# How big is your music library? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 8, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788 "2011-06-08T21:48:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/1 "2011-06-08T21:48:28Z")
How big is your music library? I am curious because I don’t understand the usefulness of things like Apple’s new streaming service and similar offerings by Amazon and Google. For those of you unfamiliar with the the services a short explanation. You can upload your music to Apple et. all and listen to the music from you smart phone and any computer connected to the internet. I have about 45 gigs of music. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/2 "2011-06-08T22:27:26Z")
Approximately one whole wall of my living room. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/3 "2011-06-08T22:29:21Z")
Your explanation is wrong. iTunes Match is not a streaming service, like Amazon’s and Google’s. It’s a synchronization service. Your copy of iTunes uploads a listing of all your music to Apple, and Apple lets you redownload any music in your library to any of your other Apple devices (or PC running iTunes). But it’s not streaming. The downloaded file takes up space on your other devices. I think it’s kind of pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/4 "2011-06-08T22:31:38Z")
I don’t find gigabytes a very useful measure, however. I prefer my music stored at full CD quality - that means that my terabyte external drive is full, but it doesn’t represent the same amount of music as someone who stores his music at a low bit rate might get a lot more music on the same storage device. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/5 "2011-06-08T22:32:48Z")
~25GB at present, but when I eventually get a new computer with a much larger hard drive, I assume I’ll be able to rip more of my CDs to keep on it too. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/6 "2011-06-08T22:43:58Z")
Somewhere over 20G, but I’m still burning LPs, so it will grow some. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/7 "2011-06-08T22:49:18Z")
> [@Absolute](#): > > Your explanation is wrong. iTunes Match is not a streaming service, like Amazon’s and Google’s. It’s a synchronization service. > > Your copy of iTunes uploads a listing of all your music to Apple, and Apple lets you redownload any music in your library to any of your other Apple devices (or PC running iTunes). > > But it’s not streaming. The downloaded file takes up space on your other devices. > > I think it’s kind of pointless. I saw your contribution to the other thread and followed you links. It does sound like you are correct Apple does not stream the music. Amazon on the other hand does allow you to stream your music. I have personally used the streaming function with Amazon. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/8 "2011-06-08T22:55:32Z")
I’ve got about 1.35 TB of music on an external drive. Around 100,000 songs total. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/9 "2011-06-08T22:56:47Z")
41.8GB in 660 folders and 7834 files. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/10 "2011-06-08T23:02:36Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Approximately one whole wall of my living room. I came in here to talk about my “physical” musical library as well. **gazpacho** , you might want to get a mod to adjust the title of your thread to something like “How big is your mp3 library?” or something similar. For me, the answer to the OP’s question is only 15 gigs at the moment. I’m in the process of uploading my CD collection to iTunes. One of these days I’ve got to pick up a USB turntable, and start tackling my vinyl as well. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/11 "2011-06-08T23:08:19Z")
What is this “gig” of which you speak? I still count the size in CDs… ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/12 "2011-06-08T23:14:52Z")
Big. I have LPs, Cassettes and CDs. I have almost zero music on my computer. ---
**Author:** ![Dietrich\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@Dietrich\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dietrich_K)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/13 "2011-06-08T23:20:25Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > I’ve got about 1.35 TB of music on an external drive. Around 100,000 songs total. Pretty much this. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/14 "2011-06-08T23:49:52Z")
35 gigs on the computer. Several thousand LPs that need to be transferred. Several hundred CDs that are in the same need. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/15 "2011-06-09T00:18:11Z")
This is interesting. People’s music collections are trending to being much larger than I would have thought. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/16 "2011-06-09T00:29:44Z")
We uploaded all our cds, but we’re finding the quality of our uploaded tapes and lps to be almost not worth the bother. I just went and looked - 30.48 gigs, 6644 songs. I might hit 10,000 if we get all our tapes and lps uploaded, too. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/17 "2011-06-09T00:32:37Z")
If I actually digitized the several hundred vinyl LPs in the closet it would be much larger, but right now it’s about 8 GB and even so, I only seem to listen to about 10% of it. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/18 "2011-06-09T00:37:35Z")
In my life I’ve gone from LP’s and cassettes to CD’s to MP3s, now we’re going to Lirbrays? What the hell is a lirbray? ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/19 "2011-06-09T01:01:42Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > In my life I’ve gone from LP’s and cassettes to CD’s to MP3s, now we’re going to Lirbrays? What the hell is a lirbray? Sorry I should have spelled it correctly iLirbray. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788/20 "2011-06-09T01:16:46Z")
Yeah, you confused me there, bro. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-music-library/584788.md?page=2)