I resisted the rise of the MP3 file for quite some time…I had an enormous stack of vinyl and CD’s and at the time, was a purist and snob about sound – doing the whole ‘What-HiFi’ thing and buying oxygen free copper cable interconnects, putting speakers on spikes etc, etc. Then, one day my gorgeously sleek Marantz CD player stopped working and rather than spend £500 on another one, I bought an Apple TV for £200. Over the next four months I ripped all my music to MP3’s, copied them to the Apple TV, bought an Ipod and the rest is history. I very rarely buy CD’s these days as the ease of Itunes downloads is just too easy and flicking through 6000 songs on the Ipod and Apple TV, while not moving panders to my sense of utter sloth at weekends and evenings 🙂
However, I hanker for the days when buying a vinyl LP was a real event – when the artwork, credits and lyrics could be pored over and any extra’s such as lyric sheets made the purchase feel extra special and added so much extra value. So, I’ve decided, when I can, to buy and save up for CD Box Sets. These have lots of wonderful little extra’s that as a huge music fan I just love. Here’s my first one – Sandy Denny. Inside is not only 14 CD’s of everything she ever recorded, there are facsimiles of her notebooks, gig posters and rather wonderfully, a receipt for the first piano she ever bought. All the stuff a fan loves. And I love this box set. I love looking at it, love owning it and even playing it on occasion…Of course I don’t have a CD player anymore, so it’s been ripped and stashed on a hard drive somewhere.
I’d love to do a box set for a band….Produce something really rich and truly worth keeping. Maybe one day!
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