The Changing ways of listening and buying music

[SiHart]

Si has posted a lot recently about the way we can now choose to listen to music- mostly in response to a series of articles in which aging bemoan the death of the album.

I'm wondering if it rings true with you on PS. Do you pick and choose tracks on a whim, or just ones that sound good, or are you a traditionalist who still likes the concept of an album set down by the artist?

Do you compile your own CDs or prefer to listen to ones you've bought?

Download or buy CDs?

What are your thoughts on music now?

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

I was going to shut up for a bit and let other people have a say, but no-one else has commented.

I can see why people might miss the "experience" of listening to an album - I have many albums which are literally self-contained works; although they obviously comprise of a number of songs, they play as an album to make a whole somewhat bigger than the sum of its parts. Who would want to miss out on "Blood on the Tracks" as a whole, for example, or argue that "What's the Story Morning Glory"'s majesty was in its existence as a collection of music, rather than just a few songs stuck end on end.

However, not every album is as good as this, and the fact remains that until the download era, bands could stick whatever songs they wanted on a CD and make you pay full price to get the ones you wanted. We have the whole culture of album re-issuing for example, where you'd buy a CD and, six months later, it would be released again with three new tracks in an attempt to make you purchase it again. In fact, "Greatest Hits" albums stopped being about providing the buyer with a compilation of favourites, and often became an attempt to make you buy what you already owned to get the new tracks.

What downloading does is give the buyer the freedom to bypass this mailicious habit. No wonder artists like Bon Jovi don't like it! No longer can they "pad out" an album with lesser songs and it not matter. Some bands I guy on faith, but others I do literally drill down the 'sample song' button of every song - you can usually tell what a song is like and if you're going to want it by a 30 second snatch. If more than half the songs arn't to my taste, I may very well just download the three or four I want, spending £4 to get them, rather than paying £7-£10 for the album. It benefits the consumer.

Likewise, it benefits people who like disposable pop music. The charts have long been filled by people who produce excellent singles but patchy albums. Who'd want a Taio Cruz album, for example? Now, you can buy the songs you want and not need to get the album. This sometimes benefits the act, if they are good enough. After buying four or five singles off Whitney's last album, I realised I could have got the CD (and all the tracks!) cheaper. But this approach did enable me to discover the songs one at a time - quite often I find an album a daunting listening experience, especially when there are 15-18 tracks on it, so buying a bit at a time is a good way of digesting the music.

So I don't think the download era has destroyed the concept of the album, and the best acts still, and always will, sell albums. Why? Because people still want the experience of listening to the album, and because they know it's going to be worth buying, either because the act has proved reliable in the past or because a buyer has already purchased two or three tracks individually to try, and enjoyed them. Because that's only a £2-£3 expenditure, it's quite affordable to then buy them again as part of the album.

But it does give you the choice - and weeds out the bands who are taking advantage by smuggling hit singles and other good tracks amid a wealth of substandard product. No longer can they flog you a CD on that basis, as the buyer has the power to get the tracks he wants another way. How can that choice be bad?

It also opens up a whole wealth of possibilities, and is a huge boost to the industry. I spend far more on music these days, because it's so easy to obtain. I still buy albums (I download them, usually for £5 each, which I think is a fair price) but I have the world of new music at my fingertips; the internet is bursting with new sounds, be it emenating from Youtube or Amazon or Spotify, and you can buy as little or as much as you like at the click of a button. I find buying tracks at 79p far more affordable, even if I end up spending more overall; at least I feel I've got a good range of songs for my money, rather than having to spend the entirety of an £8 budget (say) on one band just to get a couple of songs that I want.

So that's my music-buying experience these days - click, listen, buy if I like. It's absolutely brilliant.

Si.