SwingDJs

At what point do you stop buying a certain artist's music in terms of balancing your book? I mean, there are tons of Ella and Duke and Goodman albums. At some point, any CD you're going to buy contains songs you already have in your existing collection (with the execption of one or three songs).

I have some albums in my Duke collection that over lap each other, some have better sound quality, some are different takes. I like the idea of having an artists complete recordings (for me it would be mainly from the swing era), but when it comes to artists like Duke it can be hard because you will overlap, and they recorded so much music that it's hard to know what to get in order to get their complete recordings. I figure that if I'm happy with the album when I preview it, I'll buy it, I won't buy it for the reason of getting the artists complete collections.

Harrison

My tastes are cyclical. I got on a Basie kick and for months, that was all I could buy. Then I got on a Duke kick and bought up a whole bunch of his stuff, then kind of frittered around buying this and that, and I'm so broke now I pine for the days of about three months ago where I could buy music and still eat.

no, never.

BryanC wrote:At what point do you stop buying a certain artist's music in terms of balancing your book? I mean, there are tons of Ella and Duke and Goodman albums. At some point, any CD you're going to buy contains songs you already have in your existing collection (with the execption of one or three songs).

When you have all their cds is one point. Although it might not be a full stop. Take Betty Roche (or Joya Sherrill), she only has three (or one) album in print, but can be found on additional recordings. In cases like that it's easy, you can pursue the additional recordings if you really like the artist. With artiists like Ellington and Basie it's not as easy, although Basie is easier than Ellington since he has less recordings. In either case, you could start with getting their significant recordings.

The other approach is to ask if getting more of the artists really add anything more to your book. Do you really need another tuvan throat singing compilation?

CafeSavoy wrote:The other approach is to ask if getting more of the artists really add anything more to your book. Do you really need another tuvan throat singing compilation?

Rayned - what is your general approach? I was hoping you would reply to this thread considering you probably have one of the largest collections of music of Dj's posting here.

And how have you handled overlap? I'm just starting to wise up to how savvy the record companies are at marketing; you can get suckered into a lot of overlap if you are not careful.

djstarr wrote: And how have you handled overlap? I'm just starting to wise up to how savvy the record companies are at marketing; you can get suckered into a lot of overlap if you are not careful.

I tend to buy cds that have songs i like, and especially if they have songs you can play for dancing. Normally I'll prefer that a cd have more than one good song, but if the song is really great or the cd is cheap you might get it anyways. I look at cds with dupes in the same way, are there enough songs you want to make it worth getting at the price.

A lot of it probably comes down to disposable income too. I'm not likely to buy a CD for one really good song, unless the song is incredibly, stupendously hard to find otherwise--and even then it would have to have been a good month in terms of saving money (or going without something).

Beyond the issues of overlap from disc to disc, I find that I do hit a point when I'd rather find a "new" artist rather than another disc by someone who already has a number of discs in my carrying case.

There's no real dividing line, in terms of an actual number, though. I just enjoy seeking out new artists more than stockpiling a ton of the same artists. Although that surely means I don't own a lot of really great songs by some really great artists, it does mean I probably own some things that a lot of folks don't. But, seeking new artists is just my preference in general.

It may be left over from my indie rock days.

Edited to say:
I should probably clarify that I don't mean "new" as in recently released, but rather new to my collection.

BryanC wrote:At what point do you stop buying a certain artist's music in terms of balancing your book? I mean, there are tons of Ella and Duke and Goodman albums. At some point, any CD you're going to buy contains songs you already have in your existing collection (with the execption of one or three songs).

I think that is a question each one of us personally answers when that point is hit. There is no general rule to follow here. I carry a TON of Basie, Ellington and Fitzgerald, and yet, I still am drawn to the browse their sections each time I go to the store in hopes of finding something I don't yet have - which of course happens much more often with Ellington due to his prolific recording career.

When you get to the point when most artist CDs only have 1-3 songs that you don't already have, you probably know enough about the artist and know very well if those 1-3 songs are worth getting. I've bought several large Ella Fitzgerald compilations for a single song before with no regrets because I was doing it on purpose, not expecting to find anything else unfamiliar and new.

lindyholic wrote:I like the idea of having an artists complete recordings (for me it would be mainly from the swing era)

Well that is probably the only way you'll ever hope to be lucky enough to have Duke's entire collection of recordings. Just ask Mike.

djstarr wrote:And how have you handled overlap? I'm just starting to wise up to how savvy the record companies are at marketing; you can get suckered into a lot of overlap if you are not careful.

Overlap is of course going to happen when you are striving for an extensive collection. What you need to worry about is when you get to the point where you are buying complete duplicates with no new songs. If that starts to happen alot, then you have problems.

CafeSavoy wrote:I tend to buy cds that have songs i like, and especially if they have songs you can play for dancing. Normally I'll prefer that a cd have more than one good song, but if the song is really great or the cd is cheap you might get it anyways. I look at cds with dupes in the same way, are there enough songs you want to make it worth getting at the price.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Soupbone wrote:Beyond the issues of overlap from disc to disc, I find that I do hit a point when I'd rather find a "new" artist rather than another disc by someone who already has a number of discs in my carrying case.

I'd personally rather do both. I'm always searching out new artists while continuing to develop ones for which I already have large collections. Sometimes my focus/interest falls heavier one way or the other, but it definitely goes back and forth.

Jesse

So I now own both the cenetennial remastered (which I had already) and original CD release versions of the Blanton-Webster set, all thanks to a cheap deal on Ebay, and my perverse need to see which one has better sound quality.


How's that for overlap?

Ryan wrote:So I now own both the cenetennial remastered (which I had already) and original CD release versions of the Blanton-Webster set, all thanks to a cheap deal on Ebay, and my perverse need to see which one has better sound quality.


How's that for overlap?

Is the other better? I ended up with both versions of Goodman's Carnegie recordings and i'm not sure it was worth getting again.

lindyholic wrote:I like the idea of having an artists complete recordings (for me it would be mainly from the swing era), but when it comes to artists like Duke it can be hard because you will overlap, and they recorded so much music that it's hard to know what to get in order to get their complete recordings.


I figure that if I'm happy with the album when I preview it, I'll buy it, I won't buy it for the reason of getting the artists complete collections.

Harrison

Good luck on getting artists complete collections, even if you just stick to the swing era. The really tough artists are the ones who played with everyone. That's also where you might run into a lot dups too. That's why liner notes with session dates are great because they help you keep track of versions. I've started adding recording year (sporadically) to my mp3's to help track versions. They were a great help in de-duping my basie rips.

Compilations are the bane of those who don't want dupes, but often are the only way to get some songs. Also if you're serious about getting a particular artist recordings, boxsets are sometimes the best way to start. But you normally get into an artist sideways and not directly.

CafeSavoy wrote:Do you really need another tuvan throat singing compilation?

Well since you brought it up, I highly recommend both the movie and the soundtrack of Ghengis Blues

CafeSavoy wrote:

Ryan wrote:So I now own both the cenetennial remastered (which I had already) and original CD release versions of the Blanton-Webster set, all thanks to a cheap deal on Ebay, and my perverse need to see which one has better sound quality.


How's that for overlap?

Is the other better? I ended up with both versions of Goodman's Carnegie recordings and i'm not sure it was worth getting again.

Yes. As I've noted several times on this board, the Centennial Edition remasters are MUCH better than the Blanton-Webster original release. The Centennial Edition sounds as if it came from a completely different recording session ten years later. The Dreyfus reissues about which you asked Greg several months ago are even cleaner, but are nonetheless somewhat "flatter."