Anyone gone exclusively digital?

I've gone what I call "largely digital".

I used to have well over 1,000 CDs. Over time, I have ripped & backed up many of them. I started rebuying some of them, only to turn around and sell them off again so I'm done doing that now.

I have about 360 CDs at present. But what has happened is I started collecting vinyl. I have about 135 pieces of vinyl at present and usually spend more time hunting it than sifting through the CD sections anymore.

I still buy CDs (as evidenced by my last couple of hauls) but I'm much more specific now in terms of what I get on CD. My "random buying" has switched over from CD to vinyl.

But there are many, many albums I used to own physical copies of that I'm just fine only owning the digital copy now.

I am now almost through the E's!!

exact33 wrote:

I am now almost through the E's!!

  

Drugs are bad for you dude!!

Boris2008 wrote:

exact33 wrote:

I am now almost through the E's!!

  

Drugs are bad for you dude!!  

this is without drugs or alcohol

exact33 wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

exact33 wrote:

I am now almost through the E's!!

  

Drugs are bad for you dude!!  

this is without drugs or alcohol

If it was with drugs and alcohol, you'd probably still be on the A's !

I will never start buying vinyl. There are just way too many awesome-looking albums in those vinyl bins. And they're SO cheap! No way will I ever go down that road. Haha.

What I do, is snap pics of these albums on my phone, then I go home and download them. I'm talking old albums, you know, those obscure things. Like...





And these kinds of albums are everywhere!

I only use digital storage for all my hippie and jam band live stuff.  Ya know the bands that are kewl with fans recording shows. I have a friend who sends me portable hard drives in the mail periodically. He is kewl and loads them in flac format.

A couple of years ago I started ripping my collection, and I loved having it more accessable on an mp3-player for example. That made it possible for me to listen to music at work. In time this has led me to listen to sooooo many more albums than ever before in my life, and I could familiarize myself with my collection. Now, a very strange thing happened as a result of this. I started to get more and more picky with what I listened to, and I had less tolerance for mediocre albums. Even new music was largely uninteresting when played back to back with my favorite albums from the past. Now, this could all be a case of me getting older, and my taste changeing. Still I find it odd that it all started with me listening to 500% more music daily than what I used to.

Last year (2013) I downloaded Spotify, and now I find myself too lazy to use anything besides Spotify. That means I don't bother listening to music that is not there, which is a lot!

kmorg wrote:

A couple of years ago I started ripping my collection,  and I loved having it more accessable on an mp3-player for example. That made it possible for me to listen to music at work. In time this has led me to listen to sooooo many more albums than ever before in my life, and I could  familiarize myself with my collection. Now, a very strange thing happened as a result of this. I started to get more and more picky with what I listened to, and I had less tolerance for mediocre albums. Even new music was largely uninteresting when played back to back with my favorite albums from the past. Now, this could all be a case of me getting older, and my taste changeing. Still I find it odd that it all started with me listening to 500% more music daily than what I used to.

Last year (2013) I downloaded Spotify, and now I find myself too lazy to use anything besides Spotify. That means I don't bother listening to music that is not there, which is a lot!

As far as newer music goes I still by new albums all the time, but only by the bands I grew up with from the 70's 80's and early 90's. I did not really realize this until about a year ago,when a guy I work with asked me if their were any new bands I liked, and I said Alice In Chains. This dude was about 10 years younger than me and thought that was the funniest thing he had ever heard. He said I was dated, and I realized he was right,but just don't care.
 I know their is a lot of great new music out there, but even if I get it and even like it, I still find myself wanting to listen to those older bands I am familiar with.

ultmetal wrote:

If I don't own the CD or vinyl, I feel like I don't own anything. That vinyl or CD is a piece of the band's history that I own. With digital downloads, I own nothing. For me, I feel I am a real fan not just because I listen to the band's music but because I buy the band's physical product as well.

+1
but its fine to me if somebody else pays for a download. I dont like people that never buy any records but talks on the net like they are big heavy metal fans. F*ck them and not by me of course   

krokus wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

If I don't own the CD or vinyl, I feel like I don't own anything. That vinyl or CD is a piece of the band's history that I own. With digital downloads, I own nothing. For me, I feel I am a real fan not just because I listen to the band's music but because I buy the band's physical product as well.

+1
but its fine to me if somebody else pays for a download. I dont like people that never buy any records but talks on the net like they are big heavy metal fans. F*ck them and not by me of course   

+2, I have to agree with this, thou I have to say since I buy a majority of music new, the band's make no money from a fan like me!

krokus wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

If I don't own the CD or vinyl, I feel like I don't own anything. That vinyl or CD is a piece of the band's history that I own. With digital downloads, I own nothing. For me, I feel I am a real fan not just because I listen to the band's music but because I buy the band's physical product as well.

+1
but its fine to me if somebody else pays for a download. I dont like people that never buy any records but talks on the net like they are big heavy metal fans. F*ck them and not by me of course   

What if the only way to get and support the music is to download it from the blog? A number of artists appreciate or even provide by themself their material as it is the only way for them to interact with those few fans. Imo there is a huge difference between downloading a KISS album and grabbing a lone demo supporting an artist the only way you basically can. Speaking of one-and-gone demo tape bands here.

I'm sorry, but if someone tells me that if I don't buy a physical product I'm somehow not a "real fan" I will politely tell them to go outside and play hide and go F*ck yourself.   

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

I have about 135 pieces of vinyl at present and usually spend more time hunting it than sifting through the CD sections anymore.

I still buy CDs (as evidenced by my last couple of hauls) but I'm much more specific now in terms of what I get on CD. My "random buying" has switched over from CD to vinyl.

But there are many, many albums I used to own physical copies of that I'm just fine only owning the digital copy now.

Shawn, this true for me too. A couple years ago I began filling the holes in my CD collection with vinyl. I haven't counted my records, but I probably have about the same number as you. It's cool to find something I want in acceptable condition (my standards have gotten pretty high), cleaning it up, and playing it for the first time.

Can anyone recommend a good program for ripping CDs?  I want to do some "Best Ofs" but the recording volume varies so much from one album to another that it's annoying to listen to.  I'd like some free software that will at the very least maintain a constant recording volume when ripping CDs to digital format.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

I've gone what I call "largely digital".

I used to have well over 1,000 CDs. Over time, I have ripped & backed up many of them. I started rebuying some of them, only to turn around and sell them off again so I'm done doing that now.

I have about 360 CDs at present. But what has happened is I started collecting vinyl. I have about 135 pieces of vinyl at present and usually spend more time hunting it than sifting through the CD sections anymore.

I still buy CDs (as evidenced by my last couple of hauls) but I'm much more specific now in terms of what I get on CD. My "random buying" has switched over from CD to vinyl.

But there are many, many albums I used to own physical copies of that I'm just fine only owning the digital copy now.

I'm the same way. I still have thousands of CD's but last year traded a bunch off for vinyl. And if I go in the music store I completely bypass the CD's and head to the vinyl section. I only buy CD's now if something catches my eye in the $5 bin at Walmart. And I don't even look thru those. If I see something on top of the pile I grab it as I walk by. The last 2 I found were Hendrix - Band Of Gypsys and South Saturn Delta. For 5 bucks I couldnt pass those up.

Everything else I buy from iTunes (exception was the new Bloodgood, I bought the CD).

tohostudios wrote:

Can anyone recommend a good program for ripping CDs?  I want to do some "Best Ofs" but the recording volume varies so much from one album to another that it's annoying to listen to.  I'd like some free software that will at the very least maintain a constant recording volume when ripping CDs to digital format.

Honestly? As much as I hate anything Microsoft-related, I've been using Windows Media Player for ages. There's an option to maintain consistent volume across the tracks. Works like a charm.

corplhicks wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

Can anyone recommend a good program for ripping CDs?  I want to do some "Best Ofs" but the recording volume varies so much from one album to another that it's annoying to listen to.  I'd like some free software that will at the very least maintain a constant recording volume when ripping CDs to digital format.

Honestly? As much as I hate anything Microsoft-related, I've been using Windows Media Player for ages. There's an option to maintain consistent volume across the tracks. Works like a charm.

There is?  Where?  I've looked around and the only thing I can find is sound quality.  I found one under the burn tab but I thought that would only maintain consistent volume when burning to a disc.  Does that also apply when  reading from a disc?

Thrasher73 wrote:

I don't have time to sit around and read liner notes and stare at artwork.

I don't have time to listen to stuff I don't feel strongly enough to really get into. I'm the guy who listens to everything so many times I can quote the lyrics.

Not into stuff that comes in one ear and goes out the other, nor do I want to waste my time. So, give me CDs, liner notes, artwork, good head phones, a nice glass of scotch, and I'm very happy.

tohostudios wrote:

Can anyone recommend a good program for ripping CDs?  I want to do some "Best Ofs" but the recording volume varies so much from one album to another that it's annoying to listen to.  I'd like some free software that will at the very least maintain a constant recording volume when ripping CDs to digital format.

I think NERO does that, but when I make mix CD's or compilation CD's of demos or maybe songs from various CD's, I usually just use what is already part of my PC, and that is WindowsMediaPlayer as it has a "normalize all tracks" option too, before I burn a CD-R.

EAC is free. Exact Audio Copy, and will tag the songs for free, if they are in the online database, after you configured the program.

I used to use MediaMonkey for a mp3 player, and will guess it is still highly popular. I never used it for ripping though.
http://download.cnet.com/MediaMonkey-Standard/3000-2141_4-10109807.html

http://download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0-2.html?query=cd+ripper&searchtype=downloads&sort=popularity%20asc&rpp=10&filter=platform=Windows&filterName=platform=Windows&tag=mncol

I used to subscribe to the same line of thought that unless I owned the physical copy I couldn't really consider myself a fan. While I do like physical copies, over time I have found collecting to be a very impractical and expensive habit. Having moved a couple of times, logging my CD collection around from one place to another has always proven to be a major pain the in the backside (at times physically so).

I have reached this point in my music listening habits where financially I can no longer sustain this hobby that is, at the pace of buying physical copies of albums. Living space where I live now is also limited and has become a commodity in some respects.

I am comfortable with not being considered a fan by others - that is, I could care less what others think of me. I must admit that turning back the clock several years ago I would have detested the idea of going all digital - I would have proclaimed the same thing: not a fan unless you have the artwork, liner notes etc. But not unlike others here, I don't have time or just can't be bothered reading the liner notes, I can find the lyrics online if I really want to know what they're singing about etc.

For me the tipping point came when I started looking at how much money I was spending versus how much time I really had to listen to all the albums I was buying. Also counted in the fact that I was just buying stuff because I thought I'd like it or I'd like the mp3s / youtube samples but when I got the album I'd barely even listen to it. Even now I have a bunch of albums in my collection that I never even opened!

I found that the subscription I have to Spotify was enough to cater to my musical needs. I'm at peace with the fact there are some bands I will always revisit and some that I only like for a brief period of time. By the same token, I'm comfortable that I may not be a fan / a true fan / a true metal head etc. by other people's standards. But I'm comfortable the way I am.

tohostudios wrote:

Can anyone recommend a good program for ripping CDs?  I want to do some "Best Ofs" but the recording volume varies so much from one album to another that it's annoying to listen to.  I'd like some free software that will at the very least maintain a constant recording volume when ripping CDs to digital format.

Goldwave is a pretty good program that has quite a bit of capability. WMP and iTunes are also very good. I use Apple lossless and Goldwave.

I use CDex for ripping CDs into mp3s. Free and easy to use.

tohostudios wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

Can anyone recommend a good program for ripping CDs?  I want to do some "Best Ofs" but the recording volume varies so much from one album to another that it's annoying to listen to.  I'd like some free software that will at the very least maintain a constant recording volume when ripping CDs to digital format.

Honestly? As much as I hate anything Microsoft-related, I've been using Windows Media Player for ages. There's an option to maintain consistent volume across the tracks. Works like a charm.

There is?  Where?  I've looked around and the only thing I can find is sound quality.  I found one under the burn tab but I thought that would only maintain consistent volume when burning to a disc.  Does that also apply when  reading from a disc?

You know, I stand corrected. For the longest time I thought there was such an option, but now you got me looking, and you're right, nothing like that is there. Now I'm curious if there is a program that will do this.

With cloud steaming and backup taking off, i'm warming up more to it. I'll still buy the CD if it's easy to obtain, but for older releases I can't find or smaller bands that don't usually show up in the big box stores (indie stores have pretty well died out around Omaha), then I'll grab it off Amazon or Google Play.