eddot98 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 29, 2021 7:42 pm
Nicolas wrote: ↑Mon Jun 21, 2021 1:06 pm
iceport wrote: ↑Mon Jun 21, 2021 10:08 am
I still listen almost exclusively to albums. There are lots of individual songs I might like, but if the whole albums don't resonate with me, I don't play them. I actually wouldn't know where to begin creating my own playlist by picking and choosing favorite individual tracks from favorite artists. Isn't that a tremendous amount of work?
I don’t use playlists either. I grew up on 45s and top-40 AM, then later switched exclusively to LPs and “underground” FM radio, and now I only stream albums. I don’t even play CDs anymore. Why would I? All my CDs are available streaming. I do have a ton of bootlegs but I rarely play them.
I also don’t make and use playlists, per se. My listening progression is very similar to yours, probably a lot of us of a certain age followed this progression. What I oftentimes do is use a little program (batch file?) that I downloaded from the Internet somewhere that will randomly choose a number of songs that I pick from directories that I indicate and load them on a USB drive. I then pop that USB drive into the car stereo and listen. If I don’t like a song (that doesn’t happen too often, either it’s a poorly recorded bootleg or just some album filler), I just skip it. I am surprised by some of the selections and sometimes wonder if I really own a particular song.
This is interesting. I'm very curious how other people listen to music. (I really want to start a separate thread to get into it deeper.)
I feel a little like a stranded dinosaur. Many ways of listening to music have come and gone before I ever even tried them out. I grew up in the 70s, my teenage years, listening to albums. I'd rifle through my stack either looking for a pick I had in mind, or just browsing to see what struck a chord in that moment. At times, I'd be disappointed that the roughly 2-foot deep stack seemed to be all "played out" to me.
Never used a walkman or discman. Was slow to adopt CDs. Played tons of bootleg GD tapes, but rarely if ever took the effort to make my own mix tapes (though I'd play ones made by others occasionally). Never owned a smartphone until I was 56, so didn't have that portable experience. (Headphones/earbuds are way too distracting to me, anyway.) Couldn't listen to music at work. Played mostly tapes and CDs in the car, and used a 6-disc changer under the seat before they started coming out with in-dash versions. Don't subscribe to any paid streaming services, though I listen through spotify and pandora once in a while.
Now I listen almost exclusively to YouTube for free (Adblock Plus works wonders there) and the occasional CD.
I feel like I've come back full circle: Now I listen to my new digital "album collection" on YouTube. I look for artists' own playlists where they've recreated their albums in nice quality audio, and I save those playlists in a big collection of bookmarks. When I want to hear some music, I just scan the bookmark list for what feels good in the moment.
The big difference now is that my new digital album collection is free, and whenever I feel like hearing something new, I just go browsing for more album playlists to adopt.
However, a side effect of this progression is that I can't get comfortable picking and choosing individual songs to play. The thought of creating a playlist of my own sounds like too much work. Even if I overcame that hurdle, I doubt very much I'd like a "random play" option very much. I really like the album format, and listening to the artists' own "playlists" for 35-45 minutes at a time, then choosing another. If I put on a vinyl album that I haven't heard in 30 years, I'll already be anticipating the first few chords of each track before it starts playing, the album is so ingrained in my memory. I think I'm just hopelessly stuck in my ways...
"Discipline matters more than allocation.” |—| "In finance, if you’re certain of anything, you’re out of your mind." ─William Bernstein