Vinyl Outselling CD's

[Brad]

8 minutes ago, jlhoots said:

Had 20,000+ vinyl LPs back in the day. Sold most of them nationally & internationally. Gave the last 300 away. Still have more than enough music to listen to.

That’s a lot of records!

[sonnyhill]

10 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I would gladly have paid $25 or even $30 for a 2CD version (which, frankly, is fairly high for CD's these days).  But there was NO option to even buy it on CD.

It's bad enough that some titles are download only, but it's only adding insult to injury to limit releases to 23-minutes of music, and hamstrung by having to reorder set-lists, or sequencing to "fit" the LP format -- when the CD obviates all those rather limiting factors

At this point, lack of a cd version does not bother me so long as a full resolution download is offered for purchase.  What upsets me is when a title is offered LP only without an option for cd-quality download or cd.

[GA Russell]

1 hour ago, Brad said:

If you think that only people under 30 are interested in vinyl, you’re mistaken.  I can only go by anecdotal experience but when I go to record shops, the vast majority are over 30. The same applies to estate sales. 

Brad, I wasn't thinking about vinyl or what people under thirty do.

I want to know how adults are buying their music.

[Rooster_Ties]

26 minutes ago, sonnyhill said:

At this point, lack of a cd version does not bother me so long as a full resolution download is offered for purchase.  What upsets me is when a title is offered LP only without an option for cd-quality download or cd.

I'm no fan of downloads, I'm afraid.  Trying to maintain a music collection entirely made up of bits and bytes for the next 30+ years -- making sure it ports successfully from OS to OS change, etc. - is simply a recipe for disaster in the long run.  I realize physical media isn't impervious to loss in fire, earthquake, or tornadoes, etc. - but downloads seem NOT especially less ephemeral when looking at a time-frame of access, use, and enjoyment well beyond 10 years.

[sonnyhill]

41 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I'm no fan of downloads, I'm afraid.  Trying to maintain a music collection entirely made up of bits and bytes for the next 30+ years -- making sure it ports successfully from OS to OS change, etc. - is simply a recipe for disaster in the long run.  I realize physical media isn't impervious to loss in fire, earthquake, or tornadoes, etc. - but downloads seem NOT especially less ephemeral when looking at a time-frame of access, use, and enjoyment well beyond 10 years.

It does depend to some extent on how comfortable you are with computers. An OS change should have little to do with the maintenance of a digital music collection.  For me, the key is the external hard drive.  I download in FLAC to a micro sd card that I keep seated in my computer for my music collection.  I stopped using Mac laptops after Apple got rid of the sd card slot on their laptops.  I then back up the sd card and music that i download to external hard drives, which are inexpensive.  I purchase new external hard drives periodically and retire the old ones.  Redundancy is important, you should have at least one back up of your back up (this is the same with photos or any other important files stored on a computer hard drive).  If you change computers or operating systems, your music files can easily be transferred from the external hard drives if necessary.

Some advocate backing up to the cloud, but I never felt comfortable having my files sitting on someone else's server resulting in that person or entity having control over my access.  I still am somewhat a cd die-hard, but I am at the point now where I have no qualms about purchasing a download of the same resolution as a cd. 

Edited September 15, 2020 by sonnyhill

[Dave James]

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

"I own therefore I hear. What is that in Latin?"

"Habent igitur ego audio."  Even if it was 54 years ago, I knew my Jesuit education would come in handy at some point.

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by Dave James

[BillF]

3 hours ago, Dave James said:

"Habent igitur ego audio."  Even if it was 54 years ago, I knew my Jesuit education would come in handy at some point.

 

Habeo igitur audio.

[Niko]

6 hours ago, GA Russell said:

Brad, I wasn't thinking about vinyl or what people under thirty do.

I want to know how adults are buying their music.

Going by anecdotal evidence, I would say with people approximately my age (30-50, the group who was 10-30 years old in 2000) the big divide is between people who own a spotify subscription and people who find everything they need on youtube... I'd be curious to know how many households still own something like a stereo (instead of just gear for streaming from their phone to a bluetooth speaker)... among those who actually buy physical records, the majority is buying only or mostly vinyl... people who buy CDs exist but they tend to be older than me... in fact, I have the feeling that I am around the cutoff age... you occasionally see people below 40 buy CDs but I would guess that it's really the exception...

[jcam_44]

Everyone seems to want info on who buys what and who owns what listening to what by what means but for what reason?

My music collection is my hobby and I’ve come to terms with it, no matter the format and I don’t expect others to have the same hobby. People only bought records/tapes/cds because that’s the only way you used to be able to hear the music on demand. It’s not some great mystery to be unlocked. 

[porcy62]

I think music like every art form is changing according to its role in society ("society" in a broad meaning included economy obviously). So there is a long term perspective, an historic one, and short term perspective, personal one. Just like radio broadcasting or recording changed the way music was listenend and its place society, its social importance, it audience, etc., so computer and internet did. It would be more interesting a serious social and economic surveys from scholars about what music is now in a specific contest, I suspect India and Northern Europe have quite different approach toward music. The relation between sellers, music industry in a broad meaning, musicians, producers, record companies ecc, and buyers is worth of an investigation too. What appears obvious to me, in my personal short term perspective, is that for decades music was THE THING, it goes with social changes like the anthem, from Presley, Coltrane, Dylan, Tupac, whoever you like, it was a flag of membership of social groups, now, with social medias is just ONE OF THE THINGS. I hope my english is enough good to make clear my points.

[Daniel A]

16 hours ago, sonnyhill said:

It does depend to some extent on how comfortable you are with computers. An OS change should have little to do with the maintenance of a digital music collection.  For me, the key is the external hard drive.  I download in FLAC to a micro sd card that I keep seated in my computer for my music collection.  I stopped using Mac laptops after Apple got rid of the sd card slot on their laptops.  I then back up the sd card and music that i download to external hard drives, which are inexpensive.  I purchase new external hard drives periodically and retire the old ones.  Redundancy is important, you should have at least one back up of your back up (this is the same with photos or any other important files stored on a computer hard drive).  If you change computers or operating systems, your music files can easily be transferred from the external hard drives if necessary.

Some advocate backing up to the cloud, but I never felt comfortable having my files sitting on someone else's server resulting in that person or entity having control over my access.  I still am somewhat a cd die-hard, but I am at the point now where I have no qualms about purchasing a download of the same resolution as a cd. 

I suppose I'm repeating myself, but this topic is popping up in many different threads, which may or may not be read by all. 

It's fairly easy to set up a network drive (hard drive hooked up to your home network) that is mirrored in the cloud. In fact, my network drive consists of two hard drives which are also mirrored, in case one of them fails. And then everything is continously backed up in the cloud. I have had this running for several years without any maintenance.

Standard formats like FLAC or MP3 will always be playable, or - in the end - possible to convert to some future, lossless format. I'm more worried about availability of CD player hardware in, let's say, 15-20 years. There might still be some audiophile products, but definitely no mass market models. 

9 hours ago, jcam_44 said:

Everyone seems to want info on who buys what and who owns what listening to what by what means but for what reason?

My music collection is my hobby and I’ve come to terms with it, no matter the format and I don’t expect others to have the same hobby. People only bought records/tapes/cds because that’s the only way you used to be able to hear the music on demand. It’s not some great mystery to be unlocked. 

Very valid points and I completely agree. 

[mjzee]

1 hour ago, Daniel A said:

It's fairly easy to set up a network drive (hard drive hooked up to your home network) that is mirrored in the cloud. In fact, my network drive consists of two hard drives which are also mirrored, in case one of them fails. And then everything is continously backed up in the cloud. I have had this running for several years without any maintenance.

If I may ask: Which cloud service do you use?  How much storage do you use?  What does it cost per month or year?

[Rooster_Ties]

3 hours ago, Daniel A said:

It's fairly easy to set up a network drive (hard drive hooked up to your home network) that is mirrored in the cloud.

I’m afraid all I have is a laptop, wifi, and a cable modem. - so I’m not really sure what I would need to have an external hard drive.

If that’s something that can connect to a laptop with a USB connection, then I guess I could make it work, but it’s (clearly) not something I’ve tried to figure out (or had an impetus to).

If it’s any indication, our 15 year old color HP laser printer finally died about a year ago, and all the new printers seem to require a wireless network to connect (rather than a direct cable) - or that’s what I gleaned from looking at low-end monochrome printers at Best Buy a couple times.

So (and I say this pretty sheepishly), I’ve held off buying a new printer, not knowing whether I’d be able too get it hooked up with the other components I have. Do new printers even allow for a direct (wired) connection?

Our cable box/DVR is about 10 years old, and so is the cable modem too (whatever Comcast installed when we moved in back in early 2011), so I’m not even sure how to describe our setup. The WiFi thing is newer, maybe 4 years old, when the really old one I had from Kansas City (circa 2008) died in ~2016.

If that gives you any indication.

Edited September 15, 2020 by Rooster_Ties

[ejp626]

57 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

So (and I say this pretty sheepishly), I’ve held off buying a new printer, not knowing whether I’d be able too get it hooked up with the other components I have. Do new printers even allow for a direct (wired) connection?

 

I have a newish printer and it has a slot for a cable that connects to the computer (a USB connection not the old, old printer ports).  This is good as the wifi routing to the printer is very iffy.  But you could certainly ask at Staples or Best Buy about whether the printer has a direct connection (I would think most do) - and more importantly if the right cable is included in the box (not as standard) or you have to track one down.

I am mostly listening to music digitally these days and the files are (mostly) backed up on a couple of hard drives (and sometimes even burned to a DVD) but I haven't crossed over to storing everything in the cloud.  Maybe some day...

[mjzee]

1 hour ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I’m afraid all I have is a laptop, wifi, and a cable modem. - so I’m not really sure what I would need to have an external hard drive.

If that’s something that can connect to a laptop with a USB connection, then I guess I could make it work, but it’s (clearly) not something I’ve tried to figure out (or had an impetus to).

If it’s any indication, our 15 year old color HP laser printer finally died about a year ago, and all the new printers seem to require a wireless network to connect (rather than a direct cable) - or that’s what I gleaned from looking at low-end monochrome printers at Best Buy a couple times.

So (and I say this pretty sheepishly), I’ve held off buying a new printer, not knowing whether I’d be able too get it hooked up with the other components I have. Do new printers even allow for a direct (wired) connection?

Our cable box is about 10 years old, and so is the cable modem too (whatever Comcast installed when we moved in back in early 2011), so I’m not even sure how to describe our setup. The WiFi thing is newer, maybe 4 years old, when the really old one I had from Kansas City (circa 2008) died in ~2016.

If that gives you any indication.

External Hard Drive (EHD) connects to your laptop via USB.

I use Comcast, and the cable modem and wifi are one unit.  You should inquire with Comcast as to replacing your older equipment at no cost to you.

Color laser printer: I have a Brother that's worked flawlessly.  The wifi connection is easy.  If you need to, you can do a wired connection, but since you have a laptop, you'll really appreciate not being tethered to a printer. 

[Daniel A]

13 hours ago, mjzee said:

If I may ask: Which cloud service do you use?  How much storage do you use?  What does it cost per month or year?

I use Google Drive and have a 2 TB subscription. It's around 10 Euro a month if memory serves. I set it up first and foremost for storing photos, because since the advent of digital cameras most photos are and remain in digital form only, but it's really convenient for audio streaming as well.

And Rooster, I think you will want to get wifi at some point, but I won't rush you into it. 🙂 One of many advantages are that use of mobile apps at home will not eat from your monthly data allowance. And since my network drive ("NAS") is hooked up to the wifi router rather than the computer, that means I can access it (including streaming audio/video) from any wifi capable unit at home. 

Edited September 16, 2020 by Daniel A

[Rooster_Ties]

1 hour ago, Daniel A said:

And Rooster, I think you will want to get wifi at some point, but I won't rush you into it. 🙂

I do have wifi (and I also forgot to say it wasn’t just a cable box I had, but a DVR). But I don’t have a home network, or any idea how to set one up.

12 hours ago, mjzee said:

I use Comcast, and the cable modem and wifi are one unit.  You should inquire with Comcast as to replacing your older equipment at no cost to you.

One of the reasons I keep putting off getting new equipment from Comcast is that our DVR is constantly 90% full with stuff we eventually get around to watching, but by the time we do, we’ve recorded enough new stuff so it’s constantly 90+% full (with all the stuff we keep recording). Half of it is probably stuff we could stream somehow, but it’s a pain watching stuff on our laptop.

Plus I have a handful of old things recorded from up to 4 years ago, that I’d rather not delete. I know eventually I will, of course, but I just keep putting it all off.

[Daniel A]

1 hour ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Half of it is probably stuff we could stream somehow, but it’s a pain watching stuff on our laptop.

That's why you should also get a Chromecast unit. 

[mjzee]

1 hour ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I do have wifi (and I also forgot to say it wasn’t just a cable box I had, but a DVR). But I don’t have a home network, or any idea how to set one up.

One of the reasons I keep putting off getting new equipment from Comcast is that our DVR is constantly 90% full with stuff we eventually get around to watching, but by the time we do, we’ve recorded enough new stuff so it’s constantly 90+% full (with all the stuff we keep recording). Half of it is probably stuff we could stream somehow, but it’s a pain watching stuff on our laptop.

Plus I have a handful of old things recorded from up to 4 years ago, that I’d rather not delete. I know eventually I will, of course, but I just keep putting it all off.

The cable box should be a separate unit from the WiFi router, but I can’t speak to your particular equipment.  We have a TiVo box with a CableCard inserted.