How do you obtain music? What's your preferred format? Where/how do you typically listen? How do you organize your library? Let's compare notes!

I've moved completely away from CDs since I found myself just ripping them to my computer and never touching the physical discs again so I limit myself to MP3 donwloads and vinyl now. I use Google Play music as my only player, it definitely has limitations but being able to access my entire library from anywhere is amazing. I try to organize everything by as specific a genre as I can, as well as tracking when I purchased what. It works well since the vast majority of my listening happens at work, roughly 6-7 hours a day. Occasionally when I find a great album I try to listen in the dark with no distractions, but that's rare. As for hardware, I've been using my Sony MDR-V6s for 4 years now and absolutely love them. For vinyl I have my dad's Dual table from 1980 with a new set of Pioneer towers.

In terms of download purchases I use eMusic and Bandcamp, but Amazon MP3 sometimes have stuff that the others don't. eMusic's subscription service is by far the cheapest way to get downloads while still supporting the bands. I pay $30/month for $35 worth of credit and most albums are $4-6 so in a normal month I can get at least 7 albums. Bandcamp can be pricier but I tend to use that for independent artists who aren't on labels.

What do you guys use? CD rips and iTunes? Spotify only? I'm really curious how other people organize/access their library.

The majority of my listening is done on vinyl/CD/tape. I pretty much have MP3s reserved for rare demos and expensive OOP stuff that I can't obtain on a physical format. Even then, my CD unit has a USB drive that plays MP3s, so music-wise my computer is pretty much limited to sampling stuff on youtube or spotify before I buy it. As for actually listening, I usually put stuff on that I'm familiar with if I'm working or doing something where I can't pay full attention to what's playing. I like to devote full attention to new stuff and things I'm not too familiar with.

download.

I've never been an album listener, but I keep an archive of albums...hate throwing anything away. but I've given up on tagging everything nicely. I only fix up stuff it turns out I like.

disk:\Music\Albums\Discographies for bands who have a lot of releases and who I try to keep up with.
otherwise
disk:\Music\Albums\genre\subgenres\further subdivisions
artist -##- song title.mp3 for archive
artist - song title.mp3 for favorites
never cared for artist (country) - album - ##. title.mp3 style or anything longer, but I can see how it would be useful if the long file names weren't going to be infuriating. easier than doing metadata.

old favorites are in their own subgenres within
disk:\Music\Fav Songs\subgenre
newer favorites are just copied into a fav songs folder of possibly good songs (nominations), with subfolders numbered 0 to 5 with rough meanings. once I'm unlikely to forget about them I'll probably put them in the subgenre folder.
0 perfect/awesome/catchy as fuck/loved it instantly
1 pretty great
2 good, but I probably won't feel like hearing it too often
3 ok, worth remembering and checking out on a whim some time
4 maybe good for something
5 probably shouldn't have snuck into this folder!

my cellphone is another story.
it's mostly sorted by activities or moods, songs to play at the gym (powerful stuff), family/girl friendly songs (nothing too harsh or loud), weekend songs (bassy pop/hip-hop/rock type stuff), and so forth.

I rip pretty much all of my music from CDs; have a decent vinyl collection (which I want to give more love) and a handful of tapes too, but I simply prefer CDs for space reasons. I don't download, not because of any personal agenda.... I just don't want to.

Well... ditto to all of that.

90% of my listening is via iPod. I am lucky enough to get to play my own music at both my jobs so I am pretty much always consuming (car/work/home).

I honestly would prefer to collect physical music to MP3 purchases. But in terms of price, physical space in my house, and immediacy of availability it just doesn't work out for me.

Rare, with salt and pepper.

I acquire music about 70% through downloads and 30% cds. Nowadays I do most of my listening at the car, so either I bring some of my cds, burn albums on a cd-r or put it in pen-drive

I quite literally have no room in my apartment for a stack of CD's bigger than maybe 20... maybe. So I mainly stick to downloads. I can't really claim a collection this way, but music is music.

I have a very specific process for buying music, not so much for listening to it. When I am listening to new music though, I try to find the album on youtube or bandcamp and listen through so I can figure out whether or not I want to bother with it. If I like it, I will put it down on a word document I have for albums that I have taken interest in. Then, when I have time I will download the albums onto my computer. If after further listens I decide that I like it, I then put it down on another word document I have for music that I want to obtain physically. This document is listed in an order from most important to least.

When I have some extra money I will look at the list of albums I want and buy a few. I only buy CDs just because I find them to be the most convenient for what I want to do. I then import the CD on to my computer and get rid of the downloaded stuff. I will generally only actually listen to the CD when I am in my car. Otherwise, I will play it on my computer or ipod.

So, I probably listen to music for anywhere from 2-10 hours a day. That time is divided between albums in the car, new albums online, or old music shuffled through. I tend to make a lot of temporary playlists of similar artists and put it on shuffle. I also listen to a lot of instrumental stuff while playing video games.

Short stupid drunk answer: I consume with my face.
Long stupid drunk answer: Never bought a digital album/song in my life. I will often DL stuff before I get a physical copy but I get physical CDs vinyl or tape depending on availability and how much I like the band. Usually only buy vinyls of my favorite stuff and I only started buying them a year or so ago. Since my stupid computer is currently broken I'm having to DL stuff I actually own and it's really annoying.

I mostly download because I'm a broke fucker and don't want to go into metal withdrawal (symptoms including depression and lack of awesomeness in life). I'd say I have two modes of music listening. My active mode is on the bus 99% of the time. I take long bus journeys because most of my friends live over an hour away and I like the chill feeling of having nothing else to do except focus on the intricacies of the music with no distractions. If I'm on the computer and try to listen, my ADD kicks in and I'm never fully focused so these days I tend to just put music on in the background while gaming or reading.

The majority of the music I have is downloaded, as I simply can't afford all of it at the moment (and, selfishly, I also don't want to do without). However, the stuff I do purchase, I will almost always get a CD of. CD seems very convenient to me and is reasonably cheap. Last time I checked I had around 150 CDs, so by now, I'd be pushing 200 I think. I also have a couple of cassettes, but I'm not too invested in those. I do not get vinyl due to its more expensive nature (including the equipment to actually play it). I do aim on eventually buying all the music I listen to over the years and decades though. It'll take some time.

I don't buy digitally though. I find the idea of spending money for flimsy MP3's to be.. well, anti-climactic, if that makes sense. When I buy something, I like to be able to see it and have something more tangible.

I used to have thousands of CDs and hundreds of vinyl. I grew up on vinyl and cassettes (I even had a 8 track or two). Long story short, divorce, mid life crisis, thousands of dollars in debt. Ripped my cds to the computer, sold them and my vinyls to stay afloat, and have made most of my purchases digitally since then. I have them arranged in folders according to album and now have 1962 albums. I still have about 200 CDs left over that I will never part with but they still take up way more space than 1962 digital albums....which takes up about 3x5x1/2 inch. The environment doesn't suffer from the plastics or the paper used to make CD and CD covers, etc. It may not be the trve metal thing to do but the future of music is digital...and since it is digital then one day it can and should be direct from the band to the consumer. Maybe one day big record labels with their bosses that bilk their artists for huge percentages and get rich from other people's talent will be a thing of the past. Anyway, my thoughts on the whole deal.

I buy CD's, and I listen to the CD. I can't listen to music on the fucking computer or any kind of mp3...it just doesn't "work" for me. I've tried to download from iTunes but I can't bring myself to listen to it unless I'm sitting in front of the CD player, I guess because this way I have less distractions.. I have two iPod's but I only ever use them when I'm the passenger in a car (which is very rare anymore).

as a collector, most of my interest in owning the physical media is just the joy of having it.

I am the kind of person who is really paranoid about damaging the integrity of my physical media, so I mess with it as little as possible. These days, I pretty much listen exclusively on the computer. I never leave the house anyway, so it's quite practical.

I download a lot, but I always consider it a substitue for owning the "real thing", especially if lossless rips are unavailable... It gets me all hot and bothered getting a clean copy of an OOP CD and ripping lossless files from it, sitting back and listening over and over to my heart's content, knowing perfectly well that I have the original disc, (relatively) unmolested, waiting for me should I ever need it again.

It's so easy to re-rip a CD, which is part of the format's appeal. They don't require maintenance, only proper storage.

I like tapes and vinyl too, but I avoid playing new/rare/good condition items unless I am certain my equipment is up to snuff for playing them with minimal wear... Being lazy as fuck, my equipment rarely is.

Also, I don't rip these formats often, because my philosophy is to do it once, and to do it right the first time... and, until I have a decent audio interface, a new cartridge and a tape head demagnetizer, I won't be doing it right.

I don't pay for files because I'm not a chump. I have a digital voice recorder that can load MP3's. I use that when I go on walks or I'm riding in a car or something. I use that exclusively in those situations these days. Before that, it was walkman/discman players. BTW, walking with a discman sucks, even with anti-skip. and talk about eating up batteries! Never had no stinking ipod.

also, I am filthy gypsy scum, so I often rip 128Kbps streams from streaming music sources. that, or I rely on free downloads and soulseek.

I pay for all the music I listen to, whether it be CD, vinyl, or paid digital download via Bandcamp. I found out about most of my new bands thru paper fanzines.

Physically, I only buy CDs, never really been into tapes and vinyls. I only download stuff I can't find physically, and when there's a CD I like that's available physically, then I have to buy it, though I refuse to pay more than 20 Euros for a CD (unless it's a double álbum, of course). And I don't have an mp3 player, because I (still) like to burn CDrs.

I have a folder with about 30 albums, which I listen until they're familiar to me or until I decide I don't really enjoy them. I burn in a cd those which I like and which I think I would like to listen to them from time to time; I erase the rest. Then I buy the few that I think it does worth paying for them.

vinyl for stuff I really want
CD for stuff I like but won't spend the extra money on
mp3s for everything because I don't have time to listen to physical very often, and because promos are always mp3s.

All digital, now. However, my consumption of music these days is inconsistent and unfulfilling. I jump from album to album usually only after a few songs, and I'm sure I don't care about half of the stuff in my collection.

I used to have a moderate CD collection, but after moving house a few times and carting it around for a while I realised that I don't actually use them. I'm usually at my computer or can listen to my iPod most of the rest of the time so why bother with CDs that just take up space and cost more than downloads? Plus, last time I tried to actually use the CD player in my hi-fi it didn't work. I sold all my CDs when I got the chance and just rely on downloads.

I know it's off topic, so I didn't want to say anything the first time it came up, but you're the second one to talk about this idea: sell the CDs, keep the mp3s.
I'm wondering if you guys have any problem with piracy (and bought CDs for that reason), or if you just used to prefer that medium/sound quality/etc.?
(because, of course, it's piracy to possess mp3 copies of media you don't own, like a CD you've sold, so I assume there's no judgment from you guys about supporting artists, but am curious enough to ask...)

That's kind of interesting. Do you prefer paid downloads or do you stick to pirating?
If you look at it objectively, physical collections are really bothersome, down the space they take to the high price. Physical media sustains itself on a very fickle pleasure of owning the package.

I usually listen to original cds when I am driving and I doing houseworks. But when I am in front of the screen I only listen to mp3.

I don't rely on pirating, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't pirate at all. When I was unemployed there wasn't really an alternative, but I do prefer supporting the artists I like, which is generally a lot easier now, especially with bandcamp and things being more widespread these days.

With some fava beans and a nice chianti.

I rarely listen to vinyl or tapes anymore since the device that played those bit the dust so now it's a bit of a pain, but I listen to CD's and mp3's mainly through Winamp. I have decent computer speakers and was in the process of setting up a system to use my recording interface as a second soundcard to pipe audio to a receiver to run some vintage Marantz Imperial 6G speakers, but I'm gonna have to put that whole project on indefinitely hiatus now that I'm leaving the country.

CD's mostly; still like having a physical copy. In the case that a certain cd is too rare to find, I'll buy the MP3's from Amazon, if they have it.

As I mentioned earlier, I am really worried about damaging the integrity of items in my collection. I never understood how someone could throw around genuine CD copies of albums in their cars and stuff. I can't help but grit my teeth in anxiety at the mere thought of it. Doesn't help that I've let a friend borrow my CD's to play on a trip we took, which he assured me he'd take good care of... I am still missing two of those discs. It distresses me greatly.

I feel much better ripping/burning copies to have in the car, though I've more recently started making use of the USE drive included in my aftermarket stereo system. I burned so many CD's when I should've just been using that all along...

It's so cool being able to just put MP3's on a flash drive and plug it into my car... I'm still not over the novelty of it. Cooler still is the fact that 4GB flash drives are pretty much the standard now, and you can fit a boatload of MP3's on a 4GB stick.

The only thing I dislike is hardly anything reads FLAC or other lossless formats... It's a bit of a nuisance having to convert non-compatible files to MP3's to load them to a USB drive if I want to play them in the car.

Before I got the CD player, I listened to tapes in my car. The tape player crapped out, though (thanks, Ford). I must say, I kind of miss the ritual of making mixtapes for my sled... I made some really killer ones! I think you have to put a lot more effort into making a good quality mix when it comes to tapes, because it's not as easy as burning a CDr on a whim before class or something. You're stuck with them until you decide to make a new one. I played some of those tapes probably about a hundred times.

Now, when I dig them out and play them on occasion, they bring back all kinds of memories from a few years back when I listened to them in the car.

I also played a lot of factory dubbed tapes, which I sort of regret now, because the audio is pretty muffled on them as a result. I listened to Cocteau Twin's "Blue Bell Knoll" and Subhuman's "From the Cradle to the Grave" and an apparently "desirable" (to collector scum, anyway) cassette copy of The "Velvet Underground & Nico" sooooo many times. I doubt I will find another really cheap copy of the Subhumans/TVU tapes, both of which I got at a local thrift store. :[

Yeah, I also used to make mixtapes, it was a lot of fun. These days I only listen to CDs, but I miss those days.

CDs and vinyl are the norm here but I get tapes when it's the only format available. I download plenty of bootlegs both in mp3 and video as well. I stopped getting tapes as main format in early 90's.

I rip them into flac files or mp3 320 depending the needs. I use my cds when I dedicate time to listen music exclusively. At work and walking by the street I use the digital files.

I organize my digital files like this:

disk\Music\Artist\each album in separate folders with this format: Artist - year- Album name.

All digital and listen to it mainly in my car and gym. I dont buy music nearly as much as I used to. When I do, it's usually a band I really support, or when amazon has a deal. Last few albums Ive bought: new Vader, Immolation, Testament, and Overkill(last three being $6 a piece). Last cd I bought was Deicide- In the Minds of Evil, since I thought the booklet/lyrics would be interesting. Ended up selling it on amazon a day later. I might end up buying the new Cannibal Corpse album for that reason too.

I download. Probably because most of my money is used on food and video games, and that I was introduced to downloading back in the Napster days. Pretty much every good music store's around here closed down at this point too (to my knowledge, Music Connection in Elmwood Park is gone, Tower Records in Paramus is gone (those two had amazing metal selections)), and whatnot. There's a FYE and Best Buy here but their music selection is kind of ass for metal.

That said I DO have some physical albums and I mostly use those in my car. I had a mp3 player hookup but I lost the charging cord for my old ipod years ago and I don't have said hookup anymore (a tapedeck adapter).

Fortunately, I have plenty of crunchy punk friends who still play tapes, so I have opportunities to send them packages with mixtapes... I love to make them when I get a really good "groove" going... weaving a lot of disparate elements into a cohesive/interesting/enjoyable mixtape is a lot of fun.

A lot of people seem to enjoy the incongruity of my mixes (one I can recall had everything from My Bloody Valentine to Morbid Angel, though I think that was a CDr). In general, I just like making/sharing mixes/comps/entire albums, regardless of format.

I guess it's pretty egotistical, but, in a way, it makes me feel... not important, but "relevant" to be able to share music with friends who end up really enjoying it, yet wouldn't likely hear it otherwise. It's good to have a sense of purpose among people you value spending time with. It validates my sense of "deserving" to be with them or something.

d'you put 'em on youtube, too? (I'm not a fan of punk, I'm just saying, easy way to increase the harvest for the seeds you sow)

mixes? no. I am not into that.
I upload lots of individual songs though, yes.

Whenever I can, full album CDs and soon hoping to move to vinyl. Many of my CDs are ripped using Lame.dll and to a high bitrate for computer/car use but try to avoid using computers or phones as a source of sound pleasure

CDs whenever possible. I got into a big vinyl kick in 2011, but eventually stopped bothering with them because my cheap player doesn't do them justice, and I was never in the market for a good sound system. Besides, they take up so much space. On the other hand, I have a soundbar for my TV that sounds fantastic, so I rip CDs to the PS3 and crank them through those speakers. That's my favorite way to hear my music. It's also a lot of fun to listen to music in the car at full blast, and through a nice pair of headphones, which I inherited from my last job.

I usually buy secondhand CDs off Amazon, the royalties have already been paid and the money goes to someone who otherwise doesn't want the CD anymore and this imo is more preferable to buy it at a lesser price than see it simply go to waste. Rip the CDs onto the computer and anything such as out of date demo's/EPs/etc is downloaded.

Usually listen to the music whilst playing on GTAV, out in the garden having a beer, or going places.

I mostly use YouTube to listen to bands, buying the CD or MP3 if I like it enough to put it on my iPod (I prefer to buy CD's because I like feelies), though not very often because I'm a limited budget college student (and also, fuck Steam. Seriously, never sign up for it if you want to have any money). Also, I'm just getting into the Warhammer 40,000 wargame (I've collected and played the RPG's for a while) and that's not cheap. Anyhoose, what I mean to say is that I buy music whenever I feel like sparing the money for it (which isn't too often, given how expensive some of the more obscure bands/releases, like Graveland or The Chasm's Deathcult For Eternity: The Triumph, are).

As for listening to music, I usually listen to it on my computer when browsing the web/reading manga and on my iPod if my family's on a long (1+ hours) car/plane trip or my desktop's not handy. I'll occasionally listen to something if I'm making something in the kitchen, but most often I'll just turn the TV/play a DVD.

I used to pride myself on still buying CD's. I usually downloaded music and took note of what I liked. Then once or twice a year I put in a big order for those albums that I liked. That way I felt like I knew what I was buying and didn't take a chance on anything while still supporting the bands. The last couple of years I have moved away from physical records since I realize that the only way I consume music is electronically.

I must admit that I am saddened by the fact. Not only is some of the magic lost. I used to love to come home and flip through the booklet, spin the album while reading the lyrics etc. I have realized that it doesn't work that way for me anymore however.

This enormous access to new music is both good and bad. There are many ways to find new bands but tat the same time I feel that it is easy to not give certain bands or albums a chance since people move away from it too fast if its not a case of instant gratification. At the same time I am hesitant to buy music in an electronic format since I am still stuck in the thought that I want the artwork and the lyrics and "something physical to hold" when I buy my music even though I have realized I don't really buy records anymore.

And to be honest I try to move away from any type of collectors mentality. I know that if I start I will keep going and then suddenly alot of stuff will sit here collecting dust (and I can't bring myself to throw it away). Nowadays the only thing I buy as far as stuff goes are books.