List of record collectors

This article lists the owners of the largest private music collections, some of which have been donated to public institutions for their study and preservation. As of 2017, the largest record collection with over 6 million items belongs to Zero Freitas.

Andy Kershaw's record collection reportedly weighed seven tons at one point.

Over 1 million items

• Zero Freitas (born 1950s): over 6 million items (Emporium Musical).[1][2]
• Paul Mawhinney (born 1939): 3 million items (Record-Rama), sold to Freitas in 2013.[2]
• Bob George (born 1949): 2.2 million items, donated to the ARChive of Contemporary Music in partnership with Columbia University.[2]
• Anonymous Brazilian collector: 1 million items, sold to Freitas.[1]

Over 100,000 items

John Peel's record collection contains 26,000 LPs, 40,000 singles and 40,000 CDs.[3]

• Bob Altshuler (1923–2007):[4] 250,000 items, donated to the Library of Congress, largest private collection of jazz and blues.[5][6]
• Keith Skues (born 1939): 250.000 mostly vinyl at his home [7]
• Armand Panigel (1920–1995): over 200,000 items of classical music, hosted at Studios La Fabrique.[8][9]
• Cristóbal Díaz Ayala (born 1930): 150,000 items (Diaz Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Collection), donated to the Florida International University, largest collection of Cuban and Latin American music.[10]
• Joel Whitburn (born 1939): 150,000 items, specialized in Billboard-charting singles and albums.[11]
• Paul 'Trouble' Anderson (1959–2018): 150,000 items.[12]
• Carl Cox (born 1962): 150,000 items.[13]
• Mike Read (born 1947): 120,000 items, auctioned in 2009.[14]
• Robert Roberge (1921–2004): over 100,000 items (Mooncurser Records), sold two years after his death.[15][16]
• Greg Shaw (1949–2004): over 100,000 items.[17]
• John Peel (1939–2004): over 100,000 items.[3][18]
• Doug Smith (born 1958): over 100,000 items, including 45s, 78s, LPs, wax cylinders, etc.[19]

Over 50,000 items

• Dr. Dre (born 1965): 80,000 items, sold.[20]
• Carlos Martín Ballester (born 1974): 75,000 78 rpm records (carlosmb archive) plus 5,000 78 rpms records and 200 cylinders (private collection).[21] It is the largest collection of 78 rpm records pressed in Spain. Part of the archive is on sale and new items are added regularly.[22]
• Elton John (born 1947): 70,000 items.[23] He accumulated a large vinyl record collection, including the purchase of BBC producer Bernie Andrews' personal collection of every 45 rpm pop record released in Britain from 1964 to 1975.[24] Contemporaneous accounts of his lavish lifestyle gave the size as 250,000 records. He sold the collection in 1993 to raise money for AIDS charity.[25]
• Daniele Baldelli (born 1952): 65,000 items.[26]
• Ray Avery (1920–2002): over 63,000 items (Ray Avery Collection), specialized in jazz, donated to the University of California, Los Angeles in 1987.[27]
• DJ Shadow (born 1972): over 60,000 records.[28]
• Alex Paterson (born 1959): 60,000 items.[29]
• Alejandra Fierro Eleta (born c. 1959): over 50,000 items (Gladys Palmera Collection), largest private archive of Latin music.[30][31] As of 2019, she claimed to have 55,000 vinyl records and 45,000 CDs;[32] or 60,000 vinyl records and 35,000 CDs.[33]

Over 10,000 items

• Chris Strachwitz (born 1931): over 44,000 items, comprising 125,000 recordings digitized by Arhoolie Records as part of the Strachwitz Frontera Collection, the largest archive of Mexican and Mexican-American music.[34][35]
• David Freeman (born 1939): over 40,000 items, specialized in early country music.[36]
• Ian Dewhirst (born 1955): 38,000 items.[37]
• Vincent Gallo (born 1961): over 35,000 items.[38]
• Bob Harris (born 1946): 35,000 items.[39]
• Byron Coley (born 1956): over 30,000 items.[40]
• Augusto Arango Franco: over 30,000 items,[41] which he plays in his bar La Música de Augusto in Medellín[42] since 2001.[43]
• Charles Delaunay (1911–1988): 30,000 items, formerly one of the largest private jazz collections.[6]
• Gilles Peterson (born 1964): 30,000 items.[44]
• Joe Bussard (born 1936): 25,000 items.[45]
• John R. T. Davies (1927–2004): 20,000 items (John R. T. Davies Collection), specialized in jazz, donated to the University of York Sound Archives.[46]
• Brian Rust (1922–2011): 10,000 items, primarily jazz.[47]

Others

• Grandmaster Flash (born 1958): stores his collection in a dedicated building.[48]
• Andy Kershaw (born 1959): collection weighed seven tons at one point.[49]
• Tony Prince (born 1944): claimed to have biggest record collection in the world.[50]
• Harry E. Smith (1923–1992): thousands, specialized in American folk music, tried to donate to Ash Records (later Folkways Records), instead partially released on Anthology of American Folk Music and other LPs.[51]

See also

• List of most valuable records

References

1. Watts, Jonathan (March 21, 2015). "Record collector builds world's largest vinyl hoard – six million and counting". The Guardian. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
2. Reel, Monte, The Brazilian bus magnate who's buying up all the world's vinyl records, New York Times, August 8, 2014 and as, Warehouse of Sound, New York Times Sunday Magazine, August 10, 2014, p. MM18
3. "John Peel's record collection to stay within family". NME. October 17, 2005. Retrieved February 11, 2019.
4. "Robert Altshuler". New York Times. September 19, 2007. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
5. Seibert, Fred (September 22, 2007). "Bob Altshuler R.I.P." Frederator. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
6. Balliett, Whitney (2005). American Musicians II: Seventy-One Portraits in Jazz. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. p. 8. ISBN 9781578068340.
7. "Keith Skues". BBC Radio Norfolk. 2014. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
8. "Library". www.studioslafabrique.com. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
9. Thorpe, Adam (18 May 2016). "In a room with Radiohead". The Times Literary Supplement. Archived from the original on 21 May 2016. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
10. "The Diaz-Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Collection". Florida International University. October 19, 2012. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
11. Romell, Rick (April 7, 2014). "Joel Whitburn is No. 1 when it comes to pop music charts". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
12. "Fitzroy's Interview With Paul 'Trouble' Anderson". The Soul Survivors. 2009. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
13. Lea, Tom (March 13, 2014). "Carl Cox has over 150,000 records ordered chronologically, and the last bloody thing he needs is more". Fact Magazine. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
14. "Bankrupt DJ Mike Read's music collection to be auctioned". The Telegraph. 26 November 2009. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
15. Walker, Andrea K. (16 March 1997). "78's Keep Owner, 76, Hopping". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
16. Kilgannon, Corey (19 September 2004). "A Legacy in Vinyl, Ever More Fragile". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
17. Morse, Erik (2004). Spacemen 3 and the Birth of Spiritualized. London, UK: Omnibus. p. 227. ISBN 9780857121042.
18. Petridis, Alexis (May 1, 2012). "John Peel's record collection: the first look". The Guardian. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
19. Wundram, Bill. "What? A collector of old school yearbooks?". The Quad-City Times. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
20. Barrow, JL (November 23, 2010). "Dr. Dre: "My Record Collection Is Gone"". Nodfactor. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
21. "carlosmb - 78 rpm Records & Cylinders". carlosmb. Archived from the original on 2 December 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
22. "Aquí hay trabajo" (in Spanish). RTVE. 20 September 2017. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
23. "Elton John Record Collection Reveals Hidden Treasures" (Press release). Upland, California: Patrick & Patrick CPA. PR Newswire. 18 June 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2020. contains more than 70,000 items consisting of singles, albums, 8 track cassettes, compact discs and unique studio tapes
24. Shaw, John (19 July 1993). "Sale of Elton John's record collection will help Aids trust". The Independent. Retrieved 13 January 2020. collection of 25,000 LPs and 23,000 singles, largely devoted to blues and soul
25. Scaggs, Austin (17 February 2011). "The Rolling Stone Interview: Elton John". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 13 January 2020. I was just starting the Elton John AIDS Foundation. To raise money, I sold them for $250,000 to somebody in St. Louis. I really regret it now.
26. Coleman, Jonny (August 6, 2015). "Classics Never Die: What It Means for DJs to Grow Old | Pitchfork". Pitchfork. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
27. UCLA Music Library Archived 2006-05-20 at the Wayback Machine UCLA.edu, accessed 2011-12-29
28. McVeigh, Róisín (November 2, 2016). "DJ Shadow: 'I try to buy a 12-inch of every rap record ever made'". The Irish Times. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
29. Record Collector. 2009.
30. Bakkalapulo, Maria (May 19, 2017). "Gladys Palmera, the World's Largest Latin Music Archive, Has a Miami Connection". Miami New Times. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
31. Spice, Anton (April 6, 2017). "Inside the world's largest dedicated collection of Latin American music". The Vinyl Factory. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
32. Lezcano, Arturo (13 March 2019). "Gladys Palmera, historia de una mecenas inesperada". Jot Down Cultural Magazine (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2019.
33. Recio, Milena (7 June 2019). "Colección Gladys Palmera: el tesoro de la música latina y cubana". OnCubaNews (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2019.
34. "The Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings". Frontera Project. UCLA. Archived from the original on 2 May 2019. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
35. Clark, Walter Aaron (5 December 2014). "The Arhoolie Foundation's Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings. By Agustín Gurza, with Jonathan Clark and Chris Strachwitz. Los Angeles: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press, 2012". Journal of the Society for American Music. 8 (4): 570–578. doi:10.1017/S1752196314000418.
36. Wyatt, Marshall (August 11, 1999). ""Every County Has Its Own Personality" An Interview With David Freeman". The Old-Time Herald. 7 (2).
37. DJ Magazine. 106.
38. "Vincent Gallo Biography". www.vincentgallofilms.com. Retrieved 2020-10-18.
39. Clinton, Jane (August 22, 2010). "Bob Harris: The love I will leave". Express. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
40. https://www.vice.com, accessed 2011-12-29
41. "Un coleccionista de discos abre su propio museo de la música en el municipio de Santo Domingo" (in Spanish). Teleantioquia. 5 January 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
42. "La música de Augusto". Contexto (in Spanish) (24). Medellín, Colombia: Facultad de Comunicación Social-Periodismo de la Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. June 2010. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
43. Montoya Arias, Luis Omar (2014). El síndrome de la nostalgia (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Guanajuato, Mexico: Ediciones Universitarias. p. 48.
44. Fox, Killian (February 22, 2015). "At home with the world's most dedicated record collectors". The Observer. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
45. Minsker, Marc; Paz, Eilon (August 22, 2012). "The King of 78s – Joe Bussard". Dust & Grooves. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
46. "University of York Sound Archives". York.ac.uk. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
47. Fox, Margalit (2 February 2011). "Brian Rust, Father of Modern Discography, Dies at 88". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
48. Blanco, A (March 27, 2009). "Grandmaster Flash: Revolve Around Science". HipHopDX. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
49. "Interview: Andy Kershaw, DJ". Scotsman. July 9, 2011. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
50. "DMC Creator, Mr Tony Prince". DMC World Magazine. April 29, 2009. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
51. Carlin, Richard (2006). "Harry Smith". Folk. New York, NY: Facts On File. pp. 189–190. ISBN 9780816069781.