I’m 42, so I did the records > tapes > CDs thing. These days I’d say that I listen mostly to satellite radio, but with homemade MP3 CDs coming a close second (I download new music, burn it to CD, put it in the car’s 6-disc changer).
I still buy CDs occasionally, mostly from local artists: whenever that happens I immediately rip the discs.
Nearly all of the music I buy now is in the form of digital downloads from Amazon (used to be iTunes, but Amazon downloads don’t have to be converted to MP3). I use iTunes to manage my music at home, and I have an iPod but I rarely use it these days.
I have a Pandora One account, for use at work and on my phone. I have the Amazon Music app installed at work/on my phone/at home, too, for access to the music that I’ve bought from them (which automatically gets stored in their cloud).
I hardly ever listen to the actual radio these days: there’s a morning show I listen to on weekday mornings while I’m getting ready for work, but that’s it. In the car it’s either satellite radio or an MP3 CD.
I have a lot of CDs. Hundreds. I buy them all the time. I don’t buy digital downloads because of the file format.
I no longer listen to AM/FM radio because of the insane amount of ads. I would listen to satellite radio, but find the price unreasonable for the amount of time I’d listen to it. (During my 15 minute commute, on days when I’m not riding the motorcycle.)
Since I work under an IT department that restricts things to the point of absurdity, I can’t listen to most internet radio. YouTube (for some reason) is wide open, so I’ll listen to full albums there, but anything they (Google) stick ads into, I skip. Since I listen to mostly obscure stuff anyway, it’s not a big deal.
45 years ago I went to college with a reel to reel tape deck, and taped the albums my friends had. The next year I bought a full stereo system and started buying LPs. I taped some stuff that was not available, such as the stuff from various WBCN rare tape nights and some Dylan bootlegs.
Around 1979 I got a cassette deck and moved everything to there, putting the valuable stuff on good tape. A few years ago I got something that let me rip stuff from LPs or cassettes into CDs, and I saved all the valuable stuff, which came out better than I had any right to expect. I still have some LPs I’ll rip when I have a chance.
I keep CDs since they are much better to play in the car without having to fiddle with my phone. I’ve got a lot on my computer and smart phone to listen to while walking the dog, but I’ll keep they physical CD forever, thank you. I had to convert stuff on my old Sony player which had a proprietary format to MP3s, which was a pain - I don’t want to have to do that again.
I grew up in the tapes era, and was a prolific collector and trader of live shows on tape. Then when CDs came out, I didn’t have a car with a CD player so I made a lot of mix tapes from my CDs and records.
All the tapes and CDs are packed away now, with the CDs having been ripped to my computer(s) and tapes just kind of…gotten over. I have more than enough room to store everything, but really it’s just like 3 boxes.
I listen mostly to my ripped CDs. Every so often I’ll jam out to Spotify if I’m looking for something new. Pandora is just for Christmas and kids’ music.
I was buying new music on Amazon for a while in the form of $5 MP3 albums but now I just buy new music as single tracks. Mostly I troll Spotify looking for new workout music then pick it up on Amazon.
For about a year and a half there was an amazing radio station in Cleveland that played 90s music and new music that appealed to people who liked 90s music. I picked up a bunch of new faves from that. Now the station is gone and I don’t really have a radio home, but I do listen to the radio when I’m in the car. I try to listen to more sports talk but it drives me INSANE that even though basketball and football seasons are over, I never hear any baseball talk on local radio anymore. Argh.
You can upload your iTunes library to Google Play for free. Last I checked, you can upload up to 20,000 tunes. And you can listen to or download it on any device: computer, iPod, iPhone, or iPad.
I’m 45, and I started out with 8 tracks and then cassettes. After I joined the military, I switched to CDs.
Around 2000 or so, I learned about CD ripping, and I’ve pretty much listened to digital versions since then. My first MP3 player was actually an MP3 CD player.
I used to have a home theater PC, and streamed everything from my main computer.
I tried various streaming services, and I began using Spotify a few months ago. Now, I only buy music if it isn’t available on Spotify, and the majority of my purchases are digital.
I used to use MiniDiscs for a while. The discs were more durable than CDs due to being in a hard case so I could stick a few in my pocket or leave them loose in the car without worrying about damage. The player was also small enough to stick in my pocket. I used an optical cable so I could make digital copies from my CDs and I would make compilation discs of all the best songs from my favorite artists.
Most of my music is FLACs and MP3s from my CD collection, but I mostly just download from online stores now. CDs are just another thing to take up space. Lots of high bitrate mpP3s available and a growing number of sources that will supply FLACS. Growing number of 24bit recordings available now too. Never did bother to rip my album collection and long ago duplicated most of it with CDs. I personally cant really discern much if any difference between FLAC and 320 kbps mp3, I’m 48 and can barely hear anything over 15 khz anyway. I find that mastering style/quality and studio tape hiss are more of an issue for me.
I recently set up a new stereo for the first time in years. I’ve been mostly listening to music on my computer (which has a suprisingly good 2.1 speaker system) when at home for a long time now. I went with a Yamaha R N500 network stereo receiver and some well researched Pioneer floor standers and and Outlaw sub; not audiophile but quite respectable system.
I can stream from my PC, Android, net radio, NAS, iPhone, pretty much any home network or internet source. Have the option of Spotify and Pandora but they aren’t available in Canada. Has a decent little app to control everything from my phone. Ms Fluffy is adjusting to sharing the living room with music now.
The next step is a proper NAS system with an automated backup drive. With the price of storage so cheap now I will probably move on to FLACs where possible just be cause there is no longer a need for lossy compression. Maybe with a true audiophile system some day I might hear a difference.