>>Multi-part question.
>>
>>1) What is your primary source of music? Do you use a
>>streaming app, multiple streaming apps? Still rocking a
>>personal library? Still doing CDs? Cassettes?
>
>
>"Personal" library. I've pirated music since my late-teens,
>mostly due to how much of it I want to hear (or wanted to
>hear) and how much control I want over it. I can't justify a
>subscription to one of the broader streaming services so long
>as they look less appealing and have less information and
>variety on the music than my own iTunes playlist does. Plus,
>my iTunes library is over 232,000 tracks large, and it's been
>building since my senior year of high school. That's ten years
>of music history in there; it'd feel strange to say goodbye to
>it, even if it's all digital data and I own very little of
>it.
>

232,000....wow im thinking im at like 60,000 to 80,000 on my laptop and im going on 20 years...impressive

>I've never owned a record player, but I do still buy CDs of
>albums I really, really like or have neat packaging. They go
>in a box and are rarely if ever opened since I also don't own
>a car.
>
>>2) Do you usually listen to playlists? Are they based on an
>>artist/ several artists or more of a mood? Are they
>playlists
>>you made, where you individually picked out all the songs on
>>the playlist? Do you prefer to listen to music in blocks of
>>similar songs, gangsta rap hour, new jack swing, late 90's
>boy
>>bands, etc or shuffle and mix it up as much as possible?
>
>
>For the longest time I was pretty much strictly albums, but
>over the past three years I've really struggled to - at first
>- want to listen to music at all, and these days just to carve
>out time for music in the rest of my media diet. Every day my
>podcast feed gets something like four hours of new content, I
>really enjoy playing video games and feel guilty listening to
>music or podcasts while I play anything story based, I'd like
>to watch some movies and television every once in a
>while...these days, I usually carve out Sunday or Monday, days
>I know I have off, to writing about four/five albums or
>listening intently to three or four albums throughout the
>day.
>

if it weren't for this job i don't think i would get to listen to a lot of music. pretty laid back workload and isolated so i can listen to music practically 8 hours a day. can't really get new music while here, i might find out about some music i want to check out but then i forget when im home.

>But for most of the past year until I put that restriction on
>myself for the new year, it was mostly listening to playlists
>I made for my now ex-GF. I'm pretty damn good at making tapes
>with a sense of flow and story to them, and I found them
>really pleasurable to listen to while I was with her, and then
>a good reminder of my ability to be in a good, loving
>relationship or at least live within the appearance of one
>once we weren't together any more.
>

I used to make a ton of mix cds back when i was listening to music in my car via cd. a lot of "best of" and sometimes just themes inspired by a song or mood. i kind of want to get back to this.

>
>>3) Do you listen to whole albums often? Mostly new or older?
>
>
>Like I said above, it's still my preferred method of
>listening. Much less diverse than when I was younger, due to
>the time constraints. I'm working on covering full artist
>discographies I've overlooked or skipped around on or want to
>reappraise, also, as a way of keeping my critical mind active
>while also filling holes and not necessarily focusing entirely
>on current music. These are the last full albums I listened to
>intently and where they hit in my Handbook, plus the Black
>Panther soundtrack I'm listening to for the first time as I
>fill this post out:
>
>
>#1242 Pitbull - Rebelution (Feb 5)
>#255 Maxo Kream - Maxo 187 (Feb 5)
>#1098 Travis Scott - Days Before Rodeo (Feb 5)
>#1042 Travis Scott - Owl Pharaoh (Feb 5)
>#304 Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory (Feb 5)
>#1013 Ski Mask the Slump God - You Will Regret (Jan 17)
>#229 Skyzoo - Music for My Friends (Jan 17)
>#142 Vince Staples - Prima Donna (Jan 17)
>#451 Vince Staples - Summertime '06 (Jan 13)
>#167 Vince Staples - Hell Can Wait (Jan 8)
>#503 Vince Staples - Shyne Coldchain II (Jan 7)
>

thats basically what i do when i want to grow my library. i will check out catalogs ive never listened to. last week i decided to listen to as much of "disco rap" that i could. basically any rap that came out between 79 and 83. that was kind of fun and i grew my playlist by like 60 sonngs. i kind of want to keep going to find albums i have missed out on in rap.

>
>>4) How do you discover new music?
>
>
>I check the Top 250 New Torrents list on my tracker two or
>three times a day, I follow what my friends are writing about
>on RateYourMusic, I read the music writing on The Ringer,
>check in with Pitchfork every once in a while, and shuffle my
>own library. That 232,000 number means there's a lot of stuff
>there I haven't heard or have forgotten about entirely. It
>also means I might accidentally listen to a 98 Degrees deep
>cut.
>
>I also log in to LiveMixtapes once or twice a day to see
>what's new on both the mainstream and "indy" channels; I'll
>download stuff from artists I've never heard of with terrible
>box art if there's a single production credit or feature from
>someone I like, and then never listen to it. But this is also
>how I knew about Freddie Gibbs and Big K.R.I.T. before anyone
>else, so I still do it.
>

im a bit obsessed with rateyourmusic right now. im not sure if i will do reviews but im currently rating the songs on my playlist and plan to at least rate albums. i also am using it to discover music to check out. pretty much pick a year and a genre and listen to anything above a 3 rating or that intrigues me.

>
>>5) What's your primary hardware set up for music? Phone and
>>earbuds/headphones? Car? Home stereo set up? Bluetooth
>>speakers? Internal phone speaker?
>
>I have Klipsch Image x11 earbuds for out in public, though the
>wiring has gotten a bit frayed down by the jack. I need to get
>some electrical tape because they still sound glorious. I've
>never had to pay full price for these things, either; I've had
>three pair and paid as little as $80 for one pair and at most
>$150 for these recent ones; the MSRP is usually $350.
>
>But I honestly don't listen to music on headphones much, I
>find it kind of claustrophobic and constricting. That wasn't
>really the case when I was a kid but more and more feels that
>way to me now. I almost always listen to music on my fairly
>basic but I think pretty good sounding Klipsch ProMedia 2.1
>computer speakers. I'm sure there are all sorts of subtlties
>that don't come out of these things, but hey, if most music is
>being mastered for laptop speakers at this point is that
>really true? Also, I live in an apartment with terrifyingly
>thin walls and the fact that I'm able to get away with any
>kind of subwoofer-supported system is a minor miracle (and
>indicative of incredibly lenient neighbors who also, in turn,
>blast their shit at weird hours and I say nothing).
>
>>any other relevant comments/questions welcome
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~
>"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
>http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
>Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz