Spotify vs physical music

[Paul keohane]

Was very much a  physical man,and totally sceptical about things like Spotify when it first became popular.

But i took the soup,stopped buying cds and am 100% Spotify with years now.

The main reason,kids came along,my album collection was taking up a huge amount of space,i had about 2k cds,so i  just stopped buying physical music with a good few years now.I have to say i do love Spotify for sheer convenience.

[Paul keohane]

I use my phone and a really good Boom bluetooth speaker,its about the size of a large can of beer ,and the sound is great!.

[Kurt Cocaine]

I use Spotify in the kitchen as it's too far from my hifi setup. Mainly non metal listening. It regularly stops playing after 2 songs though. A major pain in the ass. I've googled it up and it's some shitty bug with no proper fix. But I have checked out a fair bit of music on it overall to a positive effect.

Other than that I listen to physical format on my hifi (tape, CD, vinyl). I dabble occasionally in YouTube as there is a much better selection of underground metal on it  but I rarely listen through earphones and can't connect my phone to my hifi and I don't own a computer so that avenue is more or less out for me, though I would use it more if I could play my phone through a speaker. What do I need, a Bluetooth speaker? (whatever the fuck that is)

I have this Bluetooth speaker 3 years now. I use it almost daily and pump the shit out of it. Great battery too....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bluetooth-Waterproof-Speakerphone-Shockproof-Splashproof/dp/B01EWUHISK

[Goatlord]

Ask me this question 2 years ago and I would have said physical all the way. Now its still physical but streaming is brilliant for on the move and firing up that random track that you thought of. It helps with the buying process and weeds out the shite

[astfgyl]

I wouldn't be into it at all. If something seems interesting to me, the way I go about it these days is to try it out on YouTube or Bandcamp, then if I really like it after a few goes I'll try get a CD of it and stop listening to it until the CD arrives. Sometimes I can't get the physical copy for a decent price and then I grab a torrent and burn my own CD.

I just like the concept of ownership. I had a free trial of spotify once and I thought it was great downloading the stuff for offline listening. Then the trial ran out and I couldn't have it anymore and I also couldn't burn it to a disc so fuck that shit.

The Iceberg thing applies as well. I prefer to limit the possibilities a bit so rather than listening to rakes of things once via streaming I have a collection of albums there and I get to sort of live with them and really get to know them and I love the physical buzz of taking out the disc and looking at the inlay etc. I tend to listen to full albums more like this as well rather than a song here or there and immediately thinking of the next thing I'm going to put on. I do rip my albums to my walkman for when I'm out or at work, but that is only 8 gigs so there is a limit on that as well. I gave a good few years not buying CDs and I found it took a bit from the love for music the way it was so cheapened. It isn't really the support the artist thing for me, I just find the buzz is better with physical.

[open face surgery]

I will add that a fair amount of my spotify listens are non metal.

[Ollkiller]

I havent bought a physical release in about 20 years. If I like a band I'll buy a t shirt.

[Scáthach]

Last time I pirated something it was a home dubbed cassette in the nineties 

[hellfire]

I have most of my CDs ripped to my phone so that does me on the go.  I had Spotify a few years ago and found it a bit overwhelming. When you have your choice of everything it can be tough to pick anything. I use Band camp a fair bit and most bands have a track on YouTube if I don't know them. 

[Necr0rceN]

I use both, listening to spotify is just so easy and I have all the old records on it now and in the car it works seemlessly with Android Auto. Plus I use it when out running or exercising, which is difficult with the LPs    . It doesn't take away from the pleasure I get when spinning up LPs. Like Bandcamp, Spotify helps find new bands but if I find a good album on either then I have to get the vinyl.

[Blizzard Beast]

Spotify has its uses which I use sometimes but I still use and buy physical music .
You cant beat reading the lyrics and looking at the art work while listening.

[smokedeels]

I'd love to still buy/listen to records but i just don't have the space.  A sonos and an Ipod just makes more sense. I use a mix of bandcamp / spotify / old cd rips and i buy merch at shows.

If i ever buy a place i'll get back into buying records.

[Blackout]

.

[mugz]

the really funny aspect is that cds will start to be appealing again; great sound quality, similar to vinyl but more manageable than records, just enough tactility but you don't need an extension on your gaff to put your music in.

what Im waiting for isn't the next partially satisfying medium, but rather the next format for the audio itself- what kind of remastering technology will we use to make 20th century music stay relevant. Will all music be released in 24bit at the very minimum? Just using that as an example.

[astfgyl]

I love spotify so much and I would never have discovered half the newest music I listen to these days without it. It's a very slick app. I'd never heard of Bandcamp until I read this thread though. Would it have the same reach as spotify?

It wouldn't exactly but it's a much nicer concept all round.