I am one of those record collectors that collect as much for the cultural experience as for the object itself. I have loads of mint condition singles and LPs that I haven’t even played (but listen to the music on my i-Pod). I have bought
Record Collector magazine every month for over 30 years and have never missed an issue. Every month I buy a wide range of other music magazines including
Mojo, Q, Uncut, Vive Le Rock, Classic Rock and
Classic Pop (as well as the occasional issue of
Rolling Stone, NME, The Wire, Future Music and
Shindig). In short, almost a lot of my disposable income goes on buying music or reading music. My records, CDs and music magazines can be found in almost every room in my house. To me, my collection is priceless (and I mean that in an emotional sense rather than a financial one). I am an archivist of the artists I collect as much as a collector. Professor Moist comments that:
“While such fanatical and obsessed collectors do exist…they are clearly outliers on the scale of collecting passion…For such people collecting is a real problem”. However, I am a true fanatic of music but don’t believe I am addicted (
based on my own criteria). My love of music and collecting it adds to my life rather than takes away from it
