Several things came to my mind on reading this post.  some of this has
been discussed before, with similar comments.  Personally, I use an Excel
spreadsheet that was originally started in Lotus 123.  It works great for
me.  I have a main sheet with EVERYTHING Classical listed alphabetically
by composer.  Within each composer's area, I usually have pieces listed
by opus numbers.  This takes care of almost my entire collection.

However....  I have a separate worksheet for Liszt in a form that can
easily be converted into Acess or another database should I choose.  I have
another worksheet for Alkan which not only lists everything he wrote, but
indicates which pieces I actually have.  The closest I come to doing a
searchable database by type is my Piano Concerto worksheet.  It too could
be easily converted to a database.

Samples available on personal request.

BUT... the main thing that strikes me is that so many people have SO MANY
CD's!!  Good for them - I hope that they are getting enough to eat, what
with this outlay of money.

I have probably 500-600 vinyl records (collected over 40-odd years),
300-400 cassettes and around 100 CD's.  The nice thing is that I generally
remember what I have, what color the record jacket is, which composer it is
filed under, where in my drawers the particular cassette is etc.  We won't
even go into the 80+ reel-to-reel tapes I also have.  I am rarely surprised
to discover that I have a particular recording.  I don't like to get too
many CD's too close at the same time.  I want time to listen to each new
recordingand get to know it and then move on to the next.

How do these people have time to become familiar with all this music that
evidently is often gathered in the space of a very few years???? I listen
to music in the car, all day at work and while on the computer at home and
still don't make a sizable dent in my collection.  I have a sad feeling
that some of you are missing out on becoming intimately familiar with much
of the music that you are spending your money on.  I hope that I am wrong.

Joel Hill
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Tallahassee, FL