This graph shows the numbers of albums in our CD collection grouped by year of release.

This graph shows the data before any significant data clean-up. My CD collection database is a bit neglected short of adding titles automatically when ripped.

The counts are more complicated than you'd think, and I think after some clean up the graph will change a bit.

It currently only includes "albums". This excludes various artists CDs, but does include best-of/greatest-hits collections. It excludes singles and EPs and only includes CDs. No vinyl, iTunes purchases etc.

Year of release can be a complicated issue too. In most cases I've tried to enter the year the music was released. Remasters of old albums have the old release date, not the remaster release date. I suppose my database should have two dates.

However, if I bought the CD again for the sake of getting the remaster (and probably bonus track or CD), I've entered the new release date in that case.

Also, I have a number of CDs that I have twice that are entered in the database twice because the second version is different in some way (signed, different cover). I intend to filter those out by adding a "collector only" flag or something like that.

EPs are also complicated. In some cases I don't count them because they're little more than singles with lots of b-sides. In some other cases they're releases independent of albums and so I feel I should count them (in the graph above, no EPs are counted).

Complications.

What does it all mean?

I hope to do a version of this graph for singles, and probably a version which is far more anal about what an "album" is (filtering out best-ofs and compilations of live tracks/b-sides).