The past few days & weeks I’ve watched myself go through a minor change.
I’ve started buying more cds and even vinyl. And just by talking to others, I’ve been surprised by how many of my e-homies still buy vinyl as well.
Now when it comes to buying vinyl, I’m not necessarily speaking of going out & getting my fingers dusty (although I have), because realistically, there’s not a lot of stores around here that stock it &, much less, have any worthy titles from the Hip-Hop genre (you can get some good jazz in the Music City though). My vinyl-buying has be a lot of clicking around online to find the cheapest deals, word to Amazon’s vinyl store & eGay auctionsnipers.
With cds though, I’ve been picking them up mercilessly. It all started with a few gift cards I received as birthday gifts & it’s taken on a whole ‘nother level of pursuit and passion of it’s own for me. But with buying cds, it’s way harder to decide what to buy in this digital age where everything can be obtained for free.99 and without even gettin’ off your ass.
Between all of this buying of music and sorting through countless files (literally) of downloaded music & conversations with like-minded friends, I got me to wondering…
– Out of 5-7 Loosies sets posted per week, how many do you download and listen to?
– Same questions for Strays.
– How often do you download something…and never listen to it?
– How do you sort/store it all on all those Western Digitals & Seagates you’ve got glowingly attached to your cpu? What do you use to organize this stuff? iTunes, manual, other…or do you just have folders & mp3s everywhere?
Do you actually buy physical copies of music any more? I’ve heard a few people say it, but I’m of the same school of thought – When I buy something, I want tangible goods. Buying an album off iTunes or even just downloading it doesn’t draw me in as much as actually purchasing a cd.
And in a day and age where sales are down, how long will it be before more materials are indeed OOP and should I be grabbing every disc from Pac’s discog now before it’s no longer readily available?
Nas-Where_Are_They_Now_(Remixes)-(Bootleg_VLS)-2007
G-Unit Beg For Mercy
Wu Tang – Forever 2CD (1996)
Skillz Confessions of a Ghostwriter
Kelis- Kaleidoscope
Percee_P-Oh_No_VS_Percee_P-Promo-2008
Snoop_Dogg-Those_Gurlz-Promo_VLS-2008
Kool_G_Rap-Still_The_Kool_Genius_Of_Rap-Bootleg-2008
DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince – Rock The House-1987
DJ_Jazzy_Jeff_and_The_Fresh_Prince-Hes_The_DJ_Im_The_Rapper-1988
DJ_Jazzy_Jeff_&_The_Fresh_Prince-And_In_This_Corner…-1989
DJ_Jazzy_Jeff_&_The_Fresh_Prince-Homebase-Retail-1991
DJ_Jazzy_Jeff_&_The_Fresh_Prince-Code_Red-Retail-1993
Celly_Cel-Deep_Conversation
Celly_Cel_Presents_Live_From_The_Ghetto-2001
Celly Cel – The Songz u Can’t Find (2003) (Bootleg)
Celly_Cel-Itz_Real_Out_Here-2005
Celly_Cel-Slaps_Straps_and_Baseball_Hats_2006 (Advance)
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I never download loosies cause of my lack of a rapidshare premium account and the fact that I could usually find the song I want on zshare.
I rarely download strays, unless it’s something I really want. If it’s just an album from someone who I have a few tracks of, I skip it, just cause it usually gets put in my music folder and I never listen to it. Not trying to say I don’t appreciate what you guys do, it’s just that I have a lot of music I already don’t listen to.
I guess that kind of answers the next question. If I see a track and I’m interested, I’ll download it, but usually forget about it and leave it in my “stuff” folder. I’ll get around to it eventually, but sometimes a few tracks slip through the cracks.
I manually organize everything. I’ve got a stuff folder that new tracks and albums go into, they get tagged the way I like, and then go into my music folder.
I VERY rarely buy an album, and I never pay for downloads. I wouldn’t start grabbing everything you want already, the music industry seems like it’s really slow to adapt. You should prolly be able to get whatever you want for a while. I think CD’s are gonna go the way of vinyl, and not cassettes.
Wow…wutang forever….
First of all, I do dl joints that I’ve bought before and lost of joints I’ve had ?’s about.
I get the strays and loosies maybe 3-4 times a month.
I don’t go in like I used to because I do have hd fillers I never lab.
Shail – I guess you come for the writing & ET’s wit then lol. That’s cool. I get to that point too w/Strays b/c I’m like “if a motherfucker don’t already got this…” yunno.
I won’t even begin to describe my organizing techniques.
I don’t think CDs will ever become obsolete. I do think some will become harder to find as they get older b/c that’s already the case for some (if you want it new).
^ gotta agree. Too many units moved in CD format.
That’s kinda what makes vinyl so hard to get rid off. Lately, I feel like Johnny Depp in Blow, in the scene where he’s trying to find a place to stash the money….
I dont know where to put all these CD’s, mp3′s, etc….
Loosies, if we say 7 per week, then I’ll say 1, maybe 2 I’ll give a spin.
Strays… well, I’ll explain that in a sec.
Man, as far as organization goes…
I’m OCD about my music. It’s all in a music folder, with the appropriate title, artist, producer, label, etc…
I usually have music running all the time around me, so I’m always listening to something, although it’s a couple of albums I haven’t gotten around to yet, like Leona Lewis new album. But it’s getting to the point where I’ll buy or download something and never listen to it. Case in point, the Leona Lewis album that’s still in the plastic wrap.
Most strays, I either have, or I document where they are, simply because I have it, whether it’s in cassette, vinyl, CD, or mp3 format.
Storage, 4 500 GB Western Digital HDDs and 1 shining, brand new 2 TB Western Digital HDD, courtesy of NewEgg. (And the thing is MASSIVE)
iTunes is what I use to document all of my music in one folder called, well, Music. LOL
for the record, Wu-Tang forever came out in 1997
my music organizing game is OCD to the fullest extent… everything is organized manually, or at least i try…
i still got loosies from may that i have yet to unzip… i dwonload way more music than i have time to listen to…
i have about 15-20 gb’s of unziped files and albums that i got on the external HD, (which is at 424 gb out 500), so i’m a have to invest in another one of them bad boys real soon…
i try getting most loosies; stray shots only when it’s something i think don’t have, and most of the shit that is dropped in the comments (especially if it’s wit-e or NDiamonds dropping gems)…
also, i hate iTunes sometimes, especially when i need to consolidate all the ipod music on to the external HD…
i blame TSS and all these other blogs for my music-related ADD… with that being said, all your hard work is much appreciated in my book…
nice use of the Wolfman Jack pic.
i dont really DL loosies, unless it’s some one i want to hear ie joell, game, etc.
strays – if it’s something i have on CD but dont have yet. or have heard good things about the artist them i DL, but it i will sit on my desktop, or my “rename” file for a while before i get around to listing to it.
i listen to pretty much everything i DL, i got rid of the TV a year or so ago, so music is my background noise. i have something playing at all times when im home.
i still buy CD’s mostly hardcore/indie shit. cause well it’s a little harder to find.
as far as organizing, it used to be broken down hiphop/rock/etc, now it’s just “albums/singles/rename(things that i just got)”
@ E. Brock & Loblaw
I see ya’ll G. Ya’ll niggaz sound like me. I was buying since the early 90′s, before the MP3. It ain’t hard to find me. #1 wit’ the booyaka. T-S-S in this bitch and ain’t no tellin’ what will do ya. It’s obvious the game ain’t new to ya. We take them ends we make, spend it on the ones that’s raw, lights out I’m through wit’ ya
LOL
& LMAO @ that Three 6 screen shot E. Brock
I d/l everything…loosies, strays..everything! The way I dl has changed over the yrs tho. Went from dl’ing from dl sites (like soulseek, napster, limewire, blah, blah, blah) to just dl’ing album files straight off of blogs bc it’s easier for me. I must admit tho…when I dl albums, I dont listen to them as quick as I do when I buy CDs. I guess bc an album is more accessible for me…I can just grab it from my cd case and throw it on, as opposed taking a bit of time looking for it on my computer. Throughout the yrs I’ve become bad at listening to the dl’ed albums right after I dl them. Some stuff sits on my HD for months bf I even start listening to them…unless it’s an artsit I’m really dying to hear…like a Roots or Jay album. As a matter of fact, I still have some album files on my HD that I’ve dl’ed about a month or 2 ago, that I still haven’t unzipped, it’s still in winzip form…lol
I’ve been CDs by the shitloads recently, than I have in a long time…and rarely listen to the dl’s anymore…
This comic book writer, Warren Ellis, made a great point in an interview he did yesterday. He wants CDs and will always buy them so his daughter can browse through them and develop her own music tastes from that…pretty good idea.
Organization:
CD’s… there are too many to take care of. (Tried alphabetizing, but that got old fast. Too much moving shit)
MP3′s… two 80G HP externals (one for A-M… the other for N-Z).
oops, typo I mean…
*I’ve been (buying) CDs by the shitloads recently, than I have in a long time…and rarely listen to dl’s anymore.
I agree with some folks about the OCD of organizing…lol. If I have no organization it makes things even worst for me…it’s bad enough that I haven’t unzipped a lot of my music yet…
And to add, I never really saw the use of buying dl’ed tracks opposed to CDs, either…I dont get the same thrill either. I feel like I’m listening to a regular ol’ dl. But it’s all a matter of preference, I’m aware…
dl’ing is a good source to use to preview an album bf purchase…this is mostly what I use if for nowadays.
ayo gotty/contra/ tee mothafuckin C
when can i get me in a looooossiiieee or a stray big homies
you fifteen and kill a man, they give you life n they say oh well/
when the cops do it, they say sean bell….
now i aint never been to dc
but i can spot a pentagram from maryland
in them white house streets
the compass and the square formin a paralellgram
should i slow down, am i gettin too intelligent?
should i rap bout how i could sell a gram?
in ziplocks n cellophane?
anyways, keep up the good work fellas, shit keeps me goin through the days, good and the bad.
You prolly posted this but I can’t be bothered to go back and check….
Hova clowning at Glastonbury Festival…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck5srO6S-qI
Still buy the 12″ or LP, (if they’re released) but it seems no one presses up the promos anymore.
I shy away from the loosies for the most part or I’ll download a ton of them & sit down one day and go through them keeping the 5 worth keeping.
I was super OCD with my music organizing everything manually, then my HD crashed. I got a new one & filled it back, but I’m too lazy/mad to go through it again right now.
As for cd’s I got some organized, more in shoeboxes, more stacked up around my room & house, & 20 random ones on my desk @ work.
^ http://my.smithmicro.com/mac/stuffit.html
click on the link for this: NEW! StuffIt Expander® 12
FREE expansion and decoding!
there’s many other decompression/unzip apps out there, this just the one I use
Vinyl vinyl vinyl
I buy a CD if I liked it after i download it.
As far as organization of files go .. I suggest mediamonkey.. a freebie off download.com.
u can pay for it for the extras but if you have more than 25K songs.. its almost a must have. Top that off with the fact if lets u search for tags using amazon for any of the UK, US, Canada, France, Japan, or Germany directorys is a LIFE saver..
I still buy hardcopies (CD, Vinyl) when I can get to the store but honestly living alone with bills and the need to poke someone’s daughter on a frequent occasion doesn’t leave much free cash or time to get to a store.
When it comes to listening to the Loosies and or Strays.. the strays.. if I download it its for a reason.. not everything makes the cut if its a mixtape it has to be seriously good to make the rotation. As far as loosies.. I download all and listen every 4th or 5th day. If it doesn’t knock my eardrums right .. its outta there but to be honest loosies get a 4 month pass in case it knocks and I missed it before. I’ll make mixtapes for fam and toss in a few to get their take.. amazing how many times I play something and be like.. damn TSS always has something hidden for the Kidd
I’ve been reading some of the comments/feedback/criticism left by the haters in regards to Jay-Z’s performance at Glastonbury…
(this could be me talking out my ass again)
it’s kinda like the Obama/McCain thing:
you either wanna see the guy win or you don’t
a lot of these folks that are hatin’ on Jay just. don’t. fucking. get it.
and there’s undertones of racism in their little barbs
i wish they’d just come right out and say what the fuck is on their trifling minds: “Hey, nigger, you don’t have any business doing that here, there, or anywhere.”…instead of being slick and subliminal and using smoke and mirrors to hide how they feel
People are saying Jay wasn’t right for Glastonbury cuz he doesn’t hold a candle to the past greats that have done Glastonbury in the past; or his music and what he stands for doesn’t jive with what the festival is about.
Rock-n-Roll, and Hip-Hop, have always been about challenging notions.
these guys and their double-standards, calling Jay a baby for coming out and doing his rendition of an Oasis song. I’d say Noel Gallagher is the immature one for crying about an icon headlining his beloved show. They can dish it, but they can’t take it?
I won’t let a few bad apples spoil the bunch; to their credit, from what I’ve seen on the clips, Jay was well-received by a majority of the crowd there.
I think the people there spoke very well on their own without the unsolicited comments of douchebags like Noel Gallagher and the sideline busters who talk big via binary code.
Props to Jay for rockin’ it on somebody else’s turf.
^ the “comments/feedback/criticism” can be found on YouTube & here: http://www.nme.com/news/jay-z/37716
^ the dude who runs Glastonbury, Michael Eavis, obviously gave it the green light to have Hova there, but it was originally his daughter Emily’s idea.
hmmmm
David – good point.
Way way too much to reply back to but I think i’m gonna give this mediamonkey thing a shot.
@Belve—
good looking out on the media monkey recommendation
@Gotty—
Just noticed you beat me to Media Monkey, prog definitely has promise.
crazy-ass performance…180k+ people there:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/glastonbury/2008/artists/jayz/
@ Shail
Rapidshare accounts are a must.
I keep thinking this is a Grand @uba post with title
*Puba
Damn Blackberry.
Organization is too complex to adress
Loosies=no download…i’m a douchebag that only likes nodj dirty cdq shit so i wait for that before anything.
I grab an interesting stray here and there, and i buy used vinyl maybe 20 albums or more a month (CHEAP AS FUCK!) and new vinyl everytime i REALLY enjoy an album or respect the artist.
This months new purchases?
Coldplay-Viva La Vida
Adele-19
B.o.B.-Haterz single
Soon to be purchased?
Untitled-Nas
Seeing Sounds-N.E.R.D.
Killer Mike’s new shit if it’s on vinyl
Cube’s new project (Shaping up to be awesome)
L.A.X.-The Game
being a DJ that is on serato, organization is KEY. itunes ftw
i usually listen to the loosies on the playlist ‘hip-hop blogs’ on the ipod and whatever I like, I make a note on the blackberry and it goes on the itunes thus going to my digital crates to play out.
I hate that new game song
I never get loosies, i used to back in the day when I saw some Clipse or Young Dro
I’m a Stray Shotta for real
I have a rockwell knuckles album a downloaded that I haven’t listened to other than that it hits the Ipod
I have too much shit, just got to Rising Down, fucking awesome
PS – it’s always fun throwing the Loosies into iTunes and no artists/song title shows up…………
Buying and storing music is a b**ch. Take it from someone who grew up in a household filled with thousands of vinyl records in milk crates. And now I have thousands of my own vinyl records, tapes and CD’s sitting in my basement. It’s a beast to find something you want to hear which is why I’ve been burning all of CD’s to the hard drives and painstakingly organizing everything in folders by artist name. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I finally find a way to burn my cassettes since there are so many. I mean, will we all end up owning 100 TB hard drives in the future?
I buy a lot of vinyl @ http://www.hhv.de !
^ what about int’l shipping charges?
And you cats buy vinyl, what are your tendencies? Full albums, singles with remixes & instrumentals, other genres, rarities or shit you’ll actually be listening to repeatedly?
Obama – are you just using it for storage/sorting? I read some reviews on it last night & I’m on the fence about pulling the trigger
unrarx.com for mac, .free99
@Gotty—
Its storage and sorting abilities are impressive, you can (with a little bit of configuration) customize its sorting tool to execute all the common organizational methods. But as i am sure you and most of you other cats have your shit just how you want it organizational speaking its Media Monkey’s other capabilities that really convinced me to make the switch, i.e. Volume leveling(never have to deal with that annoying increases or decrease in volume), Universal Mp3 Synchronization, Auto lyric look-up, an impressive scripting interface for all you IT heads like myself, and a buncha other shit i have yet to look at. If anything i would say its at least worth firing a few blanks at
Yea, I know I am mad late and made off topic, but how the hell did you sneak that new G.Rap up in those strays….I checked in last nite but I didnt even notice that shit till this morning….MAJOR!!!
-on topic:
As yall can tell im just starting to get into all this technical shit with external HD’s, sharing accounts, and all that other glory shit….but I can say one to two things I am sick and tired of my cds and my tapes lying around getting in my way. Tapes are in my shoe boxes with the cases, but half of em are popped!!, or the magnetic tape is stripped and the music comes out distorted or the volume automatically goes up and down. CDs/DVD’s are properly organized in my crates (not alphabetical), but most of em has scratches and laser burns on them at the best parts. I have a minimum vinyl collection most of are old classical jazz albums or Motown hits that I took from my cousins and uncles, but I dont have any plans on buying a machine that plays 12″. So I think this new wave of media is great for the simple fact that all computers prompt you to save any file any name you please, so NOW I have no problems finding any artist, track, or album I need I just use the search option. And these new sharing programs are great cause now I have access to new music from all over the globe, I am a very unique musical individual that likes any type of good soul music.
ps…
I do appreciate vinyl for their instrumentals!!
To answer the questions:
-I d/l loosies than delete the trash all in one WHOP!
-I love TSS stray shots, there is always a large array of classics, newness, and rarities that I cant imagine founding on my own…THANKS TSS!!
-I rarely d/l without sampling at least 5-6 tracks, that is the equivalent of buying a record from the store and not poppin it in when you get to the whip, its just a waste of time, space, and premium accounts.
ps… I gotta go listen to that Killer Mike – Ghetto Extraordinary….
-i-tunes is difficult but its also the best thing smoking at the moment so all you need is a little patience and lets of paper to keep notes.
-I dont buy hard copies much, for the simple fact that I dont agree with the music the execs and media are endorsing, I dont like how a&rs try to tell the artist how to make money when the artist got to that point by putting out music that they are comfortable with, dont try to take a individual and mold him to what you wanna hear or your kids wanna hear; thats why it is a generation gap (not only in music) a&rs dont know whats good music anymore they just know they wanna make the next biggest star so the can put they feet up and get fat (guess thats the American way: to eat off the poor/hard working people backs).
-Hard copies are never gonna be obsolete for the simple fact that the industry makes most of there money off of shipping hard copies cross-seas to other companies for more money, exposure, and trading commodities, the FDD what lose out on that type of profit….
I probably downloaded one of the loosies a week, more if there is something I’m looking forward to.
I usually get at least one thing from the stray shots a week, also.
There’s a lot of stuff I’ve gotten from TSS that just sits on my computer like a record would sit on a shelf. Its there in case I ever want to listen to it; a lot of things I get with the intention of listening to at a later date and not having to find it then.
Everything I download goes into a folder for new shit and then is sorted out into Artist folder then Album folder and loose songs end up in “Loosies” because well, you can guess where most come from.
I generally don’t buy albums anymore unless the price is too good or its something I really love. I mostly stick to older vinyl.
Too be honest with you until right now I didn’t even realize the names Loosies and Stray Shots were catagories (very clever, that’s why your the blogger and I’m the customer). I download music from so many sites and sources that it has become almost a full time job for me. I come here for the rare CDS and full albums that I don’t have anymore or forgot about. We have similar tastes in older music (pre Puffy).
I have gone completely digital. I even went as far as purchasing a car stereo that has a USB plug in so I can carry my music on a flash drive and I will never again clutter my vehicle with cracked plastic cases and scratched CDs.
However, I cleaned out a spare room in my house last week and I found so many CDs that I forgot I had. It was like being an archeologist and finding the fossils of a past generation. I can’t wait to RIP them all to my hard drive so I can take them to local record shop and turn them in for cash.
As far as the loosies, I may get on one a week.
Stray shots…it depends…I’m usually looking for rare stuff…or stuff that I used to have (a la…Phil Collins Greatest Hits).
I am almost all digital….I don’t buy CDs that often. The last one I bought was probably Jay’s American Gangster. I still buy vinyl, but all of that is vintage.
I was a hardcore iTunes fan, but now that Im running Ubuntu…iTunes is a no-go. So right now its manual. And since Im having to re-upload everything on my cpu (long story) its gonna take some work getting all those mixes and loosies I got laying around.
IT’Z FLEA BITCHEZ!!! CD/VINYL will never die!!! Record sales are down but they ain’t dead; if Lil’ Wayne can sell 1.5 millie in a week then you know there’s still profit to be made. I cop cd’s only exclusively because I was too young to buy most of the dope shit when it was released on vinyl and I find it pointless to go back and start now. I buy mixtapes/albums/dvds every other week, so my collection is supa-ill!!! I never really started downloading until 5 years ago but that was mostly singles, not albums. There’s plenty of shit that I download that I don’t listen to (shit there’s shit that I bought that I haven’t played yet) but I figure it doesn’t matter because there isn’t a “best-before-date” on music so I can enjoy it later. I organize my downloads by folders denoting the month/year they were downloaded (i.e. “June ’08) and I organize my singles the same way (i.e. Tracks June ’08). I try to listen to 2 albums a day at home, and 2 mixtapes a day while commuting so that I can absorb all the music that comes out. For my cds (I got close to 3,000!!! No bullshit!!!) I buy these cool zip-up travel cases from CaseLogic that can hold about 100 discs, each one vertically in its own jewel case with sturdy plastic spacers.