Mastodawn

Schrecke DECT 5648 Nov 23

My uncle died about a year ago now, and one thing my aunt is gearing up to get rid of is his music collection. He had *hundreds* of CDs of classical music, many of them near-duplicates, because he may have already had a piece but wanted a particular conductor's version, or a performance by a particular orchestra.

Is there anyone here who might be interested in such a collection as a whole, or knows of someone who might? I feel it'd be good to find a home for it as a whole rather than selling every disc off separately.

Thanks for all the interest in this post, which I did not expect. This has over 150 boosts and a dozen replies which is absolutely bananas - I'm not sure I've ever posted anything that's had more than about 5 boosts before. I've had to mute this thread because I can't keep up with the notifications and I don't know what to say to all the individual replies, sorry.

It sounds like a lot of people think this collection of CDs is a lot more significant than it probably is, possibly because it's a post from someone you don't know that's getting boosted around the fediverse which makes it look important. It sounds like it might be possible to find someone who'd like it all.

A few points:

1. Hampshire, UK.

2. CDs have never had region coding, the way DVDs and BDs have.

3. I have little knowledge of music (classical or otherwise) so I couldn't say what type of classical music this is. I know a few of the CD cases are labelled with ranges of composer names (like "Bach - Griegg" or something - I have no idea what composers are there though, I'm just pulling names out of the air, and I haven't actually opened the boxes to look inside yet).

4. I have my doubts about whether any of this is particularly rare or would need to be "saved" and archived, but I suppose it's possible.

So, I guess I can tell my aunt there may be interest in someone acquiring the whole lot, so it might be worth a bit of time to try to catalogue at least some of it. Any ideas where I go from there?

Poupou dit Le Transpositeur 🎷Nov 24

@pippin hi, french musician here
It can be interesting to donate to some music school, like little music school to form younger musician (the big school have lot of money to buy some if they need to)

Also, for the catalogue, I can recommande you to list everything in compositor name, in alphabetical order
Like :
Bach (and the CD about his pieces)
Beethoveen
Chopin
Etc
If it can help

No need to put the pieces in a particular order
It could be too much time consumer because the right thing could be to put it in chronological order (I mean : Bach write some piece at the beginning of his life and some later, etc)
So too much time to search etc.

Poupou dit Le Transpositeur 🎷Nov 24

@pippin I don't know if it help you.
If this is a really big collection, you can put in little boxes like
All the B for one (Bach, beethoven, etc)
C for another with Chopin, etc
Or maybe A to C , etc
It is hard to say without knowing much
And I understand it is hard to tidy everything with not lot of music background and dealing with the grief

@pippin there's a music school in the UK i donated a large sheet music collection to. i can ask my friend who taught there if they have a place for CDs. another thought is to search out a local classical radio station to you, some hold onto large CD collections and might take a donation. i have a classical music degree, and my dad dj's several classical radio shows, but we're in the usa so shipping here seems cost prohibitive. and if you're looking to sell, list on ebay as a large collection with local pickup only. include as many photos as you can.

0x4d6165 (Julie or Mae)Nov 22

@pippin I wish I had the space because I def would want it!

Winter Trabex Nov 22

I wonder if a museum, library, or classical music station might want this?

Annelies Kamran, Ph.D.Nov 22

@pippin it sounds like something maybe a university music department might be interested in. My father was a entomologist and the local university here took his entire collection.

Cycling Stu Nov 22

@pippin where abouts is the collection? I too am strongly suggesting a music school library, or else offer them to the local appropriate radio station. They often do big cd sales and could get them distributed that way

Aaron Brick — אהרן בריק Nov 23

@pippin Can you say anything more about what sorts of classical music it is? Emphasis on certain composers, styles, periods, etc.?

Speaking as a CD collector, you might well find someone to take the collection, but you will probably not find a guarantee to keep it intact, unless your uncle was famous for a related reason.

Led By Gilded Fools Nov 23

@pippin Maybe you could find someone like the people featured in this article?

https://laist.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/thousands-of-rare-american-recordings-go-online-for-all-to-enjoy

Thousands of rare American recordings — some 100 years old — go online for all to enjoy

The project, which will include some 50,000 songs from private record collections, is a collaboration between UC Santa Barbara and the Dust-to-Digital Foundation.

LAist

@pippin as someone whose appreciation of classical is quite similar - study myriad recordings of the same piece to suss out what lies at the heart - i’d say the answer here lies a bit in the specifics of the catalog. there are labels that have gone out of business & their catalogues disappeared; if he was obsessive enough there may be things that are genuinely difficult to obtain…

Queen of the Darned Nov 23

@pippin I do have a love for much classical music. I am very tempted by this... I am in Massachusetts, fyi.

Daniel Quinn Nov 23

@pippin when my grandfather died, leaving a mountain of DVDs, home movies of family over his lifetime, I took possession of all of them. I then ripped each one and built a website for the whole family to be able to watch them.

Maybe you could do the same? Rip the entire library and donate it to the commons as a great big torrent in his name.

fedithom Nov 23

If no person raises a hand, @internetarchive might be interested.

Dr. h.c.* Grober Unfug Nov 23

@pippin in which Region is it? 😅

Chip Unicorn Nov 23

@pippin If you're in the United States, one possibility is the Internet Archive.

They're accepting CDs that they don't have in their collection: see https://help.archive.org/help/does-the-internet-archive-have-my-media/

You can search what they have (and is not publicly available) here: https://archive.org/details/acdc

Does the Internet Archive Have My Media – Internet Archive Help Center

Nathan 🇵🇷Nov 23

that sounds like a collection a Library would appreciate.

@pippin If you don't find a buyer, perhaps a library would be delighted to receive such a collection.

Jason Isaac Nov 23

@pippin I don't know where you're located, but if you're anywhere near New York, the Academy Records store on 18th Street buys collections of classical music.

https://www.academy-records.com/

(Note that there are two other Academy Records stores in NYC that are vinyl-only and don't stock classical, so use the above link to get to the right one.)

Academy Records & CDs | Buy, Sell, Trade Vinyl, LPs, CDs, DVDs & Blu-Rays

Academy Records & CDs buys and sells used vinyl records, CDs, and DVDs/Blu-Rays. We purchase large estates and collections of all sizes and offer top dollar for quality jazz, rock, and classical LPs and CDs.

Academy Records & CDs | Buy, Sell, Trade LPs, CDs, DVDs & Blu-Rays

datum (n=1)Nov 23

@pippin how about giving (some of?) them to a community radio show that plays "Composed music from all over the world, from 25 centuries ago to works premiered this morning. Familiar works in extraordinary performances; special rarely-heard music; compositions from around the world; comparisons of performers, styles, and traditions with context from history, politics, art, philosophy, science, and culture; and the occasional live concert -- all presented in a somewhat mad style" https://coopradio.org/shows/west-coast-classics/

West Coast Classics – Vancouver Co-op Radio

Ian K. Rogers ikr?╭ರ_ಠ Nov 23

@pippin having built my own collection of classical music over the years through thrift shops, I strongly advocate donating them to a thrift shop.

Iris Young (he/they/she) (PhD)Nov 23

@pippin a library would be a strong option given the duplicates part especially. might have to search a bit to find one that wants to keep them all though.

Ludovic :Firefox: :FreeBSD:Nov 23

@pippin a library ?

CrankyOldBugger

@pippin I was executor for my uncle, who had over 5,000 albums when he died. All incredibly weird stuff (for example, "Music for the Luftwaffe"). So I know your pain.
Contact local antique stores. There's usually someone there who sells albums (usually 50/60/70s, but you never know.
Have a fairly firm idea of your inventory. For anything that looks interesting look it up on eBay. But most importantly, know your stuff's worth. Don't take the first pitch. Get multiple quotes if you can.

zimpenfish Nov 23

@pippin Someone may have already suggested but it might be worth asking the Internet Archive - might not want the physical discs (depending on relative locations between the you and them) but may well be interested in rips if not.

(edit: removed the bit about charity shops because I missed the "selling" part. whoops. sorry!)

noplasticshower Nov 23

@pippin I am interested

Dr. Sobek Nov 23

@pippin Any Rough Geographic indication ?

(Shipping such a collection from Australia to Europe would probably be a costly idea)

Daniel Johnson Nov 24

@pippin I would gladly take it! Chances are low that I’m anywhere near you, though.

@pippin I read some years ago update from local record shop (that sells both new and second hand records alike), that they had gotten a similar collection to sell. They had no idea how to price the CDs, being mostly focused on popular music rather than classical, and apparently the family of the late music enthusiast was just happy to get rid of the collection and was not even expecting to get money of selling it, so the record shop was selling them for like 2€/CD or something like that.

@pippin they were also telling everyone to spread word so that people who are interested in getting some classical music could come and see if there's something they'd like. If I remember correctly, they got at least part of the collection moving pretty fast. So, if there's record shops that sell also second hand near you, it might be one option to ask them, if they have contacts possibly interested in the collection, or are up to a challenge.

Stargeezer Smith Nov 24

@pippin
I can sympathize.

My spouse passed a few months ago, and I'm having trouble finding new homes for her things. There is a reluctance to do that. It can take months or years to get past that.