Bespoke compilation CDs

[lethargic_man]

In the wake of livredor's question as to where one can get legal protection-free mp3s, I have a similar question:

Like synergetic, I had a misspent youth acquiring tracks by dodgy means; but am now buying back legal copies of everything. I'm 95% of the way through buying back my album collection, and seven tenths of the way through buying back individual tracks, but, having bought back all the easy-to-gets, I've got to the point where I can't find compilation CDs any longer with enough tracks I'm interested in on to justify buying them. (I'd like to stick to £1 a track, though I'm prepared to stretch that to £2 depending on the track.)

So, my question is: Is there somewhere where one can order bespoke compilation CDs (i.e. of pretty much any moderately-well known track that has ever been available on CD)? Again, the same restrictions apply in re legality. I once did come across a service that was offering something like this, but they only had a couple of thousand tracks or so; i.e. recent chart music, which was insufficient for what I was after.

Comments

[troo.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember Sony offering a similar service, but not sure where to look for it right now.

Do these tracks have to be on CD?
iTunes store has a very wide collection available for download.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Well, (a) the sound on my computer is not working properly (it was working indifferently, and now it's stopped altogether; prior to that I never had a computer with a working soundcard, so I don't feel I'm missing anything), and (b) the quality of sound from my stereo is much superior to that from the little speakers in my computer monitor.

Now, admittedly I could get decent speakers for my computer, but I'm also a bit of a snob when it comes to music quality. Fifteen years ago music lovers were turning their noses up snootily at CDs because the digital sound wasn't as good as old-fashioned analogue; nowadays everyone seems to be happy to listen to MP3, which is a lossy format: it's not as good as CD quality.

Now, admittedly, on an iPod with ear plugs you're not likely to notice the difference, and further, on my stereo I'm possibly not likely to notice the difference either (not having had any experience with MP3s, I can't really tell). However, I don't want to be building up a music collection of second-rate quality music. Even if I can't tell the difference now, all I have to do is replace my stereo^* or my speakers with better ones and the difference, in my existing music collection, which I expect I will be continuing to listen to large parts of over the following decades, will become manifest.

* Which, given it's twenty years old will no doubt end up happening sooner or later anyway, though later if I can help it: They don't make things to last nowadays. Besides, apart from the worn tape heads (and one broken speaker wire attachment gizmo), my stereo remains in good nick, and my philosophy, spurning fashion, and taking environmental concerns seriously, is: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[(Anonymous)]

bollocks; mp3 is lossy but you can vary the bitrate - I guarantee you're not good enough to tell the difference between a 192 kbps mp3 and a CD.
or you can go lossless (eg Apple Lossless).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp3#Quality_of_MP3_audio

-d

[blue-mai.livejournal.com]

just came along cos i was curious to see if you found anything!

my concern with my music collection is that most of it's on CD, and at some point they'll degrade, probably all in a rush.. this worries me. i have some stuff on tape, but the problem there is that it tends to get chewed, and the best-loved are rather worn down. and no new stuff anymore. dont have much vinyl - dont have a record player currently. i think i'm just resigned to it, but i dont like it...

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

just came along cos i was curious to see if you found anything!

Just my brother's rather rude comment upthread.

my concern with my music collection is that most of it's on CD, and at some point they'll degrade, probably all in a rush.. this worries me.

I wouldn't worry too much. CDs are supposed to last for a hundred years if you keep them well treated. (There was a big hoo-har about 1990 when it turned out cardboard sleeves made from non-non-acidic wood pulp caused them to degrade fast, but I haven't heard anything else about CD degradation.) I suspect by the time your CDs start degrading you'll have found some way of moving the content onto a more convenient format decades beforehand.

[blue-mai.livejournal.com]

oh really? that's good. i thought it was more in the region of 15years for CD-Rs and i just vaguely assumed that properly pressed CDs would be.. i dunno, not much longer. i thought that's why archive stuff is kept on magnetic tape.. i may have a paraniod scurry through all my cardboard cases...

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Don't quote me as authoritative on this; that's just what I remember newspapers saying at the time. Any cardboard sleeves on more recent CDs are probably made—as is paper in general nowadays—from non-acidic wood pulp and should be okay.