How Do You Get Your Music

[Phantom of London]

Remember in the day when your favourite musical got released on LP, you made a special trip to Our Price, to find they haven't got it and if they haven't got it, you know that Woolworths wouldn't have it, so you have to make a long arduous trek to a Virgin Megastore instead.

Go to the present music is now a electronic format that you either download or you upload to your pc, which I have done several times and I have over 300 CDs and have wasted many hours doing this, which I may have to do all this again soon as I will be getting a new laptop and do not relish doing this again, but looks I have to. I still like to collect my CDs and still buy them often.

However you now have spotify which seems to be great and resolves a lot of problems, where on my ipod I thought I can have my whole collection of music, which would be great, but a lot of shows or productions will not use spotify, especially the more obscure niche shows, also spotify you can only have 3333 tracks.

When I've bought my CDs from Amazon, it offers a free download, which is good, as I have downloaded their app, and download music I bought, which allows me to download more on spotify, because of the 3333 limit, however most of the time music bought direct from Amazon can be more expensive than a secondary seller on Amazon, which doesn't offer free download, this can be £5 cheaper than direct from Amazon, also not every cast recording offers a free download.

I was on the underground last week commuting, the chap sitting opposite me was listening to his music and promptly got his music player out, ejected the tape, turned it over and pressed playand seemed content, sometime the old fashion ways were the best, did we go wrong?

[trapdoor]

Ah I used to do the same thing, every summer I'd use my birthday money and buy another double cassette of yet another musical and then listen to it continually while singing along in the back of the car. Oh the happy pre-pubescent days when I could belt out Christine's part (and final note) of the Phantom of the Opera title song.

Nowadays, my prize CDs are in a drawer, everything backed up into iTunes and also use Deezer which streams a lot of good musical fodder.

[stefy69]

Still vinyl for me I'm pleased to say.

[anita]

Before there was "Our Price" I remember going to my local electrical retailer to look through the LPs for the new Monkees album.

[Michael]

Always buy my CDs (be it cast recordings or other music) on physical CDs, mostly from Amazon. Only buy digitally if there is no alternative (e.g. Made in Dagenham which was never released on CD). I then grab the CDs and load the mp3s into iTunes.

No intention of ever using Spotify or similar.

[Deleted]

Buy CDs from Amazon, which very often gives me the option to download digital copies on the day of release/purchase so I don't have to do any ripping once the CD arrives. It's a very handy thing. Then I have the digital copies on my phone, and the CDs can go in my car or wherever. If I want to find out if I like music enough to buy it, it's usually on YouTube, and usually seems to be pretty legitimate these days too.

[BurlyBeaR]

Digital only. Got rid of all my CD's to Music Magpie. Can't stand clutter!

[BurlyBeaR]

Mar 18, 2016 9:52:33 GMT Phantom of London said:

Go to the present music is now a electronic format that you either download or you upload to your pc, which I have done several times and I have over 300 CDs and have wasted many hours doing this, which I may have to do all this again soon as I will be getting a new laptop and do not relish doing this again, but looks I have to. I still like to collect my CDs and still buy them often.

Might be worth investing in an external back up which you can use not only as a safety back up but also as a means of transferring your music from old to new PC. The Click Free brand is quite good. 

[Deleted]

I don't buy much music these days — I mainly buy Blu-rays of films — but when I do I buy CDs or, failing that, a digital download. I won't use streaming services: if I like something I want to have my own copy that I can watch or listen to at whatever time suits me, rather than hoping that the stream provider will continue to offer the things I like for as long as I like them.

[adrianics]

Spotify Premium - £9.99 and all the music I could possibly want, I actually can't remember the last time I bought music (apart from maybe a cheap CD from a charity shop for the car).

[Deleted]

I feel like everyone's Old Uncle! Yes, I remember my local record shop, Our Price, Woolies, Virgin Megastore, HMV... Not to mention borrowing records from the music library- this involved the librarian examining your stylus (!) and then checking every record you returned to see if you'd scratched it! Ahhhh, the music library, I can still picture it. I must have listened to every recording in the Films and Shows section. It was Dress Circle for CDs for years and years, when it was in Covent Garden and then in its other shop off Seven Dials. Amazon CDs for me now.

[waybeyondblue]

Definitely get an external drive as a back-up and maybe two to hold full fat rips such as FLAC or ALAC.

Then try Google Music Player. You can upload anything (and that includes the obscure stuff) and it will create a library. You then use the app or plug-in to playback the results wherever you want. MP3 quality which is mostly OK for phone or car use imo. Best thing is it's free and can hold 50,000 tracks.

[Michael]

Mar 18, 2016 18:22:15 GMT @theatremonkey said:

Crashplan is excellent if you have fast upload.

Speaking of old-fashioned, I still use an external USB hard drive for backup purposes.

Mar 18, 2016 18:22:15 GMT @theatremonkey said:

What exactly is an "Ipod" anyway?

Never heard of "Ipod" before. I could however explain to you what an "iPod" is

Edit: And since we're currently speaking of the subject "old-fashioned" anyway: Am I the only one who is super annoyed that Avenue Q have changed "mix tape" to "CD"?

[Phantom of London]

Sorry an external hard drive is the way to go?

I have my old laptop, it still works except for the 'y' and '-' buttons, which is frustrating if you want to type anything meaniful.

On this laptop I have ITune with all my CD's on there, but apple doesn't allow you to transfer music from an old iTunes account to a new one does it?

[joem]

I buy CDS, normally from HMV or Fopp but also abroad and if I have to online - from anyone but Amazon. I loved vinyl but it became too difficult to get new records and to get repairs done at one point so witched to CD. I have no intention of ever switching to anything else, certainly not to any immaterial format.

[viserys]

I love that everyone is still buying actual CDs! I do the same - partly because I have built up this big collection over the years and want to keep adding to it, partly because I want the physical back up and partly because only a CD feels like "owning" the album. I did digitally download a few CDs a few years and it just doesn't feel like it's actually part of my collection. One was Kinky Boots Broadway, so I'm glad I can buy the London cast on CD now. Usually I order on Amazon but it's highly annoying when a CD is like $9.99 over in the US and €16.99 or something on DE. Even with postage it's cheaper to buy in the US!

Having said that, I tend to buy artists' albums digitally only these days and I also use Spotify a lot to discover new singers or to check out musicals I don't know.

[waybeyondblue]

Mar 18, 2016 22:50:03 GMT Phantom of London said:

Sorry an external hard drive is the way to go?

I have my old laptop, it still works except for the 'y' and '-' buttons, which is frustrating if you want to type anything meaniful.

On this laptop I have ITune with all my CD's on there, but apple doesn't allow you to transfer music from an old iTunes account to a new one does it?

If you've ripped the CDs then they will be stored somewhere on your computer irrespective of iTunes. That said if you've used ITunes to rip them then they are probably stored in an iTunes folder. Either way you can copy these as you wish.

if you've bought music via iTunes then you can access it on any copy of iTunes provided you use the same AppleID to authorise iTunes.