Spotify - anyone heard of it?

You rang? https://play.spotify.com/

Are you buying everything on CD or on iTunes? Because as someone who was a big illegal downloader for a long time, I pretty much feel like there's no justification whatsoever for it unless you're trying to hunt Dow something that is completely out of print and otherwise impossible to find.
$10/mo is nothing. If you can't afford it, you can spend $5/mo for ad-free streaming. If you can't afford that, you're a loser.

At the moment, I'm also subscribing to MOG because I really want to ECM catalogue as well. So that's $20/mo, which is--gasp--$240/year total. Which probably equals a couple of months of what I used to spend in a pre-P2P era.

When you consider that you are getting instant access to virtually every record you ever wanted, have some principled stance against the idea of subscription services because they pay so little to artists (a fair criticism), or don't buy $120 worth of music per year, it's a no brainer, really.

― Naive Teen Idol

There has not been a year in the last 25 that i haven't spent between $1-5k on music. I don't stream for any other reason than to preview the desirability of some titeles (or i'll do an illegal dl -- but again, only for preview -- or if the material is hopelessly unavailable through legitimate means). Grooveshark still shows ads, but i'm not forced to read to them like you are forced to listen on Spotify. The FCC has done a huge injustice to public airwaves by making both radio and television a simple rubber-stamped commodity.

My mobile music is comprised mainly of items i've pre-sifted; and i save album listening for the home stereo -- streaming the bulk you listening is yet another form of instant gratification that makes many of so shallow. Fight.

Your last sentence makes no sense.

his last sentence is "Fight."

exactly

lol *hi-five*

Spotify, or streaming to multiple devices simply does not apply to the manner in which i choose to listen to music. If the only advantage for opting for the pay version of Spotify is the absence of Ads, than i can attain the same with the free version of Grooveshark.

- bob marley

lol

I'm glad there are still some people like suspecterrain who purchase the artifact (cd, record, etc), because I'm definitely not one of those people. After building a cassette, then cd, then vinyl collection between the ages of 14 and, say, 35, I'm honestly glad I don't have to lug that shit around with me from address to address anymore and I can just pay for access rather than ownership.

How frequently do you move?

Twice in the last three years.

But that aside, I sort of love not owning all that stuff anymore.

owning a shit-ton of CDs is 95% awesome, 5% "oh fuck, which case did I put that Speed Limit 104+ BPM comp in when I was being lazy"

i love buying stuff

i'm a huge vinyl collector person, all you ppl that never hear analog sound are missing out on music basically! it's true! how snobby do you want me to get??? i can do it

but spotify is fucking amazing, there's no question

Does I Heart Radio not compare to Spotify? Or does it have its pros?

On another note, I'm torn between owning records and having a huge music library digitally, because I not only move frequently, but have had to move countries a few times.

Also, what happens when your external HDD goes kaput? I'd hate to lose thousands upon thousands of tracks.

Does I Heart Radio not compare to Spotify? Or does it have its pros?

i heart radio is basically just for listening to clear channel corporate stations online right?

On another note, I'm torn between owning records and having a huge music library digitally
^^thankfully this is not actually a choice you have to make :)

Also, what happens when your external HDD goes kaput?

had this happen twice now

this is why spotify

Can I ask you guys that don't have cds and records etc what you use to play digital dl and streaming on? Not just your computer with headphones right? I do a lot of listening like that, via my laptop - usually late at night but if I can I'll pump cds and records from my separates system but the sound is 20 times better.

Can anyone recommend a speaker set I can plug straight into my laptop - or is there more to it than that?

My car stereo has a usb port, so I just dump mp3s on a thumb drive once every month or two and hit shuffle. It goes on forever without repeating. Most of my Spotify use is at work through headphones. I don't listen to much music inside my home, which is why I guess I felt okay selling off my physical collection(s).

laptop speakers

YOLO

God, I miss ripping off Columbia House.

Haha otm

iPhone via Bluetooth to DAC to hi-fi. The DAC is essential.

i'm a huge vinyl collector person, all you ppl that never hear analog sound are missing out on music basically!

Can I ask you guys that don't have cds and records etc what you use to play digital dl and streaming on? Not just your computer with headphones right?

lol, I listen to vinyl and cassettes through my computer! Everything goes into an AD converter, then out through the DA converter into a volume control and to active speakers. I could even listen to a record, a tape, itunes, and spotify simultaneously this way if I wanted to!

theoretically I could listen to CDs too, but why? fuck those things.

I've been trying to buy more new vinyl so long as it comes packaged with free mp3 downloads. Sometimes it's great, sometimes not. Just got a vinyl copy of Purity Ring's Shrines and the mp3s sound better.

I don't have to lug that shit around with me from address to address anymore and I can just pay for access rather than ownership.

― Johnny Fever

No doubt it's a large volume of music that needs to be lugged around.... As you, i have also amassed cassette and CD collections as they were "of the day", but i have also always bought LPs. Most of my my main LP stax were attained 15 years before i even owned my first turntable (and probably 10 years for my CDs) -- so i would take most of that material and copy to cassette as full albums/comps/mixes and keep them in long-term storage in the home of a less-transient family member. So far, i have only moved my entire stax twice.

Also, a large part of having physical stax is the "flipping through" that helps choose the next album/track -- i have listened to tons of stuff on my mp3 players, but have little success doing so organically (where each individual track is played "as you go" -- in fact, i'd wager that i could make a better sequenced mix in less time "live" than trying to scroll through and endless list of artists/albums,etc). I love the physicality of music, but never when away from home -- playlists and album selections can be pulled from the stax, dumped to a microSD, and i'm good to go.

In bang-for-buck, your investment is certainly far more wise than mine; but then, i was never in it to spend my dollars wisely ;)

Can anyone recommend a speaker set I can plug straight into my laptop - or is there more to it than that?

― kraudive

Save a second-hand stereo, you need either powered monitors, or, maybe, this el-cheapo TeiNuro

try this: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=310-500

suspectterrain not opposed to some quality laptop listening.

not myself; just something that might help a brother out.

And it's appreciated! Bought something similar today. Chopping vegetables won't be such a chore in future.

Weird thing about iPhone app: if it goes down, either by powering down the phone or killing the app, it forgets about certain playlists and that they are supposed to be available offline, but if you reset them to offline right away it will usually realize that it has the files sitting on the device.

Yeah that's not awesome.

Never had that happen

Maybe you only have a few playlists?

I've been having a problem with the Spotify app over the last few days where a song will play for a few seconds and then pause for a few seconds and then play again, etc.

It is extremely frustrating.

me too, on my desktop as well

they don't have any joanna newsom

or the new marnie stern

or the iron & wine/calexico ep in the reins

where's all the fuckin music

i consider their lack of joanna newsom a feature

Likewise

lack of drag city is a drag though

apparently they used to have all of tzadik sometime before they opened in the US

who

not enough cattle decapitation

Yeah I remember when they had Tzadik, don't think they ever had the full catalogue though.