I LOVE MUSIC. I need choonage on when i’m doing anything, from walkin’ to work in a mornin’, cookin me tea, doin’ the dishes, avin’ a bath and getting ready to go out on the town. I tend to get a bit antsy when I need new choons to explore, and I get bored of the same old.
The internet has revolutionised the way I access music. Starting from the way i hear about new bands, to purchasing a must have CD.
First up, the way I get hold of music has changed over the last 6 or so years. In the good old days I’d listen to chart music, read reviews in magazines and go get my music from a high street store, in person of course, and with cold hard cash.
Nowadays my musical purchases follow these trends:
n Listening to Last.FM www.last.fm in the office and noting down tracks that pop up that take my fancy
n Taking recommendations from my mates (the ones with the better taste)
n Spending a few lonely hours on the web and Googling such bands, reading notable reviews in Observer Monthly or spotting connections between my next big things, and sourcing out bands on the same label etc...
n Partaking in a monthly binge at my local store ‘Vinyl Exchange’ www.vinylexchange.co.uk. The Manchester institution stocks millions of CDs, the titles of which are never stored on a computer, and simply asking for what you want will never get you anywhere. You have to set a few hours aside to have a good root. Vinyl Exchange is where one mans forgotten tracks become another ones must have. They sell promo CDs, new releases, anything and everything. And one for a better thing, you’ll rarely pay over £9 for an album. This is how music should be. And this is why i avoid major music stores. £17 for an album? No thank you.
n Vinyl Exchange can take a while, last time i was in there for 20min top and spent £30 and only managed to go through the ‘B’s’ of the Alt category. So once in a while i head to Amazon or Ebay. You can get an album for £7 or cheaper if you look. I think i have a bit of a blockage when it comes to paying too much for music. Probably down to being spoilt by peer to peer sharing and the bitorrent movement.
n Finally! a resource to find the best new music without sifting through hours of shite, friend requests and emos. NOISEfestival.com
Once in a while i download from iTunes. I own an ipod touch but I’ve never downloaded a full album, I tend to download the singles of the week, which are free, and get a feel for the album from there.
I do also download. Illegally. I have done since the Napster days with a 56k modem connection. Peer to peer can be frustrating, and I love BitTorrent. I used to have an old 20gb iPod who’s little ass had whored it’s self around so many peoples iTunes that his bum was sore and stopped working.
I’ve been a bit weary of late, because out of sheer curiosity downloaded the new Oasis album from a torrent site and killed my computer with a virus. So as a matter of fact the new Gallaghers album cost me £70. My fingers are burnt for a wee while at least. And I can’t stand Oasis anyway so curiosity defo murdered the cat.
But I love the feeling of getting a CD, i love adding to my collection. I love sourcing CD’s that are hard to find, and it make me smile when they are delivered to my door.
As I mentioned above a lot of music comes from mates giving me the nod on a few new bands, and also of late I’ve been going to gigs played by the unknown.
Many of my friends don’t like my taste in music, hell, my boyfriend doesn’t. I usually have two or three people I share my music with.
I love a good old mix tape. Bring back the mix tape. There’s nothing that says I love you like a comp CD. Has this been lost with the influx of the MP3 generation? I don’t think so, a few years back an ex boyfriend made me a playlist on itunes and popped it on my ipod. That’s 21st century love for you.
I collect 7” vinyls but until recently didn’t have a record player (i did but blew the thing up by wiring it up wrong) my first dvd was bought when i didn’t have a dvd player....
I still love physically having music. I’m not sure if there’s a showing off ‘look at me and all my cd’s’ aspect to it. But there was a time when i was all about the downloads...the novelty wore off a few years ago, and certainly since i bust my laptop with the Gallagher brothers.
As I said before I can’t stop listening to music. Currently I’m sat in the living room with my new buy playing on the DVD player because the hi-fi’s broke. I don’t have a CD player in my room so I’ve borrowed my friends and it’s quite a task getting onto my room now because the wire stretches across the door. On a normal day i have my ipod touch, bose docking station and itunes & last FM at work.
My whole world came crashing down a few years ago when i refused all advice and disconnected my ipod when it was still synching and wiped my whole library. My gorgeous little ipod had whored it’s white ass into so many of my mates itunes, there was some stuff on there that was irreplaceable. Playlists by forgotten fellas, and little numbers to make me smile. How can a credit card bit of hard drive make you feel complete and then lost with out it. Ok so I’d won the dam thing in the first place, so a bit of karma there...
I used to be a girl who’s boyfriend was in a band. It was great. I’d like to find a girl who doesn’t find a man with a guitar a bit sexy. I had the album, t-shirt and had even got a mention on his MySpace. It was cool. But the tortured musician drivvle wore a bit thin after a while. You’re not hard done by, your parents are actually really nice and do get you, and get your hair cut, it’s beyond ‘rock’ now...
Moving to brands. I know you don’t wanna hear it, but an ipod. Great bit of kit. But lets go a bit further, Napster, Sony (Cassette walkman), Microsoft (Windows Media Player), Apple, MySpace and to make music accessible to all i think these guys are onto something www.creativecommons.org....
The future of music. These times are a changin’ and since the Napster days it was inevitable to predict that the music industry would never be the same again. I couldn’t imagine a world without the internet as my main source for music. Not only for buying but for finding out about new bands (and not just new in the sense of unsigned, but bands that have been around for ages that I somehow missed).
But 79p for a track on iTunes? And Apple get it sorted! I want to be able to take my music off the bloody ipod without tapping into it.
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