Best Way to Listen to Music

[mugz]

I'm a bit not interested in music as much as in past years/decades. There's too many ways of listening to music from free to expensive, and in many ways there's far too much music these days.

Does anyone have a system to maintain some level of interaction with music, but it's maybe inbetween just telling Alexa to play 90s thrash or whatever, and having masses of cds or vinyl etc?

is there a middle ground where you don't have to abandon it all completely, but you don't have shelves of stuff you can't find the time to listen to?

[Eoin McLove]

There is no answer to your impossible question.

[mugz]

I had hoped others had found a way to make their music experience more condensed without losing it altogether. I know it's a hard thing to give suggestions for

[StoutAndAle]

I've been finding it very hard to listen to music in the same way that I did 20 years ago before the iPod and streaming. I don't seem to be able to sit and get to know a record anymore. I'll give new albums a go but very rarely do they get "worn out" like records of my youth that I know back to front. There are some exceptions Sleep's "The Sciences", Causa Sui's "Euporie Tide", Elder's "Lore", the last two Idles records, the Fontaines DC album and "Luminiferous" by High On Fire come to mind. But, in general, I listen to a record and then move on - unless it's very good. Even then I might end up forgetting about it.

I think part of this is the sheer amount of music that is now available literally at one's fingertips. Back in the 90s, I'd have enough money at the end of the week to buy 2 or 3 records. You can to make it count too, cos you'd be stuck with them. Hours spent agonising over what to buy... When I started earning decent money I was able to buy a lot more records but you'd still want to make sure you were buying the best. Then you'd go home and listen to them. Actually listen to them, over and over again. Someone might call over and you'd put it on for them to listen to too. 

When access to music became easier - downloading albums passed me by completely but borrowing CDs to rip to iTunes, streaming etc.  - I noticed that my attention span got shorter and shorter. I'd find myself flicking to the next song or wondering about a different record etc. Or, more recently, scrolling through my phone.

To your point; I listen to a lot  (most) of new music on streaming services now - to combat the spacing out (and have decent sound) - I bought a couple of Sonos units and set them up around the house -including a stereo chain in the living room. I pick a record on Spotify/Bandcamp and then put my phone on a shelf furthest away from where I sit. This has definitely helped the situation. I can now listen to a record and have to get up and walk across the room to change it, like the old days.

The past few weeks I have been doing some work on the house so I've been picking a record (a physical copy) from my collection and putting it on my stereo. I still know every note of "Appetite For Destruction", "The Holy Bible", "London Calling", "Vol. 4", "Angel Dust", etc. etc. I don't think that will ever happen for me again.

[Eoin McLove]

You want to get rid of your collection.  Easy solution.  You want to keep listening to music so what are you left with- downloading and streaming.  You don't want to be overloaded with downloads? Don't download loads of stuff.  I mean,  what is the question?

[Eoin McLove]

Maybe you need a new hobby.

[StoutAndAle]

Perhaps I have misunderstood the original post...?

[Eoin McLove]

I was replying to Mugz. Seems like a very unfocused question.  His opening line days he's kind of fed up with music which kind of answers everything that follows.

[101_North]

Qobuz and decent headphones at work. Only place I get to listen to music in relative peace for any length of time. Thankfully my employer is cool with it. Trying to listen to music at home with 3 kids and limited space is a waste of time. Spotify and an Alexa cater for music at home but I rarely get control over what's playing! I like Qobuz as streaming service as it often contains plenty of supporting info like pdf's of cd booklets and liner notes and it has some decent magazine style articles too. Much less catering for 'mass market' music than say Spotify in the recommendations etc. although it does have a more limited catalogue.

[mugz]

thanks to the 2 lads there for the responses. Nice to see I'm not the only one who's  fed up with the way music is but not completely ready to abandon music completely.

if streaming looks to be my thing from now on, do you find any problems with sound quality? I fucken hate 320kbps being 'standard' as it sounds like muck to these ears

[101_North]

Part of the reason I went with Qobuz is the hi-res format. I have the Studio package which is up to 24Bit 192kHz - with a minimum of cd quality flac at 16Bit 44kHz. It does stream mp3's if you need for situations where bandwidth is an issue

[John Kimble]

I'm in the situation now where I find I'm more discerning in my tastes but have far less time to devote to listening to music. Having kids and working shifts has put paid to having the luxury of sitting down and devoting proper time to listening to albums in their entirety, which I would have done as a teenager. The only opportunity I really get to absorb music is my commute to work, which I'm glad to say takes 45 mins by car. I'm with McLove here regarding the initial question as it's a bit unfocused, but if I am interpreting things correctly, then I would highly recommend investing in a discman or Walkman to access your physical collection in your own time.

[mugz]

Part of the reason I went with Qobuz is the hi-res format. I have the Studio package which is up to 24Bit 192kHz - with a minimum of cd quality flac at 16Bit 44kHz. It doesn't stream mp3's.

this sounds like it would suit me well and proper.

would they have marduk and carcass, and also like 80s pop, or modern hipster stuff; like they'd have eclectic tastes well covered?

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

I think part of this is the sheer amount of music that is now available literally at one's fingertips. Back in the 90s, I'd have enough money at the end of the week to buy 2 or 3 records.

Tis funny, I was thinking about this when watching the Primordial documentary a couple of weeks back. Alan mentions at some point that at the height of the tape-trading days, if you were really into it as he was, then you might be receiving 10 to 15 tapes per week from all over the world! Even with streaming, at no point in my life have I ever listened to fifteen new albums in one week.

Anyway, to the question at hand, I don't use a portable music device at the moment, but I stream a lot, mainly from YouTube in work. Nothing I listen to in work gets any kind of full attention. When I work from home, I do the same with vinyl; music just kind of playing in the background. With the way my schedule is now, I get to properly sit down and listen to I'd say one or maximum two albums a day. And I consider that to be plenty enough. Sometimes it might be the same album every day for a week, as when the Sweven album or the last Gospel of the Witches album dropped, this new Cryptic Shift will be the same. That's what "wearing an album out" is for me these days, and I have to say I really enjoy it. If I happen to be able to throw a joint into that mix from time to time, that's just bliss.

The sound quality issue doesn't get to me precisely because when I'm streaming it's always more or less background to whatever I'm actually engaged in so I'm not tuned in enough to get bugged by hi-hats sounding whack every so often, etc. I'd say a premium lossless, or quasi-lossless option with most streaming services can't be very far off now anyway though. What Spotify uses is already better at 320kbps than MP3 anyway.

[101_North]

Qobuz has Marduk and Carcass. They have 80's pop. They cover eclectic tastes. Like all streaming services they have gaps but they aren't as wide as I feared.   The recommendations algorithm isn't great but I don't really need one. At least it's not constantly pushing Kanye West at me like Tidal! Taking a trial is the only way to know if a particular service is for you. At £14.99 it's not cheap but I think the extra fiver over Spotify is well worth it.

I do miss browsing stores, buying CD's or vinyl and having the time to pour a drink and really absorb it. Life just doesn't work like that for me anymore.