'Raus!

A few days ago, I sold 180 records from my collection, with the knowledge that at least 820 more have got to follow. If there is one thing that I have learned from sorting the good records from the forgetable ones, it is the undeniable fact that it is pretty difficult, when deciding to buy a record, to predict if the record in question is going to be enjoyable ten years after. Especially when it comes to house, a genre I have been collecting for about twenty years now, and which was, when I started buying house records, a nascent genre, still having years of evolution and revolution to go.

Years ago, I swore to myself that I never would sell any record I have ever bought. But these vinyls gradually take up a lot of space (there was a time, in my previous living space, that I literally had to move records to reach other records) and when you think about it, if you do not play them any longer, they are just standing there, doing nothing more than reminding you of the fact that on the whole you have paid an incredible amount of pecunia for them. When you confront that constatation with the fact that you have not played some of those records for five years (or even longer) then I must admit that I am really glad that these days you can share your records over the internet, so that you can give a record more than just a few listenings before deciding to buy it and add it to your collection. It may not be too fair to the artists in question, but it is a significant progression if you are a musical addict like myself.

Selecting the records I was going to sell also taught me some humility. Everyone who loves and buys music on a regular basis thinks that he has got good taste. But in fact more and more you realize that you are, more frequently than you are willing to admit, influenced by reviews, first listenings, novelty, the opinions of your mate's and what do I know.

Of course, now that I have grown older, I like to think that I select the music I buy with more maturity and experience, picking records with greater knowledge. But I am willing to bet that, in another ten years, I will be writing a lamentation that in spirit will not be too far removed from this one.