My media problem
OK, I have a problem, and I am looking for some creative suggestions for dealing with it.
Here’s the problem:
Essentially, my CDs are taking up too much space. I have this same problem with lots of other things–I have hundreds and hundreds of linear feet of bookshelves, etc–but CDs are a special case in that I almost never actually touch them.
I’ve got all these things ripped to MP3s on a TB NAS RAID-5 volume (for non-geeks that means “they are on my local network”) so I can access them from any computer in the house, or from various media appliances attached to stereos, etc. It’s really extremely rare for me to touch the actual CD proper after ripping and shelving it.
At this point the physical CDs serve four purposes:
- They are a ‘backup’ for the MP3s, in case something happens to the files.
- They are a reserve against the day when I can store all my music digitally with lossless compression. I don’t want to get rid of them and find out in a year or two that I could have stored everything without the MP3 compression losses.
- They provide album art & liner notes
- Displaying my massive collection is a kind of status symbol
The first two reasons remain active, but the last two have begun to seem silly to me. The album art is easier to access online, than it is to find even in a highly organized collection, and the liner notes very rarely need to access. The whole “my CD collection somehow reflects the size of my dick” thing is also something I’ve grown out of.
So ideally, I’d like a solution that involves keeping the discs (to meet my first two purposes). The solution should allow me access to album art and liner notes, but not necessarily easy access, since it will be a fairly rare operation. Since display is no longer a criterion, I’d rather have something that will take up the least possible space. Whatever the answer is, it needs to be something that lends itself to anal organization.
Initially I was leaning towards pull-out shelving. The Can-Am system, for example, might be nice. Three of the MC3D20 cabinets should just about hold my current collection. Four would give me some breathing room. Still, those four cabinets would take up just about as much space as the current system.
An alternative I’m considering is switching from jewel boxes to some sort of sleeve or binder arrangement. Being an anal collector type I’d want a sleeve that could hold the disc, the liner, and the insert–i.e. any solution that just takes the CD and booklet, and not the thing in the back of the jewel case is no good. The idea of replacing all these shelves with a couple of binders is really appealing, but I haven’t found a sleeve or page that I’m thrilled with yet that works with a binder.
What I could see myself using are DiscSox. The Cd Pro Sleeve serves all my needs, although I’m not thrilled about their storage options. I would probably want to get one of the Can Am cabinets and put all the sleeves in it. I don’t see a binder solution here that I like, but I could live with the Pro Sleeves in a drawer.
Here’s the catch. The Pro Sleeves are roughtly 50 cents each. This seems quite cheap, except that I have something like 2400 cds, which means over a grand just for sleeves, and then a pile more for whatever I’m going to put them in.
So, before I throw down big cash just so I can get these things out of the way, I thought I would complain to the world and see if anyone here has a better solution.
Note that the modern “steal all your music and get rid of the plastic discs” solution isn’t an option here for the reasons outlined above (and, frankly, because I do have that collector disease.)
Any ideas?
Ross Patterson
Phil
Ch4v3z!
Julian
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November 18th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
You know about FLAC, right? Files are still a lot bigger than ogg or mp3, but you could probably fit get your entire library down to 1TB.
November 18th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Yeah, I’ve looked at both FLAC and Shorten (.shn), as well as some more obscure lossless algorithms.
The 1TB drive, configured as RAID-5 for ultimate reliability, is really only around 750Gb of usable space. That means to fit 2400cds on it, you would need them to average 312.5Mb each, or less (I’m using 1Gb=1000Mb despite the technical error, because that’s what drive manufacturers use. The lying bastards.).
If all the CDs were full, that would mean I would need an average 48% post-compression filesize (or a compression of around 208%, depending on how you want to look at it). WAV is a pig, but that still seems pretty unlikely. Of course not many CDs use all the possible space on the disc, so it might still be possible.
Most portable devices seem to support FLAC now, so I wouldn’t need to keep two copies of everything around, which helps.
Maybe I should just buy another TeraStation and see if my collection fits. They’re going for something like $600US now.
November 19th, 2006 at 2:09 am
Yeah, in my head 1TB seemed like it would be close for 2400 CDs.
Once you get them losslessly archived, you can box the originals up and put them under the stairs or in the attic or something. If space for storing them is an issue, spindles are probably the most space-effective way to store them, then you’d just have to keep the liners somewhere and you could toss the jewel cases.
November 19th, 2006 at 4:24 pm
Even if I were to go FLAC and pack the source CDs away, I don’t think I could go spindle. It’s too hard to put new purchases into the “right” place, and my OCD won’t let me have 2400 CDs sorted properly and all new acquisitions misfiled into some sort of “by the date they arrived” pile.
Also, I think separating my discs from the liners would also trigger some OCD issues, since I would then be worried about losing one or the other–I would actually be happier provably losing both the CD and the ancillary materials that I would be losing either one and not the other. Call me crazy.
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:27 pm
My dad is a DJ and plays in a band (which he has done since he was a teenager). His collection of music is massive. Imagine what you have and then think about how much more there would be if you were buying music for 50 years. He’s got vinyl (singles and albums), cassettes, 8-tracks, and cds. Everything but the cds is boxed up and stored away. He also has a massive collection of MP3’s (ripped from the CD’s), but for DJ jobs, the CD’s are kind of a requirement.
His current setup (for DJ jobs) is the sleeve option you are considering. He has some custom built cases. They are not fancy - just a wooden box the height of a CD case, width of about 5 CD cases and length of about 100 CD’s stacked up, with dividers for each row. The box holds the CD’s in sleeves (including liner notes and album art). I think around 500 CD’s fit in each box based on the rough measurements (yes they are fairly heavy). The boxes are latched to open and close and have a carrying handle so they can be easily moved around.
The key to the collection is that every sleeve has a number on it, and every CD’s information (artist, album, track list) is stored in a database indexed by that number. A simple interface allows him to search for a song/album/artist and tells him the cd number(s) and track where a desired song can be found. It only takes him a few seconds to find anything in his collection (gee, I wonder who did all that for him…). Everything is stored on a laptop, which he now takes with him as part of his DJ equipment.
I would think you could fit your collection in 5-6 boxes like this, and still be able to find stuff if you had to.
November 23rd, 2006 at 9:55 am
I knew your Dad was in a band–I recall you needing to explain the Black Magic van to me at one point, but I didn’t know he also did DJ stuff.
I am really leaning toward the sleeves, and you’re encouraging me, but I’m still a little leery of the initial investment in the sleeves themselves. Especially since I just had to pay $2K this week in car maintenance.
Maybe after the next ESPP payout I’ll order up the sleeves.