How do you get hold of music?

[SiHart]

Over the last few years there's been a revolution in the way we buy and listen to music. MP3s have changed the way we get hold of music to a great extent, perhaps faster than previous format changes...

So how do you get hold of yours and why? (you can choose more than one option)

Si xx

[Lissa]

There isn't an option for Spotify - I'm not a big music consumer (1 CD in over three years and that was by Vic Reeves) but if I suspect I might like something I'll go to Spotify for a listen.

[SiHart]

I've added a Spotify option. Should have thought of that!

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

Last week for the first time ever I bought an entire new album digitally. Thanks to the excellent £3.99p Amazon price, it was worth buying the entire album as there were 6 or 7 tracks I liked the sound of from the extracts and it would have been more expensive to buy them individually. It worked excellently and I've really enjoyed it. It's simply got to the point where every situation I listen to music in (in the kitchen at home, when travelling, on the computer) I can use my player - so having it on a disc is actually an inconvenience for me. There's only the car left which depends on having the CD - and when I get round to it, I'll buy the lead so I can plug my MP3 in there as well. I can't think why I'd want to have to put a disc in to listen to music and not be able to flick between all the CD's in my collection without having to change it. So it worked really well for me, and I'll do it again if first week prices for digital albums continue to be as good as the £3.99p I paid for this new album.

Si.

[Llordllama]

Generally online, given that shop prices are always higher (certainly round me) - not to mention the East-Midlands is a bit of a musical black spot. Loving streaming stuff more and more (even bought my phone a little funky speaker to play stuff to me offa Last.fm when I'm in the bath/the garden etc)

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I don't tend to buy many albums like Lissa ... well I buy more than her. And we don't really have download available in NZ.

However I also believe that the music of the 90s will not be bettered!

[Anthony Williams]

Most of the above options, to be honest!

Ant x

[SiHart]

It's a mixture for me. I still buy CDs and I'm an album lover rather than someone who plays his music collection on random play, so when i have downloaded stuff it's tended to be whole albums rather than single tracks.
What I've loved about downlaoding is that suddenyl things that weren't available for years are now around because it's easier and cheaper to make it available for downloading than doing a CD run.

Si xx

[Perry Vale]

All of the above!

[Stephen Morgan]

I'm with Perry and Ant!

[Philipnet]

I've just realised that there's no option for iTunes podcasts; the closest is "Download Albums"

I download one to two hour podcasts of dance music and keep them. This stuff is perfect to listen to down the gym (reminder to self: must get back into that habit ) or to work to - just don't tell work that's how they could increase my productivity - all those fast paced beats speed up my typing !

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Of course you missed another option. Well not just "I pay the monkey a shiny coin, and he turns the handle".

But sheet music. I saw someone at a cafe last month reading sheet music totally entranced, and nodding his head to the song. I was at once so impressed at his ability, but also thought he looks a total plonker doing it in public.

Will our overdependence on MP3 player erode our natural ability to hum a song tunelessly to ourselves?

[Si Hunt]

I read sheet music on a Kindle. It's the best way to appreciate Cascada's club anthem "Evacuate the Dancefloor".

You missed that one too.

Si.

[Jon Masters]

What about 8-track ? Or recording it off the radio onto cassette and making mix tapes ? (I recently bought up our cheapie store's supply of C120 tapes...)

[Si Hunt]

I like how mix-tapes survive the change in fashion and technology. First of all you had The Mix Tape, then the Compilation CD, now I guess you've got the Playlist.

"I love you darling... so I've made you a playlist!"

Si.

[Lissa]

This is as good a time as any to mention Amazon have 100 "Greatest Hits" albums available to download for a slender £3 each.

[SiHart]

Including the Best of Hazell Dean apparently.

Si xx

[Rob McCow]

I'm such an old fart, I only buy new CDs in the shops!

I'm still an arch-traitor to the musical cause though, I'm quite happy to pop a CD in with the supermarket shopping.

But if you wait a few months, most CDs are £3-£5 anyway. Even music that isn't free has no value.

[Si Hunt]

Including the Best of Hazell Dean apparently.

That's an absolutely rotten album - they're all horrible long mixes, and half the singles are missing.

Si.

[Stuart Wallis]

I'm such an old fart, I only buy new CDs in the shops!

Old farts of the world unite! There's nothing like having an actual product in your hand. (Matron!) Saying that, never mind old, some of us are absolutely prehistoric; I replaced my old record player recently, so vinyl and cassete are still options. Ah... I'm going to have to explain vinyl to some of you whippersnappers...

Mind you, I'm streaming the Kinks right now. What they want to do with their spare time is their concern as long as they pay up...

[Rob McCow]

Old farts of the world unite!

Hurrah!

Mind you, I'm streaming the Kinks right now.

OMG WTF ROFLCOPTERS?!?!

It would be nice to have a vinyl player tied into the stereo, but looking around at this junk filled room it seems I couldn't squeeze a turntable in. And I'd only listen to the 'War of The Worlds' LP repeatedly.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I think one of the problems and this goes with the eBooks thread is at the moment there's not much of a price difference between download and hard copy prices. You buy a CD/Book and you have it, it cost money to make cheap it a third world country and then ship around to world, money to keep in a warehouse, put on a shelf, have a teenager behind a counter to sell it to you.

The electronic version there's none of that overhead, but it's not much cheaper for it. And all you get is the data itself ...

[Lissa]

On the flip side, the £1 classic novels that are out of copyright show how little of the cost is the physical book.

What needs to change is the mentality of the publishers and record companies who see a certain unit profit as being the norm. If they reduce that, reduce the unit price and sell more then their profits are safe because the production costs of extra downloads is almost zero. We need to get to the point of the £4 album which sells twice as many as the £8 album and everyone wins.

[Si Hunt]

I agree.

We're getting there. The new Katy Perry album was £3.99p on Amazon on its release - I was thrilled as this was just cheap enough to make me feel I was getting a substantial saving in exchange for not having the box and the booklet.

I'm hoping McFly's will be the same price when that comes out in November.

Si.

[Anthony Williams]

What needs to change is the mentality of the publishers and record companies who see a certain unit profit as being the norm.

Not just the publishers and record companies, but also the retailers. At Waterstone's, we were marking the price of books up by nearly 100% of the value at which we bought them in. Even at half price, the company wasn't making a loss on any item...

Ant x