The Music Purchasing Experience
 

Everyone here loves music, not a very debatable issue. So, whats your purchasing progression? How do you filter stuff from perhaps, the initial download to the full bleed of the illustrious LP......discuss

For me this formula seems to be working well: browse through soulseek, check out some stuff I read about in a zine and then:
1. If it sucks, I'll delete
2. If its so-so, or I'm ambivalent towards it I'll keep it and maybe burn a cd
3. If it's just plain ol' good, I'll buy/burn a cd and maybe buy the vinyl
4. if its is the low-down,beat your head with stick of love then i buy the vinyl

Of course, theres is always the three hour time peroid once a week where I dig through dusty, yummy record after dusty yummy record in hopes of finding a random jewel to call my own.

Well, I download a couple tracks from bands that have caught my interest. If I dislike it then I don't really do anything. I'm too lazy to delete (?). I just don't do anything. If I like it a little, I'll download a couple more tracks and see if the band is worth it and if I decide it isn't I'll put those songs on my ipod. If it is worth it I'll go buy the CD. I don't collect vinyl.

what type of ipod do you have?

The 30 gig video. Why?

Depends on the music. With the experimental stuff, I buy it on the strength of reviews, and then listen to it until it makes sense. For instance, I found it quite difficult to get Feldman for a long time, but I knew he was a very important figure in 20th Century Avant-garde, so I listened to it more than I would an album I like, until it 'clicked'.

With stuff that doesn't really fit into 'intellectual' music (although this is a horrible category) I generally download one or two tracks and buy the album if I them. Recently, this happened with Xasthur.

With bands I already have albums by, I buy it without worrying about its quality - The Fall have yet to make an album I can truly say I don't like; SY less so, but I buy their albums any way.

A lot of stuff I just download whole albums in lieu of being able to find a hard copy - until recently this was true of the SY ep, and remains true for a lot of the more obscure stuff (early Nurse With Wound albums etc). I should add that given the option of downloading and owning the album, I always, without fail, opt for the latter.

Realistically, when I have more money, I will definitely spend more time online shopping for the obscurities I convince myself I need, but I far prefer finding them in record stores/ record fairs, and will always buy the Vinyl before the CD, and I hope to never have to buy Mp3's.

well, I was thinking of maybe buying one, but I'm somewhat skeptical about the whole ipod revolution. I mean aren't they in their 4th generation or something like that, it seems that they keep upgrading the ipods and not changing the price. What will probably happen is I'll buy one and like a month later they'll come out with a new and improved version. Oh and I was wondering what the general preferance was among the iPod users.

Get it. It is good. I like mine. I gotta go to school Sorry I can't help more.

heard.

My method:

1. Seduce relatively wealthy hipster boys with my cunning ways.
2. Feign doe-eyed musical ignorance so that they feel compelled to bring their LP collections over in an attempt to educate me.
3. Wear revealing clothing to distract them during said instructional date, in hopes of them forgetting to take back above-mentioned LPs.
4. Initiate sudden, yet amiable breakup, leaving no feelings of animosity that may result in demands to return belongings.
5. Exponentially increase album collection with no cost to myself.

I've never bought music online, although I stream stuff quite a lot.

I like going to little independent record shops (or a chain called Fopp) and buying there. I like going to places with nice people.

I heard something said by someone...I think it went a little like: "You are so shamelessly, heartlessly mean. Bless you."
By far the best method.........

'Feign'?

Does anyone else find that it's not so much the stock of a record store that you go for, but the people behind the counter? For instance, Sound323 (Archway, London) has the most helpful and friendly people imaginable (without it getting on your tits) and I shop there more often than anywhere else. It helps that they have stock that you just can't find anywhere else in real record stores (as opposed to online).

By contrast, Rough Trade has absolutely superlative stock, but the cuntiest cunts behind the counter, so I rarely go in there.

Its all about price to me with record stores. I most go used, so I never know what I'm going to come out with. But I only buy vinyl now. I'll buy CDs for other people, but I really hate CDs.

And to think I gave you empty rep. Cock.


I will concur wholeheartedly with this. I'll shop moreso at Reckless in Chicago because they have seriously geeky clerks there. One guy is the freakish type to whom you can hum a bastardized guitar solo and he's able to pinpoint artist, album, and song in a matter of seconds. He also understands my compulsive need to wipe off earphones before I put them on to preview an album. They can be slightly more expensive than other shops, but it's those little things that make all the difference.

I agree in part - given the option, I'd usually prefer vinyl. However, Operas/ Symphonies and the longer, more experimental things are usually better on CD - I contend that, although visually more appealing, Tago Mago by Can is too long for vinyl.

That's why it's a freaking double album.

Oh, trucky-wunky pie, why must we fight? You know it's all about the love. I'd love to school you on music. Mmm. Schooling.

Yes, I realise that, but the changing of the records, for me, ruins the continuity, which is similar to the Opera vinyl experience.

I could see that argument with something like Thick As A Brick by Jethro Tull, which is actually meant to be one long track, or the opera situation you mention. Tago Mago at least is divided into tracks that each fit within the confines of vinyl sides, and doesn't bother me to deal with. I see where you're coming from though. Getting up to change sides is difficult when one is as ridiculously well-endowed as you are, and having to hang onto the wheelbarrow with one hand can make flipping an LP over a real chore.

Word.

I picked that album for a reason, that reason being that I do have it on two formats, and the CD gets played a lot more. Other bands I have two formats of (or three in some instances) generally get more play on Vinyl, Can are the exception to a very small field of multiple formats in my collection.