I've been on a panel with Graham Jones, author of Last Shop Standing. Enormously likeable guy. DL, I can tell that you've fallen under his influence - but he's such a dedicated and passionate advocate of independent record stores, that it's impossible not to!
I almost never buy digital, by the way. Only as a last resort.
― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 09:32 (7 months ago) Permalink
Like yesterday I cycled to physio first thing and made a 10-minute detour via HMV so I could pick up the Flying Lotus CD. Today I had Swans and Janelle Monae CDs arrive from Amazon. On Sunday I pre-ordered the Daphni CD.
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 09:33 (7 months ago) Permalink
(the Daphni record is SO good btw)
― Blue Collar Retail Assistant (Dwight Yorke), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 09:34 (7 months ago) Permalink
I buy the odd track digitally (generally b-sides, old singles, one-off tracks I want where I'm not interested in the whole album), or maybe a whole EP if I can't get it on CD - Owen Pallett, Antlers. Moving house might encourage more vinyl-buying as we'll be able to keep it in the same room as the record player, thus it might get used. I occasionally download an album nefariously, but 80% of the time I'll then buy it on CD too.
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 09:35 (7 months ago) Permalink
moving house is what completely killed any desire on my part to own physical music again. my dislike of physical objects grows immensely every time i do it.
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 09:37 (7 months ago) Permalink
I guess moving often would be a complete hassle, but we've been in the current place for 5 years, and anticipate being in the next for 7+.
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 09:40 (7 months ago) Permalink
I haven't even owned a CD player other than my laptop's disc drive in a couple of years. After my whole CD collection got stolen a few years ago, I decided I was done with the format.
― Cap'n Hug-a-Thug (The Reverend), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 09:41 (7 months ago) Permalink
If I did buy CDs, I'd really have no use for them other than ripping them to mp3 anyway.
― Cap'n Hug-a-Thug (The Reverend), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 09:43 (7 months ago) Permalink
moved house at the weekend and tho my new place is great i am in full agreement with lex, must rip and discard my cds, if only i cd happily do the same thing with books
― vegetarian beef (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 09:44 (7 months ago) Permalink
I've bought at least one item a week on average, mostly CDs but some vinyl, a mixture of new and second hand. The majority of the "new" items will be reissues and compilations. When I have more time I will aim to estimate the total number so I can do the poll.
― Jeff W, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 09:52 (7 months ago) Permalink
I do question why I continue buying CDs, as even after I've bought them, I'm still more likely to use Spotify for listening to them. (Through the iPhone app and into a DAC via Bluetooth - sound quality is every bit as good as CD.) CDs don't scrobble, that's their problem. Reasons why I continue: 1) no digital music in the car, 2) residual product fetishism, 3) residual "collector" mentality, 4) offline backup, 5) digital purchases still don't feel fully "owned", 6) adequate recompense to the artist. Of these, 6) is the clincher.
― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 09:59 (7 months ago) Permalink
moving house is what completely killed any desire on my part to own physical music again. my dislike of physical objects grows immensely every time i do it.― lex pretend, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:37 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:37 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Yeah, it got to the point where I realised I had an entire wall of music in variously sized units that was just taking up room. When it came to moving there was literally no way of housing them comfortably in the new place (and besides my cuntflap housemates of the time had taken to using my CD inlays as speed-wraps. I could KILL!) Many of the CDs were rips or secondhand things so the resell value wouldn't have outweighed the time and cost of selling them online, so I picked the ones that were important to me, phoned friends and told them to take however many they wanted. I rarely feel as though this was a bad idea as at least I know they've gone on to happy homes.
The remainder of my CD collection (which is still fairly big by most people's standards) currently sits behind a sofa in the spare room. Still, I sometimes glance at it and my eye picks out the spine of an album - usually one I'd just forgotten to play in a long time as it's squirrelled away in the depths of my hard drive - and I think to myself "I should give that another spin some time soon". This is testament to the physical format really. I have so much digital music now that my brain is ultimately accustomed to seeing certain folders in certain places and therefore skips and neglects them. So I always just scroll past, say, the Smashing Pumpkins folder, never thinking about whether or not I'd like to play anything from them. I forget that I used to really enjoy tracks off of Mellon Collie and how jarring I found it when they released Adore. Their entire career is reduced to a folder on my hard drive labelled "smashing pumpkins" and so I scroll through.
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:01 (7 months ago) Permalink
I'm intrigued, Mike, by your mention of that fact that "CDs don't scrobble"; why is being able to scrobble important to you? (And is scrobble in the OED yet? It should be.)
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:03 (7 months ago) Permalink
Yeah he seemed like a really nice bloke. He did a Q&A along with the shop staff which ended up getting kind of heated! Think the bit that affected me most was how at the end he explained that two of the shops in the documentary had had to close down since it was filmed, and that one of the owners was now living with his sister having lost his entire livelihood.
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:04 (7 months ago) Permalink
I dread to think, but it's probably close to, if not over 100 records. I'm actually trying to cut down the size of my collection, not expand it so I'm not really sure how it happened. A couple of times I sorted though cheap bins and bought about 20 for a pound or so which has pushed it up and most of those have been gambles which haven't made the cut.
I've probably sold 40-50 old records on Discogs this year too.
― Chewshabadoo, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:05 (7 months ago) Permalink
iPhone doesn't scrobble either these days. At least mine hasn't for at least a year. I do like Last.FM but it has so many flaws that it doesn't work as well as it should. It would be great to make it that bit less buggy and more communal.
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:07 (7 months ago) Permalink
Right, read the thread properly now, I'd say new or reissues, I've bought maybe 30 12" singles and around 5-10 lps. A few of those may have been bootlegs though, or at the very least sketchy licensing so the money may not have ended up in the artists pocket.
― Chewshabadoo, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:08 (7 months ago) Permalink
Think I've probably bought about 30 albums this year which is less than usual as we moved house and I was trying to cut down a bit.
Of those 30, I estimate at least half still have their cellophane wrappers on as they were albums I'd already downloaded when they leaked.
― groovypanda, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:14 (7 months ago) Permalink
Why is being able to scrobble important to you?
I like having a record of what I've listened to, and how often. Mmm, stats. I particularly like having rolling "most played tracks over past 3/6/12 months" counts.
― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:19 (7 months ago) Permalink
I hate stats.
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:26 (7 months ago) Permalink
If Scrobble actually worked properly for me it'd be great for EOY lists
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:28 (7 months ago) Permalink
I play albums on CD in my CD player and also play them (silently) on Spotify so that they scrobble. Also that way I'm contributing the tiny amount of money on top of whatever they got from my CD purchase.
― if, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:28 (7 months ago) Permalink
22 new albums including two boxed sets - nearly all CDs, the only records I've bought new this year have been reissues of older stuff. I prefer buying vinyl but new releases can be too pricey a lot of the time.
It'd be 100+ if we were counting secondhand purchases, I've bought a lot of cheap old stuff on both CD and vinyl.
― Gavin, Leeds, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:31 (7 months ago) Permalink
I've pretty much given up with EOY singles / tracks lists, as who knows what's actually a single anymore, and they'd be a zillion songs long.
As for EOY albums, I keep all new purchases separate from the rest of the collection, as a very visual reminder / guide to what I've bought this year (both new stuff and back catalogue). I filter everything into the stacks on New Years Day; done this for a few years now, and much prefer it to keeping a list anywhere or trying to remember by going through everything. Also gives me a default 'what to listen to niow' pile for when I'm feeling indecisive.
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:31 (7 months ago) Permalink
My digital collection gets a new folder every time I buy a bigger hard drive. I'm not sure what the logic to doing this is, other than it categorises it into new/old/very old. This does stop me going back and listening to stuff from a few years ago though, and I've found that the time I take listening to new music now far outweighs older stuff whereas before it would have been split pretty evenly.
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:37 (7 months ago) Permalink
I play albums on CD in my CD player and also play them (silently) on Spotify so that they scrobble.
I have been known to do this, yes. Ahem.
In place of a physical listening pile, I have a "favourite 2012 albums" Spotify playlist and a matching spreadsheet, held on Dropbox and permanently open on the laptop. Neither distinguishes between owned and unowned. (Well, OK, there's colour coding on the spreadsheet. Let's not delve too deeply into my mania.) I do miss the visual artwork cues, but it's a more level playing field.
― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:38 (7 months ago) Permalink
There's one additional bit of insanity which MUST STOP: ripping purchased CDs to iTunes, when they're already on Spotify. An utterly pointless waste of time and disk space.
― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:40 (7 months ago) Permalink
Isn't Spotify streaming lower quality than CD rip?
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:43 (7 months ago) Permalink
Depends how you rip your CDs.
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:44 (7 months ago) Permalink
xps I guess you get better quality from a rip unless you have Spotify Premium.
― fish frosch (seandalai), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:44 (7 months ago) Permalink
I don't think I'll ever get on board with Spotify.
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:46 (7 months ago) Permalink
No, the "extreme" setting on the app equates to 320kpbs. Through a DAC, there's no discernible difference with the CD, let alone the rip.
― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:46 (7 months ago) Permalink
by a very long distance the least in a couple of decades - about 18 new CDs (inc doubles and triples) and a few music DVDs.
this has been mostly deliberate, because I still have things I bought in the '90s I've not listened to yet (have been gradually cutting down for five years on these grounds) and because I might be putting all my shit in storage for a year or so in 2013, and then finding a new place to live and unpacking it all again.
last night, at a gig, I bought an EP I've been wanting to buy for five years but have never seen a copy of before - that was the first purchase in three months.
― ┐(´ー｀)┌ (sic), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:46 (7 months ago) Permalink
Even though I've got rid of a lot of CDs over the past few years, I do like having a physical copy of the things I really like - I'm moving house in a month so there is the space factor but I like having objects if I'm attached to them and they're nice to look at. I bought an OOIOO CD recently which has really great artwork for example, I've also picked up some of those Miles Davis boxed sets used and they're so beautifully made, I don't mind shelling out extra for things like that.
Buying music digitally is great for singles though, I keep a work-in-progress playlist of my favourites for each year. I'd miss so much great new music if I only paid attention to albums.
― Gavin, Leeds, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:51 (7 months ago) Permalink
Zero. CDs and CD boxes are kind of horrible physical objects anyway, especially once you've had them for a while, and they don't display well, and the last few CDs I bought I ended up digitising straight away anyway. Never had a turntable.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 10:58 (7 months ago) Permalink
I still have trouble thinking of CDs as "physical music" rather than just another way of storing electronic data. Outside of vinyl, music just isn't a physical artefact.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 11:01 (7 months ago) Permalink
about twenty CD's, most recently Dwight Yoakam's latest. I don't ever rip the whole CD to my iPod though: at most six or so tracks.
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 11:05 (7 months ago) Permalink
xpost Yeah, CDs seem like a really obscure format now - a halfway house that suits little purpose. Like you say, no longer a pleasing physical artefact nor a satisfactory digital format. I'm surprised you (as a dancist) never had a turntable Matt. Do you DJ at all? I tend to find that, for dance music, I get frustrated with listening to individual single tracks (too many long intros and outros) and end up mixing them together using Acid Pro for a more cohesive listen.
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 11:06 (7 months ago) Permalink
Haven't bought any physical music this year but have probably spent about $1k on digital releases.
― Sadly, 99.99 percent of sheeple will never wake up (I DIED), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 11:08 (7 months ago) Permalink
Rockist!
xpost.
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 11:08 (7 months ago) Permalink
Zero
Feeling kind of ashamed
― Raymond Cummings, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 11:12 (7 months ago) Permalink
Haha, rockist?
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 11:13 (7 months ago) Permalink
Making your singles-based genre into 'cohesive' album-like units!
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 11:14 (7 months ago) Permalink
or dj sets as they're known by us hardcore rock fans
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 11:15 (7 months ago) Permalink
Most of the digital purchases I've made this year = impossible to find in shops and/or on CD
― Raymond Cummings, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 11:16 (7 months ago) Permalink
i guess expecting a dance fan to own vinyl decks is like expecting a rock fan to own guitars...
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 11:17 (7 months ago) Permalink
Kind of a no brainier
― Raymond Cummings, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 11:17 (7 months ago) Permalink
40-60, mostly vinyl, mostly catalogue. Fewer CDs than I used to because I tend to preview albums on Spotify and download the best tracks. If an album's consistently good I'll still buy the CD or vinyl though. Because, in terms of music-buying generations, I am old.
― Get wolves (DL), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 11:18 (7 months ago) Permalink
20-40 - a good chunk of that was two raids on the classical section of Academy Records. I am kind of into CDs right now because listening to them on the boombox in the kitchen or in the room I use as my office is a real pleasure to me
― Inconceivable (to the entire world) (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 11:24 (7 months ago) Permalink
I'd have DJ sets as analogous to gigs rather than albums...
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 11:29 (7 months ago) Permalink
That's just over 200 votes, which is pretty impressive.
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 05:06 (7 months ago) Permalink
That result is predictably saddening for me. I know that out of all my serious music loving friends there's only 2 of us who routinely buy music anymore.
― Internet Alan, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 08:18 (7 months ago) Permalink
Hands up if anyone actually bought a pre-recorded Minidisc. Can you even do that nowadays? Who would even do such a thing?
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 08:44 (7 months ago) Permalink
Gescom released an MD-only release, but that was over ten years ago now. I used to love MD when I had one - really good for making mixtapes and really easy to use. Are tapes ever released on a commercial level (as opposed to tiny homemade labels)?
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 08:53 (7 months ago) Permalink
they were great in fairness. another victim of so-called "progress".
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 08:56 (7 months ago) Permalink
dj derek still uses 2 minidisc players for his sets ...
― mark e, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 09:06 (7 months ago) Permalink
I loved minidisc as a recording format but never bought a pre-recorded one. Remember seeing a tiny rack of pre-recorded ones in Northampton HMV or Virgin circa 1999.
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 09:19 (7 months ago) Permalink
i have the Gescom MD (which is no longer MD-only - http://boomkat.com/cds/24705-gescom-minidisc / http://boomkat.com/downloads/42999-gescom-mini-disc ). it's the only pre-recorded one i have.
― koogs, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 09:48 (7 months ago) Permalink
1928 minidiscs listed on amazon, some bargains, some collectors prices.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_hi_2?rh=n%3A229816%2Cp_n_binding_browse-bin%3A382531011&bbn=229816&ie=UTF8&qid=1349862530
― koogs, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 09:51 (7 months ago) Permalink
re: gescom, does it actually work? I mean, does it work as a continuous random mix or what?
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 09:51 (7 months ago) Permalink
yeah, minidisc was designed to be gapless and survive jostles by buffering the audio slightly beforehand. you could hear it seeking to read the next track a good 5 seconds or so before the current one ended
― koogs, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 09:57 (7 months ago) Permalink
as for working artistically, i'm not so sure. some things were seconds long, a couple were a minute or two (88 tracks, 74 minutes) and a range of styles and it's hard to get such disparate things to sounds like a whole.
― koogs, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 09:59 (7 months ago) Permalink
Encouraging results, humanity is evolving
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 11:11 (7 months ago) Permalink
I was given the new David Byrne and St. Vincent on LP for my birthday this weekend, and also picked up John Maus's last one, which I'd heard before but somehow sounds really good on vinyl.
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 11:27 (7 months ago) Permalink
Hands up if anyone actually bought a pre-recorded Minidisc. Can you even do that nowadays? Who would even do such a thing?they were great in fairness. another victim of so-called "progress".― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 08:56 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 08:56 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Yup. Amongst other albums on Minidisc I bought at the time, I do owns a copy of Kevin Rowland's "My Beauty".
You can now, but only on ebay.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 12:40 (7 months ago) Permalink
I think there are literally only about three people in the country who own that particular album on that format. And Kevin Rowland isn't one of them.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 12:44 (7 months ago) Permalink
Neither is Alan Mcgee.
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 12:55 (7 months ago) Permalink
AmG sold most of his 'collection' at auction recently.
A load of Creation albums were on MD (I have a couple of Boo Radley ones too), I believe it to be because of the Sony link.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 12:57 (7 months ago) Permalink
Argh! forgot to vote. Mm, would have been the 40-60 bracket, I suppose.
― t**t, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 13:17 (7 months ago) Permalink
Yup. Amongst other albums on Minidisc I bought at the time, I do owns a copy of Kevin Rowland's "My Beauty".You can now, but only on ebay.― Mark G, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 13:40 (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post PermalinkI think there are literally only about three people in the country who own that particular album on that format. And Kevin Rowland isn't one of them.― Matt DC, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 13:44 (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Mark G, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 13:40 (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 13:44 (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Yeah WTF, that might actually be worth something now that Dexy's have reformed. Sell it quick before everyone realises the new album is dull as a bruise to the arm.
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 13:21 (7 months ago) Permalink
new album is awesome
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 13:25 (7 months ago) Permalink
Didn't see this to vote.
I guess about 300 used LPs, maybe 20 new ones, and the same amount of singles. A few freebie CDs. No non-physical purchases and a few downloads for work purposes.
― Fine Toothcomb (sonofstan), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 16:00 (7 months ago) Permalink
Gescom released an MD-only release, but that was over ten years ago now. I used to love MD when I had one - really good for making mixtapes and really easy to use.
Yup, I really loved having my MD recorder to make mixes, especially for parties. Just pop in a new MD when needed. The only commerical album I bought on MD was Rage Against the Machine's Evil Empire, I bought it when I bought my MD player/recorder and it was the only one the store had in its limited selection that was even close to be interesting to me.
― HAPPY BDAY TOOTS (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 17:24 (7 months ago) Permalink