2021 audit 🧮 Did you spend more on live music, CDs, vinyl or streaming this year?

Was curious how your music consumption has changed due to the pandemic. How did your spending compare to previous years?

Spent £0 on live music, CD or vinyl on 2021 which is the same as the previous 5 years. Six years since I spent money on live music, ten years for CDs and twenty-two years for vinyl.

I’d quite like to go to a gig some time but probably not going to for a few years unless covid disappears as a concern.

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I was fortunate enough to have more spending money for a while, so rather than buying gig tickets, I caught up with buying records. Now that things have opened up and everything costs more, I’ve got a few gigs lined up and very little money for records.

Oh, and I finally noticed Spotify had a slightly cheaper option for just 2 people, rather than the family option or whatever I had been on for years, so I saved £2 per month with that.

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Streaming: £120 for the year (-)

Live music: Probably less than £50 for gigs actually attended in 2021 (-80%)

Vinyl: £Ridiculous due to boredom, consistent NHS income (plus various pandemic related bonuses) and lack of dependents (+500%)

CDs: £0 - haven’t bought a CD since 2010 m8 (-)

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Closer to 2 years since pando stopped possibility of travel/gigs here tbh. That aside…

No decent live music anywhere near where I live so even pre era chance for live music was very rare.

Quit streaming over a year ago so zero cost on that.

Have bought more digital music (via bandcamp) and a few tapes as well, think this is a reflection of my changing music tastes but might be some of those artists can no longer afford vinyl or sell CDs. Also pay about €100 a year for Roon.

Still bought lots of records, both new and second hand, but a few less than last year. Sold a fair few records as well this year so think I’m only about +50 overall for my collection this year.

Bought 1 cd.

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Hadn’t heard of this before. Does it give you high res versions of audio you already down or…? Not sure I understand

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I reckon I average out around £20-30 on CDs and digital downloads a week since the pandemic started. Music keeps me sane and I like to keep the people who make the music going. No gigs since 2019 but have two coming up in March 2022. Only streaming I do is via Bandcamp or YouTube. I don’t believe in the fairness of revenue share on Spotify etc.

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1st place: vinyl - restored a record player last Christmas and have been buying records since
2nd place: live music (purchased four tickets for Low next year)
3rd place: streaming (Spotify)
4th place: CDs (nil)

However much Spotify costs x 11 and one MF DOOM vinyl that I bought last week and Rough Trade that was £28 I think. Could easily have been more, though.

Not been to a live show in nearly 2 years. Last one was Pharoahe Monch in Jan '20.

I bought tickets for 3 gigs but they are all early next year. But because I live in a village in the middle of nowhere, attending those gigs will end up costing me a fair old whack. I attended one gig this year in my village but I got the tickets for free as it was the day before my birthday :slight_smile:

Was paying for Spotify family and YouTube premium but have now cancelled both.

Bought half a dozen new vinyl and half a dozen second hand very cheap.

Totally fucked my finances so won’t be spending much on anything for a while.

1st place Vinyl massively went through the roof I think over the last 2 years I only had 2 gigs booked that were cancelled due to panny d. bought about 200 records (7inch, 12 inch, and LP no 10 inch which is an interesting point for another thread). Had a proper gap filling spree during the last 2 summers.

2nd place probably merch bought about 10 tshirts

3rd 3 gigs and Sounds From The Other City booked

4th Bandcamp mp3’s

Don’t do streaming subs try things and buy them is my approach

I’d say I normally roughly buy 50 records per year about 30 gigs. Since Bandcamp is for new music generally that probably hasn’t changed and I don’t normally buy t-shirts

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Streaming - nil, as ever…

CDs - pennies as I only ever buy second hand stuff occasionally to listen to in the car.

Gigs - a bit. Obviously had loads of stuff rescheduled from last year, but also did Latitude, South Facing and Wide Awake plus a handful of 2021 new announcements.

Vinyls - loads. Definitely replaced gig going with record buying during the pando. Also had to buy a new unit to store them in :rofl:

My biggest music expense was buying a new hifi set up as I moved earlier in the year.

Next is a mix of vinyl and CDs (more on vinyl but I’ve tried to reign it in a bit vs last year)

Only went to one live event this year (Wide Awake) but bought a select few tickets for next year now (Low, Godflesh)

Spotify last I guess

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Gigs - £187.50 (includes Le Guess Who ticket)
Streaming - £120.00
CDs - £43.00
Tapes - £10.00
Downloads - £45.00
Vinyl - £2837.50 :grimacing: (been spending a lot less these past 2 months since I’m commuting to work again and have been travelling a bit)

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Just FYI but you know the artists, songwriters and labels get paid zero per stream on Bandcamp, right?

cc: @guntrip

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£200 on a festival ticket
£15pm or what Spotify family is now on streaming
£20 odd on the new Low album

First 2 have been pretty consistent. That’s the first vinyl I’ve bought in a couple of years though

I also bought a Primavera VIP weekend 2 ticket for €400 but that’s for next year.

Just FYI but you know if I spend actual money on the music I listen to on Bandcamp the artists get paid, right?

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Thanks! I’ve just changed to that now as well, so I’m saving myself £3 now!

I’m spending more on buying music this year and last year - Bandcamp Fridays have been quite expensive in me trying to buy music then, and also making me less likely to try and hunt down a cheaper download from Amazon or something. I’m streaming all the time now, and so I feel like I have to actively keep buying music for the artists that I like. Last year was over £1000 on downloads and some vinyl records and a few cds. This year is a bit less than last year so far, but still more than the past ten years or so.

Gigs in 2020 and 2021: £100 each year
Before the pandemic it was easily £600-£800+ a year, and then a bigger jump if there was a festival added. So I guess some of my gig purchasing money has been going towards music buying.

So 2021 specifically so far:

Vinyl: £285.56 (Bandcamp or 365games)
Downloads: £263.20 (pretty much all from Bandcamp)
Spotify: £203.88
Gigs: £104.50
Socks : £100.13 (Efterklang Patreon with socks every quarter, and two pairs of Noiserv socks)
CDs: £60.16
Tapes: £33.31

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