We loved Cate's post Organization Inspiration: Media Storage; however, those collections don't come close to holding 10,000 units. We are looking for storage and decor ideas for the large collection.
The collection is not nearly as large as the world's largest music collector, Paul Mawhinney, who tried to sell his collection of 3 million records and 300,000 CDs in 2008. But I find the mass of music that we have (and the awful boxes shown in image 3) to be overwhelming. While the mess is bothering me, I wouldn't want to regret getting rid of the collection, like poor Jason! I desperately want shelving or storage that could showcase some of the albums and artwork, and safely store the rest.
We are considering having storage built by a carpenter who has made bookcases for some of Canada's biggest music collections. Any advice from any serious audiophile collectors out there?
Shown in the images are a few rooms with large music collections and one photo of our very sad boxes.
Images:
1. the stairway in Ozzy Osbourne's home studio, lined with gold and platinum albums. Photographed by Roger Davies for Architectural Digest.
2. DJ T's collection at home from Taking a Peek: DJs Living Rooms.
3. part of my fiance's boxed up music collection.
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
White Enamel Flatwa...
Party Recipe: Creamy Crawfish Dip
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
a cheap attractive solution is ikeas expedit series. check your local craigslist too, they're a dime a dozen. certainly beats the appearance of boxes. only issue is that it is open shelving so they can collect dust. if you have the money having a carpenter build storage with glass doors would be ideal.
I don't think there are any little tricks to minimize the appearance of 10,000 albums. Sounds like you already have your solution, if you can afford to have carpenter-built shelving, that will look great and store the albums safely. But make sure there is room to grow the collection, because I doubt your guy is going to stop. I've known quite a few obsessive record collectors, and it can get to be almost a sickness, like hoarding.
I wish I had a good recommendation. I am coming to terms with the fact that I just cannot hold on to my collection anymore. I feel like a hoarder when I look at the boxes and boxes of music taking up space in my small home.
I think if you plan to keep it all, splurge on the good shelving.
Here's an IKEA Hacker solution with Expedit shelves and record covers: http://www.ikeahackers.net/2012/01/fwd-ikea-expedit-hack.html
storage unit.
I feel your pain. I live with a typewriter collector. At one point we had over 100. I still can't figure out where to put the 30 or so we have left.
Oh, yes. Do I ever understand. My guy is a jazz fanatic and also adopted a collection of classical vinyl. No question that he would digitize or store the collection (though I did fantasize...) After much research, we bought two 5 x 5 Expedit shelving units from IKEA and mounted them to the wall. They each hold about 2,000 - 2,500 albums (maybe somebody out there knows more precisely) and if you align the front edges at the front of the shelf, they collect little dust. They're also always available on Craigslist for less than the $200 IKEA charges. Good luck! I hope you live in a large space!
We just inherited 1100 records that my husband can't say no to. After thinking through a million ideas - we created a room divider in our rumpus room with expedits. 80+ records fit in each cube and they look pretty good.
a friend of mine from college designed these beautiful pieces of furniture designed specifically for vinyl records: http://atochadesign.com/
U'm not sure of the price for these, but for a serious music collector it may be worth the investment.
Ikea BESTA!!! Totally customizable, and (I think) attractive and affordable. My husband doesn't have 10,000 LPs, but we have 2000+ plus at least 500 CDs (probably more), and we just had this BESTA system installed: http://www.flickr.com/photos/47937624@N00/6737085171/in/set-72157628321336779.
It was a great compromise - a way to get his music into our main family/living space (he was previously exiled to a 3rd floor room) - but in a way where it doesn't overtake our room.
This set-up uses twelve 15" tall units (which PERFECTLY fit an LP; or using a shelf to divide in half fits 2 CDs) (each unit = Width: 47 1/4" x Depth: 15 3/4" x Height: 15"), although there are many other size available that you can customize to your space. The whole thing in this configuration cost $1250.
There are some Expedit haters out there, just because they are so prevalent these days.They are hard to beat though, without going the carpenter route.
They are relatively inexpensive, the shelves are spaced far enough apart that they won't bow under the weight of the records, and they have a (small) variety of colors. I would add one small addendum to Luccella's comment "and if you align the front edges at the front of the shelf, they collect little dust." and that is, if you aren't thrilled with the idea of staring at rows and rows of vinyl, you can line the LPS along the BACK edge of the shelves and have a few inches of shelf for little things to display. It really helps to break up the wall, especially if you have several lined up next to each other. Ikea also has inserts (drawers, 4-way splits, etc) if you want to break things up further. It just depends if you're willing to sacrifice the record storage for aesthetics.
I would recommend doing a purge if at all possible. The problem with records in boxes is that you forget why you saved things.
Finally, you might contact Oliver Wang at soul-sides about his experience. I can't find any pictures that I remember seeing on his site, but he had a friend help him build custom shelves, so he can probably warn/help you if you go that route.
Good luck
Sean
Here's a thing to remember: HE collects music and associated ephemera. YOU don't. Since you're living together and are soon to be husband and wife, he needs to understand that the space you share isn't his to fill with whatever he wants. You have just as big a say as he does. That's the nature of partnerships.
Having noted that, is there any reason why the CDs need to be kept? Vinyl needs to be kept, sure, but not CDs, as far as I know. Is there a technical or fidelity reason why they can't be transfered onto a couple of massive hard drives?
The Expedit idea sounds ideal, if you have a den or living area big enough to accomodate five of them. If not... well, it may be time to winnow the collection a little. The storage unit is a possibility but they don't tend to offer the best environments for materials like card or paper.
Expedits are really a great solution for record storage unless you can afford something custom built. CD storage is definitely trickier.
Regarding Blandwagon's question about CDs, I'm a DJ and in order to get broadcast quality digital copies of all the music I have on CD, I'd have to rip them in WAV format instead of MP3, which means bigger files and thus the need for more hard drives. And I'm sorry, but the idea of putting a lifetime's worth of music that I use for my job on hard drives that could get damaged and cause me to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars of music, makes me sick to my stomach.
That said, I've yet to find the Expedit equivalent of CD storage (affordable and able to store large quantities attractively without having to have something custom built).
Like everybody else I say Expedit is a great storage system for vinyl. I also store some of my vinyl records in DJ cases. CDs used to be tricky until I put them in a (small) Danish credenza. I only have a couple hundred CDs so it's easier. You might find some nice antique armoires or cabinets with doors to store your CDs.
And, like Sonicpersephone above: only hard copies of your music last. Digitize as much as you want, all it takes is your coffee spilled on your external hard drive and your computer to crash for you to lose your entire collection. It happened to two friends of mine who thought they had backed up their data, and they lost years of music in just a few minutes.
Or you could incorporate the collection smartly:
http://blog.modernica.net/?p=11497
A really clever appropriation of the Expedit product: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/305436801/rekordit-records-are-beautiful