If I may indulge myself a little, I just wanted to make the case that the new Rush disk "Clockwork Angels" bolsters my argument significantly. Amazing disk, honestly some of their best work and a recording that deserves a listen from beginning to end as the artist intended.
0
RahnalH102the Green Devout, Veteran Monster Hunter, Creature EnthusiastNew MexicoIcrontian
Honestly, I didn't actually "enter" into music till about 5 years ago. Up until then it was either what my parents played (Oldies Rock for Dad and "Hippie" soft rock for my Mom) or the radio. Then I got around to exploring music on my own, learned what and who I liked. All the purchases I've ever made in regards to music have been full albums. 3 Foo Fighters, 2 AKFG, Bastion OST, Sanctum OST, and WoW:Cataclysm OST. I'm happy with every second of the purchases I've made, even the God dang import taxed AKFG albums (+$100 together ) I guess most of this is from how you can sample the tracks so easily with nowadays. I've often found songs I enjoy the most from an artist are the ones that don't make it to radio or TV. The little treasures that bring the experience full circle.
I've got to agree with a few others, mix of people just going with what they like at first listen with no or little initiative to explore the rest, and some artists not producing a full album of cohesive/merit.
So I treat it something like this: Hear a song or two by an artist/band > if I like what I heard I investigate the rest of what they have to offer > Enjoy em as a whole? = buy album. Plenty of albums have made it past my tests. The only reason my album count is low is because I've had little surplus money that made it past video games/art, heck the OSTs were part of bundles. I'm 19 years old and this is my favorite way to buy music. Now if I only had the money.
So the digital distribution/availability is a "blessing and a curse" so to speak. Can the average individual take the initiative to explore more, or just roll with what's handed to em?
I have a new obsession that I actually share with those newfangled hipster millennials... Vinyl. I am nuts about Vinyl again. I am buying reissues of albums I own on CD left and right. I got a little pro ject elemental turntable, just plug it into the phono pre amp on my Onkyo stereo receiver and everything just sounds less sterile. I was listening to Tom Petty's "Breakdown" the other night, a song we have all heard on rock radio a thousand times, and I swear the backing vocals came so much more forward, and little nuanced percussion things snapped and a decayed more naturally. It was like I have never heard that song before. I played the entirety of Pink Floyd's "Wish you Were Here" last night and that just had a more visceral growl to it, it just rocked heaver that it ever did coming off my CD. I'm still not giving up my CD collection, but for some of those older analog remasters vinyl is an incredible format that I neglected for years because I sort of thought it was a fad rediscovered by children who didn't know any better... This marks the third or fourth time in my life that I've actually been wrong about anything. Vinyl is awesome. Listening to an entire album uninterrupted without fidgeting to go to the next track is phenomenal. I can't recommend vinyl collecting for music lovers more.
I do also collect some vinyl now as well. But it's a subset / "best of" the albums I've already purchased on iTunes.
I bought a HomePod this year for no other purpose than playing albums I request from my collection. I found my Sonos becamse useless for anything but streaming services (it developed a bug where it would arbitrarily skip ahead to the next track during local playback), for which I subscribe to none.
@Linc said:
I do also collect some vinyl now as well. But it's a subset / "best of" the albums I've already purchased on iTunes.
I bought a HomePod this year for no other purpose than playing albums I request from my collection. I found my Sonos becamse useless for anything but streaming services (it developed a bug where it would arbitrarily skip ahead to the next track during local playback), for which I subscribe to none.
I got a homepod for my daughter. She enjoys the fast access over apple music. Honestly, it's a neat little piece of audio engineering. It doesn't replace a good hi fidelity stereo for guys like me that like to have a dedicated listening area, but for it's place it anywhere that has power convenience it's a hard little speaker to beat. There is room for the convince of digital streaming mixed with old school analog. They can coexist. One of the really nice streaming features for us is pairing up with our satellite radio subscription. My wife is more of a tune the radio kind of person and she has a long commute so I sprang for satellite radio for her, and for like $3 more a month you can get an in house digital stream of all those stations. Quality isn't bad, it isn't amazing, but it isn't bad, and my wife just kind of likes to tune something and passively listen. We get a kick out of the 80's hair metal station. I'm not going to run out and buy White Lion or RATT records, but every now and then hearing it just randomly pop up kinda brings a smile to my face. Radio is for the stuff you love that you don't want to publicly admit to. There is no physical evidence in your collection that way.
Comments
I've got to agree with a few others, mix of people just going with what they like at first listen with no or little initiative to explore the rest, and some artists not producing a full album of cohesive/merit.
So I treat it something like this:
Hear a song or two by an artist/band > if I like what I heard I investigate the rest of what they have to offer > Enjoy em as a whole? = buy album.
Plenty of albums have made it past my tests. The only reason my album count is low is because I've had little surplus money that made it past video games/art, heck the OSTs were part of bundles.
I'm 19 years old and this is my favorite way to buy music. Now if I only had the money.
So the digital distribution/availability is a "blessing and a curse" so to speak. Can the average individual take the initiative to explore more, or just roll with what's handed to em?
I have a new obsession that I actually share with those newfangled hipster millennials... Vinyl. I am nuts about Vinyl again. I am buying reissues of albums I own on CD left and right. I got a little pro ject elemental turntable, just plug it into the phono pre amp on my Onkyo stereo receiver and everything just sounds less sterile. I was listening to Tom Petty's "Breakdown" the other night, a song we have all heard on rock radio a thousand times, and I swear the backing vocals came so much more forward, and little nuanced percussion things snapped and a decayed more naturally. It was like I have never heard that song before. I played the entirety of Pink Floyd's "Wish you Were Here" last night and that just had a more visceral growl to it, it just rocked heaver that it ever did coming off my CD. I'm still not giving up my CD collection, but for some of those older analog remasters vinyl is an incredible format that I neglected for years because I sort of thought it was a fad rediscovered by children who didn't know any better... This marks the third or fourth time in my life that I've actually been wrong about anything. Vinyl is awesome. Listening to an entire album uninterrupted without fidgeting to go to the next track is phenomenal. I can't recommend vinyl collecting for music lovers more.
I'm 36 and only buy full albums on iTunes. There, I said it. Again.
I do also collect some vinyl now as well. But it's a subset / "best of" the albums I've already purchased on iTunes.
I bought a HomePod this year for no other purpose than playing albums I request from my collection. I found my Sonos becamse useless for anything but streaming services (it developed a bug where it would arbitrarily skip ahead to the next track during local playback), for which I subscribe to none.
I got a homepod for my daughter. She enjoys the fast access over apple music. Honestly, it's a neat little piece of audio engineering. It doesn't replace a good hi fidelity stereo for guys like me that like to have a dedicated listening area, but for it's place it anywhere that has power convenience it's a hard little speaker to beat. There is room for the convince of digital streaming mixed with old school analog. They can coexist. One of the really nice streaming features for us is pairing up with our satellite radio subscription. My wife is more of a tune the radio kind of person and she has a long commute so I sprang for satellite radio for her, and for like $3 more a month you can get an in house digital stream of all those stations. Quality isn't bad, it isn't amazing, but it isn't bad, and my wife just kind of likes to tune something and passively listen. We get a kick out of the 80's hair metal station. I'm not going to run out and buy White Lion or RATT records, but every now and then hearing it just randomly pop up kinda brings a smile to my face. Radio is for the stuff you love that you don't want to publicly admit to. There is no physical evidence in your collection that way.