Goodness me - that is some dedication. I understand your posts on the various music threads a bit better now!Same here. To expand a bit.....I have cassette recordings of R1 John Peel, Bob Harris, Alan Black and the Jock DJ whose name escapes me from around 1970, through to CITR (Vancouver) in the mid 80s. I have converted some of the rare stuff onto MP3 but alas many will never be played again. I have some vinyls. LPs and 12 inch singles mostly. I posted a list of all my 7 inch singles on NSC some time ago and got pelters for it from a couple of arse hats.
I then moved on to CDs with a focus on completism of my favourite 80s (mainly) music. In the late 90s I discovered GEMM a now-defunct global CD vending site that had me buying mountains of stuff from small record stores all over the world (much to the annoyance of my credit card provider who was alarmed that I was apparently spending money in, e.g., Argentina, Israel and Russia on the same day). Then I wandered into short lived illegal MP3 curation/download sites and peer to peer exchanging. That kicked off a bit of an orgy of indulgence. That then brought me into darkwave and related genres. I went out watching live music again after a 15 year hiatus. Now I have a massive collection of MP3 music....
About 10 years ago I found a member-only site that curates old Peel programmes, Whole 2h programmes lovingly converted from listeners' 8 track stereo recordings onto MP3. I have thousands of hours of these downloaded and have barely scratched the surface in terms of listening. They are wondrous. Even the early 70s ones are top quality.
And then there is my iPods. I have 4 all with the same music on them. I lost an iPod once and was so distressed I found I had to keep multiple back ups. These are all now full so I have a new one that I plan to pack exclusively with wave, trap and witch house (my obsessions for the last 10 years). I have thousands of hours of of stuff burned onto CD. Not the smartest storage vehicle but it was the only option when I started, and I started so I'll finish.
If I like a new artist I will buy their entire output directly from them if this is available.
I listen to music for at least 3 hours each day. I have an iPod on random play in the car and another in my work-commute bag. If I forget the iPod as I did today, I have a frightful commute because I have to listen to other people making noise, and that stresses me out.
I suspect all this is an expression of my autism. Collecting, obsessing....and enjoying an almost secret private pursuit. I have thousands of CDs in wall mounted storage. I had the wall reinforced to take the weight. They are all in alphabetical order (obviously ), but I have thousands more (bespoke burns) that are stored on spindles.
I'll get my coat.