[potsie]

As a long time music buyer, I've faced a few different format crossroads over the years. In 1991 I moved on from my 400+ cassette tape collection when I bought my first CD player. I've still got all the tapes, although I haven't had anything to play them on in almost 20 years. I bought CD's for the next 15 years, slowing down around 2006 when I got my first iPod. I continued to buy the odd CD, mainly the Hip and a couple of other bands, over the past few years but in reality I've got almost 1000 CDs sitting in boxes in my basement that I rarely ever touch. I've never gotten into vinyl due to the fact that I gave up owning anything nice once I had kids, although purchasing a turntable might restore the last bit of "cool" that died in me when I got a mini-van. Over the past few years I've purchased all of my music on iTunes.

Last fall I signed up for a 3 month trial for Spotify. This was my first experience with streaming music (other than occasionally using YouTube) and I've greatly enjoyed it, to the point that I haven't bought any music over the past few months. My last purchase was Secret Path. This fact has created some minor guilt in me in that I know Spotify doesn't pay artists well and it's always given me a good feeling to support the artists I like. However, in the end I use the same self-justification that was widely used in the last decade by those stealing music (and I'm not completely above reproach in that area either, although it's been a very long time), "I support the bands in other ways by buying concert tickets and merchandise". I used to get great satisfaction out of browsing a record store and "owning" music but that feeling has been replaced by the joy of having everything I could ever want at my finger tips now on Spotify. I've yet to find any album that I've wanted to listen to not be available to me on this site.

I'm wondering what others are using to listen to music these days. Are people still buying CDs or MP3s? Anyone have a good recommendation for streaming other than Spotify? Anyone using iTunes Radio or Google Play? Outside of collecting vinyl, does anyone else see their days of music ownership being in the rear view mirror?

[direwolf74]

I'm probably one of the last people on earth who still buys physical product (CDs, vinyl, bluray, etc..) I'm old school that way. Collecting music and movies has been my main hobby since I was about 12, and I'm probably not gonna stop anytime soon. It's an addiction.

But don't get me wrong, I'm not completely stuck in the stone age. I do buy a lot of music through iTunes as well, and like most people I mainly use my phone or iPod for music listening these days. But if I have a choice between digital or physical, I definitely prefer physical. I like holding it in my hands, flipping through the booklet, reading the lyrics and liner notes, looking at the artwork. And this might sound weird, but vinyl records and lyric booklets just smell good, especially right after you rip off the shrink wrap and open the packaging for the first time. Some bands still put a lot of thought and effort into their packaging, which makes it worthwhile for me (Pearl Jam, Drive-By Truckers to name a couple). Losing stores like HMV sucks, but as long as independent record shops continue to thrive and as long as there are online retailers like Amazon, I'll continue to buy vinyl and CDs from bands I love, especially if I want to help support them. Streaming just isn't for me, at least not yet. I prefer to own my music.

Speaking of indie record shops, has anybody here ever been to Amoeba in LA or San Francisco? Best record/movie store I've ever set foot in. The place is an absolute gold mine if you're a hardcore collector. It's my Disneyland.

[arewhyehen]

^ ^ I wouldn't say you're one of the last people in the world to buy physical items. A bunch of my friends are in radio and the music business and they all buy physical items. I follow around a few bands such as Jack White, Neil Young and PJ and these fans all seem to buy physical items, especially the Jack White fans. It's great to see. I love meeting others with a real collection of music, not just a hard drive full of downloads.

I'm 30 in a few months and haven't bought a CD since I was about 16 or 17. It's been vinyl ever since then. I too like having a tangible product to hold and look at. I am more likely to listen to it if I can pick it up and play it than if it's just in a list of 1000 bands on my computer. My choice for vinyl over other physical products stems from the quality of vinyl over any other product. MANY records are pressed with original uncompressed masters, which means it's as close to studio quality as possible where as CDs are compressed to a lower quality due to size restrictions. With the recent vinyl surge, some records are only pressed with the same quality masters as a CD would be, but I am happy to have the options to buy almost any album on vinyl now days because of it, and it's still just as good, or better than CDs, so it doesn't bother me too much.

I am not big on YouTube or iTunes or any of that because of the poor quality of music. A few years back Neil Young started the Kickstarter campaign for his high definition music player (Pono) and download service. This got me really excited and I backed it.. I think it brought in about 6 million??? This really started the release of A lot of HD audio. I started gathering all my music in FLAC. I got as much 24bit audio as I could and began the tagging process with audio info and artwork. I just finished a bunch more a few weeks ago..I've now got almost 24,000 songs complete on a 2tb hard drive. I will admit that I rarely use the Pono player, but I do still enjoy having the digital copy of music even though vinyl is preferred. I think the whole HD music players failed to take off 1) because 90% of people just don't care. Sadly people are so used to radio and YouTube quality that they just don't care about paying $25 for an album they already have, even when quality is so much better. It's like DVD vs BluRay.. 2) streaming services like tidal and whatever else now offer "HD" streaming. They claim it's around CD quality, but who knows. People just don't want to pay for music because it's in so many places on the Internet. It's great to buy physical copies when we can, but as you said, not many people do it and use services like tidal and YouTube that don't pay artists much money. That is why it now costs you $80-100 to go see your favourite bands in concert and $50 for a tshirt at the Merch booth. That is how a band survives now days. It blows my mind at how much the cost of concert tickets have gone up in the past few years. Yesterday I went to buy a $32 ticket to see Matthew Good on ticketmaster. There were $12 in fees and $16 in shipping because ticketmaster no longer has outlets in Canada if you want hard copy tickets. That's FUCKED! That's double the price of the ticket with fees all in..and how much do you think the band gets from that $60?

[kleh]

i started on cassettes/columbia house probably around 1989, and havent bought any aside from band demos in decades until last week! mainly because my old buick has a tape deck, found howlin' wolf london sessions & stevie ray live alive

i remember spending $18 + tax for them at the old radioland yearsssss ago
about 10 years ago my ex talking me into getting rid of all my tapes, i did save a few rare ones & boxsets

i think i bought my first Vinyl in 1995 and been pickin at them ever since (around 400 in collection)

somewhere around phantom power i switched to cd's but found myself just copying them to tdk tapes for the car because for a long time my only cd player was pc or xbox, then it evolved into only buying them if it was a local band demo or something odd or a pearl jam bootleg or whatnot

these days im strictly vinyl it seems and really enjoy the download cards that some include

im fairly satisfied with my collection and tend not to browse very long at shops since my want list is mainly new releases or a few oddball items im missing(gf may disagree lol)and glad i got most of my 'classic rock' lps before the prices blew up recently

[direwolf74]

Yesterday I went to buy a $32 ticket to see Matthew Good on ticketmaster. There were $12 in fees and $16 in shipping because ticketmaster no longer has outlets in Canada if you want hard copy tickets. That's FUCKED! That's double the price of the ticket with fees all in..and how much do you think the band gets from that $60?

A recent article I read mentioned that the artist gets approximately 74% of the total ticket price in today's market. I just paid $70 to see Midnight Oil on their upcoming reunion tour ($55 base price + $15 in Ticketbastard fees), and I actually consider that a bargain, especially since they're playing the mid-sized Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver. 10 or 20 years ago I NEVER would have paid that much to see any band live other than maybe U2 or Springsteen. I would have considered it an outrageous price. But today, $70 actually seems reasonable for a top level band. It's crazy.

[potsie]

And this might sound weird, but vinyl records and lyric booklets just smell good, especially right after you rip off the shrink wrap and open the packaging for the first time. Some bands still put a lot of thought and effort into their packaging, which makes it worthwhile for me (Pearl Jam, Drive-By Truckers to name a couple).

Not weird at all. I can still distinctly remember the smell of the Day for Night CD booklet when I first opened it nearly 23 years ago. It's a visceral feeling and one that sticks with me to this day. It's a different scent but for me it invokes the same feeling as a new car smell when you purchase a new ride. Both put me in a happy place.

[potsie]

^ ^ I wouldn't say you're one of the last people in the world to buy physical items. A bunch of my friends are in radio and the music business and they all buy physical items. I follow around a few bands such as Jack White, Neil Young and PJ and these fans all seem to buy physical items, especially the Jack White fans. It's great to see. I love meeting others with a real collection of music, not just a hard drive full of downloads.

I'm 30 in a few months and haven't bought a CD since I was about 16 or 17. It's been vinyl ever since then. I too like having a tangible product to hold and look at. I am more likely to listen to it if I can pick it up and play it than if it's just in a list of 1000 bands on my computer. My choice for vinyl over other physical products stems from the quality of vinyl over any other product. MANY records are pressed with original uncompressed masters, which means it's as close to studio quality as possible where as CDs are compressed to a lower quality due to size restrictions. With the recent vinyl surge, some records are only pressed with the same quality masters as a CD would be, but I am happy to have the options to buy almost any album on vinyl now days because of it, and it's still just as good, or better than CDs, so it doesn't bother me too much.

It's great to hear from people that still love physical product. The vinyl resurgence has given people a new way to define themselves as a music lover. Sure, there might be pretension involved for a select few, but generally people don't own hundreds of vinyl records without being a passionate fan of music; while in contrast it sure is easy to have 10,000 songs on a iPod without any real connection to the music.

Personally, my passion for music "ownership" has eroded, while at that same time my love of music continues to grow. Part of that stems from running out of space to put my collection. I proudly displayed my CD collection for many years, buying new racks on a regular basis to house the growing number of albums. Once I started listening to most of my music on an iPod, it seemed less important to have all my CDs easily accessible. So, I boxed them up and once that happened my love for the physical product diminished. Expediency and ease of use, for better or for worse, have now become my foremost priorities when it comes to listening to music.

[potsie]

Yesterday I went to buy a $32 ticket to see Matthew Good on ticketmaster. There were $12 in fees and $16 in shipping because ticketmaster no longer has outlets in Canada if you want hard copy tickets. That's FUCKED! That's double the price of the ticket with fees all in..and how much do you think the band gets from that $60?

A recent article I read mentioned that the artist gets approximately 74% of the total ticket price in today's market. I just paid $70 to see Midnight Oil on their upcoming reunion tour ($55 base price + $15 in Ticketbastard fees), and I actually consider that a bargain, especially since they're playing the mid-sized Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver. 10 or 20 years ago I NEVER would have paid that much to see any band live other than maybe U2 or Springsteen. I would have considered it an outrageous price. But today, $70 actually seems reasonable for a top level band. It's crazy.

I've become numb (although not comfortably!) to concert ticket prices and fees. I'm now amazed if I can get into a great show for under $100. I first crossed the $200 ticket barrier with Tom Petty in 2012 and I crossed the $300 barrier with U2's upcoming tour. This is an insane amount of money but I've simply resigned myself to the fact that this is the new reality for live music. It is certainly being driven (at least in part) by the decreased revenue from album sales.

[arewhyehen]

Yesterday I went to buy a $32 ticket to see Matthew Good on ticketmaster. There were $12 in fees and $16 in shipping because ticketmaster no longer has outlets in Canada if you want hard copy tickets. That's FUCKED! That's double the price of the ticket with fees all in..and how much do you think the band gets from that $60?

A recent article I read mentioned that the artist gets approximately 74% of the total ticket price in today's market. I just paid $70 to see Midnight Oil on their upcoming reunion tour ($55 base price + $15 in Ticketbastard fees), and I actually consider that a bargain, especially since they're playing the mid-sized Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver. 10 or 20 years ago I NEVER would have paid that much to see any band live other than maybe U2 or Springsteen. I would have considered it an outrageous price. But today, $70 actually seems reasonable for a top level band. It's crazy.

It is crazy. I understand that the prices of things are going up, but I don't remember paying near $100 for many bands, even a few years ago. I remember seeing NIN and it was a $110 ticket and that was a lot. Everything else was $60-80, even for pretty big bands. Yesterday I paid $280 (plus $16 for shipping) for two Incubus tickets. THATS INSANE. Muse in Toronto was even more than that for a pair. I just passed. I saw them in Prague, Czech Republic last summer for like 30 euros. It's not just the price of the tickets that have gone up, but I don't remember paying $20-30 in fees or tickets. 3/4 of tickets purchase now days are print at home YET, you still pay service fees, processing fees, handling fees...whatever else. I used to do 40-50 shows a year. When my main 3 or 4 bands are on tour, I will follow them around as much as I can and then fill in the rest of the year with other bands and smaller shows... I can't afford that any more.

[arewhyehen]

Yesterday I went to buy a $32 ticket to see Matthew Good on ticketmaster. There were $12 in fees and $16 in shipping because ticketmaster no longer has outlets in Canada if you want hard copy tickets. That's FUCKED! That's double the price of the ticket with fees all in..and how much do you think the band gets from that $60?

A recent article I read mentioned that the artist gets approximately 74% of the total ticket price in today's market. I just paid $70 to see Midnight Oil on their upcoming reunion tour ($55 base price + $15 in Ticketbastard fees), and I actually consider that a bargain, especially since they're playing the mid-sized Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver. 10 or 20 years ago I NEVER would have paid that much to see any band live other than maybe U2 or Springsteen. I would have considered it an outrageous price. But today, $70 actually seems reasonable for a top level band. It's crazy.

I've become numb (although not comfortably!) to concert ticket prices and fees. I'm now amazed if I can get into a great show for under $100. I first crossed the $200 ticket barrier with Tom Petty in 2012 and I crossed the $300 barrier with U2's upcoming tour. This is an insane amount of money but I've simply resigned myself to the fact that this is the new reality for live music. It is certainly being driven (at least in part) by the decreased revenue from album sales.

Yeah, I think I first crossed $100 with NIN. $275 for Neil Young at Massey Hall. $450 to sit in the first 8 rows at Farm Aid a few years back...They called it VIP, but I didn't feel special..haha I paid $400 from a random dude for tickets into Kingston this past summer to see the Hip and that felt like a steal compared to the 5 tickets on the stret going for $1500-2000. I gladly paid, and still don't regret it. But I know what you mean, prices have just shot up so much that I don't even think about it anymore, I just put it on my credit card and try not to think about it...

[arewhyehen]

^ ^ I wouldn't say you're one of the last people in the world to buy physical items. A bunch of my friends are in radio and the music business and they all buy physical items. I follow around a few bands such as Jack White, Neil Young and PJ and these fans all seem to buy physical items, especially the Jack White fans. It's great to see. I love meeting others with a real collection of music, not just a hard drive full of downloads.

I'm 30 in a few months and haven't bought a CD since I was about 16 or 17. It's been vinyl ever since then. I too like having a tangible product to hold and look at. I am more likely to listen to it if I can pick it up and play it than if it's just in a list of 1000 bands on my computer. My choice for vinyl over other physical products stems from the quality of vinyl over any other product. MANY records are pressed with original uncompressed masters, which means it's as close to studio quality as possible where as CDs are compressed to a lower quality due to size restrictions. With the recent vinyl surge, some records are only pressed with the same quality masters as a CD would be, but I am happy to have the options to buy almost any album on vinyl now days because of it, and it's still just as good, or better than CDs, so it doesn't bother me too much.

It's great to hear from people that still love physical product. The vinyl resurgence has given people a new way to define themselves as a music lover. Sure, there might be pretension involved for a select few, but generally people don't own hundreds of vinyl records without being a passionate fan of music; while in contrast it sure is easy to have 10,000 songs on a iPod without any real connection to the music.

Personally, my passion for music "ownership" has eroded, while at that same time my love of music continues to grow. Part of that stems from running out of space to put my collection. I proudly displayed my CD collection for many years, buying new racks on a regular basis to house the growing number of albums. Once I started listening to most of my music on an iPod, it seemed less important to have all my CDs easily accessible. So, I boxed them up and once that happened my love for the physical product diminished. Expediency and ease of use, for better or for worse, have now become my foremost priorities when it comes to listening to music.

"generally people don't own hundreds of vinyl records without being a passionate fan of music; while in contrast it sure is easy to have 10,000 songs on a iPod without any real connection to the music"

I like that a lot. I never thought of it that way. But it is very true. It's too bad you hid all your CDs away. Maybe it's time to show them off again

[thebends]

My wife got me a very nice turntable for Christmas and I've gone on a vinyl manhunt ever since. Its been amazing to hold and investigate the packaging that comes with some of these releases, totally different experience than CD. I was blown away when I spun Zepplin II for the first time, very pleasant audio experience.

[thebends]

Speaking of indie record shops, has anybody here ever been to Amoeba in LA or San Francisco? Best record/movie store I've ever set foot in. The place is an absolute gold mine if you're a hardcore collector. It's my Disneyland.

Will be in LA next week and I'll be sure to check it out.

[arewhyehen]

My wife got me a very nice turntable for Christmas and I've gone on a vinyl manhunt ever since. Its been amazing to hold and investigate the packaging that comes with some of these releases, totally different experience than CD. I was blown away when I spun Zepplin II for the first time, very pleasant audio experience.

Time to hit up HMV as they go out of business..

[sean.bonner]

I buy vinyl and I am also addicted to Spotify.

Spotify does not have 'everything' I'd like, but the library they do have is truly amazing. I don't think most artists should not (or do not) see Spotify as a major revenue generator, however I do think it is the best place currently to gain exposure.

I have discovered so much music on Spotify I would never have heard otherwise, and if I like your album enough, I will track down a vinyl copy (just ordered Colony House... can't wait for it to arrive)!