Exploring Music

I have about 250 albums in my music collection. When I open iTunes I realize how much I have. I can't decide what to listen to half the time. I got some genre playlists I put on shuffle. Sometimes something comes up and I decide to play the whole album. Sometimes I get in the mood for one artist and play everything I got. Sometimes I play the same album every 2-3 days for a month. I shuffle my music collection enough that I rarely go more than a few months without hearing an artist.

There's a wide world of music out there to explore. I got music I want to buy. There's a lot of stuff I want to explore someday. But I won't have the time to listen to it all. I got a lot of time to listen to music now. It won't be like this all my life.

On the other hand I don't want to go too fast and burn myself out. Usually it depends on money and free time. If I have a lot of both, I buy lots of music. I usually have one or the other.

There's a lot of artists I listened to when I got their music but I rarely listen to them now. Sometimes I get back into them for a while and sometimes I don't. It depends on my mood. I don't buy music I know I won't play much. However, I always listen to my favorite artists. I'm sure I've played some songs over 300 times in my life. If a song's good enough I never get sick of it.

The problem: How much more should I explore? I got a lot of music I want to get, but how much will I listen to it a year after I get it? I only play a handful of artists on a regular basis. Only a few in each genre. I like a lot of others but I don't play them as much.