Hallo everybody. Thought it might be good to have a thread for those that buy their music in digital form. I think weāve got threads for vinyl, cds, even cassettes but donāt see people talk about digital music much.
I suppose itās probably got a small share of the overall market these days but letās do a poll to if thereās anyone here that actually still buys digital music:
I often/sometimes/occasionally buy digital music.
Not for me thanks. Enjoy your thread, nerds!
0voters
Feel free to discuss whatever you want, but Iām curious to know stuff like:
what you like and donāt like about buying digital music, and what youād change if you could
where you tend to buy and whether youāve come across any good bargains lately
how you listen to your digital music e.g. devices, any good software youāve found etc. and perhaps how you store and organise your music
Hoping it can be a useful thread for those that are interested. More than happy if it becomes a sporadic thread for people to share good deals they find.
As you might expect I do use streaming to find new music, but I like the idea of buying albums that I enjoy and am likely to go back to, and giving artists some sort of up front reward/recognition for their efforts.
Iām not too fussed about physical things, and donāt have much space to store stuff. It seems a practical option for listening to music in different places, and should(?) be slightly better for the bank balance for new music. Perhaps itās even a little bit better for the planet tooā¦ If Iām honest though itās maybe more that Iām really bad at looking after CDs properly!
Bandcamp is where I make most of my new music purchases, and is usually pretty good for both trying out new music and buying things. Sometimes they have deals on artistās entire catalogues which are good for large unexplored back catalogues. Occasionally have to resort to the likes of amazon but try to avoid it ā itās also odd how often itās cheaper buying a cd with a free download there than just buying the album digitally.
Not sure Iāve worked out the best way of storing and playing the music yet. Usually itās from the laptop at home, or using an old phone when out and about (current phone doesnāt have expandable storage). On the phone I just use a free app (Musicolet) which seems to do the job. Sometimes I get tempted by the thought of a dedicated digital music player but never get round to exploring the options properly or working out whether theyād be much better. Let me know if youāve found something that works well for you.
I do sort of miss the experience of cd booklets and stuff like that. So it would be nice if more digital purchases included some bonus reading material or artworkā¦ even if itās just what youād get if you made a physical purchase of the same album. Top marks for the delightfully entertaining extra PDF attached to the Mute Branches EP released last year by the way.
Thatās quite a lot of words. Not expecting that from others but ramble away if you want.
I buy digital quite often but donāt often actually listen to the āfiles I boughtā (whatever that means) on the bandcamp app, unless itās not on Spotify. Just see it as a way to give some money more directly to the artist.
I also donāt buy a lot of new vinyl because I just canāt afford it rn, but I love having something physical. Donāt really care much about extra pdfs and stuff really.
Thanks. I can definitely understand why people love getting vinyl by the way. A little envious of some of the lovely stuff getting produced and the whole sitting down with a record thing, but as you say it can be a bit of an expensive option sometimes. Iāve never actually used the bandcamp app to listen to music.
I have a big collection of CDs, which has slowed down quite a lot in the last few years - partly because of the simple fact of space. I buy most of my music from Bandcamp in download form now - for some reason, I find it hard to really engage with an album properly if Iām just streaming it from Spotify or what have you (maybe because I only really do that from my work computer when I do). Itās good that a lot of the music I like is on Bandcamp or Boomkat because the bigger storefronts are comparatively nightmarish when actually trying to buy digital music iirc (they really want you to pay for the subscription, eh!)
I quite value having a digital library cos I do a radio show, but Iāve never really bought anything digitally cos I like to own physical stuff.
That said, availability aside I donāt know why youād buy anywhere other than Bandcamp. Excellent site. I quite often buy vinyl from there because you get a download even if the record doesnāt come with a code.
I used to just buy CDs but then an experiment with and then long time subscription to emusic led me to the digital music world, despite my initial dislike of not owning anything tangible.
Now Iāve got to the stage where I really donāt buy too many CDs or vinyl, unless itās an old favourite or special band, or if it looks like a nice one off, or if itās cheaper than a download. I donāt ever listen to the CDs, other than burning them to my laptop, and donāt listen that much to vinyl, and so the idea of buying a piece of plastic is less appealing to me these days.
The Bandcamp Fridays were a good thing in making me buy downloads from them more often, and now I kind of wait until those days before I make any purchases. But I listen to all/most of my music by Spotify, and not my purchased music. Itās mainly the feeling that Iām supporting artists that makes me buy stuff now, and am less inclined to do so if the band are a bit bigger or I donāt feel as big snnuege to support them.
I think I would like download albums to be Ā£7-8 at most. If itās cheaper then Iām more likely to give them a snap purchase. But often they can seem to be around the Ā£10 point on bandcamp, which psychologically stops me a bit when I know Iāll just listen to it on Spotify anyway.
I like having a digital library / database (iTunes) that I can manipulate via search, create playlists, and tag music in order to search / playlist. Already had a decent library on the back of a billion years of CD purchases, and now I just add to it with my digital purchases.
I only buy music (mp3) on Bandcamp, and I have no interest in streaming ā though having said that, I have recently dabbled in streaming things on my bandcamp wishlist, which I use for keeping track of things I mean to try before I buy (or not).
If itās not on bandcamp, I donāt buy it at all (which is not to say that I never acquire it by other means).
I do a bit of everything. Streaming is purely for investigation, I prefer to buy if I like somethin and normally thatāll be cd, more or less knocked vinyl on the head due to cost and space. Iāll buy digital but normally itāll be if itās something I canāt get physically, super cheap for some reason or itās got a cover I hate so much I canāt face looking at it. Bandcamp for me too, sometimes itunes.
People sort of talk about digital music collections as if itās not a proper collection but mine feels as much like that to me as anything does, maybe even more personal perhaps as besides all the music thereās audio Iāve acquired over the years that doesnāt exist in a commercial sense really, like something from a soundtrack say Jonny Trunk would have played once on Resonance that I canāt find anywhere so I chopped the audio out of the show, or weird shit I took from WFMU back in the day, readings, documentaries, all sorts of funny bits and bobs.
I still load up an ipod nano using an itunes Iāll never update and thatās my main portable music player, just want something small light and easy that does this one specific thing. It suits me, if that stops workingā¦Iāll probably just find another. Eventually Iāll really have to address this and move on but not today, this is pretty much how I approach everything though.
I bought a copy of Roon a few years ago and it completely transformed how I felt about digital music. Itās stupid money but I got a two month free trial and after that had no qualms in selling my CDs so made the money back easily.
Just the way it lets you organize and search your music is light years ahead of iTunes and anything else Iāve ever been able to find. Iāve tried loads like audinirvana etc and none are close
No need for CDs and honestly no idea why Iāve persisted with vinyl. Even with vinyl itās changed how I feel about it and just buy a lot less.
Bandcamp has also been big, find lots of the music I like these days is download only now, or maybe with a limited tape/cd release anyway.
So yeah Iāve gone from never buying any digital music to thinking itās the best way.
I definitely spend most of my money on digital music. I still fastidiously maintain a very analy organised iTunes Library which I use every day. I have both Apple Music and iTunes Match, because there seemed to be a lot of conflicting information about matching through AM and whether those matches persisted if you cancelled it. So Match is only Ā£20 a year and Iāve stuck with it.
Generally use AM for discovery and then buy it digitally if I like it. And if I REALLY like it Iāll buy it on vinyl. So I have a big Vinyl and CD collection too.
Mostly buy on Bandcamp and iTunes, but have bought more on Bleep recently as they seem to sell for Ā£6.99 on most things.
Thanks for all the replies so far. Looking back up at the poll at the start I think DiSsers must be propping up a reasonable chunk of this sector of the music industry.
Find it really interesting the differences in what people do (and donāt do) with the music they buy. Will have a look into Roon to see what itās all about - can you go out of the house and still use it @zanimos ?
Know what you mean here, but sometimes if I feel the price of an album is a bit steep, then Iāll probably still buy it but tend to not wait until a Bandcamp Friday to buy it, thinking that the amount Iām giving to the artists themselves will be balanced out, and at the same time not deterring Bandcamp from still running the Bandcamp Fridays when I can give a bit more of my money to those who I feel should be earning more from their music than they ask for.
On which note, since everyoneās been very well behavedā¦
You have unlocked links to some free/name your price stuff on Bandcamp I remembered about, that probably wonāt be of interest to your own music tastesā¦ but who knows!
Empire of Love by Violet Cold was one of my favourite albums of 2021. Warm, euphoric, fun black metal-influenced stuff that could appeal to anyone that struggles with black metal normally.
De Rosa are quite a beloved band for me. Alternative indie rock stuff that slowly works itās way into your soul a little bit more with each listen. This is a collection of free monthly songs they produced back in 2008 that I like at least as much as any of their proper albums.
Toh Kay is the singer/song-writer of Streetlight Manifesto, and this is a collection of acoustic versions of some of those songs, which feel very different to the originals. Nice up-tempo but quite melancholic stuff with lots of finger-picking.
And hereās one from this year. Enter the wastes of deserted buildings, ruins, and lifeless streets to the backdrop of rich ambient, drone, and post-rock sounds and texturesā¦is what the description on Bandcamp says and sums it up well.
Sorry, couldnāt think of any bargains that would be of wider interest.
Yep thereās a mobile app called Roon Arc but your music isnāt uploaded to the cloud so you need to leave your computer or wherever you have your digital music stored on and connected to the internet.
I like buying stuff on Bandcamp and sometimes buy stuff on other sites when I find a bargain
I didnāt start using Apple Music until 2 years ago so before that I only used free Spotify on my laptop and actual MP3s on my phone so the habit hasnāt left me even if I donāt need to buy downloads anymore strictly speaking
I still like to have a divide between stuff I own and stuff Iām just streaming or ārentingā I guess, so I have a little arbitrary rule that the stuff I download for offline listening on Apple Music has to be stuff I own either physically or have bought downloads at some stage.
Bandcamp downloads get listened to in the Bandcamp app though, I like it there.
I buy a lot of digital stuff, as itās my main way of interacting with music. If I stream anything, itās usually just an audition for me buying a download or the cd, which Iāll rip and listen off my computer. If Iām buying vinyl, tapes or anything else, Iāll be doing it to help out bands I like.
Iāll usually hit up Bandcamp, bleep, boomkat or junodigital for most stuff, but weirdly the mad graveyard that is 7digital sometimes is the only place to get stuff, and they also have some insane bargains too.
Use Bandcamp for digital downloads, honestly think itās the best place, basically my online record collection innit. Can get some rare stuff on there as well, e.g. on those bandcamp Fridays some bands will only release stuff for 24hrs or so then remove it, but as long as you buy it, it stays in your collection. Got some rare Hot Snakes tracks cos of that.
