How do we buy music these days?....

[winjim]

I don't have Audacity installed on my work PC.

In case nobody's getting the point I'm making, and I fear they might not be, the OP was talking about listening to music while rattling around in a Land Rover. Much like the noisy office I'm listening to spotify in right now it's not an ideal listening environment so priorities will be different. I don't need audiophile sound quality when I'm in a noisy office, with a cheap set of headphones, one ear out checking for phone calls and interruptions etc. What I have got is basically any variety of music I choose to listen to easily accessible at a sound quality that's acceptable for my current needs.

I used to DJ a bit, I've got friends who run soundsystems, I know about audio quality. I have a ton of vinyl records, they're bulky and inconvenient. They scratch easily and sound awful if not kept clean and played on a pristine system. They and the equipment used to play them are sat in my loft unlistened to because I don't have space or time in my life for them at the moment. 'Better' is a subjective term and depends on conditions. For my current situation digital, be it streaming or even fairly low quality MP3, is a 'better' choice than vinyl or even CD. As I said before, thanks to social media I'm listening to and enjoying new music now perhaps more than I have for a long time and it's all coming down a 4G connection.

 

[raleighnut]

A big myth here. Yes it is a compressed format, and in the early days low bitrates were commonplace, and sounded rubbish. However double-blind listening tests have shown that the vast majority of people cannot tell the difference between CD and MP3 at a bitrate of 256kbps (constant bitrate) and above, played on high end gear. That is as long as the music is ripped with a decent encoder.

Even if you're one of the golden-eared elite, you can still rip to lossless formats like FLAC or stream from services like Tidal. In the early days digital storage media was vastly more expensive per megabyte. I have a reasonable though not vast CD collection, and could rip it all to FLAC and put it on a single micro SD card costing less than 20 quid, so you no longer need to make the tradeoff of size vs quality.

Comparing MP3 to vinyl as an inferior quality format is frankly risible. Vinyl has a woeful signal to noise ratio and dynamic range compared to digital formats. While I do understand the tactile appeal of sliding an LP out of a sleeve and putting the needle in the groove, there's a lot of audiophool BS spouted on this topic. Much of it stems from fundamental misunderstandings of digital signal processing and conveniently glossing over the fact that even pressing from an analogue tape master introduces approximations and filters to the original signal.

I've stopped doing it so much now but I had got to the point where I had roughly 30 or so songs both on vinyl and CD and a favourite trick was playing them simultaneously and switching between the 2 asking friends which sounded nicer, once they had decided I would invariably press eject on the CD player and congratulate them on choosing the analogue version. In order to do this it is imperative to have a decent Turntable/arm/cartridge set-up and an Amp with a good Phono stage, now I don't claim to have the best TT in the world but my Thorens TD166 with Rega arm is very good. It's not all about S/N ratios Analogue is simply a 'nicer' sound a lot of which is down to the way it is mastered. CD mastering often leaves a lot to be desired (google 'loudness wars' for a better idea of what is done) basically a lot of digital mastering does not take advantage of the dynamic range available, quiet passages are boosted and loud parts limited/compressed so everything sounds OKish on inexpensive mass market systems, this is not audiofoolary but documented fact. Some music is definitely better on CD, anything by Roger Waters for instance where he's going from whispered vocals to explosions then Vinyl cannot cope with the range as CD has a far lower 'noise floor'. That's why I will always have both formats hooked up to my QUAD.
I'd agree that the average person cannot really tell the difference but really that is due to the fact that they don't really have a system capable of resolving the quality of good recordings. The down side of this is I can hear how poorly some music is recorded on either format.

 

[MontyVeda]

...

If they want to make some money stick to the local gig circuits.

Not a great deal of cash in that either unless they're doing an actual ticketed tour. Local gigs may be quite lucrative for a solo artist or two piece, but once there's say five band members to share the £150-200 between, it's just beer money.

 

[stephec]

iPod/Spotify user here, occasionally buy a cd.

As for Dark Side of the Moon, I’d rather listen to the screams of Jeremy Hunt being fellatio’d by a Nile Crocodile.

And I thought that I could be a bit deviant, what kind od warped mind comes up with that image? 😂

 

[winjim]

CD mastering often leaves a lot to be desired (google 'loudness wars' for a better idea of what is done) basically a lot of digital mastering does not take advantage of the dynamic range available, quiet passages are boosted and loud parts limited/compressed so everything sounds OKish on inexpensive mass market systems, this is not audiofoolary but documented fact

A bit of comparison from the TV world. Do you remember when the last season of Game of Thrones came out, everyone complained that it was too dark and the producers' response was that they basically needed to buy a better TV set? Maybe a better TV would have been able to resolve all the different shades of black but nobody's gonna spend several grand just to watch one show. Well mastered music played on a good system is always going to sound better but you've got to cater for the systems most people are using. A few years ago it was those compact HiFi systems, now I guess it's phones and Bluetooth speakers.

 

[Electric_Andy]

I can't tell the difference between MP3 quality and CD to be honest. I also ensure that the quality for streaming my music is set to "always highest" so you don't get the equivalent of buffered music if signal is poor.

I used to own about 150 CDs, I ripped them all to my laptop years ago but had that stolen. Some was backed up on Amazon music but not all. Streaming works for me because I have a very wide and eclectic taste in music. If I were to buy the original CDs of all the bands/albums I listen to in a year, it would probably be something like £100/month at least. PLus I'd not have room for them in my car, or in my lounge.

It has also introduced me to a lot of fresh bands that I wouldn't have even known about had it not been for YouTube Music suggestions.

People can complain all they want, but the thought of "owning" a £10 CD compared to a potential 200 albums per month for the same price, is a no brainer for me.

There's also not much excuse for convenince/outdated equipment either. I had a chinese unbranded car stereo with blutooth, was £20 new. Stream music from my phone, or to my lounge hifi...easy peasy

 

[FishFright]

I don't have Audacity installed on my work PC.

I'll put it in bike terms instead ; MP3 Is a BSO from the centre aisle of Lidle , uncompressed digital is a full suspension Specialized MTB packed with with loads of features and vinyl is a hand made , beautifully finished steel road bike.

 

[raleighnut]

I'll put it in bike terms instead ; MP3 Is a BSO from the centre aisle of Lidle , uncompressed digital is a full suspension Specialized MTB packed with with loads of features and vinyl is a hand made , beautifully finished steel road bike.

Fantastic analogy.

 

[The Crofted Crest]

To those with family or friends in bands, give them a shout-out here and the Spotify account holders can stream them so that they earn a bit more than a pittance.

 

[JtB]

For a while I've used Prime but not so much lately after they've messed around with it in a thinly veiled attempt to force people to pay for unlimited.

Agreed. Amazon marketed it as an improvement, giving Prime members access to all music. But the reality was they withdrew access to all music because all you could then access was random playlists vaguely related to what you actually wanted to listen to.

 

[fritz katzenjammer]

When my music on vinyl, or the equipment to play them, wears out I will be considering moving on to the next system.

Is eight track still a thing or do I go reel to reel?

 

[winjim]

I'll put it in bike terms instead ; MP3 Is a BSO from the centre aisle of Lidle , uncompressed digital is a full suspension Specialized MTB packed with with loads of features and vinyl is a hand made , beautifully finished steel road bike.

I sure as hell ain't commuting in the rain on that steel roadie and leaving it in the work bike sheds. It's not the right tool for the job.

 

[FishFright]

I sure as hell ain't commuting in the rain on that steel roadie and leaving it in the work bike sheds. It's not the right tool for the job.

I sure as hell wouldn't rely on a BSO to get to work everyday for years whatever the conditions, not every too needs to made of cheese.

 

[Julia9054]

To those with family or friends in bands, give them a shout-out here and the Spotify account holders can stream them so that they earn a bit more than a pittance.

Child 1
https://spotify.link/ILD0vwtAdyb

Child 2
https://spotify.link/wcmjeNyAdyb

 

[winjim]

I sure as hell wouldn't rely on a BSO to get to work everyday for years whatever the conditions, not every too needs to made of cheese.

My question was how can I play vinyl on my phone. The answer is that I can't. More broadly, sound quality isn't the only consideration to bear in mind when selecting a format. I can't carry my records around with me, I used to do that and they were bloody heavy.

BITD when I was DJing, if I'd have played an MP3 on my mate's rig he'd have turned purple with rage and thrown me off. Used to get a proper bollocking for red lighting the mixer. But to be fair that was the best sounding free party sound system in Sheffield and he had a reputation to uphold.