What to do about out of print music CDs?

[KForte90]

Okay. So posting a thread about the problem of orphan works and using the word "rant" in the title did not work out. The thread was locked before I could even reply to the replies I received.

I really do want to know what I can do to obtain music CDs whose publishers have been defunct and unable to contact for some time; even the artists may not be able to locate or talk to. I could buy the CDs used if I could afford to pay really unreasonably high prices to buy them. Some rare CDs have prices reaching into hundreds of US dollars. I don't understand how CDs like that, which cost $9.99 on iTunes as a download, can have prices that are ten times the original value.

The way I find out about and even hear music like this is through the radio, internet and all. Some of the good stuff I hear is not easy to obtain without paying lots of money for a single copy or downloading the music for free and soon ending up in a federal penetentiary for stealing music that is not even for sale anymore.

Some of the CDs I would like to obtain belong to the following series:

em:t
Antler-Subway's Barramundi
Instinct Ambient

I am obviously an ambient/new age music junkie.

The most expensive used CD I have seen is "Tryshasla" by Secede from Sending Orbs. I saw prices going up from over $100-$200 on Discogs and on eBay. And people say it is the best ambient music album they ever heard.

We were supposed to be doing something about orphan works, but no one has gone through with it. There was an act that was supposed to deal with it but it never made it through Congress. I have seen no recent news on the orphan works situation since.

What is a person like me, who likes to collect and listen to music as much as I like to create it, supposed to do about music that is too hard to find and too expensive to buy used?

[Hink]

check youtube

[RunBeerRun]

It's a pointless materialistic quest. If you can still listen to the same music ten years from now as today, you should consider that luck, but really you should grow out of it.

[Zombie Queen]

I think it's great. There is some music that actually has some increasing monetary value.

[Eauson]

Is this not the joy of collecting, the internet has allowed access to everything. Yet the joy of being a collector is locating an item that you have been searching for : )
One day you may find these elusive CD's in a thrift store/charity shop and then you will be happy. Simply pressing a button and waiting for a delivery is not a joy.
Joy is my word of the day : )

[Hink]

It's a pointless materialistic quest. If you can still listen to the same music ten years from now as today, you should consider that luck, but really you should grow out of it.

I think it can be nostalgic and create some feel good moments, far from materialistic...surely I would never suggest "outgrowing" (at least not at my age)...there was a band that was an unknown in the 80s (today too) called fortnox...my best friend got their album one day in Boston in a grab bag of 10 LPs for a buck (for Bostonians it was Looney Tunes near Mass ave on Boylston)...99% of what he got never got heard twice but there was one song we liked and learned to play in our band. Last time I heard the song would have had to have been 1984 or 85, I found it on youtube. Now I dont listen to it often but it was cool to hear it again after all these years, now it isn't all that which supports your point but I'm glad I heard it again

Meanwhile for xmas I got on ebay Uli Jon Roth's Metamorphosis for 15 dollars which shocked me (used of course) because I have seen it go for much, much higher...this was not an album I ever owned but as I grew into a Uli Jon Roth fan an album I knew I wanted but besides ebay I could never find it so I assume it's out of print...new, old music

In the 80's I tried to get Joe's Garage and it turned out (at least according to the record stores in my area) it was out of print...then the cd came out and everything on earth got re-released including all of Joe's Garage. I paid two dollars for mine because a music store I worked in bought used CDs and most of the time I worked alone so when people would come in and sell CDs I had first pick so when there were CDs I liked I just threw in the two bux...my collection grew like hell ...anyhow, the point of that is never give up

[jeffb01]

We were supposed to be doing something about orphan works, but no one has gone through with it. There was an act that was supposed to deal with it but it never made it through Congress. I have seen no recent news on the orphan works situation since.

If it's out of print, I have no problem getting bootlegs (illegally downloading, whatever). You think you're going to jail for downloading some obscure out of print band. You won't. Imagine if rosa parks thought like you...

[D.H. Miltz]

If a thread is locked, don't start a new version of the thread.