How much physical music (CDs, vinyl, minidiscs, cases ingles, whatever) have you bought so far this year?

pretty sure a fair portion of my CD/book/magazine-buying habits have to do with tactile experiences that aren't necessarily related to the medium

Elucidate, please?

xpost: My iPhone always scrobbles fine from the Spotify app. Have never needed to use iTunes for iPhone playback.

I sometimes get suckered into buying the physical version of things for additional video content etc and guess how often I actually end up watching the bonus DVDs?

Trying to remember the last time I watched one, not entirely sure that I ever even have

I nearly bought The Drift on vinyl the other day, mostly because I've been a bit obsessed with it lately, but also because listening to it as a digital file feels like trying to trap a demon in a matchbox. I wanted to stare at that dark soupy cover for hours, pull out the black hole from within and hear it as analogue. But then came to my senses and realised playing this outloud within earshot of anyone who isn't expecting it would be trolling on a fundamental level.

With an iPod you're provided with no context, no background, no temporal or tangible reference point or incite into what you're about to hear

love vinyl but its not a bad thing to hear w no context

no interest in cds, dvds, packaging, booklets or any of that

I mean, the artistic medium. Presumably records are for audio, magazines are for words, etc

hard part for me is remembering what exactly happened this year. It's definitely the year I bought a used copy of the beasties' 2CD on a stoop, but is this the year I bought a used record of Paul Revere & The Raiders' Something/Happening while killing time before a wedding in New Orleans? and what about that night i was drunk by a dollar bin, was that 2011?

Gonna go with 2-6.

I can only agree to some extent with the whole "who cares, it's the music that counts" attitude, indeed I used to be a lot more supportive of this train of thought, but I'm really starting to feel exhausted by it. I'm really starting to feel like a big part of my enjoyment of music is influenced by factors other than the simple clinical appreciation of sound.

31 cds (plus a bunch of cover mounted cds from magazines)
1 10" ep
9 digital downloads (eps, lps, single tracks, whatever)
8 7" singles (1 kickstarter reward, 1 7 release subscription)

down a lot from last year. have been buying dvds...

i found my list from 1997 the other day and i was buying 3 or 4 a week.

i bought the bob mould album on cd b/c he is old and i figure digital sales are confusing and frightening for him

I've probably bought about 10-20 records this year. A pitiful amount compared to 7 or 8 years ago when I was buying that every week. The only real excuse I have is that I work in indie music and that aside from food, rent and a new pair of shoes that's the only cash I've had spare in 2012. Fun times.

i bought the bob mould album on cd b/c he is old and i figure digital sales are confusing and frightening for him

Brilliant.

did I ever tell my story on here about (the proverbial) friend of a friend being at an ATP and using Grindr to see if there was anyone at the festival that wanted to hook up, and when they came over it was Bob Mould

so I reckon he knows the value of a digital sale iygm

CouldYouBeThe1

I don't think I've bought any music on physical media this year. I've bought a fair amount of digital downloads through Amazon though, and I have an eMusic subscription.

Mencap that's f'in' awesome, I hope it's true.

I hope your friend wasn't Grant

*awkward*

hahahahahaha

how is appreciation of sound "simple" or "clinical" kmt

Zero CDs since 2004. About 20-30 new vinyl albums a year. About 20 digital purchases-- mostly hard to find classical stuff. About 50 used vinyl purchases a year.

It's like going grocery shopping and everything's in identical vacuum-sealed packets with "ROCKET SALAD", "RUMP STEAK", "JELLY BABIES" printed on the front. We know that it's food, but we can't tell whether it will appeal at all once it's out of that packet. There's no intrigue or impetus to eat beyond "I like steak. I will buy it for sustenance".

food has nutritional values printed on the packet (scientific facts) plus people have tasted the exact food before. there are clear expectations of how food tastes, it's nothing like music in this regard.

the labels of food are actually more informative than the labels on records, which weakens this already dire analogy.

i'm only really commenting because comparing modern music formats to supermarket food (or generally any music/food analogies which seek to criticise an inevitably vague and unspecified modern decline) are so often the dumbest and cheapest faux-opinions around.

but a+ for not bringing mcdonalds into it, you are dropping science.

it was a bit sad when, realising more and more people wouldn't buy CDs, labels just started getting the work experience kids to do the cover art/design to save a few more bob

two records arrived through the post today and when I opened there was a random copy of daft punk's da funk thrown in there too

Awesome!

Is Grindr named after the Priest song? "Grinderrrrr / Lookiiing for meaaaaat"... Always wondered that.

"Food has nutritional values printed on the packet (scientific facts) plus people have tasted the exact food before. there are clear expectations of how food tastes, it's nothing like music in this regard."

This is not at all true. "This steak right here" doesn't equal "all steak"... That's like saying "ah, ya heard one Detroit techno record you heard em all"...

10-20, but I'm poor and would buy more if I could.

Would say all vinyl, no CDs, but I've quite possibly bought one or two CDs or cassettes from bands at shows.

Can't remember exactly how many CDs I've bought this year, but it's probably about a dozen or so - three Duke Ellington titles, the new Dwight Yoakam, the new Baroness, a few used things...I still get a lot of physical promos, though.

Following up on my most recent post, it's that sort of reductionism that I think Dog Latin is trying to explain doesn't work for him. It's a markedly different experience to buy a piece of vinyl and listen to it than to DL an mp3--sonically, procedurally, economically, sacrifice-ly, what have you. My local grass-fed steak cooked medium-rare on my grill is markedly different from even the very same cut from the very same cow made somewhere else. If bad analogies are harmful to music discourse, reductionism is far worse; at least analogies are trying to work through and perpetuate discourse, whereas reductionism just seeks to shut down the opposition.

If ronan and lex were locked in a room together for 24hrs, would it create such an enormous feedback loop of pedantry that the world would implode in on itself? It's a good thing you guys don't get on because I actually fear this could happen.

Without wanting to perpetuate the food packaging analogy too much more, for fear of people will wilfully miss the point yet again- being able to see the food, or at least a picture of a serving suggestion of the food, can and will influence what you choose to buy and cook. If everything came in identical, plain packages with no pictures it would make stacking the shelves easier, but the act of choosing what to have for dinner would be boiled down to a purely functional act. We'd be faced with rows and rows of packets identifiable only by a label to tell us what's in there. Some may find this a good thing. They would find the functionality of this system appealing because all they want to do is go out and get a steak. But others might prefer to browse around, to see what their tastebuds want for tea that night. If this is the case it would become very difficult to get creative or excited about it. There's more to the appreciation of food, music, art in general than the end product itself - there's a whole miasma of factors and influences that inform my personal appreciation of these.

A digital library is great, it's functional and handy to have, but it also sucks a lot of the fun out of discovering and sharing that music. Other than the physical sound coming out of the speakers, there's no 'in' to a piece of music. We're served a blank slate with no other information about what we're hearing, nothing about the artist and why they chose to make that music. as such it becomes homogenised - it may as well be musical wallpaper to the casual listener.

I've seen this in action time and again. If i have people over and plug my mp3 player into the stereo, they tend to jus chat over it. It's often as though the music isn't playing at all. Get a record out, and people suddenly start taking interest. They wanna see the cover, they anticipate the music before the needle drops, and they talk about, rather than over, the record as it plays.

I have no idea why this happens but it always always does time and again. The only explanation I have (other than the whole 'vinyl sounds better than mp3' thing, is that they are somehow more aware that the music playing is a complete artefact as opposed to some abstract and ghostly digital file automatically queued in by a computer-based shuffle. I really don't know but it probably relates on a deeper psychological level than I'm prepared to ponder.

I like dog latin's post.

I'm in the 100+ range by this point, surely.

i bought a john fahey record for $30 the other day, it's beautiful

i bought the bob mould album on cd b/c he is old and i figure digital sales are confusing and frightening for him
Brilliant.

― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, October 2, 2012 10:05 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bob's hip now he DJs and everything

also if it makes money he knows about it

i bought a kenny clarke box set a couple weeks ago. not quite sure how much physical media i've purchased...maybe 7-10 items?

guessed 2-6, mostly used records, i'm not buying cds at all anymore. but also i was pretty broke most of the year so i wasn't buying much in the way of fun stuff at all until the past few months.

A digital library is great, it's functional and handy to have, but it also sucks a lot of the fun out of discovering and sharing that music. Other than the physical sound coming out of the speakers, there's no 'in' to a piece of music. We're served a blank slate with no other information about what we're hearing, nothing about the artist and why they chose to make that music. as such it becomes homogenised - it may as well be musical wallpaper to the casual listener.

Well, to an extent, other than the fact I've bought digital releases from artists who have well-cultivated blogs, tumblr accounts, individual pieces of art for each audio file, or any number of other "ins." If anything, the ability for me to learn about an artist, whether it be before or after hearing their actual music, is much more diversified than it's ever been. Interviews, zines, liner notes really not the same.

"Food has nutritional values printed on the packet (scientific facts) plus people have tasted the exact food before. there are clear expectations of how food tastes, it's nothing like music in this regard."

This is not at all true. "This steak right here" doesn't equal "all steak"... That's like saying "ah, ya heard one Detroit techno record you heard em all"...

i never said this=all, i said there are clear expectations. and remember we're talking about steak that comes in a packet.

Good post, dog latin.

I don't care about "I only do digital", go crazy, I love digital. Just as long as you've got speakers connected to that computer. And you don't play Youtube rips when you DJ. Other than that it doesn't bother me.

That said, I really enjoyed the online presence and presentation of a couple artists enough to order their albums, and the albums were pretty much devoid of additional content -- stark cover image, tracklisting on the back of a paper sleeve, single-color CD. Kind of a blank palette for me to connect what I do know with the music.

Just as long as you've got speakers connected to that computer

I hardly ever listen to my digital files on a computer! It's always streamed to my home stereo or off my iPhone.

Without wanting to perpetuate the food packaging analogy too much more, for fear of people will wilfully miss the point yet again- being able to see the food, or at least a picture of a serving suggestion of the food, can and will influence what you choose to buy and cook. If everything came in identical, plain packages with no pictures it would make stacking the shelves easier, but the act of choosing what to have for dinner would be boiled down to a purely functional act. We'd be faced with rows and rows of packets identifiable only by a label to tell us what's in there. Some may find this a good thing. They would find the functionality of this system appealing because all they want to do is go out and get a steak. But others might prefer to browse around, to see what their tastebuds want for tea that night. If this is the case it would become very difficult to get creative or excited about it. There's more to the appreciation of food, music, art in general than the end product itself - there's a whole miasma of factors and influences that inform my personal appreciation of these.

so you wouldn't know what food you'd tasted already tasted like if it you couldn't see it?

this analogy doesn't hold up at all, the music that comes without a packet could potentially sound like nothing you'd ever heard, any expectation you had could be wrong.

There's more to the appreciation of food, music, art in general than the end product itself

the format music is presented in has no bearing on the truth or untruth of this statement. not least because the packet IS an end product.

The idea of being tethered to a computer was one of the main complaints against digital files to begin with, and now people can't think of listening to hardly any music without a computer present.

xp That's cool. I just have nightmares in the wake of that EMP exit poll. It's the Youtube DJs I can't stand... the sound of somebody turning up a Youtube rip of Destiny's Child in an effort to start a party is the most unpleasant sound under the sun

o see the food, or at least a picture of a serving suggestion of the food

how is this analogous to the art on an album? it's not a picture of the music

presumably people never understood music until the days when you could physically buy it, all hail the last 100 years, the best of all possible worlds.