Vinyl? CDs? Streaming?

[velvetkevorkian]

1 hour ago, PaulWarning said:

I not sure whether I'm right but when you download off Bandcamp the band doesn't necessarily get any money because when the pass on a physical sale they take a fee that gets debited to your account, when you get a download that income is taken off your account, so in the case of the band I'm in we've made no money from, admittedly not many, downloads.

When I do pay for a downloads I search round for a site that doesn't do this.

Are you generating codes to distribute or something? This doesn't sound right to me in the general sense.

[PaulWarning]

2 minutes ago, velvetkevorkian said:

Are you generating codes to distribute or something? This doesn't sound right to me in the general sense.

no, and it doesn't happen if someone buys the CD or whatever, but it did when someone did a download only, when they pass on an order to you they tell you their charge and say it will be collected from any download only orders.

Incidentally you get 100 download codes for free

[neepheid]

Spotify subscriber here, if it helps?

 

Also gone back to radio in the car, that's how CBA with physical media I am these days.

[WinterMute]

Anything that gets recommended or I stumble across gets some time in the Apple Music library, if it survives a week or so, it gets bought on CD and ripped to lossless in a Bluesound Vault 2 network player.

 

The 1500 or so CD's I've got are all in there and are playable round the house network. I've even digitised some old vinyl for SnG's. I compress the lossless files to AAC for the iPhone as it gets used in the car and on trains. 

 

I can't abide most streaming services, the only good one is Tidal, but the quality comes at a price for a service I wouldn't use that much.

[How1]

1 hour ago, WinterMute said:

Anything that gets recommended or I stumble across gets some time in the Apple Music library, if it survives a week or so, it gets bought on CD and ripped to lossless in a Bluesound Vault 2 network player.

 

The 1500 or so CD's I've got are all in there and are playable round the house network. I've even digitised some old vinyl for SnG's. I compress the lossless files to AAC for the iPhone as it gets used in the car and on trains. 

 

I can't abide most streaming services, the only good one is Tidal, but the quality comes at a price for a service I wouldn't use that much.

You say ‘ripped in’? So does that rip and store as a standalone device?

[Lozz196]

4 hours ago, cetera said:

CDs. Very little that I listen to is on streaming sites and I like owning product rather a piece of electricity (downloads).

Same for me

[nekomatic]

I use Apple Music so most of my actual listening is streamed from Apple, but I buy downloads (mostly Bandcamp or iTunes) or CDs (mostly secondhand) for stuff that's not on there or I feel I really want to own and/or support the artist (obviously secondhand CDs don't do the latter) and am slowly getting through ripping my CD library into iTunes. iTunes Match means I can play the downloads and CD rips on any of my devices, but it's not part of the Apple Music Family deal so my family members don't get the same privilege, but that's fine because they mostly don't like my music anyway.

 

I have some vinyl but no deck, so where possible I've been finding them on Apple Music then selling or giving away the originals unless they have some personal significance.

 

3 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

We're all old.

 

I'm no… oh wait, yes, yes I am.

[WinterMute]

1 hour ago, How1 said:

You say ‘ripped in’? So does that rip and store as a standalone device?

Yes, the Vault has a CD drive for ripping and you can add files to the 2Tb HD over the network, it'll play FLAC, but you can set the rip to AIFF 44.1/16 if you want to and it''l play back anything up to 192/24 and even some of the "master" files kicking about.

 

You can also access a bunch of streaming services, and it has the TuneIn internet radio app. Useful little box.

 

https://www.bluesound.com/products/vault/

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by WinterMute
added link

[leroydiamond]

I have my CD collection and that of a few friends ripped onto an Innuos Zen server. I can also stream Tidal with this unit. I download and pay for albums from a number of legitimate sites and load them onto the Zen, including hi res. I can operate the unit using an app on my phone and have no desire going back to CD.

https://innuos.com/zen-mk3/

I also have a vinyl collection which I enjoy.  

[TheLowDown]

Streaming only for me. Less clutter the better, plus my main aim is to try out as much new music as possible. 

[snorkie635]

9 hours ago, cetera said:

CDs. Very little that I listen to is on streaming sites and I like owning product rather a piece of electricity (downloads).

+ 1 for this.

[PaulWarning]

2 hours ago, TheLowDown said:

Streaming only for me. Less clutter the better, plus my main aim is to try out as much new music as possible. 

 

10 hours ago, cetera said:

CDs. Very little that I listen to is on streaming sites and I like owning product rather a piece of electricity (downloads).

Guess it depends how materialistic you are, I've just sold 4 vinyl albums to our singer, he is, I'm  not

[kodiakblair]

Last time I bought any vinyl was the late 80s. Of the 10 CDs purchased this century, 6 are still in the wrapper.

Can't stand the radio, the drivel spoken by presenters drives me up the wall. No streaming services either.

 

I've an MP3 folder in the PC and a duplicate flash drive in the car, those 998 files are more than enough for the rare times I listen to music now.

[snorkie635]

4 minutes ago, kodiakblair said:

Last time I bought any vinyl was the late 80s. Of the 10 CDs purchased this century, 6 are still in the wrapper.

Can't stand the radio, the drivel spoken by presenters drives me up the wall. No streaming services either.

 

I've an MP3 folder in the PC and a duplicate flash drive in the car, those 998 files are more than enough for the rare times I listen to music now.

Love it! That's enough to get you to Skinflats and back. 😁

[Boodang]

Streaming has transformed my listening experience. I've discovered so much new music and artists, something that's just not possible the traditional way of having a collection. 

Having said that I still enjoy putting on vinyl and listening to an album but it's not an either/or situation, so I do both. 

[uncle psychosis]

I almost exclusively listen to digital these days. 

 

BUT - I am not a Spotify (or equivalent) user. 

 

I like to own my music - so I buy cds and rip them. 

 

Sometimes, I buy downloads directly from bands on bandcamp. 

 

For a select few artists, i will buy their vinyl (and probably the cd and/or download as well) because i am a collector and because i like to support them directly. But a sad amount of my vinyl never actually gets played. 

[PaulThePlug]

CDs ripped to mp3...

I want to be able to listen without internet access...

My lil Sony mp3 'stick' is a great form factor but only 2 Meg so frequent synching with a laptop to change...

Would love a 8 or 16 Meg stick.

[LowB_FTW]

Good thread. I've enjoyed reading the replies in it so far.

 

I download a lot from iTunes Store and play it on my Mac when I'm working (I do 12hr shifts full-time), and in my car on an iPod when I'm driving.

I do still buy vinyl, but only from artists that I really like, I only buy CDs of my very favourite artist unless they come bundled with vinyl from the artists I really like.

I do not have a Spotify account, and never have. I have an Amazon Prime account but have never used the Amazon music service, similarly with Apple and Apple Music.

I like to own my music, which is why I download, but it all takes up so much space for the physical product, so download is the perfect compromise for me; I get to own what I like but for the most part it takes up no physical space outside of the HDD on my Mac (yes, I'm still using a physical disc drive until I upgrade the computer).

My iTunes Wishlist is still rather humongous and it'll cost me some considerable coin to purchase everything I have on it. hahaha

 

Mark

[madshadows]

I still buy CD's and then via iTunes rip then to MP3 and they then go on a memory card on an old mobile phone that I use for playing music via earbuds or speake. I buy CD's new and sometimes second hand, Music Magpie is fantastic for secondhand CD's, I recently bought a special edition of The Clash's "London Calling" (2CD/1DVD) for under a fiver and it was in perfect as new condition, most of their second hand stuff is in good condition. I'd never subscribe to streaming sites like Spotify as I think they rip off artists !!  

 

John 😎

[PaulWarning]

44 minutes ago, madshadows said:

I still buy CD's and then via iTunes rip then to MP3 and they then go on a memory card on an old mobile phone that I use for playing music via earbuds or speake. I buy CD's new and sometimes second hand, Music Magpie is fantastic for secondhand CD's, I recently bought a special edition of The Clash's "London Calling" (2CD/1DVD) for under a fiver and it was in perfect as new condition, most of their second hand stuff is in good condition. I'd never subscribe to streaming sites like Spotify as I think they rip off artists !!  

 

John 😎

while your sentiments are to be applauded, the artists gets nothing if you buy second hand

Edited May 3, 2023 by PaulWarning

[madshadows]

2 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

while you sentiments are to be applauded, the artists gets nothing if you buy second hand

 

Well as most of the time I'm buying a CD to replace old vinyl 😛 , with the Clash album, I'd bought the original vinyl, a single new CD of it to replace the vinyl and the special edition for the extra's which of course had been bought by the original owner, I think the Clash have done alright from me from that one album !!. Any albums being released by artists I like I buy the CD new of course to support them  

 

John 😎 

[BigRedX]

Unfortunately The Clash are a particular bad example to use, as they got a reduced royalty rate in an attempt to keep the price of their albums down for their fans, particularly London Calling and Sandinista, where they were only getting a single album rate.

 

If you really want to support bands financially you should go to their gigs and buy a T-shirt or two.

[knirirr]

A lot of the stuff I listen to is ripped from CD or vinyl. Some has been purchased as digital downloads (e.g. from Bandcamp).

I have no use whatsoever for the usual streaming services but all my music is on a Plex server at home so it is accessible from any of my devices wherever I have a network collection.

Apple music, when I tried that, was horribly buggy and for some reason wouldn't sync to all my devices. Their usual troubleshooting steps (reboot, reboot everything else, wipe data and restore, wipe and don't restore) were of no use.

[vantagepointrocks]

In the main I am still purchasing CDs, which I do listen to on the hi-fi at home or in the car, as it is still old enough to have a player. Then I also rip them for my MP3 player for use when out, particularly in the gym. As I don’t want to have to connect to the internet to listen to music while out and about, and I don’t really want my smartphone in my pocket as I’m working out. Which means I am slightly concerned that my choices of MP3 player is going to diminish during the next few years as industry seems to think everyone is happy to listen to music 
Through their phone. 

As for the streaming platforms, I do have a free Spotify account and listen to it quite regularly when I am on the laptop and online for some reason. On Spotify I either listen to different music that I don’t like enough to purchase, or bands I do like are making a bit more money out of me where I have bought the CD, and occasionally listen to it online as well.  
 

[NancyJohnson]

My wife isn't a fan of having big hi-fi and all the playable media out and I'll profess this has forced us me into a solution to still have access to the media while not having access to the tangible element (CDs/Blu-rays etc.).

 

All my music and film content is now housed on a NAS (where I have all my CDs ripped to in FLAC or MP3/320kbps), but in the main the majority of the music we listen to is from Spotify.  It's delivered to four stereo pairs of Sonos One and One SL speakers dotted about the house with the pair in our lounge benefitting from being twinned with a Sonos mini-sub for a bit more oomph.  In the little room where I work, I have a PC with a pair of M-Audio BX5s - this has the same access to audio as the Sonos kit.

 

In addition, I have a few audio boxsets which contain Dolby 5.1/Atmos Blu-rays (these are predominantly XTC, Tears For Fears, Steven Wilson)...if I want to listen to these, the content is all ripped to the same NAS and is delivered to an Onkyo surround amp via Plex.

 

I've got about 100 albums up in the attic, some of which aren't on Spotify, so I have been toying with buying a Victrola turntable that's a badged collaboration with Sonos, so it serves as an input source - it doesn't require a fixed input in a Sonos amp, the turntable works as an input device on the Sonos MESH network.  Bit expensive at the moment, unnecessarily so.

 

 

Edited May 3, 2023 by NancyJohnson
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