A common complaint about the current state of music albums is that people don't want to pay $15 for a couple of good songs. I'm not sure if this is a true complaint or just another justification for illegal downloading, though it's probably a valid point. When I was in high school I used to blow my paycheck buying cds from current one-hit wonders, but it never seemed to bother me.
What made me think of this is
all the talk about iTunes and digital music jukeboxes changing the way we listen to music. I don't think it's really changed my listening habits at all. I still generally listen to entire cds of an artist, and I'm not content to just download a few songs of an album, even if I'm not paying for it. Also I've noticed that, of the old cds that I've ripped into my library, I don't delete the songs that I am less than enthusiastic about. Maybe it's because I have an ample hard drive, but I'd just feel weird only having 4 tracks out of 15.
iTunes has made it nice and easy to listen to my entire collection all shuffled up (and the
new version's Party Shuffle makes it even better), but other than that it's been more of a time saver (no switching discs) rather than a revolution.
Maybe I'm just in the murky middle of those who like music so much that they distinguish between many levels of song quality and those who only have time to listen to their favorite songs. Am I alone in this? Have any of you had your music world turned upside down in the past few years?
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My CD consumption has been way curtailed as I’ve grown older. I used to not blink at laying down 50 bucks at a time for a stack of CDs. Of course that was when you could buy a ‘stack’ for $50. The ‘stack’ has gotten considerably smaller. I find myself buying more greatest hits (I have a lot on cassette and can’t bring myself to re-buy on CD). My priorities have changed, I want to get all my bills paid off, have money for a house, save for *gasp* retirement. I’ve probably bought 4 CDs this year, downloaded 4 or 5 songs off iTunes, and maybe a few more off Kazaa. Last week I bought the new Melissa Etheridge. At $14 I thought once, twice, and thrice about actually purchasing it, walking around the store with it for a bit. Mind you I was buying it with a $50 AmEx gift check I got from work, not my money, but still, $14!!! Frankly, it wasn’t worth it. I liked the CD, but it was not worth $14. I looked at a few other CDs while I was in the store, but at $14+ a pop, I couldn’t bring myself to buy more than one, even with free money.
I would be buying a lot more music, but it is just not worth the price. There is psychology to pricing. Prices are often x.99 or x.97 because 9s and 7s are magic numbers. If CDs were 9.97 the music industry would be raking it in, but at $14, people are disgusted.
You try to rip me off, I’ll rip you off.
I have to admit that for the most part, the reason I’m not buying stacks of cd’s any more, is that none of the music being played on the radio really appeals to me much. Aside from the strokes, modest mouse, the occasionial white stripes track, I’m not really into much of the other stuff on air.
I’m really into sites like music plasma. http://www.musicplasma.com mainly because I can look on there and see how different artists relate.
The main thing for me is that I want to KNOW more about the music that I’m listening to. It’s not enought to hear a good track, I want to know about the track, what it’s about, who wrote it, what other group they were in, why they got kicked out, and the group that the rest of the group started sans singer.
In some ways all music databse covers that. But music plasma’s organization helps a lot in terms of visualization.
iTunes falls waaaay short on reccomendations. A mix is cool, but a way to link similar trends styles and songs automatically is cooler. A way to use the fact that I like one track to reccomend another…that’s hot.
I still buy full cd’s of certain musicians, DJ shadow will always get my 10-15$. Blackalicious, Dan the Automator, Air, Beck…these folks usually have something to play/say that I want to hear. Regardless of the track number.
The revolution with iTunes comes with using the comment field and smart playlists.
Party shuffle is nothing more than suffle that shows you what it’s going to do.
Sure, rating your songs is boring. Sure adding comments in tedious. But man, nothing can match the ability to request a list of songs that you haven’t played in a week that’s 3 or more stars, that good for driving-but mellow. Each track you play is automatically removed and replaced with another that you haven’t listened to in a week, that fits your criteria…hotness personified.
It requires work, but it’s like being able to create mini radio stations that cater to your mood, never really seem to repeat anything, and never really seem to play tracks that you want to skip.
For me, ratings and comments and smart playlists are the revolution.
I’m still a fan of buying CD’s. But since i’ve gotten theh igh speed internet at home, i’m also not adverse to downloading songs as well. Matt i agree with, most of the songs on the radio are crap. I’ve taken to going to allmusic.com, looking up the artists that i know i like (grandaddy, modest mouse, damien rice, the shins, etc…) and looking at their bioson that site. the site also lists artists that sound like and also artists that influenced that particular artist. I love it. That’s how i got into groups i hadn’t heard of before and found that i like them a lot (The Nottwist, The High Llamas, Aluminum Group).
my 2 cents, i suppose.
I feel so old sometimes. I remember when MTV played videos and was a good place to discover new music. 120 Minutes was my favourite. Now I don’t even watch MTV (no videos anymore) and I rarely listen to the radio. I really have no idea where to go for new music, hence my predilication for greatest hits albums.
I used to watch 120 minutes, too. That was a good show. I saw Kennedy on Colin Quinn’s show the other day which brought me back to the days of Beavis and Butthead before Alternative Nation. Yup, that was a long time ago. Saturday nights I used to watch Headbangers Ball with Rikki Rachtman, while my poor nana was in reading the paper. That was also the heyday of the jukebox channel in RI, and Denis Leary’s I’m an Asshole was on every other song…
I’m mad, because they interviewed Kennedy in my office a week or so ago for Best Week ever (they usually shoot her in LA) and i didn’t get to see her. I like Kennedy
Doesn’t Kennedy have a show on the GameShow Network now? Yes, I feel old.
I actually played on iTunes a bit tonight and bought 8 bucks worth of music. Of course on my feeling old streak (
Sorry to ramble through two posts…
I did find myself hesitating to buy tracks that I might eventually get on CD. I still find myself every so often looking to get something on Kazzaa if I want the song to tide me over until I get the CD.
I know I can download the entire disc (in most cases) on iTunes, but I want the jewel case, I want the art. I’ve heard that Apple is working on that and in the future there may be an iTunes printable CD booklet. And then Apple and Google will get married and rule the WORLD!!!!!