When I got my first car, being a normal young male the first thing I did was put in a 10 disk CD shuttle. Then I listened to music on "super shuffle" which shuffled all songs on all disks.
My next car and my next CD shuttle only could shuffle songs on a per disk basis, and so I listened to each CD in strict order, not moving onto the next CD till I had finished the last.
When I got my iRiver MP3 Player I carried on this tradition of listening to each album in strict rotation. I had started listening to a fair bit of dance, and dance works better on a album by album basis than a full on shuffle.
Now that I have my shiny new green iPod Mini, with it's 100 album or so capacity and it's fancy "on the go" function, I'm back to listening to things on super shuffle quiet often (unless I'm working our (hard house) or listening to dance in which case it's album shuffle).
On my commute I want the world shut out. I don't want to be involved with the public in public transport, and listening to music gives me my own personal soundtrack which is great. Thank the ineffable bob for the invention of portable music and ipods.
At work however, although I sometimes put the headphones on when people in the office start getting annoying but I prefer to listen to the office buzz normally than to block it out. I know many people listen to music in the office, but it doesn't work so much for me.
At home I still listen to CDs on a individual basis more often than not. The quality straight from CD is much better, and I like the tactile existence of actual disks anyway. If I'm not watching TV, I normally have MTV (Dance or MTV2) on, otherwise I'm spinning the CDs.
How do you listen to music? What's your favourite medium? Do you do the shuffle?
1. Gordon
I listen to music in the office (all day), on the commute (when alone), and at home (any time the TV is crap.. which is often).
Medium wise I don’t care. I’m not a big hi-fi freak and whilst I CAN hear the difference between CD and MP3 I’m not that bothered by it - most of my MP3s are ripped from CD at 192 so the quality isn’t too bad.
Shuffle mode is king. iTunes smart playlists on shuffle are the business. I rarely listen to an entire album in, let alone in order, these days.
But then I’m a musical whore and just love the randomness of Tchaikovsky merging to Chemical Brothers with Kings of Leon waiting in the aisles.
2. Em
Playlists on my iPod or 6 disk CD changer in the car.
3. stroppycow
Still very low tech when on the move: tapes on foot so no shuffling. Mind you the tapes are getting very worn by now so it’s probably time or an upgrade. At home I prefer the program button to the shuffle button so I can skip tracks which do not fit the mood. There are very few albums I listen to from start to finish without a skip.
4. Adrian
What’s a tape?
5. Katherine
Is it insulting to the artist who spent hours creating to just mix them into some sort of Super Shuffle soup? Or do they deserve it? I have 4 CD players. I listen at work when pissed off with my crazy boss, when I’m at the gym, when I’m cooking or waking up or reading.
6. Green Fairy
I listen to music on it’s own. I can’t have it on as background to doing anything else (except drowning other people out on public transport) as it just irritates - even if I owned anything that even faintly resembled background music, which I don’t. Most of the music I have is made to be jumped around the living room to, so I duly oblige.
7. Adrian
I can’t do gym without music (hard pumping dance or hard rock).
I tend to have music on when at home regardless. If I want to ‘listen’ to music and jump around I’ll go clubbing (for which I am realising my ageing bones are less inclined to to do these days).
8. Sara
I listen to whatever CD I grab in the car (Unless Howard Stern is on). At work I log on to www.live365.com. I listen to music all day. At home, I don’t really listen to music unless I’m on the computer. And if I am, Live365 baby.
9. Karen
I am starting to find my MuVo a bit small, although really I can get enough on it for my train journey to work, as long as I choose what I want to listen to in advance. This week: the new Cake CD.
10. razorhead
external usb/2 hard drive, all cds ripped to it, all new material from the slightly questionably legit allofmp3.com, cds consigned to history.
(the external hdd is one of the ways I can get around work’s security policy, which seems to have missed this particular trick)
11. GrumpyOldMan
If you like the “tactile existence of actual disks” nothing beats vinyl! It also has a warmer sound. It’s just irritating having to turn it over.
12. Adrian
I would question the warmer sound. It has a different sound, but a decent CD player paired with a good amp and speakers is just as good, and has less scratching, popping and fiddling with needles.
13. matthew
At a recent music expo in Dublin (recent being in the last 5 years) they had a demo set up where you could listen to the same track on several different media. There was CD, Vinyl, MC, MD, MP3, DCC (remember DCC anyone?) DVD-audio and ADAT. The universal consensus, from all walks of life from music professionals to the man on the street, was that Vinyl was the best, followed closely by ADAT.
14. Destructor
Dude, you asked this question last year and my answer remains roughly the same:
In bedroom: My PC has different mood playlists, depending on what mood I am in it will shuffle through all my angry, sad, bored, reading, excited-getting-ready-to-go-dancing tracks. Alternately, if I’m listening to an album, I’ll listen to it IN ORDER. The artist carefully put this album together to be a cohesive experience, not to be listened to on shuffle. But I suppose with dance music albums it doesn’t much matter which order you listen to them, since they are all equally vacuous.
On the move: My Palm Pilot has a filtered list of tracks that is regularly updated with whatever new album I have managed to get my hands on.
I hate that tinny sound that comes out of people’s earplugs on the tubes, and so try not to impose it on others. I recently (yesterday) acquired some earplugs and, let me tell you, it really does make tube-travel much less annoying.
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