I spend approximately 50 Euro on classical CDs every month. I always buy my CDs through Amazon because it is a lot cheaper there. I have 400 CDs in my classical collections.

One question to you all: How much music (if any) do you download on the Internet?

It seems likely that we have already almost reached a global, sufficiently complete library of classical music, always available, and various communicative and ressourceful fora for the exchange of views, via the Web. When I began collecting, it hadn´t even been invented, though we did have access to some limited public library collections. Nowadays, collecting one´s own stock of LPs and CDs is of course in a sense an old-fashioned thing and quite probably a thing of the past, belonging to elder generations, except from a certain "museum" value, if one strives for a kind of completion in a field.

But I also get a lot of enjoyment and info from, say, the covers and liner notes of them. Given the now fairly limited expenses, this is one of the reasons that I prefer to belong to this elder generation stuck in material fetichism in the Bourdieuan sense. A second one, of course, is getting into the habit of collecting in itself. The feeling, however, that the classical culture is generally waning and might be reduced to a dusty, rarely heard curiosity-thing within my own lifetime is another reason. It is quite likely that there is only going to be 50% of the symphony orchestras left in this country in, say, 25 years. CD-shops are closing down massively here in Copenhagen. The likelyhood of a vivid classical culture also as regards new recordings of rare repertoire under such circumstances is not that great, and libraries are already now cutting down their collections of classical literature, scores and rarely-heard CDs, due to a lack of ressources, space, or public interest.
Objectively, the costs for aquiring a good classical music collection have been going down and it has never been cheaper here, but that is not necessarily going to continue in the future; difficult to say, in particular as regards specialized and rare repertoire.

But great idea this family-library and sharing within a group of people, Andy Loochazee, and it probably promotes much social life and reflection on various issues as regards music as well, that can also imply a more discriminating taste in the end - I mean in the positive sense, even if your remarks, though true
as regards the general development of people´s habits when "coming of age", are a bit harsh in reducing the possibility of curiosity or any further development when one has reached one´s ... 20th birthday ?? A taste must necessarily be based on accumulated knowledge, and buying and listening for years, after all, can refine the knowledge and expand the horizon, provided that one is motivated for it, so that music is not only a matter of vegetative enjoyment of the already-known. "Expansion", being in a specialized or more general field, can have an intellectual quality of its own as a continous travel of exploration, or a value professionally - the cultural field in general, the background history of music and the various alternative interpretations of works can be increasingly interesting. After all, it must necessarily take years of listening and collecting to establish such a valid overview and to make this a personally felt, not an only-bookish, experience.

Eh, maybe between $100 & $200 (US) per month, on average.

However, there are three (3) components to the Classical Music budget:
1) Home purchases [e.g.: CDs & (to a much lesser extent) DVDs, also books]
2) Live performances, and
3) Charity & Patronage-

And in spite of the global recession, it's still a little surprising that it's taken this long to get to #3. Maybe part of is the current state of the economy. Maybe part of it is that most of the contributors are younger than I am, and are not in as good a position to be charitable. Maybe it's that many of the posters come from nations where there is a more considerable 'enforced contribution' to the Arts budgets (via taxes), which I shouldn't doubt would have a suppressive effect in the realm of personal Arts charity.

For better or worse, major American Arts ensembles are not as much "wards-of-the-state" as most parallel groups in Europe. They'd be in a parlous state if not for private generosity. My typical pattern is to find one (sometimes two) reasonably local performing arts institution(s), and direct my contributions there...

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The hardest knife ill us'd doth lose his edge. Shakespeare- Sonnet 95

Roughly Australian $100 per month, which is about $75US, more or less.

I tend to buy budget or mid price cd's, or two for one, or things on special. I rarely buy full-price cd's & after 18 months or so of collecting no big boxed sets. I'm coming round to the philosophy as "less is more" because of not only the storage space required of a big collection, but also because I like to listen to friend's cd's as well as radio. So I'm beginning to buy what I really need & am 100% interested in, going to listen to regularly, rather than just once or twice. If I had the internet at home I would use things like YouTube to listen to classical as well - maybe in the future?

I've also been struggling with giving up smoking, in the past month it's been quite successful. So I have a bit more money to spend on going to classical concerts, I plan to go to about 10 a year, mainly chamber concerts.

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"Contrary to general belief an artist is never ahead of his time but most people are far behind theirs" - Edgard Varese

G'day! CD prices are ridiculous in Australia. For that reason, plus our very strong exchange rate of late, I have not bought a CD in Australia (whether by shopping in person at shops or by Australian websites) for several years. I have been importing them from two favourite Classical music websites (90% of what I buy), plus occasionally from various Amazon sites. I just don't see this country of ours being competitive enough in terms of price and stock availability. It's kind of depressing that my money on Classical CDs are flowing overseas. But that's what could be said of many things consurmers buy in Australia these days anyway.

I live in China and spend around 15 pounds per month on classical music.

9.99 for Spotify subscription. I got most of my music from there. I live very near to the national library so it's free to get access to the books on classical music.

4 Pounds a year for the domain name: www.spotifyclassical.com hosting is free on Blogger.

The rest is for classical concerts.

I don't tend to buy much because I'm so cheap and often don't end up listening to all that I buy. I will buy pretty much any (of the few) amazing deals I find at a physical store. I will often go a month without buying anything. If you average it out, including the occasional gift I ask for for xmas or something, I probably spend something like $20-30 a month on CDs. Rarely will I buy a CD/Set that costs more than about $3 per CD, and I've found some extremely nice stuff at Goodwill for $1 every now an then. I'm a collector who loves good deals.

If you include sheet music, I spend a lot more on music. When I'm going to work on a sonata by (insert name her) for my lessons, I will usually buy that composer's complete sonatas, usually on Henle unless a comparable edition is available at a significantly lower price.

There are few concerts near my school which I would pay to see, and those I would pay for are usually free and/or I am sometimes involved in them so that doesn't cause any problems financially.

My school also has a music library with a good selection of CDs for reference, but it's only particularly outstanding area of depth is with women composers, so I sometimes buy additional stuff for myself I'm interested in. Not too many scores though so I prefer IMSLP.

Lots of books of music to sightread through (things that are easier to sightread, like some of Mozart's works). Also, I buy different pieces of brass, strings, bridges, and tools for guitar modification and crafting. Piano tuning books, and tools (strobe, dampers, specially made hammers, tuning forks, and parts for repairs). Also, I buy old pianos (presumed ready for the dump), fix them up, use horseshoe nails to get back string-pin tension (most think they can't get that back with old pianos). But in conclusion, it really depends on the projects I'm working on.

It may seem as if I'm just hurling money out, but I make my living through music, and a majority of my monthly expenditures (aside from insurance, phone, house payment, etc.) go into music. Other people go on vacations, buy a truck with a lot of torque, etc. I just spend my money on music.

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"Your mathematics are correct, but your physics are abominable..." Einstein

More than I affford. I'm a student but I still find myself going to concerts and buying recordings. iTunes make it too easy.