CD Junkies: Collector Brent Urbach

Music fanatic and longtime Austin resident Brent Urbach has been collecting CDs for 35 years. Urbach remembers the first two CDs he ever bought back in 1990 – Steely Dan’s Aja and Blind Faith’s Blind Faith – at Sound Warehouse in Dallas, where he grew up.

Today, the 55-year-old owns approximately 3,000 CDs, and he collects virtually every genre of music. Before the CD became his preferred format, he collected vinyl, eight-tracks, and cassettes. Urbach sat down with 360°Sound to chat about where he buys his CDs, box sets, the memories associated with his discs, and more.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Scroll to the bottom of the Q&A to view the full video interview from our YouTube channel.

360°Sound: What do you love about the CD format?

Brent Urbach: I like the fact that you just stick it in and play it. You don’t have to put the needle down or flip it, or fast-forward or rewind. It’s pretty simple as long as it doesn’t skip, which is very annoying. I like the fact that they’re small and portable. CDs are a lot easier to move around than vinyl, and they’re cheaper.

Have CDs been your preferred format since you got into them in 1990?

Yeah, it’s been my only one. Even with the vinyl resurgence, I still haven’t got a record player or anything. At this point, I don’t need vinyl. I have too much invested in CDs to switch formats again.

Do you ever use streaming services?

No, I’ve never really been interested in that. I have SiriusXM satellite radio, and I do use that, especially at work, because it’s my only way to listen when I’m at the office. There’s no CD player on the computer, so I’ll DJ for myself on SiriusXM. I’ve never had a Spotify or Apple Music account or anything like that. I’ve just always preferred tangible things and actually playing an album.

What are some of your favorite genres?

I’m all over the place. I listen to a lot of rock, jazz, hip-hop, soul, country, and reggae. I like a lot of Brazilian and African music. I’ve gone through so many different phases where I’m just like, “I’m into this, and now I want to check out some of this.”

I can flip between any of the genres I like at any moment. My mood can change. It’s about what vibe I’m looking to create. Well, sometimes it’s to create a vibe, and sometimes it’s to reflect a vibe I already feel.

Do you listen to more classic music than contemporary?

In general, I listen to more classic stuff because that was what I grew up on, and that was what was contemporary to me when I was young. There’s definitely some modern stuff I’m into, but it’s a little harder now. When I was growing up, everybody tended to be exposed to the same music. You heard what was on the radio, and then in the ‘80s, you heard what was on MTV. You had to be pretty hip to know a lot of alternative and non-mainstream music.

Nowadays, everything in the world is out there, and there isn’t so much a popular culture anymore. So, it’s not as easy for me to find newer music that I like. But when I do, I buy it. It’s more so I accidentally stumble upon something, or somebody turns me on to something, as opposed to having it all out there in the popular consciousness.

Who is the most represented artist in your collection?

I probably have more Grateful Dead than anything else, just because there’s so much out there to get, such as the archival live material. I have a lot of that, and I actually like their studio albums, which get a bad rap. I have a lot of Miles Davis and Santana as well.

Are there CDs in your collection that are particularly special because of the memories or nostalgia they evoke?

Yeah, a lot of them do. I’m not a big picture taker, and in a lot of ways, I feel like my CD collection is almost like a biography. I can generally look at any CD and know where I was when I first heard it. For most of them, I can tell which store I bought it at. When I’m on vacation, I don’t usually buy traditional souvenirs. I’ll go to a CD store and find a couple of things to buy that will always remind me of that trip.

So many of my CDs will bring back certain memories of where I was living or who turned me on to them. I almost wouldn’t even know where to start with that question because I’ve got stories for most of them.

Do you mostly shop for CDs at record stores in Austin?

I mostly get everything at Waterloo Records or End of an Ear in Austin. Occasionally, I’ll go to Half Price Books. I’ll usually go through the used section unless I’m there for a specific purpose, such as buying a new album I want. I try to buy new CDs because I do want to support current artists.

And once I’ve grabbed a new album, I’ll generally start scouring the used stuff for some interesting finds to supplement the trip. It feels like something’s not right if I only come away with one album. It’s fun to go and not have anything in mind and just see what you find.

CD box sets continue to be a draw for collectors. Have you been a box set collector?

I have some, but I think they were all gifts. I’ve got Herbie Hancock’s Complete Blue Note Sixties Sessions. I’ve got the Miles Davis Bitches Brew box set. It’s four discs with a whole bunch of outtakes. I’ve got B.B. King’s King of the Blues, Lee Scratch Perry’s Arkology, and a collection of Todd Rundgren’s Utopia albums.

Do you think there will always be a market for CDs?

I hope so. I never imagined vinyl would come back and be so big. It seemed like it was pretty much dead in the ‘80s besides used stores.

In some ways, now is a great time to be a CD collector because there are so many cheap used discs available.

That’s true and not true at the same time. Because there’s not much of a market for new ones anymore, there’s not much catalog stuff being produced. So much is out of print. When you go to the new section of a record store, there isn’t that much besides stuff by the biggest-name artists.

When you find something you want and it’s out of print, people know, and you look on Amazon or wherever, and they’ll want $100 or something. There’s been so many things that I’ve been looking for for years, hoping I could find it at a reasonable price. It can be difficult. But in terms of going into Waterloo Records or End of an Ear and going through what they have, you can find a lot of good stuff.

Check out our entire interview with Brent on our YouTube channel, @360degreesound: