The Needle

Music Organization

I don’t own a ton of vinyl, but my collection is slowly growing. I’ve picked up a dozen or more new records in the last 3 months sense my wife bought me a new player (we had left our old one in PA, too big to move). I’ve acquired old albums from my parents house, including childhood staples like Sesame Street, and some of the gospel music my father used to traffic in.  I’ve bought The Beatles and Clapton and Ray Charles and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. I even found Robert Frost reading his own poetry, and Isaac Asimov doing the same. Everything is sitting in two cubbies on my big Ikea shelf, and I’m trying to find a way to organize them that is easy to maintain and promotes enjoyable listening.

I’m currently considering the Noguchi Filing System.  Envelopes and files aside, here is the skinny:

• Put everything on the shelf, in whatever order seems good for getting started.
• Every time you play an album and are ready to return it to the shelf, put it at the far left.
• Over time, the albums most frequently will be farther to the left, and the less so towards the right. Things that I never listen to (likely held on to for nostalgia or the cover art) the far right.

This technique meets my criteria of ease of maintenance and interesting music selection.  It may take me longer to find something specific, but I can usually recall how long ago I’ve last heard something, and get in the ballpark. Also, I’m much more likely to spend 2 minutes finding something to listen to than I am spending those minutes putting something away.  I would guess that most people do the same. When I’m choosing a movie I stare at my selection, or Hulu, or Netflix, or whatever.  Imagine if you had to requeue your Netflix video for return every time? Nobody would do it.  All used records go to the top (left, really) of the stack, and you spend no time on it.

For criteria #2, consider: How long should it take you to find interesting music that you haven’t listened to in a while? Where are your forgotten favorites? iTunes does this very well with its Smart Playlists, allowing you to filter by number of times a track has been played, but the analog land has only your recollection, or the Noguchi Filing System.

I may keep a separate stack for kids music, just for ease of use, but use the same methodology.  I’m going to try it out for a month or two and report back.

Great deals at the Amazon MP3 Store

We’ve been writing a lot about vinyl here so far, but I wanted to take a moment to highlight the Amazon MP3 Store Deal of the Day. One featured album every day gets a sale price anywhere from 1 to 5 dollars. And the albums on sale have been surprisingly good. Today’s offering is a good example: Exodus by Bob Marley and the Wailers, for the dirt cheap price of $1.99.  At that price I barely have to think about it: it’s a classic album, I don’t already own it, hit the button and download.

The album changes daily, so I highly recomment subscribing to the amazonmp3 twitter feed. I may also highlight the Deal of the Day here occasionally, if they have something really great.

Rookie Mistake

Paraphrased Conversation In Which I Am Stupid

More or less the contents of an email exchange.

Me: Hey Abe! What do you use to store your records? I don’t have anything good.

Abe: I use one of these  (not the exact one he sent)

Me: I have one of those, but because its not RIGHT NEXT TO MY RECORD PLAYER I hadn’t thought of that.

10 minutes later, my records look great on that shelf. Ours is black and has 5x5 cubbies.

Liner Note

You Must Choose...

More and more I find myself in this discussion with people: You can get a computer/album/car/whatever cheaper than that one, but is that really what you want?

WalMart has made a lot of money on the idea that what people really want is just lower prices. All the time.  And for some things, that can be true. Why buy laundry detergent for $9 if you can get it for $7?

As a user of Apple computers, I am often reminded that a person can buy a cheaper computer (although this difference seems to be going away, slowly). This is true, but cost is not the same as value. I’m much happier to pay a little more, because I spend 50 hours a week in front of a computer, and my enjoyment of those hours is greatly improved, in my opinion, by being on the Mac.  Your mileage may vary.  I won’t try and convince someone to buy an Apple computer, but I will let them play with one of mine, and point out my favorite bits.  Some people just don’t notice much difference, the computer is the computer for them, and thats great. They would find learning a new OS more trouble than its worth, and they will enjoy their purchases of whatever brand they personally choose.

You can get coffee at Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, or a locally owned favorite.  If they are all on the same street, and their price per cup was similar, which would you choose?  What are the values in play when you decide where and what to buy? Here are a few of the things that waft through my mind when I am on the prowl for a new song, toy, or tool.

Price
Quality
Convenience
Instant Gratification
Customer Experience/Support Expectation
Loyalty

Depending on the situation, of course, this matrix can return a wide variety of results. There is no one-stop-shopping when you want to consider flexing your budget towards quality, or if you really need to talk to an expert on a topic.

Examples:
This widget is better than that one on quality, but is prohibitively expensive.
(For me this could be cars, computers)

I could get this for $5 less on Amazon, but I want it before the weekend, so I’m driving to Best Buy to get it.
(Computer peripherals or gadgets)

I could go buy this on vinyl or CD down the road but I want it right now, so I’ll download it from iTunes, Amazon, or LaLa.
(Music, downloadable media only)

I need to put my hands on some of these to really decide, and I’d rather reward a helpful, knowledgable salesperson who I may need help from down the road than take up his time and then order from home.
(I bought my guitar this way)

I want to support this local artist/business even if I have to pay an extra dollar or two. Or, this business supports charitable work somewhere, or is committed to a social or environmental issue that pertains to its product.

(Coffee, shoes for some people, companies at PortlandBuyLocal.org or your city’s equivalent)

When I buy music these things come into play. Buying used, sometimes scratched or imperfect record albums is not the highest quality, audiophiliac way to listen, but it allows me to experience a good quality and a much greater quantity of music that I would miss out on otherwise. And buying new releases on records certainly gives an audio experience with its own unique character that buying only downloads.  I had a discussion with Abe this week that I think will be coming up again and again. “That first album was good, but this one may be vinyl-worthy,” quoth Abe. Sometimes I want convenient, quality music for my mp3 player and car, things to mix up my Genius playlists or to entertain my kids.  Other times I realize that an album is its own, unique work of art. It ought to be listened to at least in a while once without distraction, in its entirety, as foreground, not background.  There is added value into the Quality axis of my decision matrix.

How do you decide?