Comments on: Reader question: Shelving your CD collection

By: simpson personnel staffing

simpson personnel staffing — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 22:11:03 +0000

Nice site. Thank you:-) simpson personnel staffing

By: JeremyM

JeremyM — Sun, 27 May 2007 18:35:07 +0000

@those looking for windows version of DL: try CodeAero's Music Label 2007. For those with a little cash lying around, i highly recommend Can-Am's CD Cabinets

By: JefferyK

JefferyK — Mon, 21 May 2007 22:51:14 +0000

I have at least 1,000 CDs and 200 opera boxed sets. I chose to go with open shelving. I found an independent unfinished wood furniture store that makes pine CD racks to order. I bought two that fit perfectly into my walk-in closet. I stained them with water-based stain, which took about an hour, with no mess and no smell. Total cost: around $200, including delivery.

By: holly

holly — Thu, 17 May 2007 19:39:54 +0000

I'm using a cheaper alternative to the Jewel Sleeve that I learned about here: http://ssl.adhost.com/jazzloft/baskets/sleeves.cfm It's great to be able to shelve these right next to the speciality cd cases that I'd rather not get rid of. Browsing is a practically identical process, but it all takes up much less space.

By: Craig Kelker

Craig Kelker — Tue, 15 May 2007 15:04:12 +0000

Here's a cheap option: http://www.supermediastore.com/cd-dvd-wallet-wallets-cd-holders-cd-storages-organizer-epv-416.html $13/ea to store 416 CDs! I found this through techbargins.com.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Mon, 14 May 2007 18:52:48 +0000

For Windows users, I recommend MediaMan (www.imediaman.com). It has an interface that appears to be very similar to the Delicious Library one, and supports bar code scanning. It was recommended on the ApartmentTherapy SF about a year ago.

By: Ingrid

Ingrid — Mon, 14 May 2007 15:29:29 +0000

I second the plug for GreenDisk.com. I’ve also heard that libraries can take the jewel cases off your hands and use them to replace cracked or missing boxes — an even more direct way to recycle all that plastic!

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 14 May 2007 14:59:41 +0000

I just got rid of all of my jewel boxes, and had them recycled – saving both space and trash. GreenDisk.com, while it costs a moderate fee to use the service and for postage, at least you can feel good about getting rid of them all.

By: Leslie

Leslie — Sun, 13 May 2007 02:35:23 +0000

I really like IKEA Billy bookcases with the CD inserts that look like extended tic tac toe boards. The Billy line is one of the cheapest shelving options IKEA offers. I have a whole wall taken up by these bookcases with the CD inserts and I think it looks fantastic. Sorry I’m too lazy to look for a link.

By: Lane

Lane — Sun, 13 May 2007 01:55:02 +0000

You might want to check out http://www.jewelsleeve.com/ or similar product, you keep your media and save a lot of space too.

By: Betsey

Betsey — Fri, 11 May 2007 18:01:52 +0000

For those looking for a Windows alternative, you might try an online service such as LibraryThing (www.librarything.com).

By: consumer_q

consumer_q — Thu, 10 May 2007 21:52:46 +0000

The only non-mac cd catalogue software I have used was Readerware:
http://www.readerware.com/
It is cross-platform, but the Mac version is not all all Mac-like.
It is probably one of the most thorough pieces of software out there, but it ain’t pretty like other Mac applications (e.g., Delicious, Bookpedia).

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 10 May 2007 17:57:16 +0000

Any non-apple alternatives to the Delicious Library>

By: Vis Major

Vis Major — Thu, 10 May 2007 16:00:56 +0000

My husband and I have hundreds of physical CDs but they don’t take up much space. I bought two sturdy paper boxes, some tagboard alphabetical tabs, and some pasteboard to serve as a divider.

Box 1 holds our A-L CDs, and box 2 holds our M-Z CDs. We keep the liner notes and the discs themselves, and the rest of the packaging gets trashed. Each box has two rows of discs, with the pasteboard dividers separating the rows and the alphabetical tabs separating the discs.

We also have all our music digitized on an external hard drive, so we don’t tend to delve into the boxes often. However, as others pointed out, the physical discs represent our ownership of the digitized music.

Other alternatives for audiofiles could be purchasing only digital music and/or using a music swap service such as LaLa.com.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 10 May 2007 15:13:51 +0000

I have somewhat of a similar problem at work, but rather than music CDs I had tons and tons of software CDs.

I read this blog for tips on how to organize our office. It’s just three of us, but my co-workers (especially my boss) are very, very unorganized. (That’s why I was hired!)

We have thousands of CDs that were once strewn all about the office. One day I ordered some large CD bookcases from CDW. About $10 bucks a case. I went through every CD deciding which ones could be stored on our network (such as drivers and such) and done away with, and which ones needed to be kept.

I doubt a music lover would toss any CD, but for the most part, I kept the majority of our CDs. Now I have them all ordered into these CD bookcases by category and aligned on a self that’s easy to reach from out work counter.

I imagine a similar system would work for a music collector. I have a lot of music, but I’m rough on CDs. So I digitized my music with iTunes. Works wonders for me.

By: helix_r

helix_r — Thu, 10 May 2007 14:48:50 +0000

If you do decide to rip your CDs and get rid of the originals, be sure to have some type of back-up plan (or some kind of robust RAID storage). Hard drives don’t last forever. The day when you music collection bites the dust because of a hard drive failure could be a very very bitter day!

By: VA

VA — Thu, 10 May 2007 05:17:18 +0000

I would recommend everyone take a look at the jewel sleeve method. I have been using this for a little under a decade now and its the best system i've heard of. It seems to be similar to the discsox system someone mentioned. The best part is that you get to keep everything that originally came with the CD in a fifth of the space. And when you get a new disc you can put it right in whatever order you want. The only problem that I've run into is what to do with those CDs that come in a cardboard case with no removable cover art. These are a few CDs. So I store them next to my jewel sleeves. http://www.jewelsleeve.com/

By: Eats Wombats

Eats Wombats — Thu, 10 May 2007 03:24:52 +0000

I digitized all my music and put it on an Infrant.com ReadyNAS and can access it with a SlimDevices.com Squeezebox without any computer being switched on. In principle, I can dispose of or destroy the CDs. In practice, most are in storage. When you don’t have to handle the CD you’ll find that the urge to do so will decline. Even if you wish to keep handling them doing someting similar to what I’ve done is good insurance against loss. My storage system has all our photos, videos, documents, software etc. as well as music.

By: The ShoppingSherpa

The ShoppingSherpa — Thu, 10 May 2007 00:47:02 +0000

This shelf from Target holds 1500 CDs and looks pretty solid: http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1-2/qid=1178754033/ref=sr_1_2/601-2011807-7448161?ie=UTF8&asin=B000ANNITW

By: Stephen W. Carson

Stephen W. Carson — Wed, 09 May 2007 23:04:37 +0000

These are a bit pricier, but I really love my Botz cd racks: http://boltz.com/showitems.asp?deptcode1=500