In my digital music collection, I have some albums where I only like two or three songs and the rest is total garbage. In the past, I always deleted those other songs to save space. But somehow, I regret it now. I feel like an album is like an atomic unit, a piece of art as a whole, and you just shouldn't cut it apart. How do you feel about that, and how do you deal with that issue? I'm really keen on hearing some other opinions as this decision has bothered me for some weeks now.
In my digital music collection, I have some albums where I only like two or three songs and the rest is total garbage. In the past, I always deleted those other songs to save space. But somehow, I regret it now. I feel like an album is like an atomic unit, a piece of art as a whole, and you just shouldn't cut it apart. How do you feel about that, and how do you deal with that issue? I'm really keen on hearing some other opinions as this decision has bothered me for some weeks now.
I keep all songs. Space is cheap. And there are albums I hated 30 years ago, that have become favorites. Taste can change. And my musical taste has broadened and matured over time.
I sold a few albums back in the day. Still kinda regret it. I have too many squirrel genes. I even keep data sessions on EnhancedCDs. Likely I even have one of those copy protection malware things .zipped down ...
I even keep data sessions on EnhancedCDs.
Really?
I even hesitated removing duplicates (having tracks in a regular albums as well as in a compilation, exactly the same recording), I only delete songs I don't like when it's a compilation, not when it's an album.
Nope, been archiving to image+internal cue but recently changed to single tracks. Still not deleting songs I don't like.
Flac=keep all tracks
Mp3 copies = only keep the tracks I like
I even keep data sessions on EnhancedCDs.
Really?
Not Cactus (nor other malware!) though ... actually, some CDs even contain bonus tracks in the data session.
There should have been an image format for true copying of EnhancedCDs.
There should have been an image format for true copying of EnhancedCDs.
I believe there are, .mds for example. I used a .mds to back-up a mixed-mode game-CD, which is audio+data too, and it works. There are not many application supporting it though.
Good old bin+cue can definitely replicate mixed CDs that have only one session, and I believe some applications extend this beyond its original specifications to cover multi-session CDs, too.
Of course, such formats read the disc in a ‘raw’ manner, and unless the program being used takes special care to copy the audio accurately, they give no guarantee of complete fidelity to the source.
Besides all this, there’s always the option of copying the individual sessions/modes/whatever into their respective non-image formats, but I guess then you need an additional file to describe their layout, which might contribute to people’s preference for using single-file images in such cases.
Every musician thinks that they poop gold, that their albums are priceless and indivisible works of beauty and awe, and that everyone should listen to—and love—everything they've ever done. But if you don't like a song, you're not going to want to hear it. Some songs just aren't that good. So why indulge the whims of Monsieur Artiste? If you have no intention of listening to it, then either set up something where it is automatically skipped, or remove it from your playlists, or remove it from your files altogether. Don't feel guilty about it.
If you do get rid of the filler, though, make sure you do your album ReplayGain scan first.
But what if your taste of music changes very often? Mine does, and I tend to listen one genre/artist for weeks, thinking everything else I ever heard is crap (and deleting it). I think from now on, I'll keep the albums when at least one good song is on it. For the record, there's a foobar2000 plugin I found called "foo_skip", it will automatically skip songs with a low rating. This way, you can avoid disliked songs and keep them at the same time.
5 or 7 years ago when space was tighter, I'd pick and choose tracks from so-so albums to archive. Then two things happened. First, I had a few albums where I regretted deleting the rest of the songs and ended up re-obtaining the album later, which was inconvenient. Second, disk space got cheaper and so less important (relatively).
So now, I'll usually keep an entire album, even if I only like a few songs from it.
I keep everything. My taste might change, a song I did not like at first might suddenly be it.
Strawberry Fields Forever taught me that.
In my experience, a lot of songs can "grow" on me as I listen to them once in a while.
So if I just go and delete what I immediately judged useless, I will certainly miss great songs in the future.
It happened quite a lot for many albums.
And I was also proved that a single or a best-of can push for the album as you learn to like more songs...
If an album is that bad, then I will get the singles only.
There is of course, helpless cases with some albums... songs that I won't like for the life of me, so those I might consider for deletion...
I even keep data sessions on EnhancedCDs.
Really?
I even hesitated removing duplicates (having tracks in a regular albums as well as in a compilation, exactly the same recording), I only delete songs I don't like when it's a compilation, not when it's an album.
Same here. I only delete tracks from compilations, and then only if I really
really loathe a song beyond any chance of a change of heart.
I keep everything, including whole albums that suck. But only if they're part of my "collection" (ie. come from a real CD or otherwise somehow important -- not some crap from soundcloud or bandcamp).
I even have about 20 duplicates for some tracks that are on many compilations. That's not bad if you ever want to compare the mastering of the track on different versions.
I keep all songs. Space is cheap. And there are albums I hated 30 years ago, that have become favorites. Taste can change. And my musical taste has broadened and matured over time.
This pretty much sums up my attitude, too. I used to only keep specific songs on my iPod, but even there I've started keeping whole albums and just using playlists for selected tracks.
for music or almost anything else, if I have no use for it, I don't keep it. my best friend is the type to keep 3 anvils, just in case the first one breaks somehow ^_^. I'm pretty much the opposite.
that said I also don't just delete stuff after listening to it twice and not loving it. that would be really dumb as some of my all time favorite songs didn't feel like anything special at first and only grew on me over time. so time I give, there is no urgency after all. I put a little ranking as a tag and once or twice a year comes the purge. one last listening to the songs with low rank just in case, and bye bye.
at some point I also felt that it might be a mistake, but it just pisses me off to have that one song I dislike in an otherwise cool album. and if I really don't come to like it, I won't force myself the way radio stations force songs onto us by spamming them every 20minutes like some religious mantra (brainwashing works but do I really need to?).
getting rid of the song I skip manually all the time anyway, ends up making me want to listen to the album even more. at least that's the impression I have.
so, "no ragrets".
but I absolutely do not do this to save storage space which isn't really an issue for me on a computer or external drives. and on DAPs I go lossy and make a selection anyway.
In general I do delete stuff I don't like, but that's not the only factor. Sometimes, depending on the album, I might spare the unliked tracks for the sake of completeness if I deem the album worth it. It is, of course, highly personal and subjective.
Some in the thread point out that you might change your taste with time and come to like what you deleted in the past. I admit that's a valid argument that I used to value, but I've come to the conclusion that I can't be bothered anymore. If I don't like it, it's out.
Whatever happens later I'll deal with then. I have way too big of a music collection. I sometimes even just nuke whole albums because I can't be bothered managing them and having them take up room. I don't want to keep adding storage indefinitely just to deal with unused files, therefore I've adopted a guiltless deletion policy.
If you have a packrat problem like I do, then I'd advise you to not feel guilty anymore about deleting unliked/unused files.
This process is not as much of a blind rage fit as it may seem. I do perform some prettying up tasks before I send the albums to the gutting process. For complete lossless albums, I first process them with CUETools, and then, for both lossless and lossy, I pass them through Picard and foobar2000 manual tagging and arrange and fix things up as I see fit.
After all that is done, it's deletion time. It's probably more time consuming than it's worth, but it works to balance my packrat addiction and need for sanitization.
It also helps to have some prejudice. For example, I have decided that I don't want certain genres at all, and won't even entertain the idea of keeping them anymore. If it sounds too much like this or that, it's out. Some may argue that's unreasonable. You'll have to decide for yourself. When I'm in a deletion streak, I skip through the songs listening to 1-2second segments at 3 or 4 points in the middle of the track. If it's already too disagreeable, I nuke it. If it doesn't make me puke immediately, I give it some more time before I decide. Sometimes I have postpone judgement on some tracks and keep deleting more clear cases and then come back to the remaining ones.
These are my two cents.
I started ripping my CDs selectively. That just meant I ended up ripping them again eventually.
I now prefer to make track choices when creating a playlist, rather than when ripping a disc.
When I buy digital songs off an Album, I rarely get the entire album, I often just get the songs I like, except when the Album is kinda produced as one single things, where all songs kinda blend into one another gap-less, etc. When it comes to CDs I own, I usually end up ripping everything and keeping even the songs I'm not interested in that much for completeness.
I kinda have this idiotic idea in my head, that I should hold on to a good rip of a CD, so I can care for it should the last original hardware copy ever vanish off the face of the earth...
I keep albums whole. They have been finished and released as units, and there isn't much cost associated with keeping them that way. Several times I have, by accident, discovered songs I liked, but didn't know about before by their titles, while listening to albums continuously. My overall taste didn't change significantly. I've also found that I enjoyed listening to cassettes, being restrained from pausing and skipping to avoid potentially wearing holes in the tape.
Sometimes a few tracks blend together slightly in an otherwise non-segued album. Those would require editing to separate from neighboring tracks. I feel doing so would decrease order and value of the collection.
I kinda have this idiotic idea in my head, that I should hold on to a good rip of a CD, so I can care for it should the last original hardware copy ever vanish off the face of the earth...
Strange, I too get this feeling, ... right after watching any zombie show. ;~)
I also rip entire albums, I then rely on dynamic (DADA (https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,83954.0.html)) and static ratings playlists to avoid the stuff I don't want to hear, when I don't want to hear it. I haven't gone as far as installing foo_skip (http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_skip) yet.
I always listen to albums as a whole, so I do keep all the tracks.
I usually keep the whole album. There are a few albums that I deleted all but one song because I couldn't get into the rest of the album after multiple listens.
I always listen to albums as a whole, so I do keep all the tracks.
Same here. And, if it's a CD reissue of a vinyl album I always delete the so-called "Bonus Material".
I always listen to albums as a whole, so I do keep all the tracks.
Same here. And, if it's a CD reissue of a vinyl album I always delete the so-called "Bonus Material".
I keep original version as much as possible. Only a few albums with outstanding deluxe tracks make my library.
There's no general rule but most often I delete the whole album if it isn't enjoyable to listen in one go, start to finish. Rarely I decide to do something else.
If there are bonus tracks added by producer or someone else but not the artist, but they are actually good and match the album theme, I keep them, otherwise I often remove them.
While growing up, if the family authority figures didn't like the song, and were justified by tabooed content, I would either delete it or edit it to acceptable levels. (I think I did a better job than some radio stations for a few songs. [I still somehow ended up listening to screamo even if the parents didn't like the sound of it.])
I'm a firm believer that the more often you are told to agree with something, the more likely you are to start to agree with it. Why am I going to listen to a song over and over again that is pleading for its listeners to engage in and or agree with something that I have found, by painful experience, to make me unhappy?
More songs exist than I have time to listen to in my entire life. What are the chances that they are all worth listening to?
The goal in my music library is that any random person should be able to pick any song from it, and I will enjoy listening to it. Those well composed songs that have a positive vibe or message: I want to hear them with more frequency than those that are neutral or bland. If my library is mostly filled with dirt, I'm going to be hearing more dirt than gems.
For instrumentals, I am much less critical. I tend to keep a lot more of the bland stuff. Maybe they just composed better.
It is true that some of my favorite songs, I initially found to be very bland or uninteresting. No song should be deleted without being listened to at least five times. (Hopefully with ample amounts of time in between. I tend to hate songs that I don't know well and just heard an hour ago.) Unless it includes things that I don't want to hear again. Some can be edited, but most are not worth the effort.
Long ago, I didn't used to rip CDs because I didn't have the hard drive space, and it didn't matter much since CDs seemed to last forever. Even when I got a new computer with a terabyte drive, I still didn't rip a lot because my tastes had changed. But then I found firsthand one of my CD-ROMs internally rotted to the point it was mostly unusable. Knowing they degrade anyway, I started ripping CDs more thereon. Then for variety on my phone, pop songs and compilations, anything I could find that had at least some taste—most everything was ripped, except for tribute covers and remixes.
These days I don't delete any of the lossless rips; there's more than enough drive space on my computer for all the CDs I own (and possibly the DVDs too) that the HDD will probably die before it even comes close to getting filled. Even if I don't like a song, there's still value and a history with all music. And anything could have valuable samples for testing purposes.