Music CDs - Hidden Tracks - What else have we forgotten after moving to streaming services?

[Dadam]

Not if the main place you listen is in the car. It is either the radio or Cds, or music downloaded to my phone (or other bluetooth device).

Don't you just stream from the phone via the car's audio?

 

[Alex321]

Don't you just stream from the phone via the car's audio?

Wouldn't dream of it. Quite apart from the fact that reception while travelling isn't reliable enough, it would also tend to require more interaction.

While I did list playing downloaded music from your phone, it isn't something I actually do. It is always radio or CDs for me, in the car. And CDs mainly when I have a passenger who can change them.

 

[lazybloke]

Don't you just stream from the phone via the car's audio?

I think many of us do use Spotify and similar services in the car, but the car is also one of few places where there is often still a physical CD player.
I've got no CD player in the house; none of the computers have them.
I do have a SATA DVD Re-Writer drive that can play CDs, and in theory I could connect it to my laptop using my SATA/USB converter, but the drive expects a 12 volt molex power supply. Nope, haven't got anything to provide that.

Where do I play my old cassettes?

 

[lazybloke]

A relative got a CD last year for their birthday, and wondered how to play it. I could only think of them using their Blu-Ray player to put it through the TV, as we all know TVs have great sound They've bought a little counter top CD player since which they love.

Old hi-fi for cassettes, charity shops once had loads but they are rarer now.

No thanks. Queen Jazz was the last music i bought on cassette; a very long time ago.

I'd forgotten about games consoles having a drive. I do occasionally use the xbox for a DVD or Bluray. It presumably does CDDA too

 

[Dadam]

Wouldn't dream of it. Quite apart from the fact that reception while travelling isn't reliable enough, it would also tend to require more interaction.

While I did list playing downloaded music from your phone, it isn't something I actually do. It is always radio or CDs for me, in the car. And CDs mainly when I have a passenger who can change them.

I never play CDs in the car except sometimes on long trips when it's something my son wants on. For me it's about 60/40 radio and streaming in the car. The phone automatically connects via BT and I have a bunch of playlists I can start from the car's controls so I never have to interact directly with the phone. A lot of the playlist tracks are pre-downloaded but quite a few will be streamed on demand. I'm not often in an area without data coverage.

I also have a 32Gb USB stick full of mp3s in a socket in the centre console cubbyhole but I never remember to update it with new tracks and the convenience of the phone managing it all means I rarely use it and keep forgetting it's there.

 

[Electric_Andy]

100% of my music is streamed from my phone. Often in the car, and it helps that you can shout at the phone to play x artist or x album in spotify without even touching the screen. It (voice commands) doesn't seem to work as well with YT music though.

I used to have copies of CDs in my old car, but it was a pain on a long journey when you had to pull over and change the CD. Or blindly scrabble about whilst driving and eventually the CD would get very scratched. I also dabbled with poking a USB stick into it, but you have to keep updating your list to prevent song/artist boredom

 

[Alex321]

I never play CDs in the car except sometimes on long trips when it's something my son wants on. For me it's about 60/40 radio and streaming in the car. The phone automatically connects via BT and I have a bunch of playlists I can start from the car's controls so I never have to interact directly with the phone. A lot of the playlist tracks are pre-downloaded but quite a few will be streamed on demand. I'm not often in an area without data coverage.

I also have a 32Gb USB stick full of mp3s in a socket in the centre console cubbyhole but I never remember to update it with new tracks and the convenience of the phone managing it all means I rarely use it and keep forgetting it's there.

My phone also connects vis BT, but I don't have any playlists on it, and in fact I don't even have spotify installed on it. I've never felt any need to stream music through it - at home I will either be on the PC, streaming on that, or (very occasionally) will play Cds using either the bluray player through the tv, or the music centre in the living room, which still includes a CD player. I do have a spotify (free) account, but very rarely use it.

My wife only ever uses either the living room player or a portable music player in the bedroom.

For us, setting up streaming anyhwere other than on the PC is just too much hassle to be worth the bother for the limited use we would make of it.

 

[lazybloke]

I just have a usb stick of music in the older car. The steering wheel buttons let me control playback to some extent, and a passenger can use the more comprehensive controls on the screen/dash.

I prefer using android auto in the other car, as in addition to the wheel and screen buttons, i can voice-control it, and there's more choice.

Data reception is no problem, as my playlists are cached on the phone. So yes, I can play the Frog chorus anywhere.

 

[kynikos]

Heathen's, the lot of you! If only I'd known I'd have sent an invite out when I got rid of my CDs a number of years ago. More than filled a standard dustbin so I'd say ~300 litres of 'em including ~70 rare Dylan bootlegs...

 

[kynikos]

..I'd ripped a lot of them to a hard drive which took a serious amount of time and which, in retrospect, was time wasted as I soon ditched this when Spotify came out in 2009. What a revelation that was! Around the cost of a CD a month for unlimited access to a wide range of music which only got wider as time went on. Then along came Tidal with lossless.

I hear the "I want to own the media" and "I love the album covers" (although this went south when vinyl was ditched) arguments but being able to easily curate playlists and the sheer breadth of music available with streaming services is outstanding.

I have a wide ranging taste in music but my niche is best described as 'americana' and getting access to the music and discovering new artists is made incredibly easy with Spotify and the like.

After vinyl (virtually all my records went clickety click at some point due to scratches) CDs were wonderful and I'm sure nostalgia has it's place but, for me, they're 'old hat' and there's a much better way of tuning in.

But I do confess to regretting having consigned Bob to the bin...

 

[laurentian]

New to CC so I have skimmed through this thread quite quickly and offer apologies if this has been mentioned but I have collections of vinyl and CDs and would say that a high res streaming app (Qobuz or Tidal) through the right kit is as good as CD (Spotify not so much due to compression of files). The "max" files available on Tidal are arguably better than CD quality.

. . . and way more convenient.

 

[Oldhippy]

I've never stopped buying albums or CD's myself. I have no music on my phone.

 

[laurentian]

I've never stopped buying albums or CD's myself. I have no music on my phone.

Me neither but streaming does open me up to a lot more music that I may not ordinarily be exposed to. I will sometimes find something i like the sound of from streaming then go and buy the album.

 

[wiggydiggy]

New to CC so I have skimmed through this thread quite quickly and offer apologies if this has been mentioned but I have collections of vinyl and CDs and would say that a high res streaming app (Qobuz or Tidal) through the right kit is as good as CD (Spotify not so much due to compression of files). The "max" files available on Tidal are arguably better than CD quality.

. . . and way more convenient.

Theres a few good suggestions like yours scattered around. I ripped all my CDs to disc a while back (lockdown exercise), some of the tags are not great and theres some suggestions further back for tag editing software to fix this.

I've actually finished my magical mystery tour through my CDs and they are (for) now sitting nicely alphabetical on the shelves once again. I didn't find that many 'hidden' tracks in the end, maybe I remember more than there were.

 

[PhotoNic69]

I still buy lots of 2nd hand CDs from the likes of MusicMagpie etc. Quite often the albums I like are not available to stream, and those that I do like have been 'remastered' aka butchered and also a whole host of extra tracks (often live versions, 7" or 12" singles, EP versions, Demo versions etc). I find these most annoying. I just want to listen to an album the way the artists originally released it.
I'll often listen to an artist through streaming and then buy the albums on CD or Vinyl if I really like them.