How we consume music. Or is it just me?

I'm getting more and more fed up with how I consume music. I get say 1-5 albums per week, I usually find one of them, or at least one every two weeks to be amazing.

But, and it's a big one. 3 weeks or so later I hardly listen to it anymore. It's nowhere near how I used to consume music before. I bought cd's, played them non stop for weeks on end. I must've heard Depeche Mode - Violator hundreds of time in its entirety.

Is it as easy as that you think? Instead of getting music 'free', I sacrifice £10ish and therefor value the music more. Economically I have no excuse what so ever for not paying for my music, still I don't. I claim to be a music lover, but rarely listen to albums more than 5-10 times.

Perhaps this is the new way of listening to music? In a ever more saturated world we appreciate things shorter and shorter? I don't want that.

Perhaps I should just go and buy some records?

Music is more disposable now - bands can't spend years in the studio writing their sprawling opuses, and if they do then the vast majority of people won't have the attention span for it.

Not that it's a bad thing necessarily. People said the same stuff when rock n roll first came along.

Personally I'll always have a soft spot for those guys going for something timeless, and I've discovered enough of those people doing shit under the radar. Iron and Wine, Frank Turner, Dirty Three - if you dispose of those albums in 3 weeks then you have no soul.

Don't worry is the condensed version of what I'm trying to say here. It's not a biggie.

Buy less albums then. I have pals who are album consuming machines, but I wonder how deeply they actually bond with them.

That's another thing I miss in new music. Bands spending months in the best studios with the best kit with the best engineers etc. Since a friend introduced me to 'well produced music' it such a bliss to hear well made stuff. Like Dire Straits. Or the latest Four Tet for that matter. Caribou's latest ticks this box too

buy vinyl.

buy vinyl.

I do, every now and again, should do more. mental note - buy more vinyl

There is no accounting for taste, buy better music.

Allmusic + Spotify + Megaupload

I'm getting more and more fed up with how I consume music. I get say 1-5 albums per week, I usually find one of them, or at least one every two weeks to be amazing.

But, and it's a big one. 3 weeks or so later I hardly listen to it anymore. It's nowhere near how I used to consume music before. I bought cd's, played them non stop for weeks on end. I must've heard Depeche Mode - Violator hundreds of time in its entirety.

Is it as easy as that you think? Instead of getting music 'free', I sacrifice £10ish and therefor value the music more. Economically I have no excuse what so ever for not paying for my music, still I don't. I claim to be a music lover, but rarely listen to albums more than 5-10 times.

Perhaps this is the new way of listening to music? In a ever more saturated world we appreciate things shorter and shorter? I don't want that.

Perhaps I should just go and buy some records?
i think you've hit the nail on the head there, i really think the art of digging and longing to find something speacial is lost, the moment you pull that sought after cd or record from the rack, and the time you spend listening to it is always more memorable than the time you downloaded a track, even if it turns out to be shit.

if you don't go back to an album after a little while there are some obvious questions

Maybe it's not that good
Something new has taken you attention (if you're getting that much new stuff then that's understandable)

You'll always come back to a good album.. plus seeing the band/artist will help as well. I try to buy albums at the gigs as the money goes straight to the band rather than shops etc getting a cut.

I ended up overloading on music I never listen to when I went digital. So I set myself a limit of 2 albums per month and read reviews in more detail as well as checking out albums before I bought. Buy wiser + buy less means I now appreciate what I have more. After all, I bet those albums you listened to endlessly were the only ones you had because you couldn't afford more than 1 a month (for me it was because I was still on pocket money)?

Something new has taken you attention (if you're getting that much new stuff then that's understandable)

Yeah I agree with that, but don't consider it a good thing. I stopped watching tv a few years ago, that has done wonders to my attention span, and the sheer amount of things I do instead.

The more I think of it, the more it feels like a case of restraining myself.

• Somehow get less music things asking for my attention. Less spotify perhaps?
  
• try and buy vinyl / cd's, go crate digging!
  
• delete mp3 albums that aren't that good? (could be a really bad idea, i tend to re-discover things i got 6months ago and thought they were shit and suddenly they're fantastic)
  

I think you're downloading too much; even if some of those albums are really good, you're replacing them too quickly for them to really settle on you.

I've had the same problem in the past as I get freebies from where I work and to be honest I rarely listen to the whole album - I've still got quite a few in the wrapping, then they all sit in the corner gathering dust. But when there's an album that I really want & go out and buy myself it gets listened to much more & I enjoy it to the full.

My suggestion to you is use Spotify to see if you'll like the artist then go out (actually go out, not buy online) and buy the cd/vinyl & maybe just make it one or two a month - I reckon that should help you go back to really enjoying the music.

It's you.

I find fresh stuff every now and then but I still go back to listening to metal from my teenage years, and techno from the early/mid 90's.

New stuff FTW!

Im listening to Younger Brother off the back of a recommendation in the What Are You Listening To thread (Eightball perhaps). Downloaded from I-Tunes, checked similar artists, grabbed Dreamfish while I was there. Dreamfish is my go-to album in the morning at the moment.

Oh, and the whole fucking back catalogue of Rollerball!

It's you.

I find fresh stuff every now and then but I still go back to listening to metal from my teenage years, and techno from the early/mid 90's.

Do you consume them in a pie?

Listen to Beach Fossils everyone.

See more live acts.

then download the cd

Then shit yer leg off

Do you consume them in a pie?

Is there any other way?

If you listen to great music and are careful to educate yourself into how music is written, it is pretty hard to lose interest. I go through phases when I overlisten to certain artists and get sick of them, but if the music is good then I come back to it.
I now listen to compilations so that don't have this problem.

buy vinyl.

+1
But on seven inch... Edit your musical consumption...

I'm in a shuffle period of listening to music.

When something I really like comes on that I haven't listened to for a while, i stop the shuffle and play the album

I hum