A bit related to the HMV news I wonder how much a site of music obsessives spends on music these days. I see people counting down their top 30 physical re-releases and top 50 new ones of the year and wonder of they bought them all or have been listening on Spotify or Apple Music or whatever. I am feeling a little guilty about the amount I spend and a New Year’s Resolution to spend (much) less in 2018 did not last long.
I need to stop going to certain music sites and jumping on perceived “bargains” of stuff I don’t really want or need. Exhibit A: Roxy Music Special Deluxe Edition. I have also started sorting through my vinyl in order to sell a large part of it.
So my New Year’s resolution, buy nothing that I have already, a shiny vinyl re-release, a box set of demos and average live stuff I will listen to once.
My 2018 tally in comments.
dai says
Rough estimate is about $1000 CAD which would be 600 quid or something. Mainly vinyl, inc box sets (Bowie, The Band, Kinks) most of which were heavily discounted. Also recent splurges on Imagine box set (which I got for free in the end), White Album and Red Rose Speedway (which I wasn’t going to get, but it was relatively cheap). I have hardly played any of these, but RRS arrived only yesterday.
dai says
Oops, after studying the Amazon sites of Canada, UK and US I am revising the total upwards, probably somewhere between $1200 and $1500 when other vendors are taken into account.
Uncle Wheaty says
I do not think I bought any musical physical product in 2018.
Still bought a few DVDs and Blu Rays though.
deramdaze says
About £250 on 90 or so items.
Most paid – £15 – “The Beatles” 3-CD version.
The vast majority were second hand CDs from Charidee Shops, many of which (Gil Scott-Heron, Jacques Dutronc, The Chambers Brothers amongst others) I still haven’t given my full attention to.
Buy of the year?
“McCartney” 2-CD/1-DVD promo (£5) for rarity.
“Nilsson Sings Newman,” “The Story of Blue Beat” (3-CD), a Dee Dee Warwick compilation, and “Motown Northern Soul” (3-CD) for enjoyment.
Paul Wad says
I honestly wouldn’t want to work it out, but after contributing towards the bills/mortgage/living expenses/increasing demands for money from the kids/increasing demands for money from the ruddy schools the rest gets spent on CDs, Blu Rays, books, comics and magazines. I don’t drink any more (medical reasons), so I rarely go out apart from the football, the cinema and a few gigs. I have been to several more football matches than usual this season, as I am finishing the 92 (only Newport and Exeter left to do!), so that leaves about…no, I don’t want to work it out! I am getting a lot of grief from Mrs Wad about the amount of stuff that comes into the house, so I don’t want to give her a figure to confirm it! But it’s a lot and far more than it should be.
I am signed up with Apple Music, Spotify and Amazon Prime, and I do download quite a lot. It’s what comes from having so much time on my hands. I really do need to cut down though, and I am managing that, having added 40% less new tracks to my iTunes library this year than last. My OCD makes it really difficult to leave gaps anywhere for artists I like, which makes it difficult, so even when I have downloaded albums I end up buying them on CD, but I now have a dozen or so artists whereby I own all their albums apart from their last one, and so far I am winning the battle with my OCD. Maybe this year I can go as far as going through and flog of the rubbish CDs from these artists, but that might be a step too far at this stage. Most CDs are worthless these days anyway, as HMV have found out.
Rigid Digit says
OCD Gap filling.
Last year I went on a long search for a specific release of Led Zep’s Coda just so it would sit with the other albums in a proper sequence.
I could’ve got the remastered version for £8 – I paid £12 just so I could have the chunky jewel case.
My T.Rex collection pains me whenever I look at it – I bought the 2 Disc versions of the 72-77 albums. Except Futuristic Dragon which is only the single disc (the 2 disc set was about the price of a Bungalow in Doncaster)
deramdaze says
You don’t say.
I also went out of my way to get the chunky versions of “Electric Ladyland” and “Tommy.”
Forget the superior mastering, I genuinely wanted to replicate the inconvenience of having to change the original record by having to change the CD half-way through.
Declan says
Bravo, but that last paragraph is perhaps a shade too long for an Afterword t-shirt. Still a prizewinner. In some parallel universe.
😉
Rigid Digit says
Mrs D’s stock answer would be “too bloody much”.
Excluding pressies, around 50 new items have arrived on the shelf courtesy of my Credit Card.
At a nominal tenner a pop, that would be £500 – sounds a lot, but is only a tenner a week
(adjust for Charity Shop, cheap catalogue fillers, and the odd pennies, I would submit a cost of £350)
Most paid: £30 for Marillion Clutching At Straws box thing
Tony Japanese says
As mentioned elsewhere, most of my music purchases this year have been second-hand copies of CDs. I bought most of the Now collection over the year, save for the ones that are selling for an eye-watering amount. About 100 ‘new’ albums from 1970 – 1990. I’ve also spent money on new shelves (the previous CD shelves joined the choir invisible in a house-move, and the replacements aren’t as good in my opinion – fewer shelves and wasted ‘DVD’ space at the top) and slim-line sleeves (an excellent idea) to accomodate this influx of music.
fatima Xberg says
I have no interest in Spotify, “clouds” or toys like that (radio stations in Germany are quite good and all-encompassing), but for the stuff I’m really interested in I usually spent around 100 euros per week – this includes buying records, DVDs and box sets, going to gigs and to the cinema.
SteveT says
Conservatively somewhere between £1500 and £2000.
Based on an average of about £80 per month with Amazon, occasionally less but in the months when for example I have bought the Kate Bush box set then somewhat more.
Add trips to record shops and purchases from the label/artists such as the Trojan boxset
Quite a sum but no regrets and no intention to change my habit unless anyone knows of a medicine that will cure my disease.
fortuneight says
Previous Christmas’s were always a book / CD / DVD fest. This year – one cooking book.
Since Spotify / Netflix I’ve probably spent less than £100 a year – looking at the pile of recent acquisitions (which date back 2 years) pretty much all came from overseas trips. My spend on Kindle books is probably up there with what I used to chuck at physical product.
My kids are all music / movie and book fans but almost all rely on streaming now. It’s portable and they don’t see any benefits of physical ownership – they consume, they don’t collect. My son was given a cheap record player 18 months ago, so I bought him some vinyl last Xmas, but the prices (compared to CDs) were risble and he quickly lost interest given the expense and lack of portability.
retropath2 says
Interesting question, 5th amendment. In truth less than usual, as I ditched e-music, £30 a month mid year as there wasn’t enough of quality. Apart from a splurge to acknowledge that saving, perhaps between £10 and 20 a month. I tend also to buy from market place rather than the main site. Add in a few legit review copies and some heritage illegitimates unavailable elsewhere. Add in a few gig based impulse buys from the merchandise table. I suspect my concert ticket bill is bigger. I know I am luck to be able so to do, as I am still working alongside my NHS pension. That helps in no small part.
Lemonhope says
£76.68 to Emusic (£6.39/month) & £180 to Spotify – total = £256.68
plus around £100 – 150 on physical product
Lets call it £400
thecheshirecat says
In theory, less than a typical year. I am still working on getting to know purchases from 2017 and earlier, before they get fed to the alphabetical IKEA CD racking behemoth, so I have consciously tried to scale down (I have been known to spend £130 on the first night of Cambridge Folk Festival). Yet still the pile of recent purchases on my home desk reveals an average rate of one CD per week – average purchase price £10, I guess, so £500 per annum.
But the bit that is relevant to the HMV thread is that none of this will have been bought from a high street store. That is largely because the folk sections in high street stores will be mainstream, if they exist at all, so I have most of what I want already. I reckon 75% is bought from merch desks or direct from the artist at gigs, dances and festivals; the balance will be online, where in five minutes I can source a CD that would take three months to find in a shop.
Leedsboy says
About £200. Apple Music subscription for the family (£15 per month) and a couple of CDs. Spent more on gig tickets.
Tiggerlion says
Too much.
fentonsteve says
Me too, Tiggs. I dread to think.
Yesterday: £52 in Fopp, including a £13 impulse purchase. Today bought a £100 delivery from Amazon. Not a typical 24 hour period, but not that unusual either.
For years health prevented me attending gigs, so I spent on product. This year I’ve been to gigs as well.
Tiggerlion says
I had a quick scan but stopped looking when the number passed four figures. 😒
moseleymoles says
I’m pretty much the same as @lemonhope – £144 to emusic, family Spotify £180 plus maybe £200 on physical product. So about £600 maybe for everything. Again, probably spent that on gig tickets but between two people. Daughter has discovered indiemetal (eg earache records) is quite well represented on emusic, so no sacking that off in the short term. New physical product – barely a third of that £200.
Wilson Wilson says
Probably around £200 on new stuff, maybe £100 on old second hand stuff, mainly from eBay. That’s a tiny fraction of what it would’ve been even 5 years ago, when I was buying at least one album a week. No steaming costs, but like others probably spent more on gig tickets than albums this year.
Twang says
I don’t really know but I’ve cut down a lot. Probably around 200 quid. I use Spotify rather like borrowing albums back in the day – if I really like it I buy it. Haven’t done much though. I had a significant birthday in March as was given a lot of stuff, mainly vinyl, which I have been working my way through.
Langdale68 says
Nowhere near as much as I used to. I think my peak spending was late 1990s (pre-children and when there was lots of tempting physical product in my local branch of MVC). Now it’s a Spotify premium subscription and quite regular trips to Oxfam for vinyl (yes, a bit overpriced but I’ve found buying non-rock/pop genres there works well – classical LPs usually very good value and in excellent condition). And a very occasional CD from HMV or Amazon.
So in the last year, I’ve spent about £300.
Black Celebration says
Spotify costs about $20 a month, so that’s about it. I feel a bit of a fraud on this site sometimes because I rarely buy any music. Playing a vinyl record is an occasional pleasure (once every few months perhaps?). I have a great deal of vestigial affection for records and pop music due to the 20 years or so I gave to it, but the completist gene in me has disappeared. I am occasionally thrilled by a brilliant pop song but that’s a rare event now.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
You play vinyl every few months ? You is like weird
Black Celebration says
IKR
Lodestone of Wrongness says
£25.26 and that includes the entrance fee for two people to the Jimmy Booboo and the Booboos’ Reunion concert “Live At Winterton Station Secret Gig” extravaganza
Mike_H says
Roughly £800 on CDs, downloads and vinyl.
About £600 on gigs.
Locust says
Yikes, I’m not going to add it up! Way, way more than the rest of you, apparently…if you’re truthful with your answers and my rough estimation is correct.
However; I don’t have kids or pets. I never travel. I don’t own a car. I buy very few clothes and shoes. I hardly spend any money on tech stuff.
All I do with my money once the bills are paid is buying CDs and books, basically. I have Spotify Free, but use it perhaps three or four times a year, as I don’t enjoy it.
SteveT says
@Locust I thought it was just me that didn’t enjoy Spotify. Glad to know I am not alone.
Rigid Digit says
Another Spotify denier here.
I use it to test drive stuff, but not actual listening
thecheshirecat says
Ditto.
Johnny99 says
Another ditto here – not a fan of Spotify. I occasionally use it to check out stuff that I’ve heard about (usually on here) but I had actually forgotten that I used to have a Spotify account until November (and that was only because my wife said she uses it at work).
Twang says
I like that when I go on hols or a business trip I can very quickly download a bunch of albums to try out then buy if I like them. I’m disillusioned with the quality of new music to the point that I don’t buy on spec any more. I buy quite a lot at the merch table at gigs in fact, and was shocked to discover recently that often the venue insists on taking a cut!
thecheshirecat says
Yes. I’d always assumed that merch desks would put most in the pocket of the artist, but apparently not so. I guess folk may be atypical, but I can usually find a way of buying direct from the artist online.
Mike_H says
I don’t mind volunteer-run folk or jazz clubs taking a modest cut (say a quid from a 10 quid CD) from merch sales to help with running expenses.
When commercial ventures do it, after you’ve already paid for a ticket and the inevitable booking fees etc. it’s just plain greedy.
Jack Kelsey says
From Mid Aug. to Mid. Nov.2018 while in the UK my tally was approx. 500 quid- breakdown was Bath HMV 17 quid – Staines HMV 24 quid 1st visit – 2nd visit was 127 quid – Kingston HMV 96 quid 1st visit – 2nd visit 109 quid, FOPPs London 111 quid, still have the receipts showing costs.
Also spent approx. 75 quid in 2 visits to Recollector shop Kingston (2nd hand stuff) – spent a few quid in charity shops over the UK in the travels. Once back home in Syd. hit JB Hi-Fi for the Black Friday caper cost me approx $250 (approx 150 quid) -getting 3 for price of 2 deal was OK.
The bulk of the CDs are retro type-Bad Co. (3) Blue Oyster Cult.(3) Spocks Beard (4) Steven Wilson (4) ZZ top (3) Bruce Sp. (4)
The most current/recent issues are Jack White “Boarding..” Wilko “Blow Your..” and couple of The Rag’n’Bone man cds. I’m a bit of a “cheap skate” most of my buys were in the range of 3 quid to 7/8 quid – 2 exceptions @ 10 quid The Pogues 5 Album set & Nick Cave “Huxleys..”
I have a tendency to go to yonks without buying & then go on a splurge – don’t do spotty or any of those others – BUT – there are a couple of Download Label freebies that I make use of.
Without adding the mag. subscriptions in (7 of ’em 5 come with a CD) guessing the overall is about a grand or so. Chicken feed by some of the above writers standards. A PS have just spent $44 on line for 6 CDs that came with downloads attached.
Mousey says
I reckon about $700AUS
Most recent was $200US for the Blue Note Special Edition Vol 2 which I have yet to listen to.
Bargain of the year was #35AUS for the Village Green boxset, in the early days of Amazon Australia and someone fucked up the listing!
Blue Boy says
Most of my listening, often including of CDs I actually own, is done on Spotify these days either through the car player, the phone, or Sonos. I bought maybe a dozen or so new releases on CD but I’ve pretty much stopped buying CDs of old records as I did back in the Fopp £50 man days. Haven’t yet been tempted into buying new stuff on vinyl – just bought one or two old charity shop things. Hardly bought anything on Amazon, and have made a conscious effort on the few occasions that I have bought to do so from an actual shop, usually HMV. So that went well…
duco01 says
How much did I spend on recorded music in 2018?
Hang on – I’ll just tot it all up.
Right. Just as I thought.
The total comes to an amount only slightly less than the national debt of Venezuela.
ClemFandango says
I have a Spotify Premium account so pay the annual fee for that. Found the free version frustrating, but Premium gets rid of all the stuff I didn’t like (ads and restriction on choice mainly)
Otherwise nothing. Used to be a £50 man, but young family has meant opportunity to buy and listen to music is very restricted. Plus I’m not sure I want to get more ‘stuff’ full stop?
The Good Doctor says
Oh man, like Locust above I don’t care to add it up but I’ve had a lovely time going out digging for records so who cares? (we’re also child free which helps)
I don’t stream much, I have Apple Music for auditioning stuff, and since I ditched emusic I’ve bought downloads direct from artists. I don’t buy anything from Amazon because I don’t like their business practices. New stuff came from my local indie shops or Boomkat, some from HMV/Fopp and the rest was second hand records, mostly in bricks and mortar shops. Most spent I think was 35 quid for Spectrum’s ‘Soul Kiss Glide Divine’ is the transparent goo sleeve …worth every penny. And most expensive new thing was the Demdike Stare ‘Stitch by Stitch’ cassette series which is amazing and came in 3 installments, compared to all those super deluxe editions a bargain at 38 quid. Oh and the Wire record store day box set which was around 65 quid and is a thing of wonder.
Declan says
“..the Demdike Stare ‘Stitch by Stitch’ cassette series..”
So, cassettes AND expensive. Whatever next?
The Good Doctor says
A niche thing, but nothing new – underground artists have been putting oddities out on tape again for 10 years or more. I’ve picked up quite a few of these odd things and a Sony Walkman to play them on. Nobody is making a claim for tapes having a vinyl style revival but obscure little releases are fun.
Declan says
Hadn”t realised cassettes were still a thing. I’ve got a lovely Nakamichi hooked up to my “fun” system and loads of tapes, but it/they hardly get used any more.
pawsforthought says
Just out of interest, is that a new (re-released) copy of the Spectrum album? I remember when it came out that we all thought the goo in the sleeve would escape amongst the rest of our record collection, or just dry up. I think I still have the (goo free) cassette in my loft.
fishface says
I dread to think.
Spotify is my music tester then off to Fopp.
Most useless purchase…Tom Petty’s American Treasure, i have all the studio albums gathering dust but only the greatest hits gets regular plays.
Best purchase…a couple of Readers Digest Singers &Songwriters CDs. Best of’s from the early 70s, these seem to in the player every fortnight….50 pence each and doubles to boot.
The guitar solo from Elvin Bishop’s Fooled Around and Fell in Love is my new must learn….ha.
Worst purchase by far..a friend has moved abroad and i was offered his tasty Rega TT and a bunch of LP’s.
Ohh, “put me back on the vinyl map” i thought.
Wrong…dust, worn styli and shit pressings bought the horror of LP playback home…sold the lot on for a big loss.
Johnny99 says
I dread to think how much I’ve spent on physical stuff this last year. Compounded by the fact that I can’t resist the Bookhippo 99p bargains for my Kindle it’s probably north of 4 figures. Luckily I have steered clear of the current con of buying vinyl to replace the CD which replaced the cassette tape which replaced the vinyl.
dai says
Wish I had, e.g. Sgt Pepper
Stereo cassette
Stereo 70s era vinyl
Stereo CD (87)
Original mono vinyl
Remastered stereo CD (09)
Mono CD (09)
Remastered Mono vinyl
50th anniversary box set inc remixed version
NigelT says
Checking online….£320 odd with the tax dodgers, and I reckon around another £100 at gigs and festivals. A tenner a month with Spotify means around £550 in total with the odd Chazza purchase thrown in. Less than I feared!
Deviant808 says
Apart from the Spotify subscription, just short of £400 on 77 albums (so lots of cheap purchases from Amazon marketplace) and a handful of singles. That includes 8 months of discounted eMusic downloads before I cancelled it.
Hadn’t spent a large sum on any one item until right near the end of the year when I suddenly had an urge to buy the three “Songs for…” compilations by St Etienne that I didn’t already have, with the most expensive being “Songs for a Central Park Picnic” which I spent £18 on from an American seller on Amazon, who’s quoting me a February delivery date. So nothing dodgy there…
John Walters says
Including the re release box sets that I gave my wife to give me for Christmas, probably about £750 ish.
Another £40 today for a Track Mono first pressing of Axis Bold As Love from Tasty Records in Altrincham.
To be expected, a bit of frying bacon and eggs but plays beautifully ( cover OK too ).
Mike_H says
Another 38 quids worth arrived yesterday from Amazon: Two more cheapo Intense Media 10-CD jazz box sets (Blue Notes and More Blue Notes) and the Duke Ellington In Coventry 1966 CD.
Freddy Steady says
@john-walters
I’m just down the road from Alti and haven’t heard of Tasty Records…any good and where is it?
Tiggerlion says
Here’s some details for you, Freddy.
http://recordshopcity.co.uk/shop/tasty-records/
John Walters says
I don’t think it has been open long. It is near Altrincham market on Regent Road. The prices aren’t too bad. Worth a browse.
Freddy Steady says
Thanks Tigs. Will pop in next time I’m there. Near the market which is good. Alti has won awards recently for its High Street rejuvenation but there’s still quite a way to go.
Malc says
Other than Spotify family (£180) and Amazon Prime (£80), about £100 on DVD/BR and £50 on CDs, most of which was charity shop sourced. Relatively little on gigs, but no reason behind it – hopefully more this year.
bigstevie says
30 cds @ £238 Amazon tells me.
Nearest HMV is in Stirling 15 miles away.
Nearest FOPP is Edinburgh 25 miles away. There are two FOPPs in Glasgow but that’s almost 30 miles away. Don’t know of any other record shops, which is why I buy from Amazon.