Hokeyboy

I'm 41. Grew up in the heyday of MTV, FM radio, Hit Parader, Creem, Circus, etc. Nowadays, between the dozen or so music blogs I follow, podcasts, YouTube, SiriusXM subscription, and my ridiculous addiction to Spotify, discovering and enjoying great new music has never been easier.

B5Erik

People keep bringing up Spotify, but if you don't have the time to listen then what good is it?

It's not like you can listen for free in the car... (I spend about 2 1/2 hours a day in the car, which is where I listen to most of my music, including recordings of Vista Records Radio that I've converted to mp3 files that I've burned to CD for the car.)

Supermallet

Didn't you say there was something else that you could listen to in the car? Live365 or something? Use that instead of Spotify.

It sounds like what you're lamenting here is the fact that you no longer have a single reliable source for finding out about new music that you specifically like without you doing any work. It's a real stretch to blame that on illegal downloads.

nothingfails

If you pay for the premium Spotify service (which is what I pay since I listen to more than 20 hours of music a month), it is compatable with ipod so if anything you could add some stuff to your player from word of mouth then hear it when driving.

nothingfails

True. IMO it is easier today to find new music I like then it has ever been. I remember being in a nostalgic rut in the late 90s when I still relied on MTV to expose me to new music because I was in no way giving in to the teen pop and rap/rock stuff that was big at the time.

B5Erik

I don't have an ipod, an ipad, or any mobile device. I don't even have a smart phone. Most of my disposable income goes to fund my 60 mile commute.

When I listen to my station it's on CD. I have a way to record my own webcasts when I'm not on the computer and I just convert that to mp3 and burn it to CD.

But that's stuff I already have (I have over 1,000 titles in my CD collection).

I don't miss MTV. I do miss good radio stations that play my kind of music - and not just the same old stuff that the same stations (KGB and KLOS) were playing 30 years ago. And I miss having a good magazine that catered to the kind of stuff that I want to read about.

There IS a lot of information out there, but it requires free time to search for it on the internet, and unlike today I don't usually have enough time to get to it. I can look up bands on Amazon maybe once every couple of months at most. Most of my free time is in my car and on my lunch break.

Whatever. Maybe I am just a cranky old man when it comes to music. From all that I've read on this thread I am the oldest one here. I could be wrong, though...

nothingfails

Age doesn't really mean anything though. One of my best friends is 51 and he is generally more knowledgable about hip and fresh bands than I am

wendersfan

I'm 49, and I use both Spotify and Pandora.

orangecrush

Your problem is lack of time, not how difficult it is to discover bands you might like.

Groucho

Well, if you don't have time to use Spotify or other online services, then you wouldn't have time to go to the record store and browse the racks either. In other words, the death of analog media isn't the problem here.

wendersfan

I'm currently listening to XFM Manchester, using TuneIn radio. Great station.

covenant

You need to find some way to stream those media sources (spotify, pandora etc etc) on your commute. That's a huge block of time. Sometimes I wish I lived just a little further from work, I live about 4 miles now and that's hardly enough time for a song. I recently had to make the 4 hour drive to Atlanta by myself. I was in heaven streaming Slacker. And they never played the same song twice.

You're only a cranky old man if you want to be!

BearFan

.. or get a satellite radio, which is cheaper (since you do not have a smart phone and the data plan). I used to use this, they have tons of very specialized stations .. some play new stuff, others play the classics. It is 15 to 20 a month depending on what you subscribe to ... given a 2 1/2 a day commute, that seems like a good value.

Hokeyboy

For Little Steven's Underground Garage alone, it's worth the few bucks a month.

nothingfails

Right. XM/Sirius literally have something for everyones tastes.

nothingfails

They play that on NPR here on Saturday nights. Usually a nice show to listen to when I'm on the road, Steven has a perfect radio voice IMO.

B5Erik

The problem with that (besides having to pay more than I think it's worth) is that the sound quality is shit on some of the stations I like. WAY overcompressed. Some songs sound like 96k mp3's. The best songs sound like 192k mp3's, but most sound like 128k. (I had the free two month deal when I bought my car a few years ago, and I listened to the free weekend several weeks back - nothing's changed sound quality wise.)

I'd pay $5 or $6 a month for XM, but not the $15 or so that they want. Frankly, I think the stations that I like have gotten worse (in terms of music) since the merger. Honestly, my station is way better than anything they've got.

BearFan

The paying what it is worth is subjective, if you drive 2.5 hours per day, it seems worth it. I had it when I drove 60 mins a day and thought it was a good value. I cancelled when my commute was shortened.

This seemed to start when you said there were a lack of good ways/time to find new bands/music ... if the argument comes down to "music I listen in my car will only come in at a lower kbs than I care for", it seems fairly safe to say you are happy listening to what you listen to now -- and there is nothing wrong with that.

Canis Firebrand

How did you listen to XM in the past? Built into the stereo or through an fm transmitter? I had both in the past and it sounded fine enough for a car stereo. I'm sure if I tried to listen on a high end home stereo system it would not sound that great, but I would think that for what your using it for, sound during long drives, it should suffice.

You've shot down or found fault with all of the viable solutions offered. If nothing appears to work for you, the only thing left would seem to be radio that you are currently listening to or to carry a bunch of cds with you and listen to those. That is if your stereo in the car has a cd player.

Supermallet

You want a way to find new music that is easy, catered to your tastes, totally free, and that you can access from your car, in CD quality or better.

I think I have a solution.

Piracy.

Pizza

You can negotiate a better price with them. They have all sorts of deals if you take the time to talk to someone on the phone.

orangecrush

BearFan

That is true, when I went to cancel once they offered me 3 months free and 5/month for 9 months after that.

nothingfails

B5Erik

The stereo my car came with has XM built in. The sound quality varies wildly from station to station and even on the same station it can vary song by song. I remember one Quiet Riot song came on and sounded almost completely unlistenable (it was amazingly compressed - digitally swishy and warbly, just terrible - like a 56k mp3).

I'm good at shooting things down.


That's how I listen to my music - I burn compilation CD's for the car or listen to the radio hoping to hear a song I like.

Believe me, I'd love to be able to listen to my station (live, not pre-recorded) or to spotify in the car, but I don't have the money to make that happen. C'est la vie. It is what it is.