After visiting Ken at his house (CD heaven!), I got to thinking about people's buying habits and what kinds of patterns there are for music-buying. So. I thought a discussion/survey might be fun. 1. How many cds do you buy a year? How many have you bought this year? 2. Where do you buy CDs? At WalMart/Best Buy/MediaPlay? At the local specialty stores? Over the Internet? At concerts? Or somewhere else? 3. Do you tend to buy one at a time or several at once? Do you ever suffer from the problem of too many CDs, not enough time? 4. Do you buy CDs based on listening to the group, rave reviews, or just because you saw the cover and liked it? I mean how much of a flyer do you take on CD buying? My answers follow. 1. Usually two or three a month. This year, I've bought 15, or so. 2. I normally buy them at Borders, now that Schoolkids is gone. But I do order over the internet, from Muskifolk in England, and very occasionally from small specialty stores. 3. When I do buy CDs, I tend to buy three or so at a time. 4. Most of the time, I have to already know the group, or at least have had one recommendation by a trusted source to buy anything. Of course, there are those people whom are on my glom list (buy whatever they output asap, no questions asked), and I occasionally take a flyer on a group if the songs are titled interestingly or something else catches my attention.41 responses total.
I used to buy more, but I've been on a book-buying spree lately. I tend to buy them at used cd stores and purchase maybe one or two per month. I've only bought three cds this year. I also buy new releases by my favorite bands, usually at Best Buy since they throw them on sale right away. When I'm not in book-buying mode, I buy about four or five cds per month (still at used cd stores). My friend, Danny (sekari), recommends many good cds to me, so it's hard to keep up. Every one he recommends is one that I fall in love with, so I need more money. (He recommends three or four per week). =)
Schoolkids isn't gone; it's under Bivouac!
Yes, Katie, but those stairs are murder on my knee. I can't go in a browse like I used to. I've only been there once.
I used to buy probably one or two discs a month, used. There isn't a used CD store in Hyde Park to compare with Encore or Wazoo, though, so I by a lot fewer these days -- I think I only got three or four all year. Once or twice, I've gone in for one of the "12 for the price of 1" record club deals, and picked up albums I've never heard that look interesting to get my total up to 12. Most of the time, though, I've got a _huge_ backlog of albums that I heard once and _need_ to own, so I don't do much impulse buying.
I used to buy about 80-100 discs per year, then I went back to school and had to spend all of my savings on tuition and living expenses -- that cut me down to about 10-20 discs per year. Now that I'm in a positive cashflow situation again, I'm eager to resume my expensive addiction, but I just can't make myself pay retail price for new CDs and most of the bands I like are not the ones that are heavily promoted or discounted (which seems to cause a vicious cycle, but that's another story..) I used to be much more willing to take a flyer on an unheard disc, but it's too expensive for me to do so these days, and my willingness has been additionally taxed by a higher-than-normal failure rate on impulse buys.
Our house is "CD heaven?" I think of it more as CD hell. I can never find the disc I want; the cats are always knocking the piles of CDs over onto the floor.
(maybe in the sense that it's where good CDs go when they leave the earthly plane of existence..)
CD heaven in the sense of there are about eight hundred discs I'd like to listen to, or own.... (I'm sure that there are probably at least that many that are of groups I do or would like!)
I buy way, way too many CDs. I probably average around 250 per year. My purchase log is in disarray, but it looks like I have bought about 150 so far this year. That number has been inflated by the closeouts and partial liquidations at three of my favorite CD shops this year. "Where do you buy CDs?" My CD shopping behavior is in tremendous flux right now, due to the retail shakeout in Ann Arbor. In the Good Old Days of the early and mid-1990s, I used to go downtown a couple of times a month and wander through most of the stores, starting with my favorite Schoolkids, then down to the used shop Encore, up to Wazoo, over to Tower. I might have some specific titles in mind, but usually I'd be pawing through the folk, world music and rock bins to see what looked interesting. And the classical sections, too. (Back as early as 1982 I also started doing a lot of mail order for the more exotic British Isles folk music stuff, and in 1989 that expanded to importing my own stuff from UK shops. I've also always bought a lot of CDs at concerts, if I like the performer at all. I figure the performer gets to pocket the retailer's share of the price.) Once Schoolkids started on its decline, the strategy of wandering around downtown became less and less worthwhile for me, and after the store collapses of the last year I've pretty much abandoned it. Now I find I'm shopping more and more on the Internet; I'm previewing sound samples rather than blind buying; and once I find something I like it's often not worth a trip downtown to find out that Schoolkids in Exile, SKR, or Borders doesn't have it. (I still rely on Elderly Instruments in Lansing for US-distributed folk music: their stock pretty much defines what is in the national distribution system, and they are the largest folk CD discounter in the country.) (Statistical note: Leaving out the pigouts at store liquidation sales: since May 1 I have bought 24 CDs off the net and only 17 from local shops.) "Do you ever suffer from the problem of too many CDs, too little time?" I am its poster child. "How much of a flyer do you take on CD buying?" As I think I've explained: getting curious about "I wonder if I would like this?" can be enough to get me to buy something. It's been at least 20 years since I was interested in music which got more than token radio exposure -- and other than Mike McNally I haven't had too many friends and acquaintances who were adventurous listeners *and* shoppers. But in mid-2000, this is all changing for me; the big new experience is the http://www.wen.com website. WEN has music journalists compiling canned "radio" shows, several hours each month, and one of these journalists is Ian Anderson, not the Jethro Tull guy but the editor of Folk Roots magazine, who has been my personal music guru for about 15 years. I'm running about an 80% success rate over those years with stuff I've bought because Ian recommended it; getting to listen to two hours of his handpicked favorites every month is just.... ummm.... well, it's a fantasy come true. From the first three hours of radio shows I have listened to from WEN, I have bought six albums and plan to buy at least another four. Add to this the sound samples available for many French discs on the site http://www.alapage.com and America's own amazon.com (and amazon.co.uk), and the samples available on many bands' own websites. For the first time since I was interested in Top 40 and FM rock radio in the early 1970s, I am getting a chance to preview lots of stuff before I buy it. I don't know that I can ever give up blind buys, or buys based on one or two rave reviews or Internet mentions. Such buys have usually yielded the artists I love the most, starting back in 1975 when I bought the first electric folk album in my collection based on a cryptic reference to Steeleye Span in a SF fanzine, and thus redirected my entire musical history.
I buy CDs pretty rarely, and there's almost never a pattern. I'll buy new stuff from artists I aleardy like, and then there's the random factor. I usually buy direct from the artist or at Borders.
Y'know, I have never gone into a used CD store and bought anything ever. I have bought used CDs from friends (waves at Paula! and others at work), and what I assume must be used ones from Ebay, but that's it on the used front. Any time I've ever glanced at the used section at any store, there has been no possible congruence between their stock and anything I'd be likely to buy. It's frustrating, because I do think I'd buy used if I could find them, I'm not a snob about always buying new, but most of what I lust for is Not Available in Stores (tm) -- how many Garnet Rogers CDs have you seen at Best Buy, or even Borders? Etc. The very smallest percentage of my CD buying is anything that could be considered popular -- maybe two or three discs a quarter (like the new Moody Blues, or an eighties anthology....), while a bigger chunk is at Ark shows or other concerts, and the biggest chunk of all is obscure folkie stuff that maybe KRJ and a couple of other people even care about.
I think you should take a peek at the "Folk" and "Celtic" sections in Encore Music, Twila.
I've bought used at Encore and found some pretty cool things.
If I remember correctly, Encore also has some machines set up so you can preview CDs, if they aren't too jammed with customers.
Where is Encore located?
Liberty and Thompson.
Encore is the storefront which used to be the classical shop Liberty Music. It's a few doors downhill from the old Schoolkids space.
If you trip over the little island on Liberty, you'll run right into their front door. =)
I buy somewhere between 20-30 CDs a year. My usual routine nowadays is to go to Record Exchange and buy any .50-$2.50 CDs that catch my eye. I get anywhere from 1-5 at a time this way. On other days, I'll check out PJ's and Encore, depending on how much spare cash I have, Since I spend a lot on books, I usually don't have enough to even shell out $8 a pop. I'll buy CDs at concerts when I can afford then, but usually go for the concert t-shirts instead. I already have too many CDs to listen to. I tend to rotate about 5-10 at a time. The rest lay dormant. Of course, since I've been online in my bedroom, I listen to many more CDs than i used to. I usually pick CDs from groups I like, songs on the radio, or stuff I get exposed to through other friend's collections. Thanks to friends, I'm now a fan of Robyn Hitchcock, Psychic TV, Kate Bush, Hedningarna and the Juggernaut Jug Band.
In another item can you describe what Psychic TV sound like? I'm trying to remember whether they're the folks who did this weird subgenius-related thing I have called "Bob's Media Ecology"
Going over to the record player that has become the place to
stack CDs to be listened to, I got about a dozen yet to get the
plastic wrapper taken off. That's my method to make sure I have
listened to them at least once. Three unlistened to's are in the
CD player now. While I listen to "over Easy" on WSCX then over to
WDET for "Folks like us" at noon on Saturdays, the CD player will
probably get some time later today.
I buy a lot at Borders, since as a corporate employee, I get
a good discount. If it where not for that, I would probably make
an annual pilgramage to Elderly instruments to check out their Folk
music selections, as I was amazed in a past visit as too how different
their selection was from the good selections of (then Schoolkids) and
Borders downtown.
Volume? I just not sure. Maybe 25 to 35 regualr priced CDs
this year (includes full price Filk CDs and at live performance CDs,
and 9.99-11.99 re-issue CDs) thusfar. A good number of discount bin
CDs (Hey, I can't pass up buying 'Idle Hands' by Tim Ryan for a $).
These seem to include some that just don't get into the return stream,
like this America 'Human Nature' CD for a $.
I also get to listen to a number of CDs put out from the
Borders corporate buyers. I want to thank the folk buyer for putting
out CDs like Guy Clark and Bill Miller, that I now have. I do a lot
of adventurous listening from the CDs brought home from this CD grab
area. A sampler CD had two songs from John Linnell (He Might Be A Giant),
that I liked enough to buy his 'State Songs' CD put out last year.
I used to have a $100 a month vinyl monkey on my back, back in the
LP days, and would say my CD buying has been about that level for some
time now.
I listen to CDs at work. Mostly ones I have listen to a lot and
like the whole album. Not for the distraction of listening to music, but
to have music to keep me from the distraction of other conversations at
work. These tend to rotate amoung about ten that get a few listens
before being brought home for the next group.
Hey that Robert Jones new CD sounds intersting. Hope it's in
Borders soon.
Volume: About 5 a month, full price. Sometimes more if I buy on sale, and I don't count the $1 cut-outs at all. Location: MediaPlay and CDNow are the most common. Choice: There are some artists I buy "nearly everything" from. Others, I'll buy if I like what I've heard on the radio. Very occasionally, I'll go based on freinds's suggestions, but I've had way too many experiences of friends recommending crap. Once in a while, I'll go based on a combination of gut and what the album looks like/who produced it/what "megatour" they were on (OzzFest, for instance), etc. Cutouts are usually nobody I've ever heard of, so I'll go based on packaging.
On average? O-1, since my money is going to other things like bills and such. There are no used CD/tape stores here in the Ellensburg area. Yakima might be different. I miss deja vu in Richland. last two CDs were ones my wife bought: Bill Cosby's "Why Is There Air?" and "Bill Cosby Is A Very Funny Fellow: Right!" I suppose I should find friends to borrow from..
tell me more about "Bob's media ecology", please.
I can't remember now whether I have "Bob's Media Ecology" or "Bob's Media Ecology 2" I honestly don't remember much about the album except (1) it didn't do much for me, and (2) definite Subgenius references.. Both were early 90's releases from a group calling themselves "Producers For Bob". the All Music Guide (allmusic.com) classifies them as "Rap", which they're not, except in the sense of being sample-heavy and featuring spoken word passages. I looked up Psychic TV in the allmusic guide, which reminded me that they're a Genesis P. Orridge proioject, and not who I thought they were..
A tent sale is coming to Borders Corporate parking lot on August 13th.
If like last year, they will have a lot of cut-out CDs, and a few of those
that seem to not get back into the proper return route. I got quite
a few last year.
The large amount of the ones I got last year were Christmas CDs
with a great price that I seen later in the year for full price.
Where is this Borders' parking lot?
I'm interested in a cpoy of that little gem. Yes I am. I want 2 live jews too, though. I guess there's no accounting for taste.
The Borders Corporate parking lot is at 100 Phoenix Dr. Use your favorite way to get to Ellsworth, then turn north onto Varsity. Proceed all the way down...it'll dead-end in the Borders parking lot.
resp:28 Irving and Moisha are hilarious! I haven't heard their other recordings-- they've done at least one that I know of before they parodied 2 Live Crew with "2 Live Jews." A friend of mine, who is the daughter of a Jewish Mormon man, especially thought it was a gas. Long live E-Z Irving and MC Moisha!
Ohy, it's so humid!
When I have a reasonable amount of fundage this is how my cd buying goes: 1 - 2-3 cds a week 2 - The last CD I bought was at a concert, but usually I get cds either at Best Buy or over the internet. Usually I check Best Buy first, I'm big on instant gratification. 3 - I tend to buy a few at once, since I'm only in the store about once a week. I try to make a list, because I always forget what I want when I get to the store, it gets overwhelming. I don't necessarily stick to the list, but it generally ensures that I don't come home empty handed :) 4 - I almost always listen to something before I buy it. Recently I've taken to sampling a few tracks using Napster before buying an album. But this isn't always the case. If it's a new album by a group/person I like, I'll generally go out and buy it without listening first.
Damn.. you are all either richer than I, or your disposable income somehow is larger by other means.
It is the lack of buying ciggarrettes on an ongoing basis.
Yup. People spend money on their hobby. So, while Ken may purchase 20 cds per month, I spend that money on garb for RenFaire or candles and candleholders for my room. CDs used to be my big money item, but <shrug>...I have other things going on now.
I don't buy cigarettes, and my hobby is playing my guitar, which recently I have spent next to nothing on. It is the life of a graduating student, I suppose, and a still fairly new-married one. I wanted a bass guitar today for my birthday.. but it was an idle wish.
I probably buy or recieve between 5 and 15 cd's per year. This year, the number will be higher, because I've been trying to expand my collection (currently about 100 cd's) and because I got one of those buy 1 get 11 free things that actually had some interesting cd's on it. Most of the music I buy is because I heard one or two songs from the disc, or it just sounds interesting. Most of my buying is done at Borders, but I've ordered a few from BMG, and occasionally will buy at Best Buy / Media Play, although I don't usually get that far out. I just ordered a cd from Schoolkids, after a clerk at Best Buy said "Folk? Bluegrass? I don't think we sell that" I really need to organize my various CD's, probably some sort of Database file is appropriate. I'm also trying to convert a lot of my CD's to MP3's so I don't have to take as many discs with me to college.
I'm tabulating my responses (from here and at work, via email, etc.) and will post them as soon as I get finished.
So Twila, did you ever make it over to Encore Music?
MAde it there once, but was overwhelmed (it was a Friday night and packed!) Didn't find the folk section....
i have a very bad cd habit. i am too broke to have it. luckily i have friends with great taste in music who have worse habits than i, and they own burners.
You have several choices: