Parting with old concert programmes can be a traumatic experience, but why do we accumulate them in the first place? As a memento? For future reference? Just because they cost so much?

I'm looking for practical advice on selective archiving, on justifying disposal when necessary, or simply on coming to terms with my own concert programme kleptomania.

I have a box of old programmes (mostly from the Wigmore) and I never look at them. For a while, when I was researching a book about piano music, I thought they would be useful, but I rarely look at them now - and the kind of material I want for my book is readily and freely available on the internet. I tend not to buy a programme now (preferring to share one with a friend) as I know I'll just chuck it under the bed when I get home and never look at it again.

I do quite like to have a programme open on my knees during a concert, if only to have something to read if the performance is dull! Though these days many programmes seem to be stuffed with advertising and little else. Joking apart, it's sometimes helpful to know what's coming next, whether Allegro or Lento ma non troppo. My regular concert companion, Sylvia, likes to write amusing comments on the programme for me to read during the performance. Perhaps I should keep the programmes which Sylv has annotated?!

Sometimes it is nice to have a momento of a memorable concert: I have a programme signed by Ian Bostridge after his performance as the Evangelist in the St John Passion at the Barbican a couple of years ago.

Maybe you should set some criteria for your collecting? For example, keep programmes where the soloist is now dead (it may become a collector's item - you never know!), or a quartet that has since disbanded (ditto!), nice photos or design values....

The South Bank Centre has a sensible system whereby one can download a free PDF file of the relevant programme. This saves one shelling out £3 (minimum) for a proper programme on the night. You could also store the PDF files on your computer, thus saving space! Not such a nice momento perhaps.... :-)

I gather that they make excellent kindling material if push comes to shove.

In Australia, it seems overnight about three years ago most of the major classical music arts organisations (outside Opera) started giving them away for free, and they continue to do so. I guess if audience development is the bedfellow of organisational survival, then this is clearly a sensible move, notwithstanding the loss of revenue. Encouraging audiences to be more informed about the music being performed is clearly something we should ensure.

In London, I think the LSO is the only group to give away programmes. I think the Proms put their programme content online, but only about half an hour before the concert. I'm not quite sure why they do that though. If it is to protect the sales of the hard copies it seems a bit narrow minded.

Does anybody know anything about the economics of concert programmes? Do the ads cover the costs/subsidise the show?

I have always done my best to treasure programmes (espcially the one signed by Karlheinz Stockchausen at the Barbican in big sig... and you were there Gavin... and it was a fantisatic moment!).

It does say something about us. Nothing about economics here, but, perhaps we can take a moment to reflect on ourselves when we look back with crinkly aged eyes on our musical experience - those musical events which have had an impact upon us.

I know, looking back to concerts of Messiaen (playing organ) or Jeanne Loriod (on Ondes Martenot) what a wonderful experience it was to be there. The programme takes me back, and, in a way, helps me to treasure those moments.

I'm a bit of a collector. They will stay firmly in my archives!

It is interesting how a concert programme is such an impersonal, corporate document of an event, yet a collection of programmes makes for such a personal diary.
I have been doing some research recently into British orchestral brass sections in the 1950s. Concert programmes are really useful for orchestra lists, but they are really tricky to track down. The Concert Programmes Database (http://www.concertprogrammes.org.uk/) is useful, but most of the archives are the personal collections of individual concert goers. So if you are interested in the donors (I seem to remember Mosco Carner is one well-represented collector) it's great. But if you want any other information, you've got a lot of archival research on your hands.

I wonder which music libraries might be interested in my collection after I'm gone? Not many I suspect.