Music buying habits

[styrgwillidar]

As a kid I bought whole albums, but when 8tracks then cassettes came along I recorded mix tapes of the best tracks. But most of the groups I listened to had great albums- Stones, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Moody Blues, Supertramp, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Queen - with very few mediocre songs/album.

As I got into the blues I tended towards best of collections with a variety of artists. Sonny Boy Williamson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Johnny Lee Hooker, Etta James etc.

Once the digital age came I tended more towards buying individual tracks unless they’re concept albums like ‘My Chemical Romance’ and ‘Fall Out Boy’ put out or the scores to movies like ‘Kingsman’, ‘Transformers’, Pirates of the Carribean.

I like a lot of stuff by Audiomachine, Immediate Music, Brand X Music and Two Steps From Hell-- but haven’t heard an album yet where I wanted more than half the songs- so I buy those tracks individually.

 

[Gordon_Sims]

I don’t steal music. Someone leaks it online, and I listen to what they leaked. That’s not stealing. The person who stole it was the leaker. If I could return the leak to the rightful owner, I would, but I don’t know who it is since it could be the publicist, or the A&R guy, or a producer, or a concert promoter, or the artist themselves.

Stealing requires willful intent. If something’s already there online for the taking, that’s not stealing.

I never stole my buddy Chris’s parents’ liquor back in high school. He’d steal it and I just drank what he stole. Since it was there for the drinking, it wasn’t stealing.

 

[Gordon_Sims]

Some of my favorite bands and favorite albums are ones I bought completely blind without ever having heard a single note. For a few bands, I actually bought several of their albums at once never having heard them before simply because I couldn’t decide which album to start with (seeing as I hadn’t heard any of them). Now, with the internet, it is very easy to sample a group’s music, so I don’t think I’d make any such blind buys anymore. But I’m glad I did back in the day.

A couple years ago I found a song by one of my favorite bands I’d never heard before. It became one of my favorite songs by them. The thing is, I’d had the album it came from for at least 15-20 years and had never listened to it all the way through. Since then I’ve tried to devote some more time to listening to the full albums that I just never got around to before.

At the same time, there’s some bands whose sound I really like. It’s not so much that I know the lyrics to every song or could even tell you the names of 90% of their songs but each of their songs have a similar sound and feel to them. I don’t mean that as an insult in any way, either. A great deal of Steely Dan’s music sounds just like every other Steely Dan song. They’re not identical, but they have an extremely consistent sound, from Can’t Buy a Thrill through Everything Must Go. I think that’s driven me to buy more complete albums and to complete my collection of various bands more than anything. It’s not so much that I want to hear an individual song, but more that I’m in the mood for their brand of music. I like being able to put on a playlist of 5, 10 or however many albums by a band or artist who I know I’m going to enjoy just because I like their sound. In other words, I may not have any real desire to hear “Hey Nineteen,” but I do feel like listening to an awful lot of songs that sound kind of like it.

 

[pensmama87]

I borrow albums from the library so I can “try before I buy.” Works out well.

 

[Beryllos]

I borrow albums from the library so I can “try before I buy.” Works out well.

The library is a great resource. From time to time, I borrow and listen to artists and genre that are unknown to me, and I have discovered a few gems that way.

 

[Exiled_Child]

Oh, boy. Try collecting 78’s. You need a lot of room for those. We had to add on to our house because we have so many records. Thousands of 78’s from the teens through 1950’s, the bulk of them 1920s. The greatest era of American music ever, in my opinion.

Yeah, I collect blues 78s most of all. While Robert Crumb certainly isn’t particularly well adjusted as far as ordinary homo sapiens are concerned, he’s actually less of a mutant than the majority of record collectors are. I don’t know what that says about me, and, frankly, I pretty much try not to think about it. But yeah, like the comic says, your living quarters tend to be rather cramped when you’re surrounded by thousands of records and books. I think “music buying habits” depend an awful lot on whether you live alone or not. God only knows who would put up with this besides me.

 

[Exiled_Child]

Yeah, I collect blues 78s, too. While Robert Crumb certainly isn’t particularly well adjusted as far as ordinary homo sapiens are concerned, he’s actually less of a mutant than a large percentage of record collectors are. I don’t know what that says about me, and, frankly, I pretty much try not to think about it. But yeah, like the comic says, your living quarters tend to be rather cramped when you’re surrounded by thousands of records and a bunch of books. I think “music buying habits” depends on whether you live alone or not. God only knows who would put up with this besides me. But on the bright side, if I ever decide to sell all this stuff, I might literally be able to purchase my entire apartment building.

 

[tomarin]

I collect soul 45’s but I also listen to digital music, classical mostly as of late, which I purchase from itunes. I tend to buy the whole album.

 

[Joe_5859]

A couple years ago I found a song by one of my favorite bands I’d never heard before. It became one of my favorite songs by them. The thing is, I’d had the album it came from for at least 15-20 years and had never listened to it all the way through. Since then I’ve tried to devote some more time to listening to the full albums that I just never got around to before.

At the same time, there’s some bands whose sound I really like. It’s not so much that I know the lyrics to every song or could even tell you the names of 90% of their songs but each of their songs have a similar sound and feel to them. I don’t mean that as an insult in any way, either. A great deal of Steely Dan’s music sounds just like every other Steely Dan song. They’re not identical, but they have an extremely consistent sound, from Can’t Buy a Thrill through Everything Must Go. I think that’s driven me to buy more complete albums and to complete my collection of various bands more than anything. It’s not so much that I want to hear an individual song, but more that I’m in the mood for their brand of music. I like being able to put on a playlist of 5, 10 or however many albums by a band or artist who I know I’m going to enjoy just because I like their sound. In other words, I may not have any real desire to hear “Hey Nineteen,” but I do feel like listening to an awful lot of songs that sound kind of like it.

Yeah, sometimes it is the non-hits that are my favorite. Of course, my musical tastes tend towards the obscure, so I generally approach the albums I buy with no prior conception of which ones are the “hits.”

That’s an interesting way to put it with regards to the “sound” of a band. There are a few bands I like that would fall into that category. I had begun to wonder why I still buy their new albums when I couldn’t necessarily name more than a few of their song titles off the top of my head. But that’s exactly what is going on. I enjoy listening to their albums, even though I’m not looking for a particular song, because I like their general sound. That also explains AC/DC’s popularity.

 

[Joe_5859]

I have the complete Beatles.
The complete Stones and the complete Journey.

So, I pretty much disagree with most of your pronouncements.


Oh, and my solo piano version of Desperado sells pretty good too.

Journey is one of the few bands who I only have one album by. I always liked “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)”, so I picked up “Frontiers” but never got around to getting the rest of their albums.

 

[Beryllos]

Journey is all right, but their Greatest Hits album is sufficient for me.

 

[Gordon_Sims]

Yeah, sometimes it is the non-hits that are my favorite. Of course, my musical tastes tend towards the obscure, so I generally approach the albums I buy with no prior conception of which ones are the “hits.”

When it comes to current and Christian music, I buy the whole albums for pretty much the same reason. I seldom listen to the radio and when I do it’s not Top 40 or Christian so when I find an artist I like I have no idea what songs on their album, if any, are popular, hits or even see the light of day except for on the album. I had someone ask me what my favorite song was by a more recent group and, despite telling me they were a huge fan, they’d never heard of it since it had never been released as a single.

That’s an interesting way to put it with regards to the “sound” of a band. There are a few bands I like that would fall into that category. I had begun to wonder why I still buy their new albums when I couldn’t necessarily name more than a few of their song titles off the top of my head. But that’s exactly what is going on. I enjoy listening to their albums, even though I’m not looking for a particular song, because I like their general sound. That also explains AC/DC’s popularity.

AC/DC definitely falls into that category. A friend of mine got into an argument on Facebook about their most recent album. Someone asked why he’d buy it since it doesn’t sound any different than any of their other album. He basically said that, looking at it that way, he already has Back in Black so why buy any other of their albums except to keep from hearing the same ten songs over and over again.

 

[tomarin]

Journey is all right, but their Greatest Hits album is sufficient for me.

Sometimes (not saying this is the case with Journey necessarily) an album is greater than the sum of its parts.

 

[pensmama87]

The library is a great resource. From time to time, I borrow and listen to artists and genre that are unknown to me, and I have discovered a few gems that way.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the variety (and sometimes obscurity) of what they offer.

 

[Exiled_Child]

Inheriting old records is really the best way to get them. I’ve been lucky that way, because there’s no way I would have ever been able to obtain a lot of the stuff I have otherwise. Even from estate sales and auctions, which I used to make a habit of going to, it’s very unlikely I would have ever come across a lot of stuff that family members had bought back in the day. So it helps to have a foundation like that to build on. You think to yourself, well, I’ve already got all this stuff, I may as well buy more. And after awhile it becomes a deeply ingrained addiction. Certain people, Hank Williams, Howlin’ Wolf, Bo Diddley, Rolling Stones, etc., you try to obtain every last thing you can lay hands on, and the rest depends on what you come across. Books on music history are a big help, too, and will lead you to explore all kinds of stuff. Plus, music itself is a bit like books, in that one good title, author or label will tend to lead you to another, and so on.

One problem I see, is that collecting pretty much anything at all is essentially a predatory activity. You’re pitting your knowledge against the knowledge of the person who’s selling or trading what you want. For instance, if a Christian met someone with an Action Comics No. 1 or a first pressing of Mystery Train, they might say, “Um, be wise, that’s worth it’s weight in plutonium.” But someone unscrupulous will say, “Well, that’s not particularly valuable, but I could give you fifty for it, just 'cause I happen to be into it.” So that’s a whole other aspect of buying music.

 

[Gordon_Sims]

Inheriting old records is really the best way to get them. I’ve been lucky that way, because there’s no way I would have ever been able to obtain a lot of the stuff I have otherwise. Even from estate sales and auctions, which I used to make a habit of going to, it’s very unlikely I would have ever come across a lot of stuff that family members had bought back in the day. So it helps to have a foundation like that to build on. You think to yourself, well, I’ve already got all this stuff, I may as well buy more. And after awhile it becomes a deeply ingrained addiction. Certain people, Hank Williams, Howlin’ Wolf, Bo Diddley, Rolling Stones, etc., you try to obtain every last thing you can lay hands on, and the rest depends on what you come across. Books on music history are a big help, too, and will lead you to explore all kinds of stuff. Plus, music itself is a bit like books, in that one good title, author or label will tend to lead you to another, and so on.

I used to go to auctions and estate sales with my uncle. He was really into early rock and roll and would buy up whole collections just on the off chance that he’d get something good. We were at one auction where someone had five or six boxes of what were clearly very old records. They wouldn’t let anyone look through the boxes in the back because they were stuffed full and you’d have to pull the records out to actually see what was in the boxes. The first couple boxes had a bunch of second rate Lawrence Welk-type acts so it seemed doubtful there’d be anything of worth in the collection. The price stayed low, though, and he got it in the end. It seemed as though my hunch was right because the first four or five boxes were all alike and none of them were in very good shape. The last box, though, was in much better shape and sandwiched between the Welk clones at the front and back was a bunch of 50’s rock, including a few early Elvis LP’s. I always wondered what happened to his collection because there wasn’t a single record in his belongings when he died.

A friend of mine was an obsessive Springsteen fan back in college. He had all his albums up until that time on vinyl and was working on collecting as many bootlegs as he could find. This was in the pre-internet days so it was much easier said than done. He had a few fanzines that gave varying lists of what was out there but most of his efforts to actually find them came up empty. One friend got him a bootleg on vinyl and I found him one on cassette at this really bizarre fair that showed up on campus one day (it was a bunch of vendors selling bootlegs and bongs while a few people played music and demonstrated yoga, etc.). He finally managed to get a bootleg on his own, this one also on vinyl. I think he paid right around $200 for it. His parents went ballistic so his bootleg collecting days were over.

 

[Exiled_Child]

I used to go to auctions and estate sales with my uncle. He was really into early rock and roll and would buy up whole collections just on the off chance that he’d get something good. We were at one auction where someone had five or six boxes of what were clearly very old records. They wouldn’t let anyone look through the boxes in the back because they were stuffed full and you’d have to pull the records out to actually see what was in the boxes. The first couple boxes had a bunch of second rate Lawrence Welk-type acts so it seemed doubtful there’d be anything of worth in the collection. The price stayed low, though, and he got it in the end. It seemed as though my hunch was right because the first four or five boxes were all alike and none of them were in very good shape. The last box, though, was in much better shape and sandwiched between the Welk clones at the front and back was a bunch of 50’s rock, including a few early Elvis LP’s. I always wondered what happened to his collection because there wasn’t a single record in his belongings when he died.

A friend of mine was an obsessive Springsteen fan back in college. He had all his albums up until that time on vinyl and was working on collecting as many bootlegs as he could find. This was in the pre-internet days so it was much easier said than done. He had a few fanzines that gave varying lists of what was out there but most of his efforts to actually find them came up empty. One friend got him a bootleg on vinyl and I found him one on cassette at this really bizarre fair that showed up on campus one day (it was a bunch of vendors selling bootlegs and bongs while a few people played music and demonstrated yoga, etc.). He finally managed to get a bootleg on his own, this one also on vinyl. I think he paid right around $200 for it. His parents went ballistic so his bootleg collecting days were over.

Gordon, that’s great! I can relate. When I was a teenager, I sometimes hung out with older kids, and that’s how I learned about estate sales and auctions. I knew one guy who bought cars that way! A few times I did manage to get some choice stuff, but it was sheer dumb luck on my part; I really had no idea what I was doing. And this was the end of the eighties/early nineties, way before the advent of eBay. I think now it would be impossibly difficult, especially in Seattle or San Francisco. There’d be wolves who really knew their business and you wouldn’t stand a chance. Also, one time I did meet someone at church who helped me out. I told him, “Man, this stuff’s gotta be worth a fortune,” but he didn’t care at all. But again, that was sheer luck. I bet if you went to Mississippi or Appalachia, or someplace like that, though, you could still find old black records, R&R, cool old country hillbilly stuff and whatnot. I don’t know. I’m too lazy to go down there and find out. But it actually cannot be overstated how collectable old blues 78s are. That stuff is extremely collectable. By the way, old-timers on CAF looking to offload the “useless” records in their attics, please feel free to PM me!

 

[Gordon_Sims]

Gordon, that’s great! I can relate. When I was a teenager, I sometimes hung out with older kids, and that’s how I learned about estate sales and auctions. I knew one guy who bought cars that way! A few times I did manage to get some choice stuff, but it was sheer dumb luck on my part; I really had no idea what I was doing. And this was the end of the eighties/early nineties, way before the advent of eBay. I think now it would be impossibly difficult, especially in Seattle or San Francisco. There’d be wolves who really knew their business and you wouldn’t stand a chance. Also, one time I did meet someone at church who helped me out. I told him, “Man, this stuff’s gotta be worth a fortune,” but he didn’t care at all. But again, that was sheer luck. I bet if you went to Mississippi or Appalachia, or someplace like that, though, you could still find old black records, R&R, cool old country hillbilly stuff and whatnot. I don’t know. I’m too lazy to go down there and find out. But it actually cannot be overstated how collectable old blues 78s are. That stuff is extremely collectable. By the way, old-timers on CAF looking to offload the “useless” records in their attics, please feel free to PM me!

I have a friend who got hooked on antique stores, auctions and estate sales right after he got married. He and his wife would watch Antiques Roadshow and see all these stories about people who bought something that looked like garbage only to have it (or something inside it) be worth a fortune. They just knew they were going to be the next big Antiques Roadshow rags to riches story. The only problem was that every time they found something worthwhile it cost an arm and a leg, and every time they got something cheap it was worthless. One day, though, their ship came in. They had taken a trip with his mother and stumbled across an estate sale in the middle of nowhere. Everything was pretty run-of-the-mill except for this massive, antique wooden sailor’s chest. As heavy as it would have been normally, it was clearly stuffed full of something because it was much heavier than it had a right to be. His and his wife’s imaginations ran wild and they were sure it was full of some sort of treasure. He asked the owner what was in it and they told him they didn’t know. They said it belonged to their great-great (or great-great-great) grandpa and it had been handed down through the family. The lock had rusted shut on it generations ago and nobody could get it open. My friend talked the guy down from $500 to $300, but he had to borrow the money from his mom to buy it. They got it home, eventually paid her off, then hired a locksmith to open it. He couldn’t do it. They were short on money and long on bills at the time so they could only afford to hire a locksmith once or twice a year to try to get the thing open. Every one they hired failed to get it open and told them they’d probably have to destroy the lock or the lid to get into it. Over the years, between the original price and the locksmiths, they spent something like $2000 on what eventually turned into a fancy, unwieldy decoration.

About 15 years after they bought it they got to a point where they had to admit they no longer had room for it. They knew they’d never recoup their money selling the chest by itself but they hated the idea of destroying it to get what was inside. Remember, though, they were positive that whatever was inside was worth far more than the trunk itself. They finally decided they were going to get it open one way or another. My friend set to work on the lock with WD-40 and a variety of rust busters, chisels, screwdrivers and hammers. He finally lost his patience and, with his wife’s blessing, he busted apart the lid. Inside they found a decades-old stash of dirty towels and rotted paper. We don’t mention the chest anymore.

 

[Joe_5859]

When it comes to current and Christian music, I buy the whole albums for pretty much the same reason. I seldom listen to the radio and when I do it’s not Top 40 or Christian so when I find an artist I like I have no idea what songs on their album, if any, are popular, hits or even see the light of day except for on the album. I had someone ask me what my favorite song was by a more recent group and, despite telling me they were a huge fan, they’d never heard of it since it had never been released as a single.

I recall running into people like that a lot in college. They’d go on and on about a band as though they were their number one fan. But then, as the conversation progressed, I’d discover they only had the band’s one or two most popular albums. Lightweights!

 

[Joe_5859]

I have a friend who got hooked on antique stores, auctions and estate sales right after he got married. He and his wife would watch Antiques Roadshow and see all these stories about people who bought something that looked like garbage only to have it (or something inside it) be worth a fortune. They just knew they were going to be the next big Antiques Roadshow rags to riches story. The only problem was that every time they found something worthwhile it cost an arm and a leg, and every time they got something cheap it was worthless. One day, though, their ship came in. They had taken a trip with his mother and stumbled across an estate sale in the middle of nowhere. Everything was pretty run-of-the-mill except for this massive, antique wooden sailor’s chest. As heavy as it would have been normally, it was clearly stuffed full of something because it was much heavier than it had a right to be. His and his wife’s imaginations ran wild and they were sure it was full of some sort of treasure. He asked the owner what was in it and they told him they didn’t know. They said it belonged to their great-great (or great-great-great) grandpa and it had been handed down through the family. The lock had rusted shut on it generations ago and nobody could get it open. My friend talked the guy down from $500 to $300, but he had to borrow the money from his mom to buy it. They got it home, eventually paid her off, then hired a locksmith to open it. He couldn’t do it. They were short on money and long on bills at the time so they could only afford to hire a locksmith once or twice a year to try to get the thing open. Every one they hired failed to get it open and told them they’d probably have to destroy the lock or the lid to get into it. Over the years, between the original price and the locksmiths, they spent something like $2000 on what eventually turned into a fancy, unwieldy decoration.

About 15 years after they bought it they got to a point where they had to admit they no longer had room for it. They knew they’d never recoup their money selling the chest by itself but they hated the idea of destroying it to get what was inside. Remember, though, they were positive that whatever was inside was worth far more than the trunk itself. They finally decided they were going to get it open one way or another. My friend set to work on the lock with WD-40 and a variety of rust busters, chisels, screwdrivers and hammers. He finally lost his patience and, with his wife’s blessing, he busted apart the lid. Inside they found a decades-old stash of dirty towels and rotted paper. We don’t mention the chest anymore.

What a great story.