over twenty years, maybe it's time to let go.

[Stadler]

The way I cycle through music is largely based on subconscious whims—something in a movie score might remind me of a section from Learning to Live and bam, I spend the next six-weeks listening to the DT catalog cover to cover for the first time in a decade.

Because of that, I would never say never  when it comes to music.

That's kind of me.  I always say that now I have most of my stuff ripped to a harddrive, I can ditch things; but then something will happen, and YES, I AM actually listening to that Katmandu record that wasn't close to Fastway.

[goo-goo]

Yep. And this is me too. I've held on to everything while moving from house to house through my life. I keep thinking....maybe I'll want to hear that again but at almost 60 years young the desire to hear most of it is dwindling. There's maybe a core of 200'ish bands I would keep but if I haven't spun an album in over twenty years, maybe it's time to let go.

Another reason why I'm downsizing. It is more than likely that I will move (just finished up a divorce). A lot of albums I haven't spun them in years and have been in storage boxes most of the time...

[emtee]

Yep. And this is me too. I've held on to everything while moving from house to house through my life. I keep thinking....maybe I'll want to hear that again but at almost 60 years young the desire to hear most of it is dwindling. There's maybe a core of 200'ish bands I would keep but if I haven't spun an album in over twenty years, maybe it's time to let go.

Another reason why I'm downsizing. It is more than likely that I will move (just finished up a divorce). A lot of albums I haven't spun them in years and have been in storage boxes most of the time...

Sorry to hear about your divorce bro.


One thing I was thinking about was an ongoing thread at MP'S place. We had a 'trade a CD' thread and it was pretty cool. Maybe I should start one here.

[wolfking]

I'd be around the 95% area too.  I'd have hundreds I've never even listened to from start to finish.

[Phoenix87x]

like 90%

[KevShmev]

For too long, there was a lot of stuff that gathered dust. But ever since I went digital it’s been less and less.

I have a Sony Walkman with a 64GB card. About once a month or so, I load it with a bunch of favorites I’m in the mood for, and then I will intentionally leave room to fill up remaining space with random stuff that I haven’t heard in forever or rarely get the chance to visit. I usually end up with about 2000 songs that I can put on shuffle and that keeps me happy until it’s time to refresh.

But honestly, I don’t understand the concept of getting rid of music just because you’re currently not listening to it. I look at it this way: Why do people sometimes have libraries? Is it because they constantly read all the books in their personal library? No. Because that’s not the reason people have personal libraries. The reason that they do have personal libraries is so that when the mood does strike them that they feel like reading “such and such”, they don’t have to go out looking for it. All they have to do is pull it off the shelf.  It’s the same with music and movie libraries. It might sit there for 15 years. But when I get that itch I feel like scratching, I don’t have to hunt it down or pay for it. It’s right there.

Amen to that all of this!!! 

I often end up getting a song come up on shuffle by a band I have not listened to in a while and end up going down the rabbit hole for maybe a day or two, or even a week or two (!!), simply because the song was on my phone and popped up on shuffle when I was driving to work or something.  I hadn't listened to Radiohead in a while, and then one of their songs came on when driving to work Monday and they ended up getting a lot of time with me that day.

And to your point, the idea of getting rid of music I like simply because I do not listen it that much seems bizarre to me.

[TAC]

For the past year I've had a job where I can listen to music while I work most of the time, and that has helped big time in this.

[Zoom E]

I have many vinyl albums and CDs that haven’t been listened to in decades. A lot of stuff I bought in the 90s I have no desire to ever listen to, so I have no problem getting rid of those, but I also have plenty of albums I'd like to revisit but just don’t have the time for. I’ll get to them one day.

[Lethean]

The whole "never listened to" vs "never listened to anymore" question is the distinction for me.  Never is a powerful word.  There are only so many hours in the day/month/year for music listening, and there's lots of stuff that I haven't listened to in years, or maybe a decade +... but that doesn't mean I'll never listen to it again.  This is part of the reason I'm doing a year-by-year rundown of my library as my current listening habit (doing 2013 atm).  My library is 20,584 items in iTunes (89.1 days), and another 800 or so albums saved on Spotify.

"Never" is a long time, and I can't say there's much in my library that I'll *never* listen to again.  I did purge a few albums during my 2010-2012 listen stages earlier in the year though.

Similar for me, but my iTunes library is about 1/2 of yours.  But yeah - I don't know how much I can say I *never* listen to.  I rarely buy albums w/out listening anymore, so there might be a small handful of albums I bought and didn't end up liking, but for the most part everything I own is something I at least got a little enjoyment out of at some point.  I mostly just listen to what I feel like, but sometimes I sort my iTunes library by the least amount of plays and give stuff a fresh listen that way.

[wolfking]

I have hundreds of CDs I could get rid of but besides space what's the point?  It's not like you can make much money off them anymore.

[ProfessorPeart]

Amen to what jammin' said and I can also echo something cram said. I used to sell CD's in my very early days if they didn't click. HUGE MISTAKE. I have probably repurchased just about every one I sold because I wasn't being patient or I grew up a bit. The selling actually didn't last long so the damage wasn't terrible, but it doesn't even cross my mind anymore. I mean, I freaking sold my original Temple Of The Dog album. What was I thinking?

All 3 family cars have 6 disc changers in them and all new purchases go through their paces that way and then go into iTunes. My library is somewhere in the 32,000 song area right now. I have playlists based on what I would call 'song heaviness' and then I have one giant one that is just about everything. I just throw one of those on and am never disappointed. Like was also mentioned, it helps me rediscover my own collection when a forgotten song or band comes on and then I get excited for them all over again. I also have everything loaded into a Plex library that I can play through my home stereo which I do quite often. Just shuffle and go.

[Cool Chris]

When I was young, I would resell CDs I no longer listened to get some money to buy a CD I would listen to.   

Me too, if you consider mid-20s to be "young.' My musical tastes were expanding, and I just didn't have the cash to buy many new CDs. Over the span of a few years I sold a ton and applied 100% of that cash to new CDs. Every now and then I will think "oh yeah, I used to own that CD" but I can't say I've regretted any of that purging. It did allow to me purchase new music, which in turn helped continue my musical journey. If I want to listen to anything I lost from that time in my life it is readily available via streaming.

Thinking about jammin's post about libraries... we have three big bookshelves chock full of books, and I finally told my wife we needed to get rid of a bunch of them. Some shelves we doubled up and we wanted to start putting some of our kids' books on there too. I could easily identify books I will never re-read, or have no emotional attachment to. She gets emotionally attached to everything, so it was harder for her. It was just a matter of decluttering, which seems like a constant struggle here. I keep telling her we need to get rid of stuff to make room for all the new stuff she buys.

[SwedishGoose]

For my CD collection I have everything digitized and doregularly shuffle in different sectors. Could be all songs  a certain year, a genre or a particular artist. So the CDs will be listened to.

My old vinyl collection however..... few have been digitized. Only favorites that are not available on CD. Some I have bought on CD as well..... but those that I only have on vinyl. Well they are in the cellar together with my player. So I guess that could be some 5 to 10 percent that I need tobring up and listen to some day.....