World's most complete recorded music collection on eBay

Bidding starts at $3,000,000 for this huge collection of LPs and CDs, currently stored in a 16,000 square foot climate-controlled warehouse.

From Thomas Edison to American Idol, this is the complete history of the music that shaped and defined five generations. 3 million records and 300,000 CDs containing more than 6 million song titles. It's the undisputed largest collection of recorded music in the world.

Link

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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songs

Merzbow indeed. … How about Muslimgauze? Didn’t he release like 300 records?
phoulx

Now wait, at this price it obviously does NOT include everything as the entire collection of The Who cost $5million alone. http://www.thewho.info/forsale.htm
Sorry Recordrama, thanks but no thanks.
Kobie

Still though, at $3M for 6M tracks – that’s 50 cents per track, which actually seems a bit high.

I wonder if they’d take $2,999,998?
Brett Burton

From the collection website: “Every genre of American music is represented: rock; jazz; country; R&B; blues; new age; Broadway and Hollywood; bluegrass; folk; children’s; comedy; Christmas, and more.” I like how the genres children’s, comedy and christmas are listed but no mention of rap or hip-hop. Maybe it’s in there, but it obviously wasn’t deemed important enough to be listed, even though it’s probably the most influential and popular American music genre of the last 25 years.
Simon Greenwood

I’d throw in TG24 by Throbbing Gristle, which I do own, and have listened to… most of… There was also a longer version, TG+ which had another 10 performances, so 35 thats CDs of semi-listenable noise in all. My copy was only Â£200…
Chevan

>Just wait for the CD rot to set in on those 300,000 optical discs.

I literally shivered.

I think I’d just go crazy if that happened to me.
Takuan

PSA WARNING PSA WARNING PSA WARNING WHOOP WHOOP

“Do

* Handle discs by the outer edge or the center hole
* Use a non solvent-based felt-tip permanent marker to mark the label side of the disc
* Keep dirt or other foreign matter from the disc
* Store discs upright (book style) in original jewel cases that are specified for CDs and DVDs
* Return discs to their jewel cases immediately after use
* Leave discs in their spindle or jewel case to minimize the effects of environmental changes
* Remove the shrink wrap only when you are ready to record data on the disc
* Store in a cool, dry, dark environment in which the air is clean — relative humidity should be in the range 20% – 50% (RH) and temperature should be in the range 4Â°C – 20Â°C
* Remove dirt, foreign material, fingerprints, smudges, and liquids by wiping with a clean cotton fabric in a straight line from the center of the disc toward the outer edge
* Use deionized (best), distilled or soft tap water to clean your discs. For tough problems use diluted dish detergent or rubbing alcohol. Rinse and dry thoroughly with a lint-free cloth or photo lens tissue
* Check the disc surface before recording

Do not

*
Touch the surface of the disc
*
Bend the disc
*
Store discs horizontally for a long time (years)
*
Open a recordable optical disc package if you are not ready to record
*
Expose discs to extreme heat or high humidity
*
Expose discs to extreme rapid temperature or humidity changes
* Expose recordable discs to prolonged sunlight or other sources of UV light
*
Write or mark in the data area of the disc (area where the laser “reads”)
*
Clean in a circular direction around the disc.”
OM

…And now for the most important question of all: how many of these disks are bootlegs and/or mix tapes? :)
FilthPig

Plz seed!
webjedi

This is the archives of RcordRama a music store on the north-side of Pittsburgh. I’ve whittled away many an hour browsing it’s stacks and catalog. I would hope somebody in the area, like the University of Pittsburgh or my alma-mater, Carnegie Mellon University, would acquire it for their library. It’s definitely a unique and important collection.

Per the comment above, these are legal recordings. The only copies I ever saw were original recordings, many both domestic and european. The warehouse actually resided above a post office… I guess both the space requirements, and the dawn of digital music sometimes rings the death knell of unique establishments. Pittsburgh always had a unique music scene (recorded and otherwise, such as Dave’s Music Mine, and Paul’s Records) which, after living in LA and DC, and visiting NYC, I have a hard time finding an analogue to.

If anybody knows some place that has $3 mil to drop on this collection, I think it’d be a bargain!
DrRobert

At least I know that my music buying problem is small by comparison. Only 6000 or so….
Nora

[insert anti-RIAA "you mean you can sell music?" comment here]
iRoy

Or to misquote Alexai Sayle:

“Every song ever recorded including…”
twenty tracknames scroll past
“…and…”
twenty more famous songs scroll past
“…all on thirty million tapes or one CD”
arkizzle

#4
I just downloaded 18 terabytes in 3516 rar parts, DOES ANYONE HAVE THE PASSWORD FOR THIS ? ? ?
ROSSINDETROIT

I received an email about that auction/collection at 2:40 this afternoon. I immediately checked it out and noted that the listing had had 36,000 hits more or less. Approximately 6.25 hours later it has had 48,000 hits. I have to wonder if this is a legit auction or just advertising for a private buyer for the collection. For one thing, you would never buy something like this without an accurate, comprehensive catalog of the guaranteed contents.
deckard68

The Library of Congress should buy it. But I guess there’s no money for America left now.
Bazilisk

Someone can just buy this and be an auto-music-afficianado. Like Great Gatsby’s library, the exact same idea…
ROSSINDETROIT

Maybe I’m wrong about the intentions of the sellers. They’re even going to the trouble to answer the inevitable idiotic eBayer questions:

Q: do you have any ween? Feb-13-08
A: Yes. Eighteen different listings on singles, LPs and CDs.
easy2panic

Hmmm… I might be interested if only I had an iPod big enough for it all.
ROSSINDETROIT

34 years is how long it would take to play all of this music assuming 6 million songs at 3 minutes each. Leaving off the ones I’d skip from having heard them too much, make it an even 33 years, 11 months, 18 days.
Jackasimov

If I can just get about 3,000 people to go in on this with me…
Logical Extremes

Just wait for the CD rot to set in on those 300,000 optical discs.

@ROSSINDETROIT, for $3,000,000 or so, I’d spend a few minutes answering questions, too.
Moon

They take PayPal!
zuzu

The Library of Congress should buy it. But I guess there’s no money for America left now.

“Certain objects may be vital to your success. If at first you don’t succeed, you fail. And the test will be terminated.”
ROSSINDETROIT

@LOGICAL EXTREMES

I sincerely doubt that Ween is a dealbreaker.
coaxial

@ROSSINDETROIT

Obviously you’ve never met a Ween fan.
Ethan

The best part is that you can get $10 back if you pay with a MasterCard:

“(Enter US $3,000,000.00 or more)
Get $10 back on this item See Details”
ill lich

Even if I had the dough, I’d balk– it would take several years of serious full time work to go through it all. Plus, If I paid for it, it’s MINE and I would probably break up the collection and only keep what I wanted, and ditch Christmas records and (most) children’s records and ANY “easy listening” records.

It would be better if some public or private institution bought it and kept it together.
OM

“Per the comment above, these are legal recordings.”

…Son, you *really* need to learn to tell when someone is making a joke. Especially one at the expense of the MafRIAA.

[shakes head in mild dismay]
Jonah

EASY2PANIC wrote:

Hmmm… I might be interested if only I had an iPod big enough for it all.

Apple released the first iPod in 2001. It was 5 GB. Six years later, in 2007, they released a 160 GB iPod. That means the iPod’s maximum capacity has been doubling approximately every 1.2 years. If Apple keeps this up, they should be releasing a 40 terabyte iPod some time in 2017, which should be able to hold all 6 million songs with room to spare. (Assuming 3 minutes per song and a bit rate of 256 kb/s, the 6 million songs will require about 35 terabytes.)
jamesbow

Yeah. We’re going to need a bigger iPod.
lunarworks

It’s about 1,000,000 times larger than the collection at your local radio station.
searconflex

But does it include the Merzbox?

http://www.discogs.com/release/100630
themindfantastic

I am so going to bid on this once that lovely Nigerian man comes through with my end of the money.
MichaelO

best part about the whole auction… the link under the starting bid (3,000,000) how you can save ten bucks on the purchase
stuiethegod

god, I wish I could just get my hands on this collection for long enough to make a digital archive of it all… I think I might need to get a few more hard drives though; as well as take at least a year off to do nothing but record vinyl.

alas, a man can dream…
dculberson

@searconflex: Who would have thought that a noise band could put out 50 CD’s worth of .. music .. at once?

I guess it’s like L Ron’s Mission Earth. If there’s no editing, no pondering, no re-thinking, you can fill a lot of media really quickly.

p.s. Can I borrow $3mm?
searconflex

Dculberson: remember, Masami Akita has been making music since 1979. plus he’s super swell and sweet… Yay Merzbow!!!

and of course you can have $3 000 000.00… just send me your bank info and I’ll take care of the rest.
sg

Really, 35 TB? How long would it take to rip and seed all those CDs?

Just for comparison, does anyone know how much music pandora.com claims to have?
assumetehposition

So… 6 million titles * average 3 minutes per song = over 34 years of listening pleasure.
Danny Colligan

How much you wanna bet the RIAA buys the whole thing and burns it?
zikman

beats my local radio station. “no repeat work week” my ass. this would be a no repeat lifetime worth of music

I’m sold!
Takuan

burn it? nah… they’ll just lock in a vault and never let it out. That’s what music’s for.