How do you obtain your music?

I know there's already a few posts about how people listen to, or discover new music, but I wanted to see how other people get their music. Do you buy CDs or vinyl? Digital downloads? Use streaming services? Something else? And why?

Until a few years ago, I would jump between streaming services depending on the best deals I could get, but got very concerned the more I read about how little money most musicians get from streaming listens (especially via Spotify) - and given I tend to listen to less popular bands/artists, it seems particularly bad for them.

I have a small selection of CDs and vinyl, but mostly buy my music digitally - directly via Bandcamp if the artist is on there, or through an online store like 7digital (or even sometimes if no other option, Amazon) if not. I have a home server where I keep my music and like to be able to stream it directly to my phone, so this tends to be the best of both worlds for me.

Interested to know what others do!

jackalope,

I like to discovery tunes through friends and suches, and services like TIDAL. I started collecting vinyl earlier this year and just playing an entire album front to back is amazing, takes me back. Also didn’t realize how much I miss how “older” mixing used to sound …more dynamic not all compressed into a brick. I really admire Vinyl for that. It’s also fun to collect which doesn’t hurt … Thinking of working on my CD collection again. As for digital archival, I use FLAC for “backing up” my vinyl, and when aquiring new I like bandcamp or any service that offers FLAC in highres.

floofloof,

I use Spotify and Amazon Music for most things, with occasional excursions to Bandcamp and YouTube. If I really like something I'll buy an LP or a download. Spotify gives good recommendations but it tends to lock you into things that are very much the same as what you've already been listening to, and after a while you realize your musical world has become very small. So sometimes I go to everynoise.com for a different way to navigate the Spotify catalogue, and hop around genres until I find something interesting, then back to Spotify to listen around. And I perform classical music so that helps with discovery, and if there's a festival in town I'll go and listen to random bands.

EuphoricPenguin22,

I probably obtain music in just about every conceivable way possible. Sometimes I'm listening on YouTube for city pop uploads, other times it's SoundCloud for weird obscure indie tracks. Sometimes I'll do some soul seeking to flesh out my local collection of FLACs for my iPod or Strawberry, or I'll pop into Bandcamp to find hidden gems. I also buy a fair bit of used vinyl from Discogs, and I'll occasionally hit up importCDs for the occasional budget-friendly Tatsuro Yamashita album. I even hunt around at local thrift stores to add to my cassette and CD collections, which have both grown to a fairly substantial size. Sometimes indie labels like Light in the Attic will get city pop reissues that aren't all that expensive, and I've bought a passable quality cassette from them before. I've been working on getting a thrown-together component Hi-fi setup from a bunch of thrift store scores, and it actually sounds and works quite well. I have a massive stack of portable CD players, and a trusty cassette walkman that has really decent W+F for what it is. Aside from MD (so far), I guess you could say I'm interested in diversifying my music-listening portfolio.

followthewhiterabbit,

I have a large vinyl record collection. I think I got the bug for it all from my Dad!

But for digital, I just use Newpipe. Every playlist, full album etc works just perfectly through it, ad free.

jay2,

I still buy CDs. I have a quite large CD collection. It's large enough that I've had to buy multiple pieces of furniture to accommodate it. For me, there's a particular romance with listening to the disc that first time, in order, and while flipping through the liner notes. After that, I'll listen to it in the car or at work for a few weeks, taking note of which songs to record into my mp3 playlist. Eventually, I'll record any songs I want in my home playlist and shelf the CD with the others so that no harm comes to it.

mbryson,
@mbryson@lemmy.ca avatar

Streaming services for casual listening, but I have an archive on a home theater PC of music I use for my college radio show with each song in mp3 format.

Gabtraf,

Mostly Spotify for my listening. I listen almost exclusively to full albums, but often will let the autoplay continue to see if there's anything I like.

Once in a while I will listen to BBC 6 Music. Have discovered a lot of artists there that I love.

SweetSitty,

I started going mostly digital about a decade ago. I had moved overseas and so my space was limited. After the initial move, I was constantly moving, so buying physical copies just didn't make sense, especially when I had different regions to contend with.

borlax,

Admittedly I go straight to one of the streaming services, but for smaller bands I like who are on bandcamp, I’ll use that to buy their stuff and throw it on my plex/jellyfin. I am also trying to cultivate a local music library again after finding my iTunes library from 2006 lol.

luciole,
@luciole@beehaw.org avatar

Same for me, first Bandcamp then 7digital. When neither have what I’m looking for, I’ll check on Discogs for a used CD.

neko_chibi_chibi,

I buy mostly digital mp3 and FLACs from BandCamp, the band's website, or Amazon, expect for Band-Maid, which I buy the CDs for. I don't stream.

I also borrow from the library and rip CDs from there to add to my digital collection. Thankfully, my library system has a great selection of CDs and gets music from bands from like The Pretty Reckless and Sabaton. The library also has stuff that hasn't made it to digital or is hard to find like some live Jimi Hendrix.

Use the library to expand your music collection. You can find a lot there. You just have to look.

Sentinian,

I prefer to buy and download my music. I buy a ton from bandcamp. For music that I cannot buy I might sail the high seas. I do own a few vinyls but those are of my favorite albums.

DJDarren,

As someone who is Powerfully Middle Aged and the owner of several iPods, I have a tendency to buy used CDs from charity shops for next to nothing. If it's not something I'm keen on buying, but want to check out, I have Apple Music.

I'm also known to take the high seas on the odd occasion...

gunnervi,
gunnervi avatar

i go about 50/50 between CD and bandcamp. I never got into vinyl, though i can appreciate the physicality of it. That being said, i do listen to a fair amount of stuff on youtube or spotify, especially when exploring new artists but also for stuff that i just haven't bought

ipha,

Just Spotify and my pre-spotify (yarr) collection.

I'm interested in vinyl, but I don't have space for it ATM.

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