8 ms·

I confess, I am part of this trend. And I just got into it, so I get no "before it was cool"-claim to fame. Not sure where that leaves me on the hipster-scale.

I confess, I am part of this trend. And I just got into it, so I get no "before it was cool"-claim to fame. Not sure where that leaves me on the hipster-scale. Buying CD's used to be a weekly ritual for me and I missed it for years. Putting on a new album on a Saturday afternoon with a beer or glass of wine while I start cooking is a very enjoyable moment for me. Now, obviously this was for the most part because I would have access to new music. That experience has not come back as I can put on anything on my laptop. However, there is a nice sense to putting on an album and being "forced" to play it from one end to the other. With streaming, I have a tolerance of 10-20 seconds of jarring music before I lose my patience and skip the track. Which is good but also means that I miss out on some of the tracks that take more effort and are in the "acquired taste" category. And in my experience, those tend to stay pleasant whereas the hits suddenly reach a threshold after which I can't stand listening to them any more.

nindalf 9y ago
I'm not sure if this would work for you, but I like Spotify's Discover Weekly. Every Monday you get a playlist of 30 songs that you've never heard before. I listen to it from beginning to end without skipping and I often find songs that I end up liking a lot
- cr1895 9y ago
  Release Radar published on Fridays is good too for new releases. It's always a nice perk during my week to see what's in these two playlists.
- cocoflunchy 9y ago
  I wonder if my account has a bug with Discover Weekly because ~50% of the songs I get come back over and over (sometimes as remixes or covers too...)
- bluesroo 9y ago
  > I listen to it from beginning to end without skipping This was the important part for me at least. There are a lot of songs that I think I'm not into. Once I forced myself to listen to all of them all the way through I found a lot of good stuff.
- lghh 9y ago
  Note that they are definitely not songs you've never heard before once you've been listening to it weekly for a year or two. After a while, it started suggesting some of the more popular songs by artists that are near the top of my most played artists.
- nikanj 9y ago
  Discover weekly is Spotify's key to that sweet payola, and it really shows. You can't remove songs from the weekly recommendation, and somehow it repeatedly gives you well-marketed artists completely outside your listening preferences.
  - bhj 9y ago
    Another anecdotal data point: This has not been my experience at all. Its recommendations have gotten more obscure as I've liked/plussed those kind of things. It's more likely that you're encountering the limits of Spotify's library and/or algorithms rather than some nefarious payola plot. (I agree that being able to remove songs - or at least thumbs up/down similar to artist/album radio modes - would be nice)
    - eric_h 9y ago
      Absolutely. I actually started listening to discover weekly playlists without giving it any feedback and it started based on my previous trends and gradually drifted into the more main stream stuff. Once I realized I just needed to give its recommendation engine more fuel to work with and started liking/adding things I actually wanted to listen to, it went right back to giving me cool stuff with loads of obscure artists I'd never heard before but liked a lot. (It really only took me about two weeks to right the ship). Spotify's recommendation algos are excellent.
  - tyleraldrich 9y ago
    Maybe it depends on the genres you listen to, but I haven't found this to be true at all. My discover weekly playlist is frequently full of bands I've never heard of with monthly listen numbers in the 2,000-50,000 range - I don't think those bands have marketing budgets.
  - runeb 9y ago
    Either my playlist is the outlier or yours is, because this is completely opposite of what I experience in that playlist. Mine is pretty much all +20/30/40 years old "niche" music. Edit: And it almost always is something I really love. That playlist is the killer feature on Spotify for me at the moment.
- balladeer 9y ago
  The problem with these online streaming services I face is that I try to use them mostly for one crucial purpose and that is recommendation - and they always fail to recommend anything that appeals to me. I want to find new songs, new artists that I would like. But these services never helped me with that. I don't like rap, hip-hop, or metal. I mostly like rock, some pop etc but that too not too loud. I don't really know how much "not loud"; that's where I thought these recommendation engines would kick in. I have found couple of artists/songs that I just love on Bandcamp (awesome place). But Spotify, Apple Music (this one has been an utter disappointment for me), and many other streaming services that I've tried in my country just didn't cut it. What have helped me over the years are films, blogs, tweets etc. Something random playing on a bus, or a film soundtrack, a TV show theme song. Like that song A Chi that I heard while watching The Best of Youth. It was in Italian and I didn't understand a word but I just instantly connected to it. I loved it. That German song from The Night Porter - from there I discovered Marlene Dietrich's Lili Marleen. Or Many a tears from October Sky, or that song from Twelve Monkeys. And there are some like Amélie (well, every tune is fabulous in this one) where I disconvered Guilty by Al Bowlly. A friend once, out of the blue, told me to check out Imagine Dragons and later I listenred to Demons like crazy; on repeat. Or a chance hearing of a tune in an Iranian film that was composed by an Iranian artist. It's the best song of melancholy I have ever heard and it doesn't have any lyrics. I even found some nice ones on WCD before it was burnt down. I got there late; or rather started exploring late. Its recommendations were a lot better than the streaming serives, at least for me. What I find surprising is that I benefit from recommendation services for books, films a lot, but for music I've never been able to find recommendation service that tries to find that nerve or even something close to it that is a person's musical taste and then recommends tunes around that. Maybe unlike books just the lyrics of a song aren't enough and it's very difficult to discern how a tune would sound good or boring to a listener. I've tried a lot and after some time I gave up. Maybe I was doing soemething wrong or I should try services that just to music recommendation, and not streaming maybe.
- bbrik 9y ago
  I also like their Release Radar playlist, you get new releases from the artists you follow.
Myrmornis 9y ago
You don't find it inconvenient to have to turn the LP over during cooking?
- conductr 9y ago
  I happen to agree with parent comment. Doing physical stuff to get it to play is part of who we are... if you used to collect CDs that is, I did too. It's a different music discovery and listening experience than streaming. Go buy some obscure music on CD/LP and listen to it over and over for a day. Must admit, I have resisted the LP movement until now. Might check it out =)
- cr1895 9y ago
  If I'm at home, more than likely there's a record spinning. I don't mind flipping. If I'm busy momentarily, it'll just spin with the needle in the deadwax...not a big deal.
  - Cerium 9y ago
    All the players I've used have auto return, is that less common these days?
    - cr1895 9y ago
      I'm not sure, but it doesn't seem as common in new tables. Personally I find it to be a pain in the ass, and will only go for manual ones. I used to have an auto Technics changer turntable. Frustrating to use most of the time.
    - lastflowers 9y ago
      Some of those hurt the records, so some of the more expensive turntables seem to forgo them recently.
  - runeb 9y ago
    I see you don't play Sgt. Pepper often. That endless loop…
eterm 9y ago
But why buy vinyl instead of buying CDs? I understand your point about listening to a whole album being preferable to singles, I feel the same way but I'd still much rather listen to a CD than an LP.
- agotterer 9y ago
  A few years ago my wife bought me a record player for our anniversary. Since then I've been collecting used classic rock records. For me the difference between CDs and Vinyl literally comes down to the listening experience. Vinyl has a very distinct sound, big colorful covers, and a feeling of nostalgia every time you touch the needle to the record.
  - ams6110 9y ago
    Same for me. The physical act of handling the record is more satisfying -- maybe just because it's bigger? I felt the same way about 12" LPs vs. 7" singles. The click when you put the needle on the record, watching it spin, even the smell all contribute to the experience. CDs/streaming has none of that.
- alkonaut 9y ago
  I think I can answer that: because vinyl now feels like timeless artifacts while CD's feel disposable and cheap. We thought vinyl was going the way of the dinosaur when the CD came, but now that they are back it feels like they are here to stay. Both vinyl and cds were bought to get the music the first time around. CD had no trouble displacing vinyl for the quality of the sound. But this time, when it's more about the cover art and the ritual of listening, than it is about the sound, I don't see how something could display the LP. I know a lot of vinyl buyers now that buy the albums but then listen to the streamed music. Just to hold the album but have the convenience of digital.
  - glenneroo 9y ago
    I would even say that CDs really are somewhat disposable and cheap, they wear down after ~10 years and you often get scratches which cause your tracks to do the endless looping skip-skip-skip. I don't know how many DJ's I've heard play a scratched/skipping track, whereas Vinyl only skips if your tonearm weight is out of whack, the stage is bouncing, you accidentally bump the turntable (drugs are bad, mmmkay), or something physically gets on your record while it's playing. You can even see where e.g. the quiet sections are on your record, a bonus when mixing if you don't/can't memorize your music. I've been DJing various Techno genres with Vinyl for ~15 years and I've watched the scene shift towards CD and MP3 devices, yet turntables (Technics SL-1200 or thereabouts) are still almost always guaranteed to be at most dance venues (often with CD-DJs hooked up nearby). I also somehow prefer carrying my music around with me, it forces me to pick out ~50 pieces and then lug them behind me to the event, arriving all sweaty and out of breath because that shit's heavy. But it somehow gives me a sense of accomplishment even before I lay down the first record. And I know that my records will play, as long as the mixer isn't totally destroyed.
intro-b 9y ago
One particular sight while living in Tokyo was the checkout line snaked around the store at places like Tower Records. Students and businesspeople alike, each with a CD or two, buying them after classes/work. New releases had entire sections with lots of promotional material. Honestly creates this warm nostalgic feeling, and I like the Japanese trend toward a "collection" aspect of maintaining a physical library of music/books/film/other media, but personally Spotify already feels too integrated into my life to give up, especially for music discovery.
- SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
  I would never give up PDFs, arXiv, audiobooks, and ebooks, but I still heave a collection of physically printed papers and books. I don't think that using a new technology for most things precludes having physical copies of the pieces of culture you find most important.
lastflowers 9y ago
Growing up, I would revel in all of my father's records. During the summer I'd clean up the floor of his closet where he stored them all. I'd gaze in wonder at the bands that he never deemed worthy enough to buy the CD for. Much like you, I remember listening to Blood on the Tracks on Saturday mornings playing GameBoy or reading The Hobbit. We'd have Asleep at the Wheel playing during a card-game, or overlaying bad sports commentary. Fast Forward to High School. I was hired as a retail salesperson at a Mom-And-Pop hot-topic like store at the local mall. Given my somewhat decent taste in music, the shopkeeper let me determine music choice. So now, as I've had Groove/Zune/Spotify subscriptions going on (basically continuously) for nearly 12 years, I still try to buy at least 15 or so LPs a year. That used to be CDs, but now that I'm an adult with some space, I carved out a section for Vinyl records. They weren't purchased for the different 'warmth', no, they were purchased because I love music and vinyl is one of the purest expressions of that love. It's cumbersome and pretty stupid, but it places the art with prominence and connects your body and actions to the music moreso than any other medium (purely since you have to flip sides every fifteen minutes or so). I like to think back to my saturday's playing GameBoy, and now I gulp down coffee while reading Gaddis or Foreign Affairs as Bob Wills blasts throughthe speakers
charred_toast 9y ago
If you're looking for the best music discovery on the planet, or just some easy eclectic listening while you cook, then try KCRW. Public radio at its very finest. Based in Los Angeles, it's what I recommend to any music listener if they get tired of streaming their own music all day everyday. Let me also plug Gilles Peterson who has a show on BBC Radio 6 every Saturday morning, PST. I've been buying records for over two decades and I will tell you there is still an art in "finding" new great music, and in my experience, you have to still listen to the "radio" to find it.
- cr1895 9y ago
  Also: http://www.nts.live/ http://www.nts.live/ http://redlightradio.net/ http://redlightradio.net/ http://kexp.org/ http://kexp.org/
- hbosch 9y ago
  You'd probably did KEXP, out of Seattle, as well.
flavor8 9y ago
Same boat - I just got into it in the last 18 months or thereabouts. I got rid of my CD collection 10 years ago to get rid of clutter. I had a great collection curated on grooveshark, but since that was shut down I've mainly listened to streaming radio. I've found buying vinyl second hand in antiques stores or used record shops to be an interesting way to discover music. Often the price is cheap enough to be able to take a chance on something that looks intriguing. I probably have 100 records now, with production dates from 1932->2016, with lots of interesting albums that probably aren't even digitized (or at least readily available.)

nindalf 9y ago

I'm not sure if this would work for you, but I like Spotify's Discover Weekly. Every Monday you get a playlist of 30 songs that you've never heard before. I listen to it from beginning to end without skipping and I often find songs that I end up liking a lot

cr1895 9y ago
Release Radar published on Fridays is good too for new releases. It's always a nice perk during my week to see what's in these two playlists.
cocoflunchy 9y ago
I wonder if my account has a bug with Discover Weekly because ~50% of the songs I get come back over and over (sometimes as remixes or covers too...)
bluesroo 9y ago
> I listen to it from beginning to end without skipping This was the important part for me at least. There are a lot of songs that I think I'm not into. Once I forced myself to listen to all of them all the way through I found a lot of good stuff.
lghh 9y ago
Note that they are definitely not songs you've never heard before once you've been listening to it weekly for a year or two. After a while, it started suggesting some of the more popular songs by artists that are near the top of my most played artists.
nikanj 9y ago
Discover weekly is Spotify's key to that sweet payola, and it really shows. You can't remove songs from the weekly recommendation, and somehow it repeatedly gives you well-marketed artists completely outside your listening preferences.
- bhj 9y ago
  Another anecdotal data point: This has not been my experience at all. Its recommendations have gotten more obscure as I've liked/plussed those kind of things. It's more likely that you're encountering the limits of Spotify's library and/or algorithms rather than some nefarious payola plot. (I agree that being able to remove songs - or at least thumbs up/down similar to artist/album radio modes - would be nice)
  - eric_h 9y ago
    Absolutely. I actually started listening to discover weekly playlists without giving it any feedback and it started based on my previous trends and gradually drifted into the more main stream stuff. Once I realized I just needed to give its recommendation engine more fuel to work with and started liking/adding things I actually wanted to listen to, it went right back to giving me cool stuff with loads of obscure artists I'd never heard before but liked a lot. (It really only took me about two weeks to right the ship). Spotify's recommendation algos are excellent.
- tyleraldrich 9y ago
  Maybe it depends on the genres you listen to, but I haven't found this to be true at all. My discover weekly playlist is frequently full of bands I've never heard of with monthly listen numbers in the 2,000-50,000 range - I don't think those bands have marketing budgets.
- runeb 9y ago
  Either my playlist is the outlier or yours is, because this is completely opposite of what I experience in that playlist. Mine is pretty much all +20/30/40 years old "niche" music. Edit: And it almost always is something I really love. That playlist is the killer feature on Spotify for me at the moment.
balladeer 9y ago
The problem with these online streaming services I face is that I try to use them mostly for one crucial purpose and that is recommendation - and they always fail to recommend anything that appeals to me. I want to find new songs, new artists that I would like. But these services never helped me with that. I don't like rap, hip-hop, or metal. I mostly like rock, some pop etc but that too not too loud. I don't really know how much "not loud"; that's where I thought these recommendation engines would kick in. I have found couple of artists/songs that I just love on Bandcamp (awesome place). But Spotify, Apple Music (this one has been an utter disappointment for me), and many other streaming services that I've tried in my country just didn't cut it. What have helped me over the years are films, blogs, tweets etc. Something random playing on a bus, or a film soundtrack, a TV show theme song. Like that song A Chi that I heard while watching The Best of Youth. It was in Italian and I didn't understand a word but I just instantly connected to it. I loved it. That German song from The Night Porter - from there I discovered Marlene Dietrich's Lili Marleen. Or Many a tears from October Sky, or that song from Twelve Monkeys. And there are some like Amélie (well, every tune is fabulous in this one) where I disconvered Guilty by Al Bowlly. A friend once, out of the blue, told me to check out Imagine Dragons and later I listenred to Demons like crazy; on repeat. Or a chance hearing of a tune in an Iranian film that was composed by an Iranian artist. It's the best song of melancholy I have ever heard and it doesn't have any lyrics. I even found some nice ones on WCD before it was burnt down. I got there late; or rather started exploring late. Its recommendations were a lot better than the streaming serives, at least for me. What I find surprising is that I benefit from recommendation services for books, films a lot, but for music I've never been able to find recommendation service that tries to find that nerve or even something close to it that is a person's musical taste and then recommends tunes around that. Maybe unlike books just the lyrics of a song aren't enough and it's very difficult to discern how a tune would sound good or boring to a listener. I've tried a lot and after some time I gave up. Maybe I was doing soemething wrong or I should try services that just to music recommendation, and not streaming maybe.
bbrik 9y ago
I also like their Release Radar playlist, you get new releases from the artists you follow.

Myrmornis 9y ago

You don't find it inconvenient to have to turn the LP over during cooking?

conductr 9y ago
I happen to agree with parent comment. Doing physical stuff to get it to play is part of who we are... if you used to collect CDs that is, I did too. It's a different music discovery and listening experience than streaming. Go buy some obscure music on CD/LP and listen to it over and over for a day. Must admit, I have resisted the LP movement until now. Might check it out =)
cr1895 9y ago
If I'm at home, more than likely there's a record spinning. I don't mind flipping. If I'm busy momentarily, it'll just spin with the needle in the deadwax...not a big deal.
- Cerium 9y ago
  All the players I've used have auto return, is that less common these days?
  - cr1895 9y ago
    I'm not sure, but it doesn't seem as common in new tables. Personally I find it to be a pain in the ass, and will only go for manual ones. I used to have an auto Technics changer turntable. Frustrating to use most of the time.
  - lastflowers 9y ago
    Some of those hurt the records, so some of the more expensive turntables seem to forgo them recently.
- runeb 9y ago
  I see you don't play Sgt. Pepper often. That endless loop…

eterm 9y ago

But why buy vinyl instead of buying CDs? I understand your point about listening to a whole album being preferable to singles, I feel the same way but I'd still much rather listen to a CD than an LP.

agotterer 9y ago
A few years ago my wife bought me a record player for our anniversary. Since then I've been collecting used classic rock records. For me the difference between CDs and Vinyl literally comes down to the listening experience. Vinyl has a very distinct sound, big colorful covers, and a feeling of nostalgia every time you touch the needle to the record.
- ams6110 9y ago
  Same for me. The physical act of handling the record is more satisfying -- maybe just because it's bigger? I felt the same way about 12" LPs vs. 7" singles. The click when you put the needle on the record, watching it spin, even the smell all contribute to the experience. CDs/streaming has none of that.
alkonaut 9y ago
I think I can answer that: because vinyl now feels like timeless artifacts while CD's feel disposable and cheap. We thought vinyl was going the way of the dinosaur when the CD came, but now that they are back it feels like they are here to stay. Both vinyl and cds were bought to get the music the first time around. CD had no trouble displacing vinyl for the quality of the sound. But this time, when it's more about the cover art and the ritual of listening, than it is about the sound, I don't see how something could display the LP. I know a lot of vinyl buyers now that buy the albums but then listen to the streamed music. Just to hold the album but have the convenience of digital.
- glenneroo 9y ago
  I would even say that CDs really are somewhat disposable and cheap, they wear down after ~10 years and you often get scratches which cause your tracks to do the endless looping skip-skip-skip. I don't know how many DJ's I've heard play a scratched/skipping track, whereas Vinyl only skips if your tonearm weight is out of whack, the stage is bouncing, you accidentally bump the turntable (drugs are bad, mmmkay), or something physically gets on your record while it's playing. You can even see where e.g. the quiet sections are on your record, a bonus when mixing if you don't/can't memorize your music. I've been DJing various Techno genres with Vinyl for ~15 years and I've watched the scene shift towards CD and MP3 devices, yet turntables (Technics SL-1200 or thereabouts) are still almost always guaranteed to be at most dance venues (often with CD-DJs hooked up nearby). I also somehow prefer carrying my music around with me, it forces me to pick out ~50 pieces and then lug them behind me to the event, arriving all sweaty and out of breath because that shit's heavy. But it somehow gives me a sense of accomplishment even before I lay down the first record. And I know that my records will play, as long as the mixer isn't totally destroyed.

intro-b 9y ago

One particular sight while living in Tokyo was the checkout line snaked around the store at places like Tower Records. Students and businesspeople alike, each with a CD or two, buying them after classes/work. New releases had entire sections with lots of promotional material. Honestly creates this warm nostalgic feeling, and I like the Japanese trend toward a "collection" aspect of maintaining a physical library of music/books/film/other media, but personally Spotify already feels too integrated into my life to give up, especially for music discovery.

SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
I would never give up PDFs, arXiv, audiobooks, and ebooks, but I still heave a collection of physically printed papers and books. I don't think that using a new technology for most things precludes having physical copies of the pieces of culture you find most important.

lastflowers 9y ago

Growing up, I would revel in all of my father's records. During the summer I'd clean up the floor of his closet where he stored them all. I'd gaze in wonder at the bands that he never deemed worthy enough to buy the CD for. Much like you, I remember listening to Blood on the Tracks on Saturday mornings playing GameBoy or reading The Hobbit. We'd have Asleep at the Wheel playing during a card-game, or overlaying bad sports commentary. Fast Forward to High School. I was hired as a retail salesperson at a Mom-And-Pop hot-topic like store at the local mall. Given my somewhat decent taste in music, the shopkeeper let me determine music choice. So now, as I've had Groove/Zune/Spotify subscriptions going on (basically continuously) for nearly 12 years, I still try to buy at least 15 or so LPs a year. That used to be CDs, but now that I'm an adult with some space, I carved out a section for Vinyl records. They weren't purchased for the different 'warmth', no, they were purchased because I love music and vinyl is one of the purest expressions of that love. It's cumbersome and pretty stupid, but it places the art with prominence and connects your body and actions to the music moreso than any other medium (purely since you have to flip sides every fifteen minutes or so). I like to think back to my saturday's playing GameBoy, and now I gulp down coffee while reading Gaddis or Foreign Affairs as Bob Wills blasts throughthe speakers

charred_toast 9y ago

If you're looking for the best music discovery on the planet, or just some easy eclectic listening while you cook, then try KCRW. Public radio at its very finest. Based in Los Angeles, it's what I recommend to any music listener if they get tired of streaming their own music all day everyday. Let me also plug Gilles Peterson who has a show on BBC Radio 6 every Saturday morning, PST. I've been buying records for over two decades and I will tell you there is still an art in "finding" new great music, and in my experience, you have to still listen to the "radio" to find it.

cr1895 9y ago
Also: http://www.nts.live/ http://www.nts.live/ http://redlightradio.net/ http://redlightradio.net/ http://kexp.org/ http://kexp.org/
hbosch 9y ago
You'd probably did KEXP, out of Seattle, as well.

flavor8 9y ago

Same boat - I just got into it in the last 18 months or thereabouts. I got rid of my CD collection 10 years ago to get rid of clutter. I had a great collection curated on grooveshark, but since that was shut down I've mainly listened to streaming radio. I've found buying vinyl second hand in antiques stores or used record shops to be an interesting way to discover music. Often the price is cheap enough to be able to take a chance on something that looks intriguing. I probably have 100 records now, with production dates from 1932->2016, with lots of interesting albums that probably aren't even digitized (or at least readily available.)