My media problem

OK, I have a problem, and I am looking for some creative suggestions for dealing with it.

Here’s the problem:

Essentially, my CDs are taking up too much space. I have this same problem with lots of other things–I have hundreds and hundreds of linear feet of bookshelves, etc–but CDs are a special case in that I almost never actually touch them.

I’ve got all these things ripped to MP3s on a TB NAS RAID-5 volume (for non-geeks that means “they are on my local network”) so I can access them from any computer in the house, or from various media appliances attached to stereos, etc. It’s really extremely rare for me to touch the actual CD proper after ripping and shelving it.

At this point the physical CDs serve four purposes:

1. They are a ‘backup’ for the MP3s, in case something happens to the files.
2. They are a reserve against the day when I can store all my music digitally with lossless compression. I don’t want to get rid of them and find out in a year or two that I could have stored everything without the MP3 compression losses.
3. They provide album art & liner notes
4. Displaying my massive collection is a kind of status symbol

The first two reasons remain active, but the last two have begun to seem silly to me. The album art is easier to access online, than it is to find even in a highly organized collection, and the liner notes very rarely need to access. The whole “my CD collection somehow reflects the size of my dick” thing is also something I’ve grown out of.

So ideally, I’d like a solution that involves keeping the discs (to meet my first two purposes). The solution should allow me access to album art and liner notes, but not necessarily easy access, since it will be a fairly rare operation. Since display is no longer a criterion, I’d rather have something that will take up the least possible space. Whatever the answer is, it needs to be something that lends itself to anal organization.

Initially I was leaning towards pull-out shelving. The Can-Am system, for example, might be nice. Three of the MC3D20 cabinets should just about hold my current collection. Four would give me some breathing room. Still, those four cabinets would take up just about as much space as the current system.

An alternative I’m considering is switching from jewel boxes to some sort of sleeve or binder arrangement. Being an anal collector type I’d want a sleeve that could hold the disc, the liner, and the insert–i.e. any solution that just takes the CD and booklet, and not the thing in the back of the jewel case is no good. The idea of replacing all these shelves with a couple of binders is really appealing, but I haven’t found a sleeve or page that I’m thrilled with yet that works with a binder.

What I could see myself using are DiscSox. The Cd Pro Sleeve serves all my needs, although I’m not thrilled about their storage options. I would probably want to get one of the Can Am cabinets and put all the sleeves in it. I don’t see a binder solution here that I like, but I could live with the Pro Sleeves in a drawer.

Here’s the catch. The Pro Sleeves are roughtly 50 cents each. This seems quite cheap, except that I have something like 2400 cds, which means over a grand just for sleeves, and then a pile more for whatever I’m going to put them in.

So, before I throw down big cash just so I can get these things out of the way, I thought I would complain to the world and see if anyone here has a better solution.

Note that the modern “steal all your music and get rid of the plastic discs” solution isn’t an option here for the reasons outlined above (and, frankly, because I do have that collector disease.)

Any ideas?