like I go to pitchfork and go "welp, haven't heard of any of these artists" and close the page
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 19:18 (7 months ago) Permalink
lol
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 19:19 (7 months ago) Permalink
I mean, I may do that anyway, but that's not how I learned about all kinds of music over the years.
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 19:26 (7 months ago) Permalink
The thing about CDs is they seem like such a shitty half-measure at this point. They were useful when because of technological limitations they were the best means available to distribute digital music files, but that hasn't been the case for years now.
At any rate, probably about half or more of the music I listen to now isn't available on any physical format, whether it's rap/r&b mixtapes or random dance tracks downloaded from soundcloud or whatever.
― Cap'n Hug-a-Thug (The Reverend), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 19:38 (7 months ago) Permalink
Tbh, Soundcloud is presently the most exciting music distribution model as far as I'm concerned.
― Cap'n Hug-a-Thug (The Reverend), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 19:40 (7 months ago) Permalink
there also is a culture associated with digital music and the way it's distributed and consumed. obviously.
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 19:52 (7 months ago) Permalink
the idea that it somehow automatically becomes machine-like or a fascimile is basically akin to saying dance music cannot have the emotion of the beatles or some shit. it doesn't actually make any sense except it sounds easy on the ear because of preconceptions.
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 19:53 (7 months ago) Permalink
^^^yes!
― Cap'n Hug-a-Thug (The Reverend), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 19:56 (7 months ago) Permalink
btw I've never owned a Beatles album, kind of think of them as audio wallpaper
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 20:00 (7 months ago) Permalink
the problem with audio wallpaper is you can't actually paper your walls with it. when a friend comes around, sure they can hear it, but they can't reach out and touch it like the wallpaper of old.
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 20:04 (7 months ago) Permalink
the taste of youth is in the gutter, they don't know how to listen to real music
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 20:06 (7 months ago) Permalink
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, October 2, 2012 3:00 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
would you say you hear the beatles more or less often than you eat pizza?
― farte blanche (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 20:11 (7 months ago) Permalink
Nick you're conflating "buying CDs" (or vinyl, or physical music in any form) with "rewarding the artists for their work". I've spent as much, probably more, on digital downloads this year than I would have spent on CDs back in the day. I very much doubt I'm alone in this. CDs are so dirt cheap these days, and the manufacturing and distribution costs are still relatively high, so the margin on digital downloads is actually higher. Whether that goes to the artists, that's a different issue. For artists with a much lower profile than Grizzly Bear, it means the barrier to getting their music actually on sale is much lower.
Really though you can't stop people from taking the path of least resistance, and streaming services like Spotify and whatever Apple launches will probably lead to a big decline in illegal downloads after a while.
Maybe the way forward is for major labels to pay artists a living wage like everyone else who works for them, paid for through a retooled revenue model, rather than unrecoupable advances based on projected sales that may never materialise.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 20:20 (7 months ago) Permalink
I love cds for their newfound state of useless dejection. Their sheer unsexiness and obsolete functionality is very appealing at a time when the resurgence of vinyl and cassettes bespeak a fetishization of older, physical media. Cds aren't quite tactile and aren't quite digital, they're small, and there's not much nostalgic about them. I love them for their abjection.
In the last 16 months I've bought maybe like 170-190 cds.
― formerly EDB (ed.b), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 20:24 (7 months ago) Permalink
used? they are cheaper than mp3s weirdly
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 20:29 (7 months ago) Permalink
If I am conflating buying physical product with rewarding the artist I think that's fair enough - revenue models for download services vary massively, and somewhere like emusic can't be paying the artists as much as iTunes. It's great that you've spent as much or more on downloads as you'd have spent on CDs, and I'd much rather people buy a download than stream via Spotify, even premium, and that download systems mean more people can get their music out there than via physical methods. But it's not for me, and I've seen artists state that their preferred mode of sale of their work is via physical formats. That's what I prefer, and to me it seems fairest.
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 20:35 (7 months ago) Permalink
"Ultimately my concern isn’t that Grizzly Bear can’t afford to buy houses or pay for health insurance. It’s that they ... and everyone else whose music I love, won’t be able to afford to make ends meet so much that they’ll give up, and stop making music, and go and get day jobs. That would be a tragedy."
lots of people work part-time or even full-time day jobs and still manage to make great music. it's not an either/or proposition.
― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 21:03 (7 months ago) Permalink
don't say things like that, you'll summon the spirit of Albini
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 21:04 (7 months ago) Permalink
The last time I bought a casa ingles was in 2001. it still holds up today.
― thomasintrouble, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 21:06 (7 months ago) Permalink
i always wished someone would make a coffee table book about the day jobs of indie rock stars, or maybe even a directory. like say you wanted a punk rock dentist, and oh, there's Jerry Only, D.D.S just 15 mi from you.
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 21:09 (7 months ago) Permalink
i have bought over 100 records this year, easily. probably 75% used.
― i guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 21:10 (7 months ago) Permalink
My thoughts...all music I buy is purchased in the form of cds. There are personal reasons and - er - logistical reasons, I suppose. Personally I have always felt more connected to the music if I actually own it. I have always felt this way - even in the 80s when I started buying records, if it was something someone had taped for me I wasn't interested. If it wasn't something I owned, it wasn't mine. That mindset has stuck with me - people could rip cds for me or I could download music (as I have, through libraries etc) but I don't think of that as mine. I still prefer the artefact, the disc, the sleeve etc. Maybe it's just the era I grew up in. As for the logistical element, well I only have access to the net through my phone, so Spotify or itunes or whatever aren't an option. We don't have the net in our home, I have limited access and my wife has a wifi hotspot if she needs it. I no longer work so have no net access in a workplace (which is where I used to do all my ILMing). We have downloaded a few songs from itunes for our six yr old son but even he prefers to put a cd in his Early Learning Centre cd player. I did the poll this morning but got it wrong, I think I've bought more than 60 cds this year, but not a lot has been new releases. My gradual re-entry to ILM (and slow unsure use of Twitter) has given me some ideas of what I want to get next (Swans and Grizzly Bear sound right up my street) so I'm sure it'll be up to 100 by years end. But I love the physical format, and even if I could download, I wouldn't.
― Rob M Revisited, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 21:13 (7 months ago) Permalink
Totally agree with the ownership thing, Rob. I hate being made mixes, copies of things, etc. always wanted the real thing.
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 21:22 (7 months ago) Permalink
I used to feel that way until I realized that value in physical things was just turning me into a hoarder
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 21:23 (7 months ago) Permalink
I'm very good at getting rid of stuff I don't use, thankfully. Emma stops me purging half the record collection.
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 21:25 (7 months ago) Permalink
to be fair, she probably wouldn't appreciate if you got rid of her half
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 21:39 (7 months ago) Permalink
I average between 2 and 3 CDs per week. A lot of that is me catching up on old classics, though, so I'm not really helping many Grizzly Bears.
― jim, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 21:49 (7 months ago) Permalink
or grizzlebees, as they may be called
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 21:55 (7 months ago) Permalink
I hate being made mixes, copies of things, etc. always wanted the real thing.
But "the real thing" is just packaging really. And mixes are an amazing way to discover new stuff. There are so many ways of discovering music you miss out on if all you do is buy CD albums, so much great music that you never get to hear.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 22:00 (7 months ago) Permalink
I buy 10-20 CDs a year, and probably about 60 digital albums a year. Once I have a space that seems suitable I plan on getting a record player and starting all over, well only with my favorites.
― marginal victory, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 22:00 (7 months ago) Permalink
But mixes and copies of albums lack that "authenticity" amirite
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 22:02 (7 months ago) Permalink
thought experiment: Imagine that your local record store, or your favorite mail order record store, is an extremely good counterfeiter and you've been buying intricate bootleg copies all along. Do you lose anything by learning this?
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 22:04 (7 months ago) Permalink
copies and mixes are mere xeroxes compared to the authenticity you get from thumbing through (never touching or picking up, those are barbaric terms) thumbing through faded but still breathing leaves of vinyl and cd
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 22:04 (7 months ago) Permalink
I mean "physical music" just doesn't exist, it's not a thing. People just think it is because they happened to have lived at the one brief point in human history when it was necessary to store it physically.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 22:10 (7 months ago) Permalink
yup
― Cap'n Hug-a-Thug (The Reverend), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 22:13 (7 months ago) Permalink
no, the commercial album of the 20th century is the high point of humanity's relationship with sound. never has we been at the cusp of such a great decline.
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 22:15 (7 months ago) Permalink
see it's even affecting how we write.
the "i buy physical music to help keep favourite artists' bank accounts healthy" argument is very odd when across almost every genre artists agree that they mostly make a living from live performances rather than record sales in any format
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 22:16 (7 months ago) Permalink
sometimes i feel like i'm in one of those pictures of a person watching themselves watch themselves watch television on a television and we're just having the same thread 10 million times for years and years and years
― farte blanche (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 22:17 (7 months ago) Permalink
when did these feelings begin? and is the picture a jpg or a hard copy?
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 22:25 (7 months ago) Permalink
Some thoughts, not necessarily coherent:
1) I remember when "Home taping is killing music" was a big issue ... but feel sure that home taping actually prompted me to buy more music than I would have done otherwise ... but it does seem like there is a culture of expecting music to be free, at the moment. That Grizzly Bear comment about comparing the price of a CD to a starter seemed pertinent.
2) It's not just how you buy music but where you buy music. I have a £2 rule where I'll buy a CD in my local independent store if it's within a couple of quid of Amazon ... but there are times when I'll buy from where ever is cheapest.
3) I enjoy trawling my CD shelves when drunk in a way that I don't flicking through my computer files.
4) I wonder how much Keiran Hebden made from Pink (download only, more or less) compared to if he'd put out a physical product?
5) I've bought the odd CD - that train announcement on Trunk, say - knowing I'd only play it once but thinking an hour's entertainment for a fiver is sometimes fine.
― djh, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 22:25 (7 months ago) Permalink
I kind of understand that last point -- when compared against other forms of entertainment, music is a bargain. If an album really grows on me or has amazing packaging/liner notes/etc then I'm more willing to seek it out, but it seems like a waste to manufacture, ship, and stock a cardboard sleeve and disc if I'm not that invested in it to begin with. There have been albums that have grown on me and I've actually bought twice, as a download and as a physical release.
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 2 October 2012 22:38 (7 months ago) Permalink
Somewhere up-thread someone mentioned cherry picking the best tracks from albums and downloading those but this doesn't seem to take into account that the tracks that sound best after one play, five plays, ten plays, twenty plays etc are different and it is often worth pursuing with tracks that initially sound a bit dodge.
― djh, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 22:44 (7 months ago) Permalink
Buying music has been like a drug habit for me since I was a kid, pay day and getting some more new tunes has been the thing for years. I've had a couple years where I didn't go out and get more nearly as much, but it's never stopped. That said, I haven't had the urge to follow what's 'new' much for quite a few years. I tend to get into a certain sound, genre or artist for a while then move to something else. I kind of tend to focus on a few things at a time with intensity in my personal listening. If there is new music tied to it, cool, if not, that is fine.
I'm definitely at 100+ for this year, as I have gotten into a few things I never really listened to with great depth, but I buy quite a bit used.
I might be into the whole mix and trading thing if I knew more people around here that were deep into music. I got friends that really like music, but they usually kind of just like one thing and I might like that one thing, but it's the only think they like and that might not be the main thing i'm checking out at this moment.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 23:05 (7 months ago) Permalink
used? they are cheaper than mp3s weirdly― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 06:29 (3 hours ago)
In Australia new CDs in our biggest chain cost about the same as low-sound-quality DRM files from iTunes
the "i buy physical music to help keep favourite artists' bank accounts healthy" argument is very odd when across almost every genre artists agree that they mostly make a living from live performances rather than record sales in any format― lex pretend, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 08:16 (1 hour ago)
They have to make more of a living from live performance bcz ppl stopped buying records; buying records helps them better recoup advances and actually make money from recording. Touring artist show prices have basically tripled here over the last 8 years as the recording industry has contracted, which then leaves much less discretionary purchasing power for records etc etc.
― ┐(´ー｀)┌ (sic), Wednesday, 3 October 2012 00:39 (7 months ago) Permalink
um whoever itt is arguing that u don't need to purchase music to support artists because they just make music off live shows, if you like the artist you should also pay them for their recorded music i think that is pretty clear-cut whether or not it's a physical release. you can and should also pay for the show, but these two do not preclude each other
― flopson, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 01:09 (7 months ago) Permalink
someone spent money & time making it => you should pay for it
― flopson, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 01:10 (7 months ago) Permalink
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, October 2, 2012 3:31 AM (14 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, October 2, 2012 3:31 AM (14 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Ha, that's been my routine for the past 5 years or so as well.
― musicfanatic, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 01:12 (7 months ago) Permalink
My general routine is to make a playlist of every album I'm interested enough in to check out (I personally use Rhapsody), and out of that list - roughly 400 or so albums a year - I end up buying about 60-80 of my favorite albums on CD.
― musicfanatic, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 01:17 (7 months ago) Permalink
Have bought:
100+ vinyl LPs (almost all $1 or less; none more than $2 I don't think)3 CDs (all $1)0 digital anything
― xhuxk, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 01:18 (7 months ago) Permalink