The threads on music playing devices and iPod classics highlight distinct differences in attitudes to streaming and owning music. Some put sound quality above functionality. Some appear to have not been near streaming services for a while and perhaps don’t appreciate the progress in the last year or two.
I can’t remember the last CD I bought (but it was probably second hand, cost £1.50 and was made more than a year ago). I have virtually stopped buying downloads and am about to cancel my eMusic subscription after 6 or 7 years.
Apple music serves my purposes very well and with WiFi well on the way to becoming ubiquitous, along with cheaper than ever data plans, I don’t see myself buying any physical products anymore. In fact, if I did, it’s more likely to be vinyl than CD. And I don’t own a record player.
Most of this change has been in the last couple of years as my devices become more integrated and the apps become better at dealing with the process of streaming.
People seem to be less passionate about physical products for films and tv with Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer and the like not drawing the same kind loyalty. Maybe VHS was so shit, even the most rose tinted spectacles can’t make it look anything but shit.
How are you buying music? If it hasn’t changed, do you think you are clinging on to a format despite the inherent drawbacks? Will you ever change? Or have you found yourself slower changing without noticing it?
Spotify these days. I ripped all the CDs to a NAS drive for playing through the Sonos but Spotify has so much content that I hardly use it, same with vinly.
Last time I went to Resident Music in Brighton I was just bewildered, not wanting to fork out for something that I could stream and also something unheard that might not be very good. I left empty handed. I’m over that “nice to have” feeling about physical product. The only thing I miss is flipping through stuff at home and thinking “haven’t heard that for ages.”
I’m not one for collecting DVDs either. I don’t know how people with vast film libraries find time to watch them more than once. There’s not enough of my life left to watch a couple of thousand films again.
I think the repeatability factor for films/TV series means physical product makes less sense. How many times have I listed to All Mod Cons or Station To Station in thirty odd years? Probably north of 50 times. And how many times have I watched Bladerunner or 2001? Less than half-a-dozen. As for series – we are nearly a second time through The West Wing. Difficult to see us making more than a third.
I think the ‘flipping through stuff’ is an absolute killer though – the front ends of Spotify and Netflix, for example, don’t correspond to the way my brain is wired. The CD shelves do.
Spot on. I see a combination of both serving me well over the next few years.
I won’t be buying any more physical product but will occasionally rejoice at the re-discovery of something I had forgotten I own.
Mainly my CDs etc. that are stored digitally on a hard drive on my home network. This is streamed via ethernet cable to a Logitech Squeezebox Touch, and then into various devices before hitting my ears. Have bought very little music in ages; last thing I contemplated buying was the new King Creosote album, but checked it out on Spotify and decided against (sorry Kenny). Have recently connected up the turntable, after a hiatus: as I don’t have a preamp I have to do the weird trick of converting the analogue signal into digital so as to feed it to the digital to analogue converter. A bit of a round-trip but necessary sadly.
Anyway, I tried the Spotify Premium trial, which was okay but I found myself reaching for my old favourites. I guess I’ve lost my music-seeking mojo. I’m contented. Most of what I hear from new acts isn’t doing it for me. Doesn’t stop me enjoying what I already have: I’ve just sold my old headphones to fund a pair of electrostatic headphones, which will make me look a bit like a cyber man, but with better musical taste. Such are the demands of domestic harmony that I rarely get the chance to play through the speakers.
As with so many of us these days, the thing I lack the most is time. What davebigpicture above said, except for the bit about Spotify.
I’m not much interested in owning music as such. There’s something of the Panini sticker collection about the physical product – got it, got, want it, got it… Now all music is out there for immediate consumption I’m quite happy to drift through what’s available without having to call it my own. Sonos + Spotify does me very nicely for a tenner a month – a lot less than I was spending on CDs once upon a time. I like letting it lead me into new places. On Saturday we had friends over, so I searched for James Brown, hit the Radio option, and it was wonderful.
95% of my listening is on Spotify these days. But at the weekend, due to my interest being awakened by the recent thread on folk music in Nordic jazz, I bought my first vinyl for many years. Noy on YT, not on Spotify. It was my only hope of listening to it.
A real beauty it is, and I’ve not even listened yet: in-depth sleeve notes, gatefold sleeve, beautiful art work. It’s an historical artefact. I felt very odd and rather nostlgic carrying a record shop bag containing an LP
An exception that proves the rule though.
I’m not bothered at all about owning films, once I’ve seen them, but despite your points Leeds wifi is not ubiquitous, and abroad they gouge you big time for a data plan you have already paid for in the UK and streaming just isn’t viable. Also I tend to go to bits of France where there is barely any mobile coverage never mind good data. So a copy on the ipod is the perfect solution. Increasingly, though, I am not so bothered about owning the CD unless it’s someone I really like – I find the mass of stuff which clutters up my life is getting me down and recently I’ve bought a few things as downloads simply so I don’t have to own and store the plastic box. I do still get a kick out of vinyl, which is a purely emotional thing of course.
I was late to CD. I finally caught up with the mode with the release of Donald Fagen’s Kamakiriad when I realised that, initially, no vinly pressings were part of the release schedule. Micromega CD player purchased pronto.
In the mid/late 2000’s I upgraded to the highest spec Micromega component set up. To this day (and hopefully many more) I will continue to luxuriate within its warm aural embrace.
CD’s all the way!
I haven’t bought vinyl in years, it’s been CDs since the late 80s (the Compact XTC was the first if I remember right) and in the last few years some mp3s, mostly via Amazon’s Autorip feature. We have actually signed up for Spotify in the last fortnight which has rekindled my wife’s love of music, she has been downloading and adding stuff to playlists like there is no tomorrow! That may affect buying physical product, sorry Resident! But it’s too soon too tell.
As above I rip to a NAS drive and a portable hard drive which is connected to a WiFi hotspot so I can listen at work.
As for films, I am a bit of a Blu-Ray collector as we hardly ever go to the Cinema. Netflix is brilliant for TV stuff, not as good for Movies. Still waiting for the Spotify of Films!
One useful feature on Spotify, if you are going somewhere with unreliable internet connections, is that you can download favourite playlists onto your device and play them offline. There’s a button on the right hand side between the name of the playlist and the tracklist.
That’s a good tip, especially useful for the car when connection isn’t brilliant, as we found on Saturday when driving across the wilds of Lincolnshire to our holiday cottage. But when we got here, 4G! Lots of Spotify for us!
Still CD and DVD (or blu ray) for me I’m afraid. Trouble is, the house is sinking under the weight of all the ‘stuff’, with shelves in every available space. I should experiment with some sort of hi-fi streaming device and something like Tidal, but to be honest I haven’t really got a clue where to start.
Too many dead spots, both on mobile network and wi-fi, for me to go completely digital yet. Also CDs (and increasingly vinly) still seem to be the preferred format for merch tables at gigs. Download codes are increasingly appearing, however. One band I saw a few months back only had cassettes on offer and one of the acts at Saturday’s Daylight Music concert were offering rather good original A3 sketches by the singer (unframed) with a download code for their album on the reverse.
That is very ingenious. The buyer gets a nice physical souvenir of the gig and they don’t have to carry around a lot of bulky CDs. Or worry about running out at the end of the tour. But the singer wkill be kept busy sketching if merch sales go well.
Not realy a model that would work for Beyonce or Macca though.
Would only work for a “low sales volume” artist, I reckon. Otherwise they’d be so busy sketching they’d have to employ a substitute singer.
I have actually bought 2 vinly albums and 2×7″ picture singles in the past couple of years. They all came with download codes, luckily, as it’s a right palaver playing vinlys on my current setup.
On the wifi point I find that most of the time I have an ok wifi connection. I’m at home or work most of the time. I often stay in hotels and the wifi is good enough for downloading music. My 4G tariff has plenty of bandwidth and it’s fairly cheap roaming in the EU but I rarely need to use it.
And wifi is getting better – but even now, with a little bit of planning I’m fine most of the time I want to stream or download.
Tell you what @leedsboy I bought the Cambridge speaker you recommended and it is fantastic – brilliant sound – but a little heavy for business trips. SO I just impulse bought one of these
Which I can report is both light, compact, sounds great and looks fantastic. Recommended!
Physical product for me.
Vinyl, CD, DVD – the more the merrier.
I don’t “do” Spotify, and I don’t use my mobile phone enough to warrant storing all my music on there (although I can see the virtues, just not bothered about doing it).
Besides, how can you stand back with manly pride and stare at the walls covered with physical product?
It’s the Hunter/Gatherer instinct, and I like “stuff”
Yes, I am a luddite when it comes to digital delivery of entertainment.
On the plus side – the more people who do go down the digitalisation route, and getting rid of physical artefacts, means there’s plenty of cheaply available product for me to stick on the (already) bulging shelves
Agree with Rigid. I still buy books – usually paperback (which last better these days) but hardback if it’s something I want to keep going back to. I don’t read/buy a lot of modern fiction but every year when I get book tokens for birthday/christmas (and how retro are they!) I buy a hardback of something special – this year it was Vladimir Nabokov’s short stories….many of books I can remember when/where I got them and I’m sure they make for good insulation. I can’t imagine every using a kindle or similar.
20 years ago I was an “early adopter” of home pc, internet etc at least in my social circle. These days this blog is the only form of social media I engage in and even that feels bit much sometimes….fortunately not many of my contributions get much interest 🙂
Books is another one for me – mainly (actually, probably exclusively) non-fiction.
I went through a brief stage of taking a pile to charity shop, swapping for more, and then repeating.
The “taking to the shop” bit stopped, but the “coming back with more” continues.
I’ve bought the odd download, where it hasn’t otherwise been available or stupid expensive, but since 1988 nearly all my music was bought on cd- downloads and streaming still strike me deep down as buying air….
Know exactly how you feel @anton
not something I hear very often 🙂
I’m always intrigued as to how much stuff people have.
Someone mentioned 70,000 tracks the other day!
I’ve got 750 or so CDs but, with guests due, I’m seriously thinking of trimming it down again.
Despite this, I can only think of about 10 CDs I’m still itching to get, and my trip to London in October should secure at least four.
Five are ‘psych-hopefully-not-too-prog’ records from about ’69 I still haven’t got around to (e.g. Andwellas Dream, Arzachel and “Motherlight”), “The Rolling Stones No. 2,” The Seeds singles, and, if they were ever to get a release, 60s As and Bs compilations by Marc Bolan, David Bowie and The Who. That’s it.
You’re thinking of getting rid of CDs because you’ve got guests coming? Really? Or is ‘guests’ a coy euphemism for quintuplets?
As I do most of my music listening in the car, its CDs for me all the way. I would love to be a premium spotifier but I have a lot of hoops to jump through (new music device, new car stereo, new car etc…). I have had to trim back my CDs to a 120 or so best of due to space. Everything else is on an external hard drive, but I don’t need to listen to it too much
I’ve probably only purchased 15 CDs this year.
I’ve bought an embarrassing number of cd’s this year – mostly second hand – and need to spend more time catching up and listening to them properly…I have sold a much smaller proportion but I need to get this under control. I find the car cd player easier to use on the move than an mp3 plugged into the radio. What’s with these people you see driving with earphones in?
Its wrong! See also cyclists with ear buds in.
Some people, not all of them, will be using their headphones in the car as a hands free set up. I used to before Bluetooth became more ubiquitous.
Funnily enough I reckon the ‘120 or so’ CDs mentioned above is about the number I play.
The other 600 are not exactly ‘putting a shift in’ at present.
The thing is that when I play one, I tend to play it over and over and over again.
Currently on the 5th or 6th playing of Love’s “Four Sail.”
Why on earth would you want an actual CD or DVD or for goodness sake a vinly? Ah, you’re a trainspotter, aren’t you?
I occasionally buy DVDs but mainly watch films on sky or Netflix or Amazon. But I’m still buying CDs , I listen to music at work and streaming sites are banned so it’s my MP3 player and whatever I put on it . And sometimes I’ll download things from I tunes.
The audio input to my car stereo is currently “on the blink”. Left channel is dead. Probably just a loose connection.
I have 2 cover CDs from Electronic Sound magazine in rotation in the car, currently. Both are made up of interesting cover versions. Stuff such as Jane Horrocks covering Joy Division, Blancmange covering Can, Paul Hartnoll covering Kraftwerk, Laibach covering The Normal, that sort of thing. Makes a change from Radio 4.
I do wish Jane Horrocks would release her covers album, I liked what I heard on Front Row. I can understand not doing a physical CD because of the upfront cost (about £1000 for mastering & pressing) although I’m sure it would break even.
A couple of tracks are on the iTunes store but nowhere else. I’m not installing iTunes just to download those.
Mostly CD (in car & at home). Occasionally LP. Fiio X3 and Beyer cans whilst the boy is football training. Some paid-for hi-res downloads from a NAS via Squeezebox Touch or Naim streaming amp. Always Flac, full albums, start to end. Otherwise, Radio 4.
I really don’t get on with paying money for lossy downloads when I can buy a CD for a quid and rip to Flac if I want it to be portable. The downside being I have a cupboard in the spare room full of CDs in flightcases.
Staying at my brothers place. I downloaded the Sonos app and was playing my Spotify selections in no time. It caused me to reflect on my multiple turntables and large collections of various formats
I ain’t getting rid of them. Why go through the hassle ? Get fuck all for them anyway. But in a he future I expect my next purchases will be amps withBluetooth to stream stuff I haven’t got.
Welcome to the clique, JW!
Yeah, thought of you Mike
At home, I’m 95% Spotify premium via SONOS. On the move it’s Spotify via the iPhone with plenty of music downloaded for off line listening.
I don’t do a lot of driving these days. When I do it tends to be very long journeys in the campervan which has a bloody cassette player in the dashboard. I have one of those cassette adapters with a wire sticking out to allow the IPhone or iPod to connect.
I also have a back-up solution with my iPod classic full of stuff I ripped / downloaded years ago.
Didn’t buy CD’s for quite a few years although I have broken that habit a few times in the last year for some below the radar artists who were not on Spotify at the time.
I’ve also brought about three vinyl albums this year, for no other reason than I wanted to hold something in my hand with great artwork that I could actually read.
In short, I really enjoy the Spotify / SONOS experience. I can and do play Vinyl and CD’s via my SONOS set up, but to be honest the streaming option sounds better.
There is that matter of artist royalties of course.
I’m in awe of you lot and would love to put my music collection in some order and be able to have some fancy system which gives me a choice of music (new and old) at the press of a button. But no, I still use my reasonably old system for most of my music listening, essential music is on my laptop and that’s about it. I have got rid of a huge amount of music over the last few years and will get rid of of other non essential stuff at some stage.
DVD films are so cheap these days that I will occasionally buy the odd one and always keep the essentials close to hand – Ealing Comedies, 60s capers, French and Italian stuff.
Books – I think I may some kind of illness but have no idea how to cure myself, short of bankruptcy. I will always buy any 2nd hand old Penguins or Pelicans – can’t resist them – and if I could walk past a bookshop I would.
Interestingly, I visited the Isokon flats this weekend as part of London Open House and all but the the studio penthouses were absolutely tiny – lovely, but tiny – one couple had about 10 vinyl records but barely enough room for a record player, and no books. It’s quite admirable in a way but would drive me bonkers.
I’ve never made a decision to stop buying CDs, much as I didn’t with vinyl, but these days, the vast majority are Uncut covermounts. I’ve been an Emusic member for about 17 years now so the grandfathered scheme I’m on is very very good value and I’m nearly through this month’s 90 downloads well before the month is over. I had Spotify Premium free for a year and, although I used it a lot (especially through Sonos and downloads my phone) I reckon it would still be cheaper to just buy all the albums I was interested in (bearing in mind many are very cheap on Emusic). I’m spending much much less on music than I ever did and I should really just pay the Spotify money.
What I do like to do is to listen at work on a relatively lightweight MP3 player that I can afford to drop on the floor or pull off the desk so Spotify will never appease me completely.
I’m a bit in the Beany/mini camp, of trawling 2nd hand stalls for cheap music (CDs in my case). I then rip them, and upload them to Google Music to listen to on various smartphones/Tablets/any PC I can log onto. I like the surprise and serendipity (and the low price after decades of high cost music) of something I wasn’t particularly looking for, but which might catch me unawares.
Then, every now and them, I’ll get a buzz of nostalgia and look online for 2nd hand cds – just bought up Edward II’s back catalogue for less than a tenner.
I mainly listen with earphones, but my youngest is curious about the shiny discs she can put into and out of the sliding tray of my old hifi, which gives an excuse to hear something on separated speakers. Although it’s normally in, 3 seconds of sound, then “Nein” and out again, I did persuade her to let me hear a bit more of The Beatles ‘One’ – I’d never really appreciated how much the instruments and vocals are separated before (though this must be common knowledge round these parts, of course).
It. Was. Glorious.
I still prefer a mp3 device for listening on the move and I’ve got a lovely iBasso mp3 player – still retain my legacy eMusic contract to keep the device topped up with new stuff – I can’t see that changing while phone battery life and 3g/4G/Wifi coverage is a flaky as it is – and music is too important to trust with a mobile phone company.
As for home listening it’s still largely Vinyl and CD and my thing is I love browsing in record shops, charity shops etc – I do like having physical formats, and I actively enjoy the process of going to some weird dusty old shop in some godforsaken town and finding something unexpected. I find that more rewarding than clicking through carefully curated playlists on Spotify or Apple Music – but that’s just me and ultimately the end result is the music which is most important thing – but I still love rifling through a box of CDs or records (n.b we don’t have children which I suspect helps in terms of time/energy)