How do you consume music?

Matt_McG

1, 4, and 5.

If I am buying new music, my preferred format is vinyl with a download code for audio files, and I buy a fair bit of second hand vinyl. I also have a paid Spotify subscription, and a hard drive with all of my CDs ripped on to audio file, which I stream to the hifi. For a small number of artists, I'll just buy the FLACs from Bandcamp, or wherever.

I kept all my CDs, but they are filed away in folders, and I haven't actually played one in years. I prefer not to buy CDs, and will only buy them now if vinyl (with download code) is not available.

Probably 75% of my daily listening is Spotify on the phone, though.

randella

New music, streaming.

Old music, vinyl because it reminds me of trying to learn licks from my dad's Cream records back in the day.  Somehow comforting.

The (lots of) CDs i still have but they're strictly for decorating the sitting room and I'm not sure that if I wanted to play one I actually could given that there's no player in the house.

Litterick

Mostly YouTube, because membership of this forum and others encourages musical curiosity. I read somewhere that people over A Certain Age become settled in their musical tastes; I am determined to remain unsettled.

ICBM

Litterick said:

Mostly YouTube, because membership of this forum and others encourages musical curiosity. I read somewhere that people over A Certain Age become settled in their musical tastes; I am determined to remain unsettled.

Likewise, but my random curiosity is fuelled by buying CDs from charity shops that I’ve never heard of, but the cover looks interesting. I’ve discovered dozens of artists I would never have even known to look for like that.

DiscoStu

New music?
Streaming, and Radio. You forgot radio.

Sambostar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8N5tcTMrMw

stickyfiddle

I listen to ~90% of music via mp3s (or equivalent) stored on my phone played either through headphones, or various bluetooth devices around the house (separate boxes in kitchen, bedroom and living room), or in the car. Those come from a mix of CDs, downloads and "sharing" with friends. The rest is youtube, particularly for live recordings.

Streaming sucks in the UAE so I wouldn't even consider it.

thumpingrug

90% of purchases are CD's which are ripped to phone and played via Bluetooth to various speaker systems and in the car.   Also listen to the CD on home HiFi and just occasionally but special edition vinyl again for home hifi use (It jumps around to much in the car).   I have a free Spotify account but don't like the revenue model for the artists so tend to sample stuff from their and buy if its to my taste.

AustrianJohn

Thanks for your responses to my music question. The results, with input from a variety of social media sources are:

• Vinyl                24
• CD                   53
• USB                 2
• Download        34
• Streaming       87

And although I forgot to ask, people volunteered

• Radio               10
• Cassette            2

A number of people said that they listen by streaming, but sometimes buy Vinyl or CDs (which can remain unopened) if they want to support a band.

MrBump

Almost entirely Spotify.

JezWynd

via my ears usually.

Creed_Clicks

AustrianJohn said:

I'm studying how music is consumed for an MA course I'm doing. I'd appreciate your feedback. Which of the following ways do you use to get new music?

1. Vinyl
2. CD
3. USB
4. Download
5. Streaming

Thanks

All of the above, but I have stopped buying vinyl. I'm in decision on whether to continue or abandon collecting vinyl. They do look great though, and once I settle somewhere, I'll probably buy a small vinyl player.
CD. Thinned the collection massively this year, but still buy the odd CD. 
USB? not sure what you mean here? Mates sharing music files? The odd time yeah.
Download. Yeah. Again, I'd give money to bands that deserve it, and like to have offline files.
Streaming. All the time, when I'm working online.

AustrianJohn

Creed_Clicks said:

I'm in decision on whether to continue or abandon collecting vinyl. They do look great though, ...

Yeah - and there's something about taking an album off the shelf, pulling out the inner sleeve then the record, putting it on the turntable, lifting the needle across and hearing the hiss before the first song starts. Then sitting down to read the notes on the album cover. 

Streaming doesn't feel the same 

Nitefly

AustrianJohn said:

Creed_Clicks said:

I'm in decision on whether to continue or abandon collecting vinyl. They do look great though, ...

Yeah - and there's something about taking an album off the shelf, pulling out the inner sleeve then the record, putting it on the turntable, lifting the needle across and hearing the hiss before the first song starts. Then sitting down to read the notes on the album cover. 

Streaming doesn't feel the same 

The simple pleasures of my youth!

My hearing is now shot, so I don't "consume" any music any more.  However I can still enjoy lots of stuff that I already know in my head, just from memory, so I do still "listen" to music. 

And I know intervals, so I can usually work out chord sequences, which is fun in itself.

viz

Sambostar said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8N5tcTMrMw

Hello @sambostar, LTNS

Sesh

I buy CDs, listen to them at home, but have them all ripped onto usb for at work and in the car. I'll also have a few of the mp3'd albums on my phone for when I'm a-wandering.

I prefer owning something physical.

Creed_Clicks

AustrianJohn said:

Creed_Clicks said:

I'm in decision on whether to continue or abandon collecting vinyl. They do look great though, ...

Yeah - and there's something about taking an album off the shelf, pulling out the inner sleeve then the record, putting it on the turntable, lifting the needle across and hearing the hiss before the first song starts. Then sitting down to read the notes on the album cover. 

Streaming doesn't feel the same 

Agreed. Even when streaming, I try to listen to albums in full. Putting on a record or CD at home and sitting down to listen is a luxury for me. Getting a few hours to sit and do nothing and just listen to music is hard these days.
I'd always listen to digital music doing other things, walking the dog, shopping, etc. I'm still a fan of the album, no matter the format.

ROOG

At Home I listen to music by streaming 95% of the time (Tidal HiFi) or playing ripped CDs (WAV),  Oh and 1% vinyl
In the car 90% radio spoken word and 10% playing ripped CDs

I find it hard to distinguish between  the higher quality streaming services, (typically CD quality FLAC) and CD's ripped to WAV and stored on  local NAS 

BeardyAndy

5

Took me a while to embrace the Spotify generation but I now use Apple music, I keep meaning to get myself a turn table so I can still buy a few select albums on vinyl but space doesn't allow at the moment!

andyp

99% of what I listen to is via Apple Music now. I still sometimes use CDs in the car but that is very very rare now as they're too much hassle to cart around and look after when it's all available via my phone anyway.

When I do listen to music it's mostly in headphones now, but I have Sonos setup in the house that I mainly use to play stuff I have copied from my CD collection to a hard drive. Even then though, about 20% of my Sonos use is probably streamed from Apple too.

I used to love buying CDs but I think I've bought 3 in the last year. Maybe half a dozen the years before that...

I was about the last man standing among my mates who still bought CDs, even a hardcore music collector guy I know, who used to spend hundreds a month on CDs has stopped and only buys special edition stuff now.