Music Consumption?

[Deathray 2,933]

I got thinking the other day about the vinyl revival and whether CDs could ever experience some sort of renaissance given how much vinyl costs nowadays in comparison to CDs, and I started to wonder how most people consume their music. With Vinyl now extortionate, the gap's there for CDs to fill the "physical copy" market for those of us with less disposable income, even if we stream a lot anyway. I virtually exclusively use Google play and Spotify now, but I miss the physical object of having a CD and the little notes in the booklets to peruse while I listen to the album, anyone buy CDs purely that purpose? But is that really worth the extra expense? 

 

So how do other DLers consume their music?

[Sir Creep 7,017]

1. When did CD's die? 
2. And when did vinyl have this 'revival'.  I guess if 2% of all music suddenly appears on vinyl it's a revival.  Is there a similar 'turntable revival' and 'stylus manufacturing' revival?

Sir Creep worked in the 'record store' 1985-87, and can tell plenty of stories, but keeping to the point, he recalls vividly receiving the very first shipment of about 15 CDs.  We were like 'wtf are these?"
Store manager said 'make a display for these things' and SC and another person did just that.  They were like $17 ea, considering we sold vinyl albums for around $4.99 at the time, that was quite an ask.

Yes, SC has purchased many items from iTunes (thus my vote), but prefers having an actual CD in his hand, despite it's space necessities.   It's like ebooks, fuck that shit.
But SC is an old curmudgeon man and is to be ignored as the world of music passes him by.
Having his druthers SC would split his vote 1/2 iTunes 1/2 CDs.  He will Youtube albums sometimes at work in wifi environment, but that isn't how he  consumes and holds onto music as part of his 'collection'.
SC

(PS: The question asked first needs to be answered what you think of music piracy or ignoring copyright.  If you think it's cool stealing from the  composer, then you'll have different answers for your audio intake than if you don't)
 

[Deathray 2,933]

25 minutes ago, Sir Creep said:

1. When did CD's die? 
2. And when did vinyl have this 'revival'.  I guess if 2% of all music suddenly appears on vinyl it's a revival.  Is there a similar 'turntable revival' and 'stylus manufacturing' revival?

Sir Creep worked in the 'record store' 1985-87, and can tell plenty of stories, but keeping to the point, he recalls vividly receiving the very first shipment of about 15 CDs.  We were like 'wtf are these?"
Store manager said 'make a display for these things' and SC and another person did just that.  They were like $17 ea, considering we sold vinyl albums for around $4.99 at the time, that was quite an ask.

Yes, SC has purchased many items from iTunes (thus my vote), but prefers having an actual CD in his hand, despite it's space necessities.   It's like ebooks, fuck that shit.
 But SC is an old curmudgeon man and is to be ignored as the world of music passes him by.
Having his druthers SC would split his vote 1/2 iTunes 1/2 CDs.  He will Youtube albums sometimes at work in wifi environment, but that isn't how he  consumes and holds onto music as part of his 'collection'.
 SC

(PS: The question asked first needs to be answered what you think of music piracy or ignoring copyright.  If you think it's cool stealing from the  composer, then you'll have different answers for your audio intake than if you don't)
  

 

CDs are dead in that streaming appears to be the rising method of consumption amongst the new generation and many many casual consumers have sold off CD collections as all the music they've ever wanted is available for free to blare through their shitty beat headphones. A bit like vinyl CDs will never go away but it's fairly clear from the number of CD/DVD specialist stores that have died a death in the past decade or so the demand is dwindling, most record stores focus on vinyl as frankly that's where the money is.

 

Regards the vinyl revival, there was a time many years ago where used vinyl were worth as much as used CDs are now, as everyone had moved on, yet now used vinyl can be sold for extortionate sums of money as can new vinyl. A not insignificant number of collectors abound, the quandry lies in perhaps whether CDs are set to go the way of the vinyl record and come back into vogue for nostalgic reasons or the way of the floppy disc and be seen as a means to an end and left in the dustbin to die. As someone who's always enjoyed the physical means of music, and if it not for a lack of disposable income would buy regular CDs still now, being a late abandoner in favour of streaming. However my streaming album contains over 800 albums with more added by the day, an expense I can't really justify even if bargain basementing every one of those albums for 1 or 2 quid an album, let alone buying any of the new ones for extortionate prices at 10+.  I have about a hundred CDs and semi-regularly play about half of them (most bought before I started streaming, but I still can't let go of them) but if I were to solely rely on CDs for my music I'd miss out on so much music that I want to listen to. 

 

It seems your vote is wrong anyway, I asked your preference; you state your preference is CD but voted itunes anyway despite exclaiming inferior to having a physical CD? 

 

Regards to copyright/piracy, isn't streaming one of the biggest death knells of the piracy argument, anyone who was pirating albums is now listening on streaming services as they're wet dreams have come true in infinite access to music. 

 

 

 

[Toast 14,882]

I like my CDs and have filled many gaps in my music library by buying used CDs cheaply in charity shops and ebay.  I like having a tangible object.

 

I load most of them into my laptop and thence to my ipod, which I use a lot while walking the dog.  It encourages me to do longer walks, especially if it's on shuffle, as I always want to see what will come up next. 

 

I also find that the ipod shuffle has led to me appreciating previously overlooked songs.   Often an album has one or two outstanding songs which overshadow the others, some of which turn out to be gems when heard out of context.

 

When I was a kid we only had vinyl.  The big drawback was that you needed to replace the stylus far, far more often than we did.  Every time I got a new disc it would jump, because the stylus was worn.  Old records would play fine because the stylus had worn its own track, but of course that was damaging the disc at the same time, quite apart from all the careless handling that led to many of them getting scratched. 

 

I do still have an 80s music centre somewhere, with CD player, turntable and double cassette for playing and recording tape-to-tape.  And radio.  Probably quite desirable now!  But I wouldn't want to go back to vinyl or cassettes.

 

So my poll answer is both CDs and Other (ipod).

[Clorox Bleachman 2,030]

I'm a bit weird when it comes to music. I voted for YouTube because I use that when I'm on WiFi but the YouTube downloader is my friend when I'm short on data. This always ends terribly with all the downloads being wiped, but it's better than hoarding MP3 players. At one point I had 5...

 

Vinyl virgin.

 

I used to love CDs for the reason Toast mentioned, but they're too expensive now (sometimes works out as nearly £1 per track). The maw has this spectacular collection of CDs going back to 1985 with Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms.

 

She also had cassettes in her car (the car was so old that it only took casettes and the radio was broken). I remember there was one by The Carpenters, mainly because it exploded and nearly took my eye out.

 

Never saw the appeal of paid downloads.

 

I've tried Spotify a few times but the free trial is as far as I've got because I'm tight. My new phone offers Google Play Music for free. Might try that.

[Deathray 2,933]

4 minutes ago, Clorox Bleachman said:

I'm a bit weird when it comes to music. I voted for YouTube because I use that when I'm on WiFi but the YouTube downloader is my friend when I'm short on data. This always ends terribly with all the downloads being wiped, but it's better than hoarding MP3 players. At one point I had 5...

  

Vinyl virgin.

 

I used to love CDs for the reason Toast mentioned, but they're too expensive now (sometimes works out as nearly £1 per track). The maw has this spectacular collection of CDs going back to 1985 with Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms.

  

She also had cassettes in her car (the car was so old that it only took casettes and the radio was broken). I remember there was one by The Carpenters, mainly because it exploded and nearly took my eye out.

  

 Never saw the appeal of paid downloads.

  

I've tried Spotify a few times but the free trial is as far as I've got because I'm tight. My new phone offers Google Play Music for free. Might try that.

 

Assuming that's for new CDs, and let's be honest how many of the albums available to buy are new? Pop down your local charity shop piles of CDs for one or two squid each, still to expensive when you listen to 4-5 albums a day to buy every one. 

 

The thing that's sold me on Google Play is the ability to edit playlists on the fly, which is a nightmare on Spotify and the ease of creating a extensive album library of music you like which as mentioned above is expensive on CDs, as much as they are infinitely preferable for the information booklets and the physical attachment to music. 

[TQR 12,321]

Were cassettes always shite? I'm a product of the mid-90s and I was brought up on CDs mostly so I don't really know how they were perceived, but I do struggle to see how they'd ever be anything other than shite.

 

I download all my favourite stuff and stream for general ear noise. That being said, I do appreciate the aesthetic of vinyl.

[Deathray 2,933]

2 minutes ago, The Quim Reaper said:

Were cassettes always shite? I'm a product of the mid-90s and I was brought up on CDs mostly so I don't really know how they were perceived, but I do struggle to see how they'd ever be anything other than shite.

 

I download all my favourite stuff and stream for general ear noise. That being said, I do appreciate the aesthetic of vinyl.

 

Also post-cassette, but I'm pretty sure their main functionality (judging by my parents casette collection) was taping the top 40 so you didn't have to buy each single individually in the pre-internet era or for buying audiobooks and yes the quality was shite for music, but they were cheap....

[Toast 14,882]

3 minutes ago, Deathray said:

6 minutes ago, The Quim Reaper said:

Were cassettes always shite? I'm a product of the mid-90s and I was brought up on CDs mostly so I don't really know how they were perceived, but I do struggle to see how they'd ever be anything other than shite.

 

I download all my favourite stuff and stream for general ear noise. That being said, I do appreciate the aesthetic of vinyl.

 

Also post-cassette, but I'm pretty sure their main functionality (judging by my parents casette collection) was taping the top 40 so you didn't have to buy each single individually in the pre-internet era or for buying audiobooks and yes the quality was shite for music, but they were cheap....

 

Yep, making your own tapes was the equivalent of today's playlist. 

Other than that, they were a PITA because they were prone to getting mangled, often beyond salvage.  But then vinyl was quite fragile too.

And there was no way to select tracks.  It was tedious trying to fast forward or rewind to a particular track;  at least with vinyl you can drop the needle where you want.

An advantage was that they were more portable, so you could play music in the car other than the radio.

[Deathray 2,933]

2 minutes ago, Toast said:

 

Yep, making your own tapes was the equivalent of today's playlist. 

Other than that, they were a PITA because they were prone to getting mangled, often beyond salvage.  But then vinyl was quite fragile too.

 And there was no way to select tracks.  It was tedious trying to fast forward or rewind to a particular track;  at least with vinyl you can drop the needle where you want.

 An advantage was that they were more portable, so you could play music in the car other than the radio.

 

I've actually just remembered we had a portable casette player when I was quite young; this would be  late 90s/early 00s and used for audio books, the walkman was always used for music along with a wallet holding the same small collection of CDs. Both of them we're only really used to shut us up on long car journeys. 

[Cat O'Falk 3,289]

 

[Deathray 2,933]

2 minutes ago, Cat O'Falk said:

 

 

Quite genuinely, what the fuck is that?  

[Cat O'Falk 3,289]

3 minutes ago, Deathray said:

 

Quite genuinely, what the fuck is that?  

 

8 Track.

[Deathray 2,933]

5 minutes ago, Cat O'Falk said:

 

8 Track.

 

I suppose we need to retract the statement that CDs are dead? Does anybody actually know anybody who still owns one of those  8-track things, that's the definition of a dead medium? At least new music is generally released on vinyl and CD and cassettes serve a purpose for old ladies in care homes but those things seem completely dead.

[Cat O'Falk 3,289]

25 minutes ago, Deathray said:

 

I suppose we need to retract the statement that CDs are dead? Does anybody actually know anybody who still owns one of those  8-track things, that's the definition of a dead medium? At least new music is generally released on vinyl and CD and cassettes serve a purpose for old ladies in care homes but those things seem completely dead.

 

First one I ever saw was about 50 years ago in my brother's car; the last one was about 40 years ago in a friends car when we were at college. Didn't see many in between  to be honest.

[Toast 14,882]

I can't remember knowing anyone who used 8 track cassettes, so I guess they never really caught on in a big way.

There are always those people who immediately buy anything that's new, but beyond that ...

[Sir Creep 7,017]

2 hours ago, The Quim Reaper said:

Were cassettes always shite? I'm a product of the mid-90s and I was brought up on CDs mostly so I don't really know how they were perceived, but I do struggle to see how they'd ever be anything other than shite.

 

I download all my favourite stuff and stream for general ear noise. That being said, I do appreciate the aesthetic of vinyl.

Cassettes had their glory for 15 years (say 1975-1990) as it was the only means of getting your music into your vehicle.  So there was that.   Once CDs appeared all new material would soon be purchased thence.  HOWEVER -- many of us dinosaurs liked to make 'mixed tapes' and that was impossible until the recordable CD arrived, which wasn't for a good number of years yet.
SC
(edit - 8-tracks sucked -- my older sister had lots of em -- cuz due to design they almost always chopped one song in half to make it all work.  Sometimes it was a hit song).  

Look what they did to Dark Side of the Moon.  Time, Us and Them both chopped into bits.
Any number of examples see playlists:  Dr. Hook, Hotel California, CSNY....
You can imagine how it butchered prog rock: ELP Tarkus lol look at the playlist.
 

[Sir Creep 7,017]

3 hours ago, Deathray said:

It seems your vote is wrong anyway, I asked your preference; you state your preference is CD but voted itunes anyway despite exclaiming inferior to having a physical CD? 

 

You are correct.  I have changed my vote to the physical CD as preference.

[Sir Creep 7,017]

2 hours ago, Deathray said:

 

I suppose we need to retract the statement that CDs are dead? Does anybody actually know anybody who still owns one of those  8-track things, that's the definition of a dead medium? At least new music is generally released on vinyl and CD and cassettes serve a purpose for old ladies in care homes but those things seem completely dead.

They can be got at flea markets and such, but finding one in working order may be a challenge.  I've been going to try to do it, but the music availability blows so why bother is my usual setback.  Besides being a lazy sod.  That said, I still have my dual VCR-DVD player and my daughter (7) has been brought up watching many many VCR kids movies we got for $0.10-0.50.  She knows more about Beethoven (the dog) movies than Despicable Me's.  
I also have a dual cassette deck from way back when, works and looks like new.  Should sell it lol.  But how would I play my two boxes of 60 cassettes I still own?
SC
(Edit -- interesting I found this Yes album '90125' (1983) released as an 8-track.  That seems pretty amazing, 1983 still coming out with that.  Once again, a longer prog song cut in half out of necessity.

[Sir Creep 7,017]

Well forget that idea lol I look online and if you want a vintage 8-track player in good shape etc you're looking around $300 US!  Fuuuuuuck that.  
"Nostalgia, it's no good, your future lies in the past".

[charon 4,938]

 

 

Dad had 8 track in the car and a cousin had it in the house, great days.

 

The Brothers in Arms was the first CD clorex I think.

 

 

Covered this in another thread recently as why CDs are shite, just convenient, but once you are past 19/20 it doesn't matter as your hearing range goes to shit.

 

Try the online audible tests and shiver as to how much of the top and bottom range you cannot hear, not did it a decade but I pretty much gave up on new music at that point and rely on nostalgia.

 

 

* also applies to headphones, why spend a fortune on ones that cover a huge frequency range a bat would struggle with?

[Toast 14,882]

In the 70s, bands used to play really LOUD so it's surprising I can hear anything at all now.

[charon 4,938]

Mini disc when it came out was quite good, and popularity again because Sony behind it.

 

Yet was pish if compared to Digital Compact Cassette if you went by audible quality.

 

 

Sony also had a hand in upping the compression available to a recordable CD, the 700mb could contain dozens of albums if you had a compatible Atrack player I think it was called.

 

 

Now, if into digital music, its Flac or fuck off. Files are huge though.

[charon 4,938]

On a side note was discussing with Bou earlier about 15 years ago I won a £350 Olympus digital camera.

 

3 megapixels.

 

My phone has 3 cameras 5 times that I think.

 

 

But.... It had TIFF option for photos.

 

 

Unreal the detail of picture, how big you could blow it up etc,  so again proves headline features are not everything.

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,160]

2 hours ago, Deathray said:

 

I suppose we need to retract the statement that CDs are dead? Does anybody actually know anybody who still owns one of those  8-track things, that's the definition of a dead medium? At least new music is generally released on vinyl and CD and cassettes serve a purpose for old ladies in care homes but those things seem completely dead.

8 Track players ( for cars) do pop up on ebay as do the cassettes.

They actually worked very well, I always thought that the sound was crisper than the cassette players/tapes that replaced them.

Still quite popular with classic car owners as a period feature.

I bought a 1980s music centre recently, resplendent in its glass cabinet.

Nothing beats vinyl for sound.