# Buying Music for Beginner Collectors (with many options of what to do)



## Capeditiea (Feb 23, 2018)

So, in this age of technology, anyone can have access to several composer's works and several composers all for free. (regardless of it being borderline illegal or not... among various other personal views of this... which is a completely different topic) 

But that aside. Back in the nineties and before, when easily accessing music for free was rare and if you accidently (or on purpose) kept the CD, tape, 8-track, vinyl from a friend because it was so good... 

Now, the main reason of this thread is specifically about buying music on various subjects of the manner. 

First off, let's start with the option of Boxed Sets of composers or one CD. 

When first starting your collection would you recommend buying the box sets of your favourite composers then if you really like the work get more individual recordings along with the scores for music theory purposes? 
or 
Get individual recordings on a whim of various composers? (mostly from composers that you enjoy)


I mean, lately you can get about anything on websites and such for online purchases as well. But some of us has not made it to the 21st century in that aspect... 

next question. 

Would you recommend going online and getting CDs, tapes, 8-tracks, vinyls of the music you love? 
or 
Traveling the city or nearest city's Music stores to obtain the start of your collection? 
or 
Both? 

Final question 
what usually influences you to buy the CDs, tapes, 8-tracks, vinyls when you are searching?


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

> So, in this age of technology, anyone can have access to several composer's works and several composers all for free. (regardless of it being borderline illegal or not... among various other personal views of this... which is a completely different topic)


You Tube provides tons of music to listen to but I listen to ripped CDs on earbud even when working on the computer. I grew up in the vinyl days, and in fact played with a reel to reel tape deck as a child, but more for recording voices or whatever than for music.



> But that aside. Back in the nineties and before, when easily accessing music for free was rare and if you accidently (or on purpose) kept the CD, tape, 8-track, vinyl from a friend because it was so good...


I lost a couple of great albums that way. Now I don't loan unless I figure on not getting it back except for one friend who is trustworthy to return stuff and take care of it.



> Now, the main reason of this thread is specifically about buying music on various subjects of the manner.


Well, for samplers there are quite a few Big Box Sets on Amazon for download for anywhere from 99 cents for a hundered or so tracks (some with whole Beethoven symphony cycles) up to a few dollars or so.


> First off, let's start with the option of Boxed Sets of composers or one CD.


Love it if you can find a great deal. I have an 84-CD Beethoven Box set I got for $26. You find a deal like that you jump on it or it will be gone. I got a Mendelsson 40-CD set for $50, and a couple Wagner opera sets. But I rarely listen to most of that.



> When first starting your collection would you recommend buying the box sets of your favourite composers then if you really like the work get more individual recordings along with the scores for music theory purposes?
> or
> Get individual recordings on a whim of various composers? (mostly from composers that you enjoy)


box sets may work better for you as I was pretty focused into certain areas and got carried off into opera leaving much of the box behind, but perhaps I'll come back to it another day.



> I mean, lately you can get about anything on websites and such for online purchases as well. But some of us has not made it to the 21st century in that aspect...


Online buying has kept my addiction well fed. If I had to rely on my local music store the pickings are pretty slim there or I would be spending a lot of money for special orders, assuming I even knew about the CD sets available. But with all the great sites (Amazon, Ebay, PrestoClassical, etc.) one can research and sample to their heart's content and find great deals.



> next question.
> 
> Would you recommend going online and getting CDs, tapes, 8-tracks, vinyls of the music you love?
> or
> ...


Definitely both. I like to support my local music store, but heavily rely on online for most purchases. The nice thing about the local music store is browsing the racks and discovering some deals, checking things out (my music store has two stereos with headphones so you can sample first), and just the whole experience of going somewhere, getting away from the computer, handling the sets.



> Final question
> what usually influences you to buy the CDs, tapes, 8-tracks, vinyls when you are searching?


Often when someone posts a set they are listening to or just bought, then i check out the clips and if I like it, may get a few recordings of it. For opera, I started out by reading opera synopses and pursued a few that I really liked the stories.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

If I had known 35 years ago at the dawn of the cd age that there would be so many inexpensive boxed sets I would have waited for sure! You can build a GREAT library really cheap nowadays. I don't know what to tell you about how to buy them: do you go by composer or conductor or performers? Difficult choices, no doubt.

Personally, as a product of my age, I will always want the physical disk - not going to download. No need. You can build a heck of a great library of the standard orchestral masterworks easily: get the boxed sets of recordings from say, Fritz Reiner, Charles Munch, Constantin Silvestri, Andre Cluytens, Adrian Boult would be a great start. You'd have a wide variety of music but also some duplications. The new HUGE complete Karajan DG set covers a vast amount of music and digs deep into your pockets.

For just one composer the boxed sets are numerous. THere are great bargains in the complete symphonies/concertos of Beethoven, and Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Mahler, Sibelius. A few years back EMI released four terrific, incredibly cheap sets of Schumann that would be all the Schumann anyone would ever need (or likely want).

Why would you even consider cassettes, 8-tracks or LPs? One great source of cds really cheap is from Berkshire Record Outlet. http://broinc.com
I've filled gaps in my library with great recordings for fractions of the original price. Those Hyperion piano concerto disks that went for $18 - $20 sell there for $5 or so. Ebay has also been a great source. And if you wait a few years you can have my entire library (12,000 and counting) for free!


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