Music box sets have been getting more and more absurd in recent years, with Neil Young's 8 CD (and it's only volume one!) Archives set costing £99, coming out a few years ago, Pink Floyd's Discovery box set coming out later this month (16 CDs, £129.93) and the Quadrophenia box set coming out in November (£70.99; 'only' 5 discs). Other recent big box sets have included the Bob Dylan mono set (9 CDs, £45), the Beatles remastered box set (16 CDs, £157.97) and Apple records remastered box set (17 CDs, £99.99).
But nothing compares to the mammoth box set to be released in time for Christmas. Consisting of 18,470,283 CDs, 9 DVDs, 3 Blu-Rays, a limited edition vinyl 12" and a 48-page booklet, the set, simply titled 'Music', consists of every album ever produced on CD, ever, and will cost a whooping £9.5m, for which you also get a free, convenient warehouse (pictured) to store the music in. The CDs are helpfully stored in alphabetical order. Alternatively, you can download the collection for a 'mere' £5.5m (though you'll also need a warehouse for all the hard drives).
Whilst it is probably true that these aren't going to go flying off the shelves, for music fans rich enough to afford it, the box set is a dream come true, consisting of music from every genre and every band that's ever existed (assuming it's been issued on CD). 'Music' is the result of a unique joint venture between every record label in the world.
If money isn't the problem, time certainly will be. It is estimated that even if you play the CDs back to back, 24 hours a day, you will still need 1,674 years to play them all. Substantially less if you leave out Neil Young's output.
• Music is released on Nov 26.
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