"I Swapped Spotify for Vinyl and It Changed My Life"

[Frgirard]

He he,

... as mentioned earlier. New times now, smoothly:

My dream: hear the Nefertiti Walz by Amenophis the Sound.

 

[JeffS7444]

It's a paradox I see here, and in myself - the medium shouldn't be the message but we make it so. That article - we see it just as espousing vinyl - but it's not really about that. It's about someone's problematic relationship to music and showing that the relationship can change.

I don't disagree (goodness knows I've got fetishes of my own!) but I think sometimes vinyl's very limitations can work to the listener's advantage: For example, it limits the amount of multitasking that one can so, particularly as most modern turntables are fully manual. Whereas the typical streaming service may employ engagement algorithms. In other words, by striving to keep the subscriber connected as long as possible (by serving up additional, unasked-for content which they hope will prove sufficiently tolerable), the "abuse" may be baked into many streaming services.

 

[pseudoid]

We had asparagus last night with dinner, and it has changed our lives.
We are shooting for next weekend to get a similar adrenaline rush again by eating okra!

 

[Robin L]

We had asparagus last night with dinner, and it has changed our lives.
We are shooting for next weekend to get a similar adrenaline rush again by eating okra!

Hopefully wind-free okra .

 

[thegeton]

Let me begin this by saying that I'm not exclusive. I love listening to music, I would listen to it 24/7 if possible, and will listen to it from almost any source: radio, streaming, CD, cassette, vinyl, and even Bluetooth (phone).

I have 5 systems in my house, all of which can stream music - mostly Tidal and Radio Paradise, but only one of which can also play vinyl and cassettes.

I like the convenience, the abundance, and the quality of my digital sources, but I feel a strong connection to my vinyl and cassettes (100% of these cassettes are personally recorded) as they represent the history of how I got here. I can trace my current tastes and listening habits backwards though my physical media to the origins of every 'ah ha!' moment.

Over 5 decades I've collected just under 1000 vinyl albums, 100-150 cassettes, and just under 500 CDs. I've also got an 8TB NAS with 3-4TB of digitized music as well.

As an old dude, I'm afflicted with asynchronous periodic sentimentality. I can't escape the pull of random pieces of vinyl or certain cassettes from time to time, calling out my name, begging me to play them 'just one more time.' It's an indulgence I enjoy and it helps keep me grounded.

Needless to say, I've formed opinions over time regarding the sound quality, convenience, and enjoyability of all those sources. I won't bore you with some kind of canonical list, but the easy contrasts have already been mentioned above and mine are no revelation. I prefer the sound quality of streaming and CD sources over vinyl, but I still love listening to the vinyl. Not to the exclusion of streaming, mind you. And, I prefer the convenience of streaming and CD sources over vinyl, but I still love physically playing the vinyl.

I need them both. One informs the other. Streaming introduces me to worlds of music and allows me to do real-time listening research. Sometimes this leads to purchasing new vinyl to enjoy. Other times, I'm hip deep in old cassettes and LPs, and a playlist occurs to me. I can then run to any of my streaming sources and concoct that list in minutes and sit back and enjoy that too. Often with a cold adult beverage.

It's all good.

 

[MattHooper]

Blu-rays will last longer than hard drives. Blu-rays are not obsolete. Many people still buy them because the streaming services don't offer what the Blu-ray itself can, better video and audio quality.

My Blu-Rays are still playing fine.

Wish I could say the same about my HD-DVDs.

Yeah, I was one of those who gambled early on HD DVD over Blu-Ray and I have a lot of HD DVDs. They still look great, but it turns out many had a sort of 'rot' problem (or something like it), and especially Warner Bros HD DVDs are known to crap out. It's maddening because I have a whole bunch of Warner Bros HD DVDs and now if I want to watch one of those movies I have to deal with the fact there is a good chance the movie will just stop working at some random point. Maddening. (I'm slowly replacing the ones that crap out on me...or not buying them again).

 

[Holmz]

No, you assume. Unless you are suggesting that her (or your) relationship to her music is fundamentally different from my relationship to my music because she is listening on vinyl and I'm not. The point is that the relationship to the music is not defined by the medium. I've been a music lover since the late 70s and have listened to music on everything from 8-track to vinyl to now mostly digital files on my laptop. My relationship with the music is no different now than ever.

Ok we got your relationship.

What was the OP’s relationship with the music?

 

[ThatM1key]

My Blu-Rays are still playing fine.

Wish I could say the same about my HD-DVDs.

Yeah, I was one of those who gambled early on HD DVD over Blu-Ray and I have a lot of HD DVDs. They still look great, but it turns out many had a sort of 'rot' problem (or something like it), and especially Warner Bros HD DVDs are known to crap out. It's maddening because I have a whole bunch of Warner Bros HD DVDs and now if I want to watch one of those movies I have to deal with the fact there is a good chance the movie will just stop working at some random point. Maddening. (I'm slowly replacing the ones that crap out on me...or not buying them again).

My father has bad memory so, he somehow managed to get a Toshiba HD-A2. We owned a few hd-dvd movies like Transformers, but ironically we mainly used it for DVD movies until my father gotten a LG Blu-ray player. He loved that Infinity tss-450, so much but he switched eventually over to some "real" infinity budget towers and such, I digress. When I was kid, I wanted those HD-DVD/Blu-ray combo optical drives. These days, its better & cheaper to get a Xbox 360 HD DVD drive and hook it up to your PC.

 

[sq225917]

When I want to play music I spin a record, when I want to listen to music I put something digital on.

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

Ok we got your relationship.

What was the OP’s relationship with the music?

I don't really know...I mean what's anybody's relationship to the music? What does the phrase "relationship to the music" even mean? What if the person the story is about stops buying vinyl in 6 months and goes back to listening to streaming services exclusively (which is actually a pretty likely outcome)?

 

[FrantzM]

My Blu-Rays are still playing fine.

Wish I could say the same about my HD-DVDs.

Yeah, I was one of those who gambled early on HD DVD over Blu-Ray and I have a lot of HD DVDs. They still look great, but it turns out many had a sort of 'rot' problem (or something like it), and especially Warner Bros HD DVDs are known to crap out. It's maddening because I have a whole bunch of Warner Bros HD DVDs and now if I want to watch one of those movies I have to deal with the fact there is a good chance the movie will just stop working at some random point. Maddening. (I'm slowly replacing the ones that crap out on me...or not buying them again).

So did I? I did get a player and ... moved to another city .. and by then HD-DVD had lost the battle.
This may help:
Rip your HD-DVD to your PC

I have not tried it.

Peace

 

[Holmz]

I don't really know...I mean what's anybody's relationship to the music? What does the phrase "relationship to the music" even mean? What if the person the story is about stops buying vinyl in 6 months and goes back to listening to streaming services exclusively (which is actually a pretty likely outcome)?

I dunno.
We got Sarg Ear Aches relationship, but it seemed to be proposing that they were speaking for the OP.
But ideally the OP sould approve or concur with The Sarg’s hypothesis.

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

I dunno.
We got Sarg Ear Aches relationship, but it seemed to be proposing that they were speaking for the OP.
But ideally the OP sould approve or concur with The Sarg’s hypothesis.

I wasn't making any hypothesis regarding the OP's relationship to music (beyond what was presented in the article). I was suggesting that the author's excursion into vinyl is nice, but in no way does it mean that an excursion into vinyl is any sort of requirement for having a meaningful relationship to music. The author wrote a publicly presented article about her experience. This is a forum where somebody referred to that article. Now we are free to comment on it - there's no requirement that anything be cleared with the OP. But I'm glad we now have Holmz's cogent response to The Sarg's contribution to consider.

This is the stuff I have an issue with...

"Why had I been wasting my time with Spotify and the like when vinyl sounds so good? Yes, I subscribe to Tidal’s Hi-Fi plan and enjoy its lossless high fidelity sound quality, but vinyl just offers so much more. It sounds clean and warm and pure, like I’m right there in the recording studio. It sounded so different, so much better, and it did nothing short of blow my mind.
Two hours later, I stood before my turntable, having a serious heart-to-heart with myself. Was that what music is supposed to sound like? Or was it all a fever dream? I played three more distinct albums after that just to be sure it wasn’t a fluke experience—The Beatles’ Revolver, John Coltrane’s Giant Steps, and London Calling by The Clash. It certainly, wonderfully, wasn’t."

The idea that there's "musical magic" contained in vinyl. It's BS. "Was that what music is supposed to sound like? Or was it all a fever dream?" Come on now...

 

[Robin L]

I got rid of my LPs and got a high-quality guitar, and it changed my life.

Really, I don't listen to recordings nearly as much as I play guitar these days. Completely changed my relation to music.

 

[Godataloss]

As an old dude, I'm afflicted with asynchronous periodic sentimentality. I can't escape the pull of random pieces of vinyl or certain cassettes from time to time, calling out my name, begging me to play them 'just one more time.' It's an indulgence I enjoy and it helps keep me grounded.

I agree with this sentiment 100%. I love collecting music. Playing the music I've collected and loved and had amazing experiences with, increases my enjoyment not only of the music, but also the physical object. This history of appreciation of certain objects in our lives is a direct reflection of our personalities and a powerful trigger for our subconscious memory which we all know can have profound effects on our senses. Now excuse me while I go put on my favorite slippers, cue up some Joao Gilberto and sit down in my listening chair with a good book.

 

[Snoopy]

For me it was streaming that changed my relationship with music.

I discovered so many bands that I would never given a chance. Physical media is just a inconvenience these days ,no space, often expensive.. if I where to buy my favourite music as vinyl i could probably stream qobuz for the next 15 years. And buy a lifetime license for roon

Artwork, booklets are all nice and fine but I basically get that with Qobuz+roon on a iPad as well.

 

[Godataloss]

For me it was streaming that changed my relationship with music.

I discovered so many bands that I would never given a chance. Physical media is just a inconvenience these days ,no space, often expensive.. if I where to buy my favourite music as vinyl i could probably stream qobuz for the next 15 years. And buy a lifetime license for roon

Artwork, booklets are all nice and fine but I basically get that with Qobuz+roon on a iPad as well.

I've made money collecting and trading vinyl. We have a pretty robust local club. That hobby basically pays for itself. My collection is worth substantially more than I've paid for it in any event.

I've had a subscription to Google Music for years and probably listen to it 60% of the time. Lots of stuff that isn't available on streaming though.

 

[JWAmerica]

Wait until the author discovers CDs. His mind will be blown yet again.

 

[Tks]

If vinyl changes your life you need to get one. Probably just me but I don't understand how the delivery system (other than SQ) changes how one reacts to the music, for me its just about the music. Touching stuff, cleaning a record, looking at glowing leds and tubes or music videos, more distraction than anything else. Guess I'm just used to listening to music with my ears and I don't need incentive to concentrate on the music.

It plays into the notion of ownership that is culturally ingrained in almost all cultures. But also there are other small factors like the promotional material itself (having cool covers of sleeves and things like that) is like getting an art-piece sometimes.

Then there are other small things like knowing you have a certain release (maybe unavailable on X platform) and that no one can take it away from you at that point (streaming services face this like a plague, the occurrences of labels pulling out, and indie level artists simply not being present at all is an issue).

 

[jsrtheta]

"...The idea that there's "musical magic" contained in vinyl. It's BS. "Was that what music is supposed to sound like? Or was it all a fever dream?" Come on now..."

This is really the spiel of the initiate, the converted. I've heard it from a lot of people, mainly younger than I. I stopped debating the point long ago, because it's pointless.