How do you file your cast album Cd's?

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 3:52am

Does everyone still keep those plastic jewel boxes? I do and I like the ease of reading spines on the shelf but as the collections grows and grows, space is getting tight. Some Friends are tucking the discs, booklet and J-card in 5 X 7" plastic bags and filing them that way. It Does take up a lot less space.

My show CD's are filed alphabetical, followed by collections filed by artist name or composer depending on how the disc is presented. Lp records are still in the LP shelves though that collection has shrunk as I have withdrawn albums that were replaced by Cd editions. 10" Lps I still keep for sentiment's sake (there are very few of those made for shows, though quite a few for movie musicals...CALL ME MADAM, SINNING IN THE RAIN etc), the few 45 RPM box sets I have are stored in my parents basement along with the remains of my 78 RPM collection. Most of those 78 sets I spent years tracking down at flea markets and garage sales have now been rendered obsolete by the new remastered CD's of SONG OF NORWAY, CARMEN JONES etc. so the albums were sold off.

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 9:58am

I keep everything in their original state (jewel box and all) and put the cds in alphabetical order.

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 10:10am

I always keep the jewel cases, but as far as order, it has honestly gotten to the point of "Hmmmm, where could I fit this bad baby in?"

[freeadmission]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 10:10am

"I keep everything in their original state (jewel box and all) and put the cds in alphabetical order."

Same here. But once I get a CD player for my car, they're all going in a book thingy so as to be more portable.

Updated On: 6/25/05 at 10:10 AM

[JakeB]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 10:21am

Scattered all around the house. My Dad is a radio presenter so we have CDs almost in every room.. but that makes it all the more fun when you find a CD you haven't seen for ages.

[LuvBroadwayHugs]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 10:24am

My OCR's are first then after all of those I have the revivals. I keep them in the case and have a shelf for cast albums/ bway compilations alone.

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 10:35am

i have a 60 cd rotating rack i bought at walmart that seems to be doing the trick well, i bought some empty jewel cases to fix the issue with double cd sets(you can take both sides off the black holdre thing and replace it wait 2 cd covers) so they can actually fit withing the alphabetical system, and for those recordings with more than one i just alphabetize the type i.e. chicago's broadway revival would be in front of the london recording (b comes before l)

[Justice]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 10:43am

When I lived in the Bronx, and had over 1,000 cd's, I kept them all on cd shelves that I had bought at the Wiz. But, when I went through my "divorce", and lost most of those cd's, I lost the shelves, too.
So, I got into a new relationship with someone who throws NOTHING away, leaving very minimal space, and at the time, i was starting my collection over (had about 300), but could not buy shelves. So, instead I bought those giant books, which is convenient for space saving.
I am very anal about my cd's. They HAVE to be alphabatized. I have five books. 1 is A-K and the 2nd is L-Z, the 3rd is all Musical, the 4th - all compilation discs, and the 5th are all my discs that i have no covers to.

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 10:54am

Color order.

And no, I'm not kidding.

[timote316]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 10:55am

I have a shelving system made specifically for CDs/DVDs. So, the top two shelves are dedicated to CRs. They are in alphabetical order (and chronological if there have been subsequent recordings). On the third shelf (will have to be moved down, soon), are my regular CDs, alphabetized by artist's last names (again, chronological order for artist's with multiple albums). MY DVDs are also filed the same way.

I'm a stickler for order lol

[Jean Prouvaire]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 11:03am

Cast recordings: A shelf for Les Miz; a shelf for other Boublil & Schoenberg shows; a shelf for Sondheim; a shelf for Lloyd Webber. Rest of the shelves alphabetically by show name.

Solo albums etc: alphabetically by artist surname.

[fiyero8132]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 11:24am

Mine are alphabetized in a cupboard with two shelves inside it. I loaded all of them onto my iPod and they sort themselves into alphabetical order based on the title of the show and the songs for each show stay in the correct order! Brilliant! Now my CDs are staying preserved and I listen on my fancy iPod!

[EponineThenardier]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 11:37am

Yay! Governer! Me too.

I have mine in a very big Cd slipcase, (I keep the jewelcases though, of course) and it's by color of the disc.

[hyperchet]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 11:55am

however the hell i want to...heh!

[hypertruffle]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 1:12pm

My cds are organized in alphabetical order. I also made a CD wishlist/list on Microsoft Excel, including the record company, year of release, and price.

I'm not kidding.

[Jwei123]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 1:12pm

...my ipod does it alphabetically.

[Pinguin]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 1:12pm

I definetely have the stupidest filing system. I don't keep the cases (but sometimes I'll keep the booklets), and I just keep them in a big CD book.

I organize them first by composer if I have more than one CD by that particular composer, than OCRs who I don't have another by the same composer I list by my favorite to least favorite, and then I do the same with revivals.

I know. It makes no sense.

[mallardo]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 1:23pm

My CDs are filed nostalgically. Shows I've seen in New York; shows I've seen in LA; shows I've seen in London; shows I've seen in Toronto, etc. Shows I have not seen are separate.

[incendiary_wit]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 1:29pm

In a huge floreal box...that's overflowing to my computer chair...and a bag of necessaties that I take on every trip lasting longer than 20 minutes.

They're not filed...they're just everywhere.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 1:36pm

I have them in CD cases and have all the jewel cases in a box. But I organize them according to composer. (IE: All Sondheim together, all Schwartz together, all Rodgers together.)

[arishmoof]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 2:04pm

one word: itunes

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 2:17pm

I have always filed everyting in alphabetical order by title (though I have friends who file by Composer name, usually people who also collect operas and file everything that way.) With shows that have several recordings, it goes chronological by production/recording date. (CAROUSEL: 1945 Bway, 1956 FILM, 1965 MTLC, 1987 Studio, 1993 LDN, 1994 Bway)

The shelving units I have are divided into 8 compartments each of which holds 8 single CDs (but holds doubles and boxed sets like the CSR LES MIZ.) Unfortunately these metal shelves are no longer made. I fasten these to my apartment wall with space between to hold another layer of CD's sitting on top of the rack below. Even with this arrangement I am running out of space. (Which is why I asked about the feasibility of getting rid of the jewel boxes...though I do like them. Except for the flimsy hinges.)

AS for cataloging: I started using an old DOS program called PC File when I first got my computer in 1988. It lets you set up the fields (Name, Size, function) and sort data by any field or group of fields. The program is limited only by the size of your hard drive (I keep it on its own drive with several different back -ups. to be safe. ) Each entry lists:

SHOW TITLE

AUTHORS

PREMIERE DATE THEATRE NUMBER OF PERFORMANCES

*************************************************

ALBUM TITLE (not always the same as the show. Eg: BABES IN TOYLAND is on the album A TREASURY OF GREAT OPERETTAS)

CAST (VERSION)

LABEL CATALOGUE NUMBER YEAR OF RELEASE

# of DISCS STEREO/MONO FORMAT (CD, LP, 10" LP, 45, 7

************************************************
SOURCE (Where I got it) DATE (I got it) COST (I paid if anything) REPLACEMENT VALUE

DO I HAVE THIS RECORD? (Y -Yes, N -Never had it, O- On Order, or X - withdrawn from the collection)

VALUE (What is this record worth on the "Collectors' market")



There are almost 3,500 entries and you will find catalogue numbers of ever release and reissue. Example for the 1945 OCR of CAROUSEL there are 12 entries: The original 78 RPM album on 5 records, a 5-disc 45 RPM set, a 3 disc 45 EP set, 6 LP issues and 3 CD issues.

Now it may seem weird to keep track opf all this but in the 80s and 90s I did my own home-based mail order business buying and selling cast and sountrack albums, and the database helped me track it. I carried on with it through E-bay until the bottom dropped out of the market a few years ago and too many people began selling off their collections on E-bay. Now I only E-Bay rare items when they pop up in used CD stores around here.

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 2:33pm

Mine are scattered about my room...which allows the cases to get scratched and the CDs to get lost.

I like the alphabetical order idea!

[CastAlbumFan]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 2:49pm

I keep them in the order I buy them (LITTLE SHOP OF HORROS OOBC Recording was the first CD i ever bought in 1998!).

And I ALWAYS keep my CDs in cases. In fact, I immediately replace the cracked and broken cases of CDs. I'm very careful as to how I handle them so that none of them are scratched. After all, you never know when your favorite CD will go out of print!

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/25/05 at 3:09pm

The first CD I got, I got by accident. I was working in radio and each day I would get "new release" sheets from the record companies. In the summer of 1984 I saw RCA had issued a "Highlights from SWEENEY TODD" album so I ordered it more out of curiosity waht would be eliminated to fit it onto one Lp. Except it wasn't an Lp it was a CD...and I had nothing to play it on until we installed CD players in the summer of 1985! Still every show CD that came out I ordered.

It might be hard to believe now but when Cd's were first marketd in the mid 1980s, there were very few CD pressing plants and when a title went out of stock it could take years for more to appear in stores. (I missed the first CD edition of OLIVER! and had to wait until the 2nd release came in 1988.) Woe to anyone who missed STOP THE WORLD or YOU'RE A GOOD MAN CHARLIE BROWN as these titles soon were selling for over $100 each!

Cast albums were slow to appear. LA CAGE AUX FOLLES was one of the first, followed by SWEENEY TODD (Highlights) and SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE which, for me, was the most stunning display of digital audio. The CD sounded magnificent! (The heavily compressed LP edition sounded like crap mainly because they squeezed almost 35 minutes onto each side.)

The first all digital cast album was the 1981 London revival of THE SOUND OF MUSIC with Petula Clark. And as far as I know that one has never come out on CD!!

It was 1987/88 when Columbia and RCA Victor began slowly releasing some of the hit shows on CD. The floodgates really opened around 1993 when EMI launched their Broadway Angel series (40 titles), SONY started their Sony Broadway series (50 releases) and MCA began their remastered reissues with crisp new trasnfers of the R & H shows. RCA was pretty steady for about 15 years bringing out 3-5 cast album reissues a year which is why we got HAPPY HUNTING, MILK AND HONEY and ME AND JULIET on CD .... all thanks to Bill Rosenfield.