The Millennium Project

Yes, I have lots of CDs. Although I have to admit that I once got rid of enough CDs which could easily have been a complete collection for anyone else, I still have enough CDs to last me a lifetime. With all the talk recently about the demise of the CD altogether, I'm also quite happy I have so many because it is very unlikely that I will participate in another format change or change over to keeping digitized files on my PC.

All in all, I think I've basically survived one major format change, the one from analogue records and magnetic tapes to compact discs. You don't have to be a fortuneteller to predict that with all the downloading going on, the reluctance of the newer generations to buy CDs, and the resultant reluctance and inability of global music players to respond effectively to these more or less recent developments, CDs will basically disappear in the near future. Yes, there will always be a niche market for them as there has been for the analogue sector, but I'm sure stocks will soon be severely depleted, reissues will be few and far between and buying anything in the "real world" as opposed to "online" will pretty much become something of the past. Already now, my usual haunts have reduced their stock by half or more, and I predict that in about a year, CDs will be relegated to the furthest recesses of stores, only to disappear altogether relatively soon.

Today, my somewhat compacted collection spans anywhere between 3000 and 5000 Cds - and that's not counting burns of the ones I got rid off or various other music material, be it analogue or digital, and at the current rate I'm sure I'll be reaching 5000 - 6000 sooner rather than later.

To get to the point: I have lots of music and, to be quite honest, I've basically lost track of what I have. Not totally, but I caught myself again and again these past months catching some cheap offers for CDs I already had. That's not a real problem as I know enough people to pass them on to, but it is irritating.

I used to catalogue my CDs and I still have a file spanning about two thousand of them, but I gave up because it was just too much work getting a handle on all the details I wanted to archive. Most programs I tried out were more than insufficient when it came to filing away, for example, session information, or they were too inflexible when trying to present the information in printed form. On top of that, carrying around a huge pile of A4 pages with CD lists was more than impractical and when I did have the pile along, I usually discovered that it was incomplete.

So, to cut a long story short, I've decided to do the following:

01) Listen to each and every CD I have.
02) Write one post for each and every CD I have.
03) Include as much information as possible in every post.
04) Rate each CD.
05) Research some other people's opinions on each CD.
06) Attempt to find out about other, perhaps better-sounding versions.
07) Throw it all online.

And that's not all. Again and again I come across forums posts in which people are looking for more detailed information in regard to this or that endless reissue series. For those people, I will also include discographies of out-of-print Mosaic boxes, index the complete run of the "Jazz in Paris" reissue series, or detail each and every Universal Deluxe Edition.

In the end, livingwithmusic.com will have a vast number of entries with more details than most online sites, helping even more people with their purchases.

Mind you, I have some real clunkers in my collection, CDs that just about everyone would tell you to stay away from or that I would get thrown out of the various music forums I frequent for, but ... I will stick with the program and pull it off, embarrassing myself or not in the process.

I will not be able to do this systematically, especially since I've split up my collection into various larger sections and because I'm continuously adding to the lot. I'll just start somewhere and get rolling.

When a larger number of CDs have been treated in this way, I will try to figure out a way of pulling some archive pages together, but until then they will just appear on this site in the same way every post does.

Yes, this project will also finally force me into programming a decent search function, but all of that will have to wait until I have the time.

Because of the scope of this project, it will take years to complete, but I hope we will all still be alive when it is.

It's the one thing that might actually keep me alive in the same way Richard Ellman did his best to stay alive until he had completed his wonderfully detailed biography of Oscar Wilde, still the best one there is available today.

Here's to the "Millennium Project", coming (very) soon to a screen near you.

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