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Music

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ThomasStaff

Music

Poll

ago

What format do you listen to most?

Streaming (i.e. Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music etc.)88%

Vinyl0%

CD0%

Downloaded mp3s6%

Other (i.e. cassette/minidisc/8-track!?)6%

16 votes

•

What format do you listen to?

I was sorting through my CDs this weekend that have been boxed up and not listened to for the last 8 years or so, and it gave me something of an existential crisis! I feel like streaming services has changed my relationship with music somewhat, as now my listening decisions are largely dictated by a combination of algorithmic recommendations and my own faltering memory. There was so much that I hadn't listened to for ages simply because I'd forgotten it existed, but I probably would have been inclined to if I'd had a shelf full of CDs to browse. What do you think? Do you mostly listen to music via streaming or do you still embrace physical media?

Created at 9:29am, 26th February, 2024. Page last updated at 2:43pm, 16th May, 2024.

Lanah Tyra 2/19/2024, 9:48:15 AM

I used to have downloaded mp3s, then lost them about 7 years ago when my old laptop died, so swapped to streaming, more convenient but I also noticed I'm not listening to some stuff I used to because I always forget to put them on my playlist. But I still have CDs and Vinyls from the bands I really like as I know how little income they get from streaming services. And our old car still has a CD player in it, so we have one of those big CD holders chucked in with original full albums and home burnt mixes.

Need to get a decent record player though so I can listen to my Vinyls...

ThomasStaff2/19/2024, 10:15:05 AM

Lanah Tyra

Yeah I kinda lament the loss of gigabytes of mp3s, as well. I used to download a lot of unsigned music that is either hard or impossible to find now. I would definitely recommend getting a record player! Having a reason to build up a collection again has been great and there's something about deciding to buy an album on vinyl that makes it feel very precious. I got a player for my birthday a couple years ago and it's been such a nice thing to have.

Lanah Tyra 2/19/2024, 12:20:40 PM

Thomas

It's definitely on my shopping list, but will wait with it probably until we get our own house, had enough of packing up stuff every time we need to move to a different rented place. Plus someone had the excellent idea to make the floor out of chipboard and it keeps getting dislodged, so we are full of "ninja traps" as my partner likes to call it. You walk past a bookshelf and it wobbles... not the most safe environment for a record player and delicate Vinyls :(

I have a master playlist with my favourite albums on it organised by artists. So if I want to I can listen to the full album or just put the whole thing on shuffle.

FirestormGamingTeam 2/19/2024, 11:47:01 AM

personally it’s YouTube mostly for me

AlexGoesTheWorld 2/19/2024, 1:02:47 PM

Digital music is ... useful. It's easy to use: click, it plays, click it stops. It takes a relatively small space in exchange for lot of music. It's perfect for travelling and many other activities where easy of access is important.

Vinyl is... for collection. It gives a better feedback visually as cover art has much more space to shine and colored vinyls are a beauty, touch-wise as you handle it and it's an experience, and hearing-wise as well (even this is debated). On the opposite, it takes space, it's not cheap and you can't click stop, click play.

ThomasStaff2/19/2024, 5:52:48 PM

AlexGoesTheWorld

Yep, don't get me wrong I still listen to most of my music via streaming and I can't see that changing. One big benefit is that it's all just here on my computer and it's easy to browse, and switch on and off, while I work. I definitely appreciate the physicality of vinyl, though. Having something to pull out and look at and hold, and I quite like the fact that it's not easy to stop and start, so you have to commit to listening to the album without getting distracted by YouTube videos or whatever.

Alex SinclairMod2/19/2024, 1:13:11 PM

I mostly stream on Spotify, although I do have a growing vinyl collection. I spent a week creating nostalgia-laden playlists, so it's not shaping the way I listen to music in that sense. I'm grateful for having discovered so much music via algorithmic recommendation. Although I do find that it gives me more of a jack-of-all-trades knowledge of artists; I very rarely just sit down and listen to an album anymore.

FUN INC 2/19/2024, 1:38:14 PM

Now: Streaming

In the past: CDs

In the long past: cassettes

I would never get rid of any of the latter two - they hold far too much sentimental value.

I once joked with a friend that i wanted to catalogue my CD collection in personal purchase chronology - similar to the chap whose name evades me in High Fidelity) but it proved far too difficult. I do maintain my full collection in alphabetical ordered by release date for all my CDs. That was such a fun weekend doing that.

I think the saddest thing about the evolution of music is the erosion of the value of a physical copy of a cd, and the impact that this has had on the artist. I love having a physical format in my hands - I always have - and I always will. To me, it is the utmost respect for a musician or band pouring over their lyrics, the making of photos, or the photos that form the production and overall piece of music. I don't think music will ever really be the same as it is there music on demand without the need to even leave your room. Its great that you can do that now. But at what cost? I remember cycling to the local record shop on the day of release of Panteras Far Beyond Driven - I was 13 at the time. What a day. I was so excited - the anticipation there, and the anticipation back. Unwrapping the disc and popping in the album, and seeing the length pop up - you can't beat it. That first crushing guitar.

One thing i regret is not having my old hifi setup - streaming services are great but you cant beat popping a cd in and just listening - without distraction.

Dont get me wrong, streaming services overall are fantastic, as it opens you up to music that you just would never otherwise hear and to be fair, the algorithms are on point unless you let someone at your streaming account for more than 10 minutes!

More recently i have branched into vinyl - this is actually now more out of respect for the artists as it seems now that is the only place that any of the smaller bands out there can make any money.

ThomasStaff2/19/2024, 5:55:08 PM

FUN INC

Something I really miss with CDs is the specific sound that my CD player made when an album finished and the laser moved back to where it started. It gave the album a sense of finality, similar to the sound of a needle lifting off a record I suppose

Sturmer 2/19/2024, 1:42:58 PM

Last year at the Gamescom I got a present, a vinyl with a soundtrack from the game! And I still have a large collection of vintage vinyls from my childhood but I rarely touch them. But i'm too lazy, so the main source of music is Soundcloud plus some files are downloaded to my phone to be accessible during flights.

Retro Stu 2/19/2024, 10:16:37 PM

Spotify is my main platform and whilst I hate how little compensation artists get from it, it has opened me up to a lot of bands and artists I'd likely not have discovered which has led me to going to concerts, buying merch, or if they're smaller artists buying their albums when I can on Bandcamp and places like that.

I count myself lucky to have been born in the 80s and have experienced the joys of:

vinyl - which I still collect now, though I have thinned out my collection to make way for new stuff
cassette tapes - I have a pretty sizeable box of original and recorded tapes from my family, from Queen and Dire Straits to The Cure and mix tapes from my older sisters born in the 70s. Making my own mix tapes for the car rides to school in my mum's little red Seat Ibiza, trying to get the balance right whilst simultaneously trying to maximise the real estate on a 90 minute tape.
MP3s and by proxy mix CDs for the same reason as mix tapes. There's a real artform to a good mix CD and my past is littered with terrible ones, with the odd absolute belter in there.

Spotify gives me access to so much more music than I could wish for. Similarly to the way LastFM and Yahoo's previously known Launchcast used to do. Though credit to Launchast - you could outright ban an artist from ever appearing on your station, take that Coldplay. I know Spotify doesn't compensate fairly, but without it there's a good chance I'd have never discovered some bands that I now love, I'd never have bought their albums on vinyl or signed up to their Patreon pages or gone to their shows. So whilst it rightly gets vilified, I have to give it props where props are due.

klobbersaurus68 2/20/2024, 2:36:13 PM

We use Apple Music to stream most of our music anymore. Their system automatically shuffles in downloaded music when you are listening. I still buy music both digitally and CDs fairly regularly if it's an artist I really enjoy. I'm finding more independent artists are selling thumb drives with their songs just skipping CDs. Getting CDs onto a computer is a pain because my primary one doesn't have a CD drive.

My car still has a CD player in it and I know there is a disc in it, but I don't know what it is. My wife's car doesn't have a CD player, it's a 2021. I have two or three large plastic totes in our storage area with my CDs still in them, but I cannot bring myself to toss them. I've got all of our music backed up on two external drives because, like many other people, I lost a bit due to electronic issues.

I still have 8-tracks and up until ~3 months ago, I'd listen to them a couple of times a month. They hold a special place in my heart from the unique tone to the clunk of the tracks changing. My 8-track player has started acting up and I don't want to risk damaging any of the tapes. A fact that will amaze no one, there's not anyone to 'service' these, and online information is there but not comprehensive. Lots of companies made lots of different players and some are just truly relics that have been forgotten.