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Post by kds on Mar 21, 2024 20:07:48 GMT
Last week, I went to Target to buy the new Judas Priest album on CD. I went there to get the version with the three bonus tracks. As I walked out of the store with my CD, I started thinking about how much more often this used to happen. I used to buy CDs all the time.
Going into my sophomore year of high school (1995), I think I had three or four CDs to my name. A couple of random titles my father had given me, like the UK comedy group Bad News and the Queen + Five Live EP. But, that Christmas, I doubled my collection by getting Van Halen - 5150, Queen - Made in Heaven, Live - Throwing Copper. On New Years Eve, I went to Record and Tape Traders and, for the first time, bought CDs with my own money - used copies of Van Halen's OU812 and F.U.C.K. My journey as a music collector had begun.
Throughout high school, I was able to get CDs through flea markets, thrift stores, K-Mart, Sam Goody, Best Buy, and through my father's subscription to Columbia House and BMG.
During my college years, I had the power to drive, and my friends and I would often find ourselves at record stores like Record and Tape Traders, CD Depot, and the Sound Garden. Only the latter still exists. I also worked at Circuit City, and bought quite a few CDs there. By then, internet shopping was a thing, so I'd buy CDs from Half.Com, Ebay, and of course, Amazon.
After college, I got a job working in radio. This meant, I got a lot of free CDs. Once my career changed, I no longer had access to freebies, but still collected. Record stores gradually faded. Some box stores went under. BMG and Columbia House went away.
A funny thing happened when I was 37 (2017). That summer, we moved into our current house. That fall, I discovered Spotify. By then, I'd taken a shine to listening to music on my deck with my smartphone, but Spotify gave me the power to control it (to a certain extent, I still used the free version). That December, my son was born.
My son dominates much of the living space in the house. So, nearly seven years after we moved it, the bulk of my large CD collection sits in boxes. That's why I eventually bit the bullet and started paying for Spotify Premium. With a few exceptions, I can access my albums, and albums I'd never bought or heard before, on Spotify.
I don't think I'll ever completely break away from CDs. But, now, when a new album is released, I'll listen on Spotify first. One big change that's occurred is that, in some cases, I've opted not to get tangible versions of newer albums by the likes of The Rolling Stones, Queensryche, etc, some artists who I'd have just went and got their new CD without a thought. Now, for bands to which I'm more loyal like The Who, Buffett, Ghost, Blue Oyster Cult, etc, I'll still get the new album, but will rarely play the tangible copy.
As many of the bands I prefer fade into memory in the new few years, I suspect my CD buying will decrease even more. But, I'll admit, I do miss going to the shops and spending an hour thumbing through the titles. One big change is that I don't buy a ton of catalog CDs anymore. It used to be, I'd go to a record store, and would randomly say "Hey, I don't have this Grand Funk / Paul McCartney / Rush album yet, it's $6.99, might as well snag it."
So, if you've made it through this ramble, have your music habits changed?
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Post by lonelysummer on Mar 21, 2024 22:40:09 GMT
I guess having kids in the house makes a difference. I only have one child, and he's the small furry type. Actually, I dumped Spotify a couple years ago, am playing more vinyl than ever. Still some cassettes and compact discs. Buying more CD's now cause they're cheap, but buy vinyl used, or new if it's important enough to me.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 21, 2024 22:59:41 GMT
I'm both older than you, kds , and I started earlier. If you discount the one record (yes, record) my parents let me choose from Columbia House or BMG circa 1980 or so-- The Muppet Movie soundtrack, an album I still love to this day--I bought my first music when I was 10 or 11. It had to be either very late 1986 or, more likely, sometime in the first half of 1987. I bought two cassettes with my own money, I think probably from my paper route. (That's the only job I'd have had by then. It's also possible, if it was summer 1987, that I used birthday money.) The cassettes were Europe's The Final Countdown and--now don't laugh--Stryper's To Hell With The Devil. They were released in May 1986 and October 1986, which is how I determined my dates above. From there, I bought and dubbed from friends cassettes at a pretty heavy rate all through high school, so until early 1994. By the time I graduated, I had something like 250 or 300 cassettes. First it was all along the lines of the above: Europe, Stryper, Poison, Motley Crue, GnR, Warrant, Winger, Kiss, Dokken, Twisted Sister, and so on. Then it was classic rock, especially guitar heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Cream/Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, the Beatles, Queen. Then by later high school it ranged from blues to jazz to shredder fusion to musical theater. I didn't get into CDs until roughly when I went to college. And then of course I felt I had to replace a lot of my cassettes with CDs! (Luckily, if unethically, I had a friend who was prone to shoplifting. My Beatles and Zeppelin collections were mostly courtesy of his sticky fingers.) I kept buying CDs right through 2010 or so. When I started doing reviews for a long-since defunct indie music website around 2004, I started getting free CDs. Granted, 30% of them were terrible and 50% of them were mediocre, but the remainder were at least relatively good, and a few were flat-out great. That lasted another four years or so. But by the late '00s, I was buying far fewer CDs. Once we hit the '10s and things were available to stream for free, I really kept my physical purchases limited: a few favorite bands, and mostly just deluxe sets like the Beach Boys boxes. I also kept buying music, but via iTunes/Apple Music. That's where I spend most of my music dollars now. (I do keep buying albums that way. I may be wrong, but I feel like more money goes to the artists that way than via streaming.) I don't think I've bought a CD now outside of that kind of collection in ... eight years? More? I'm not sure. The last one might be No Pier Pressure. And now the vast majority of my CDs--easily more than 5,000--are in the basement. I almost never listen to CDs. Even music I own, I usually pull up on iTunes, YouTube or something else.
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Post by B.E. on Mar 22, 2024 1:19:58 GMT
Sometime around last fall I started to get back into physical media. I took my CDs (and few cassettes) out of storage and up onto brand new shelves. I’ve really been enjoying listening to CDs I hadn’t in well over a decade. And I’ve also started buying again. Filling in the gaps of my CD collection and even buying some cassettes, too. It’s been fun.
Unfortunately, I think CDs are being phased out and buying any format new at a brick and mortar store is difficult. I was all excited to pick up the hit single “Now and Then” (vinyl) at Target on release day but struck out at multiple locations. I remember they used to have a great selection there when I was younger. Now it’s little more than a corner of an aisle. I do most of my buying on ebay.
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Mar 22, 2024 2:51:10 GMT
I spent my first few years of music interest downloading songs from Frostwire. Somehow never had a virus. That was probably ages 13-15 when I had no job or money. It's kind of a blur now, but TWGMTR was my one of, if not my first CD purchase. It's interesting looking back that Spotify was already around, but it wasn't even on my radar. I did use Pandora a bit during downtime at school. I largely bought music on iTunes and bought a number of greatest hits CDs. A few new albums as well. Eventually that trailed off and I transitioned to Spotify around 2018, although my car only had a radio. I think the last CD I bought was Unleash the Love. The only physical media I buy now is vinyl and that is maybe 1-2 per year. Last year I bought Flowers by Miley Cyrus and Star Crossed by Kacey Musgraves. If I ever get time to go to the record store, I'll probably get Deeper Well, also by Kacey Musgraves as well as the upcoming Lemon Twigs album.
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Post by kds on Mar 22, 2024 13:16:50 GMT
Kapitan's memory about The Muppet Movie Soundtrack unlocked a memory.
When I was in 4th grade, I started collecting movie soundtracks on record and cassette. I think it was a way to bond with my father as he used to go to record shows on the weekends. So, he'd give me some money, and I'd find cheap soundtrack records or tapes of some of my favorite movies of the time - Jaws, Ghostbusters, Scrooged, Police Academy 4, etc.
There was also that Christmas Eve in 1990 when I got my cassette copy of The Beach Boys Christmas Album. Then, later on, around 7th grade, I got cassettes of the compilations Queen Greatest Hits and Classic Queen.
Going back even further, as a four or five year old, I used to collect 45s. I had some "oldies" and some of the hits of the time (Shout by Tears for Fears, Oh Sherrie by Steve Perry).
Getting back to today, I currently don't even own a dedicated CD player in my house. I have a little Walmart cheapo boombox in my office at work that I use on occasion. If I want to play a CD at home, it has to be through my BluRay player.
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Post by carllove on Mar 23, 2024 1:30:38 GMT
I don’t have a CD player in my house, but both my cars do. Also, while the Lexus SUV has Bluetooth connectivity, my Toyota Avalon does not, so I buy CD’s to play in that car. At home, I enjoy my vinyl purchases in my music room, but frankly, mostly stream from Apple Music while I’m cooking, sitting on the deck or patio and hanging up clothes in the bedroom.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 23, 2024 12:11:49 GMT
One aspect of buying music I do miss is visiting used CD stores. (Well they weren't technically just CD stores, they always had small quantities of cassettes and records, but in the mid 90s to early 00s, it was overwhelmingly CDs.)
We had Cheapo Records and Music-Go-Round as the two primary chains. There were rows and rows, aisles and aisles, of mostly used CDs, which were at least slightly discounted from the inordinately expensive new ones. (In the late 80s I recall they always said CDs would eventually come way down in price from their initial $15 or so pricetags. While you could get them cheaper at Walmart, Target, or big box stores, for the most part they never did much come down.)
I filled out so many catalogs that way, and took flyers on new music all the time. While they might have been a little cheaper--$7.99 each? I don't exactly remember the typical prices--it's still funny thinking how much I spent on unknown quantities, thinking "well, it's cheap." But in those days, that's how you heard things. And even the file sharing services that were popping up, you had to know what you were looking for, and then it took forever sometimes to download anyway (and was in poor quality besides, and without artwork).
But I'm nostalgic for it. That click-click-click-click of rapidly rifling through the CDs, one letter at a time... So much fun.
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Post by lonelysummer on Mar 24, 2024 7:30:39 GMT
So a question here from the Dinosaur among us: when you are online, like visiting this forum, are you streaming music on your PC/Mac/laptop/phone? I tried that years ago, but I didn't like having the music blaring at me while I was reading/typing. I prefer to have the music on something separate elsewhere in the room - radio, cd player, turntable, whatever.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 24, 2024 12:18:58 GMT
So a question here from the Dinosaur among us: when you are online, like visiting this forum, are you streaming music on your PC/Mac/laptop/phone? I tried that years ago, but I didn't like having the music blaring at me while I was reading/typing. I prefer to have the music on something separate elsewhere in the room - radio, cd player, turntable, whatever. Most often when I'm listening to music or podcasts, etc., I run my laptop's audio through an external radio/CD player, as there is a little antenna that connects to my laptop via USB port to route it that way. So it is separate in the experience even though it's actually running on the laptop. Other times I listen via headphones. Even though the laptop has decent speakers (for a laptop), I very rarely just listen directly that way.
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Post by B.E. on Mar 24, 2024 13:33:42 GMT
So a question here from the Dinosaur among us: when you are online, like visiting this forum, are you streaming music on your PC/Mac/laptop/phone? I tried that years ago, but I didn't like having the music blaring at me while I was reading/typing. I prefer to have the music on something separate elsewhere in the room - radio, cd player, turntable, whatever. Most often when I'm listening to music or podcasts, etc., I run my laptop's audio through an external radio/CD player, as there is a little antenna that connects to my laptop via USB port to route it that way. So it is separate in the experience even though it's actually running on the laptop. Other times I listen via headphones. Even though the laptop has decent speakers (for a laptop), I very rarely just listen directly that way. Yeah, I don't like to listen to music with my phone or computer speakers. My computer and stereo system are in the same room, so I use my main speakers to listen to music. I don't stream often, but I can connect my computer to my stereo system using an audio cable. If I do listen to music on my phone or computer (streaming or otherwise), I usually use headphones or a small portable speaker.
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Post by carllove on Mar 24, 2024 17:33:35 GMT
So a question here from the Dinosaur among us: when you are online, like visiting this forum, are you streaming music on your PC/Mac/laptop/phone? I tried that years ago, but I didn't like having the music blaring at me while I was reading/typing. I prefer to have the music on something separate elsewhere in the room - radio, cd player, turntable, whatever. I have several wireless Bluetooth speakers throughout my house that I purchased on eBay. I have a Klipsch “The One” in the Kitchen/Living Room and a Harmon Kardon Onyx 7 in the Master Bedroom. The Music room has two sets of Bluetooth speakers. I usually use the Klipsch “The Sixes” if I want to play my guitar along with streamed music. I have a cheap “Sound Spot” in one office and a Bose Soundlink Mini in the other that used to be my husband’s, until he heard my HK Onyx, so he bought one for his work, since he liked mine so much. All but my music room speakers can be charged and used portably, so we can move them around and even take them outside. The Onyx is nice, because it has a handle to carry it around, and two can be paired for a stereo effect.
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Post by kds on Mar 25, 2024 12:32:19 GMT
One aspect of buying music I do miss is visiting used CD stores. (Well they weren't technically just CD stores, they always had small quantities of cassettes and records, but in the mid 90s to early 00s, it was overwhelmingly CDs.) We had Cheapo Records and Music-Go-Round as the two primary chains. There were rows and rows, aisles and aisles, of mostly used CDs, which were at least slightly discounted from the inordinately expensive new ones. (In the late 80s I recall they always said CDs would eventually come way down in price from their initial $15 or so pricetags. While you could get them cheaper at Walmart, Target, or big box stores, for the most part they never did much come down.) I filled out so many catalogs that way, and took flyers on new music all the time. While they might have been a little cheaper--$7.99 each? I don't exactly remember the typical prices--it's still funny thinking how much I spent on unknown quantities, thinking "well, it's cheap." But in those days, that's how you heard things. And even the file sharing services that were popping up, you had to know what you were looking for, and then it took forever sometimes to download anyway (and was in poor quality besides, and without artwork). But I'm nostalgic for it. That click-click-click-click of rapidly rifling through the CDs, one letter at a time... So much fun. I miss that experience too. There's still one record store near me that sells both new and used CDs - The Sound Garden. Although, the last time I was there, about three years ago, their space had dwindled a bit, and with the changing trends, but I can't help feeling they're probably on borrowed time. So, I do want to try to get over there sooner rather than later.
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Post by lonelysummer on Mar 25, 2024 19:51:19 GMT
I still hit the used music stores regularly. Let's see, what have I bought recently? "A Beautiful Time" by Willie Nelson (2022 vinyl); two volumes of Monkees "Missing Links"; Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison ($3 on CD cause my cassette broke and it has extra songs that aren't on the vinyl); Gunhill Road (one hit wonder from 1973); Bob Dylan "Another Budokan" (2023 release on vinyl); a Cliff Richard comp; a Rick Nelson comp.
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Post by kds on Mar 25, 2024 20:06:20 GMT
I still hit the used music stores regularly. Let's see, what have I bought recently? "A Beautiful Time" by Willie Nelson (2022 vinyl); two volumes of Monkees "Missing Links"; Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison ($3 on CD cause my cassette broke and it has extra songs that aren't on the vinyl); Gunhill Road (one hit wonder from 1973); Bob Dylan "Another Budokan" (2023 release on vinyl); a Cliff Richard comp; a Rick Nelson comp. That's another thing I miss about random record shop shopping. You walk in, and you have no idea what you'll walk out with. The last several times I've bought CDs, I've gone to a box store for a specific title, or went on Amazon for a specific title. It's probably been a good 5-6 years since I went into a record store, and leisurely shopping, and left with some new stuff for the collection. The trip to The Sound Garden I mentioned a few years ago was with my then three year old, so it's not like I had more than a couple mins to give the store a good look around.
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