How do you listen you to music?

[lifelessfool]

I was at the pub earlier with people from my course and the conversation got on to me apparently being a pretentious twat which is only reinforced by the fact I have a record player for some bizzare reason. I really do believe there is something about records that other formats, just can't bring with the only downside being they aren't the most portable pieces of equipment. So how do you buy your music? Do you even still buy music?

Another thing that was quite interesting was a discussion about when you buy a record and you don't get a free mp3 download, for me I find it pretty frustrating as I'm against downloading so it can mean having to double up which is annoying as i guess people make more money from records? My friends said if i chose that format, then thats why, but some times bands such as veronica falls give you a cd and a download code which is nice! Does anyone have an opinion on this?

[theampersanddevil]

Part of me likes records but I dont have a record player

But then I think why have I not got one? well they take up massive amounts of space I just haven't got room for, they are expensive now and tbh i just dont get much of a chance to listen to music in the house much. Oh and loadsa stuff isn't available.

So I tend to listen to music while I'm on the computer, therefore just as easy to have it playing through that. Or on the way to work so I use spotify. Or in the gym, so i use an ipod.

I still like cds. I like the tangeble nature of it. I like reading all the stuff. You don't get that with a download. But I hardly get to listen to cds. I mostly listen to old Global Underground albums which are difficult to find through spotify, deleted or not available for download or 79p a track

[thetime]

As a rule use subscription service Napster/rhapsody. Quality service which you can use by laptop/mobile/mp3 player. Only time I buy CDs is artists I have all there releases to keep the collection going.

[t8yman]

I'm one of the "I'll download it for free, then buy it if I like it" kind of people. And I genuinely do buy stuff I like.

I'd say my ipod is about 50/50 of stuff I have paid for and stuff that is on there for other people to listen to (such as at parties/in the car with the family) there is no way I am paying for adele (for the missus) and Now thats what I call music XX (for the kids).

I rarely buy cds any more, I dont want the clutter. I love the digital age, everything media based in my life is now on a handy portable (and regularly backed up) hard drive, movies, music and photos. I really dont understand the old "look at my massive wall of plastic boxes" mentality any more.

[kaosmark2]

I love my CD collection. I do copy most of it digitally, but I feel really uncomfortable when I can't get a CD (because it's a DL-only release or something). As &devil said, I love the tangible nature of it, and reading the sleeve booklet, etc. I don't think downloading music provides the same satisfaction of opening up a CD, blasting it out loud, while reading through the booklet as you hear it for the first time. Even moreso with vinyl, although I only tend to do that when going back to the 'rents for a bit as I haven't got my own record player and doubt I will until I've got enough money to buy a really good one.

It bothers me when albums aren't released on CD, and even moreso when there's "special itunes bonus tracks" and other such w*nk. I often steal such bonus tracks, but I still resent it.

Also, I tend to steal albums digitally if I'm seeing the band live soon and they've got a new CD that's bloody expensive out. I always buy it when the CD drops in price, but I resent the 'new' markup.

[abdoujaparov]

I prefer listening to music on vinyl. I still buy vinyl (although nothing like the volumes I did evn 10 years ago), both new and second hand. Music sounds better on vinyl, full stop.

I stil buy CDs. I prefer my music to have a physical presence. I guess I'm just old fashioned

Generally speaking, I hate MP3s - they compromise sound quality and the listening experience suffers as a result. I do download stuff, but generally only obscure stuff that I cannot track down any other way. If I can, I'll download in FLAC, and MP3s only when I have to.

I have got most of my music on a network drive and pipe it round the house with a Sonos system, but given the choise between listening to Blackboard Jungle Dub on vinyl or digitally, I'll take the former every time

[LondonTom]

I use a few different ones....I mostly buy CDs of bands I actually really like and follow around, other stuff I mostly use spotify for now. I don't download much illegally anymore but have a pretty massive collection on a hard drive from my first two years at uni when me and a mate would download and swap masses of music with each other . I put this mainly down to my spotify sub as I don't need to go and download any of the extras.

I really like my physical CDs just for something to actually have as part of the collection, the booklets, the cd...just having something..I dunno I like it. That being I tend to listen to it in 320kbps MP3 rips through my Spotify app. (Which I really like, as it makes it easy to switch between your own stuff and the library and then I sync playlists to the spottily phone app for traveling and such.)

Vinyl...I don't listen to as I don't have a record player....thinking of getting one but really want to put on the same speaker set up as my PC and want to afford something decent (and upgrade my speakers when I do.) I do however collect it, I buy a few RSD releases, special one off's from bands etc. I'd probs buy more if they included an MP3 download with it. (From when I was about 16 I was totally in love with the fratellis, til they split up i pretty much have all there entire back catalog on CD, Vinyl and even a single that was release on USB stick.)

I also hate the download exclusives but I do succumb and buy sometimes, especially live versions and recorded live shows. (Bands should do more of these, I'd buy good money for it!)

That all said to sum yup, buy physical stuff I like and then pretty much rip and play through spotify/my computer. (Occasionally i use my dads bose cd player when I am home alone!)

[eFestivals]

I always try to buy a physical format, CD's as my preference simply because that's mostly what I have since I foolishly sold my record collection in about 1985 when very skint.

But dependent on what it is and why I want it, I might choose to buy a download, which I do do occasionally. But if I do, then I'll only buy in MP3 format and of at least 320mbps - because I'm not getting into that propriety format rubbish that the likes of iPhones forces people towards.

Nowadays nearly everything I buy is reggae, so it's damned handy that the nearest shop to my house is a reggae shop.

[windy_miller]

I was at the pub earlier with people from my course and the conversation got on to me apparently being a pretentious twat which is only reinforced by the fact I have a record player for some bizzare reason. I really do believe there is something about records that other formats, just can't bring with the only downside being they aren't the most portable pieces of equipment. So how do you buy your music? Do you even still buy music?

Another thing that was quite interesting was a discussion about when you buy a record and you don't get a free mp3 download, for me I find it pretty frustrating as I'm against downloading so it can mean having to double up which is annoying as i guess people make more money from records? My friends said if i chose that format, then thats why, but some times bands such as veronica falls give you a cd and a download code which is nice! Does anyone have an opinion on this?

[Hello... I'm Johnny Cash]

99% of the time Spotify, it's just so easy and convenient.

Virtually everything I could ever want to listen to, in my pocket, all of the time.

And the app's on the desktop client are great for discovering new stuff and making playlists.

Music does sound better on vinyl (although that's less true since Spotify recently upped the bit rate of it's streams). I used to have quite a big collection of CD's & records but it took up so much space & I was using it less and less, so I took the jump & got rid.

It's the future & it's not going away, may as well embrace it

[lost]

cd's for me, I've an arcam player, rotel amp and acoustic energy floorstanding speakers, I then rip to mp3 for surfing and the car. mp3's are ok but something like tool's lateralus which I think is recorded in hdcd sounds amazing on a decent system

[jump]

95% of all my music is cd's that have been ripped to my Ipod, I've got a 160GB ipod and it's only got about 30ish GB of free space left and I still have a pile of cds that need to go on it even if I did buy mp3's I wouldn't have the space on my computer for them all. I do download stuff when I can't find a cd of it but I really can't be arsed as most places will only let you donwload it once and I know sooner or later my ipod will be reformatted/stolen/broken and I can't be arsed to download and pay for it all again when I have my cd's.

I've been looking on ebay recently for a USB record player as I've got a few old rockabilly records from my Mum I want to put on my ipod.

[windy_miller]

I disposed of how I mainly listened to music for most of my life just the other day... 40 years worth of music cassettes, gone!

Can't help the feeling that however old those tapes were, they were still playable... can't say I'm so confident about this new fangled digital technology... cd's start to deteriorate (literally), hard-drives die, software malfunctions, etc etc

Kept my vinyl though... that's not going anywhere

[eFestivals]

Virtually everything I could ever want to listen to, in my pocket, all of the time.

I've got that - but via a different method.

I've written a very simple 'app' (actually php scripting) that I access on a web-server which is then able to access my entire digital music collection, to stream to any device anywhere in the world.

I can't say I do that very much, but it's exceedingly useful when out music shopping to be able to access my collection to ensure that I'm not buying something I already have - with 46,000 tracks on my hard-drive I sometimes forget what I have already, and several times have ended up buying stuff I've got already.

It's also good when in the pub to play a track to a mate, instead of saying "have you heard XYZ?" but not being able to play it to them.

Edited May 28, 2012 by eFestivals

[kaosmark2]

Oh yeah, when I download I try and get FLAC, and failing that mp3 320. I refuse to let apple software on my machine.

I've got that - but via a different method.

I've written a very simple 'app' (actually php scripting) that I access on a web-server which is then able to access my entire digital music collection, to stream to any device anywhere in the world.

I can't say I do that very much, but it's exceedingly useful when out music shopping to be able to access my collection to ensure that I'm not buying something I already have - with 46,000 tracks on my hard-drive I sometimes forget what I have already, and several times have ended up buying stuff I've got already.

It's also good when in the pub to play a track to a mate, instead of saying "have you heard XYZ?" but not being able to play it to them.

[kaosmark2]

but cd's can and do deteriorate. TV companies invested and wasted millions in setting up dvd type players, but gave up on them due to their unreliability. Even now, when broadcasters are archiving stuff on supposedly tapeless technology, it's no more than tape that stores it, albeit digitally.

I'd be wary of storing much on cd's, especially in a loft which would normally be subjected to massive temperature fluctuations...

I've never ever had a tape accidentally demagnetised. I've had them twisted, broken, all sorts of things which can be repaired. If a file gets corrupted, that's it, it's over

[eFestivals]

Ooh, how did you do that? Any way others (ie. me) would be able to get a version they could use for their comp?

In theory, yes - tho it requires a technical set-up that you might not have, or might not wish to do.

You'd need to open up your home network (which might just be one computer for you, for me it's much more) to be accessible to anyone from the 'net - and I realise that plenty of people won't be happy doing that, because of the risk of attack from script kiddies and the like.

If you're happy to do that, then it's quite easy to do - without need of doing many of the things I've done with mine. Some of the things I've done are a bit convoluted, but were built on top of stuff I already had in place, and which allows me to have some extra security over and above the most simple way of doing things.

Here's the simple version:-

1. install a webserver on a computer on your home network, and allow it to 'see' your music files.

2. install php to work with that webserver.

3. open up your router to allow access to that webserver from the 'net.

4. accessing that webserver then allows access to your music files.

Issues:-

1. most people don't have a fixed IP address, meaning that it's impossible to know where your webserver is to then locate your music files from it. The answer is to either get a fixed IP address (which I know BT offer) or to register a domain name and then use one of the re-direction services that exist to re-direct a domain name to a changing IP address.

(or if you do things in the way I've done which also utilises the webservers I have on the 'net for efestivals, something more complicated so it's exceedingly unlikely that anyone will ever come to know that my home router is open to access by anyone on the net).

2. because I already have databases and know how to use them, I read the tags of my music files using another php script, and then write the details of those tags into a database - meaning that it's then easy to search for and find details of any music file (which is then used to access the file I want). I'd guess that something similar could be achieved using a uPnP server or similar.

[kaosmark2]

In theory, yes - tho it requires a technical set-up that you might not have, or might not wish to do.

You'd need to open up your home network (which might just be one computer for you, for me it's much more) to be accessible to anyone from the 'net - and I realise that plenty of people won't be happy doing that, because of the risk of attack from script kiddies and the like.

If you're happy to do that, then it's quite easy to do - without need of doing many of the things I've done with mine. Some of the things I've done are a bit convoluted, but were built on top of stuff I already had in place, and which allows me to have some extra security over and above the most simple way of doing things.

Here's the simple version:-

1. install a webserver on a computer on your home network, and allow it to 'see' your music files.

2. install php to work with that webserver.

3. open up your router to allow access to that webserver from the 'net.

4. accessing that webserver then allows access to your music files.

Issues:-

1. most people don't have a fixed IP address, meaning that it's impossible to know where your webserver is to then locate your music files from it. The answer is to either get a fixed IP address (which I know BT offer) or to register a domain name and then use one of the re-direction services that exist to re-direct a domain name to a changing IP address.

(or if you do things in the way I've done which also utilises the webservers I have on the 'net for efestivals, something more complicated so it's exceedingly unlikely that anyone will ever come to know that my home router is open to access by anyone on the net).

2. because I already have databases and know how to use them, I read the tags of my music files using another php script, and then write the details of those tags into a database - meaning that it's then easy to search for and find details of any music file (which is then used to access the file I want). I'd guess that something similar could be achieved using a uPnP server or similar.

[kaosmark2]

the fact that you need to back stuff up shows how unreliable it is.

[t8yman]

you can buy a terabyte drive for under a ton now, backing everything up and leaving it in a draw is no hassle whatsoever.

[kaosmark2]

but because they're physical, they're more reliant.

How many people have had complete hard drives wiped? Compare that to how many people have had their cassette collection, or vinyl albums destroyed in one go.

[kaosmark2]

huh? cd's are digital storage

I'm not saying there aren't any advantages with digital, but it's not as stable a format as some believe it is. Remember when cd's came out, they said you could spread jam on it and would be ok... lol.

isn't a Raid system just a load of tapes?

[LondonTom]

For most consumers RAID is a pointless and overly complicated set up for back up these days....unless you really really want real time back up. I think the good old fashioned external hard drive is a decent solution (and maybe a yearly off site one for those who are super paranoid ).

[kaosmark2]

For most consumers RAID is a pointless and overly complicated set up for back up these days....unless you really really want real time back up. I think the good old fashioned external hard drive is a decent solution (and maybe a yearly off site one for those who are super paranoid ).

[eFestivals]

I reckon it'll be pretty standard in a decade or so.

if that was going to happen it would have happened a decade ago already.

It might happen if we eventually all switch over to solid state 'disks'. I can't see it happening with the disks we have - which are very reliable compared to disks of the past.