#but then I go and buy a cd or vinyl album or even a digital dl from the artist themselves

[crunchycrystals]

bro are you kidding me the cd with you're losing me doesnt even have paris or glitch

[highwayking]

Nuuuuu new stex cast recording pre-orders are open but doesn't seem to have a deluxe edition on CD 😭

[shoulda-hit-the-tunnel]

I have absolutely enjoyed the pants off of Halsey's The Great Impersonator release week. I loved having my release night listening party with gf and my dog. I loved buying all the digital exclusives, I love my vinyl and my signed CD, I loved the Vevo Lives and the Stationhead stream. I loved the Call Her Daddy podcast and the Amazing Halloween live show.

Ive loved sharing every minute of it with you, tumblr fam. Its been so fun to be able to enjoy a hyper fixation with like-minded Halsey-holics, & I can't wait to see this album live even if I have to wait a really long time, and I hope they take all the time they need, because it's going to be So worth it. See you there!! ⭐ 🎱❓ 🎲

[roo-bastmoon]

BTS Tutorial: WEVERSE SHOP

WeVerse is a platform where we can watch BTS content and interact on the forums with the artists.

WeVerse SHOP is where we buy official and exclusive merch.

Gonna recommend you bookmark those two links.

Did you know you can even set up WeVerse on your smart TV and watch content on your big screen? For tutorials on how to set up accounts, go here:

Before we get into it, I’m just gonna make a plug that you try to purchase your ARMY annual membership. Even and especially while the boys are in military service, your membership lets HYBE know there’s still interest and engagement for our boys and that they have SOME funds and fans they can depend on coming in from BTS-related content. I can’t afford the fancy exclusive expensive membership but the $22 a year gets me a free pass to all kinds of cool paid media like behind the scenes footage and extra content, too.

Okay, now back to the shop. So far, I’ve found WeVerse shop to carefully package their folios and albums. I honestly can't afford much because I want to prioritize purchasing the music more than the merch. However, for international ARMY, WeVerse Shop purchases often come with steep shipping costs and delays, so just be mentally prepared to wait for your hoodie or whatever several weeks if not months longer than our K-diamond ARMY have to. Them’s the breaks.

In terms of helping your bias chart, physical albums (CDs, vinyls) sold on WeVerse USA Shop WILL count toward Billboard 200 if you live in the US. (So will physical albums in Target—and some physical albums on Amazon IF they come from the official BTS source. You absolutely gotta check the fine print and see if they tell you which charts their sales might count toward, or just don’t risk it.)

Sales on WeVerse GLOBAL Shop will NOT count for Billboard 200, but those will count toward Hanteo and GaOn charts. If you are a non-US-based I-ARMY, please go ahead and purchase from the GLOBAL STORE to help the boys win awards in their home country if you have the funds.

Also note that WeVerse digital albums are basically QR codes that you get access to the day an album drops. You scan the code and you can play the songs in WeVerse only. None of those plays in the WeVerse app count for our charts so I highly recommend you prioritize Spotify, YouTube, Apple, and Amazon for streaming.

For more information US ARMY can use about WeVerse items for sale, including FACE presale releases, I recommend following this account:

Please go ahead and share this so the word gets out. If you know of better information, please let me know so I can keep these tutorials evergreen, and thank you!

DISCLAIMER:

I am a Dope Old Person and have been ARMY since January 2022. So I still have a lot to learn.

I’m making mini-tutorials for people like me who are comfy with technology but totally new to voting, streaming, and buying Kpop stuff.

If you know of better, more up-to-date information, please comment or DM me so I can make sure I’m not spreading misinfo. Please be polite about it, though—we are on the same team!

Feel free to apply whatever you learn here to other BTS members and other artists; I’m Jimin-biased so I am focused on helping Jimin at this moment in time, but I’m OT7 so rest assured I’ll put my shoulder to the wheel for all our members!

[sofakingmanyrecords]

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A post shared by Niki Z! (@qua_records)

I am really starting to distance myself from the internet. The fact that I can no longer share content across platforms easily is so stupid to me. If this shit keeps devolving I’ll probably just stop bothering with social media as a whole. I’m getting old, it’s been fun but it is no longer much fun, so who cares? All I ever see on my TikTok-lite Instagram feed are ads, not my friend’s content, and suggested reels of OnlyFans ladies that I have no interest in. Like, what the fuck? I really think the only way to maybe even consider getting these fucking data harvesting corporations to bother listening to the public is to just stop using their currently shitty platforms because this is just stupid!

So that’s the end of my rant. Here’s my stupid fucking Instagram post:

I listened to the rest of the album on Spotify and felt the same about most of the rest of it as I had felt about her first album. But my love for that one song necessitated my owning it on vinyl.

Upon seeing the prices used reissues were going for I realized I wouldn’t get this unless it was reissued yet again.

Luckily, in 2021 the 50 year anniversary edition was released. I pre-ordered this 3/11/2022 and it finally arrived today, 5/30/2023.

Never have I ever waited so long for an album to ship.

In a few years this won’t be a problem anymore. The US and the rest of the world will have more new record pressing plants and the majority of the people who got into vinyl in the last 3 years will have either stopped collecting vinyl because they realized it was stupid to pay $25+ for a reissue of something like Jackson Browne’s “Running on Empty” or if they have truly found fun in audio, some will realize they prefer buying new gear as opposed to new records and that a well thought digital system sounds just as good or better than analog and that shit takes up WAAAAAAYYY less space. On top of the fact that old CD’s and quality streaming services are far cheaper than new vinyl and decent turntables. At which point the market will be flooded with even more copies of all the truly unnecessary reissues of the past 10 years and the people still left buying new vinyl will no longer have to wait over 15 months to get record that still somehow comes to you with a slight warp and pressed on noisy vinyl.

By the way, I am not hating on the newcomers to this hobby but hating on the record companies that keep pushing out reissues of shit like Frampton Comes Alive and the like that created these log jams at the pressing plants and now they don’t even have the decency to give you a digital download.

[harmonicabisexuals]

7 and 23 for the musical asks game!

*shows up three days later with coffee* sorry i was busy and forgot about this ask lmao

7. do you prefer cds, streaming, or vinyl?

I actually have a very complex answer to this lol...I definitely always prefer physical media over streaming but I am also a hypocrite who loves the convenience and portability of streaming so I still have an apple music account and use it almost every day. That being said, there are some albums that are just MADE to be listened to on vinyl and I am very proud of my vintage vinyl collection and very sad I had to leave 98% of it at my parents house bc I just recently moved to Europe. (for example, one of my most unpopular opinions is that I actually like the wall of sound production on ATMP, but I also think it sounds so much better on my original press vinyl than it does on streaming, so that makes me wonder if the medium people are listening to 60s/70s albums on are influencing their opinions on them, particularly on their sound and production). On the other hand, I have mixed feelings about the current vinyl boom bc while buying physical media is always good, in my experience a lot of these new albums that often come out with multiple limited edition vinyls (ex. taylor swift) are 1) not produced in a way to sound the best on vinyl since everything is done digitally these days, and 2) the actual quality of vinyl presses has gone down SO much even in just the past 5 years that a lot of these new releases and even new presses of older albums just sound shitty or have skip problems right out of the package. Seriously, I started buying vinyl around 2014 and I never had these types of problems with brand new presses until the last 3 years or so. So in that case, now if I really like a new release album enough to buy a physical copy of it and I think the production style won't translate as well on vinyl and/or I don't trust the company that does the vinyl pressings for the artist I'll buy it on CD instead!

23. how did you discover your favorite artist?

It's impossible for me to choose a definitive favorite artist but I am deep into a Bob Dylan phase rn because my life is very stressful and uncertain atm and his whiny singing and blaring harmonica always relaxes me lmao. so I guess we'll go with that. I first discovered bob in high school when I listened to "like a rolling stone" and it literally altered my brain chemistry. so I always loved that song and a few others here and there but never really did a deep dive on him (I think I tried to listen to highway 61 revisited and blonde on blonde and didn't really Get It at the time) but about a year ago I started listening to Joan Baez and I fell in love with her and her bob covers, and I was like okay maybe I'll give him another shot and then weirdly enough I stumbled across "shelter from the storm" after rewatching jerry maguire dkfsjkdf and listened to all of blood on the tracks and the rest is history <3

Send me Music Asks! (I promise to actually respond this time)

[solradguy]

For the music ask game:

2 (about CDs specifically)

48

2. Do you still buy CDs (or other physical media)?

I don't have a CD player so I don't buy CDs but a couple months ago I got stoned as all hell and accidentally bought Sheer Heart Attack on CD hahaha I can't play it!! The CD player in my car doesn't even work!! It's fine though, I've got it digitally and on vinyl lmao

Most of the CDs I have outside of that are ones I bought in the late '90s-early '00s when I did have a working player though. Maybe one day I'll have a CD player again lol

48. Who’s an artist you think it’s criminally underrated and deserves more recognition?

Leatherwolf is so tragic. They formed in the early 1980s, came out with two albums, dropped off the face of the earth for a few years, and then by the time they came back for real it was the 1990s when their flavor of American heavy/power metal wasn't in the spotlight anymore so they never took off despite being incredible. The 1990s were so rough for smaller metal bands...

Anyway, this definitely isn't their best track, but it's one of my favorites and it's on one of my mixed tapes: Thunder

Sortilège too. They're pretty legendary in the heavy metal community, but they're French which means absolutely no one outside of Europe or into 1980s heavy metal is going to find them on accident haha Larmes de Héros got a (vinyl) reissue lately. I'm trying really hard not to buy it.

[audio-luddite]

Debate or discussion?

Sometimes at work I have to "walk away". This is when I have been concentrating on a job and think I have a solution, but... the damn thing refuses to work. So I just close the CAD system down get up walk around then come back and fire up a browser.

That is what I am doing now.

I visited the Audio Science Review site. They are generally fun to check out. And they like to fight.

There is an old thread on the "who would ever want to use vinyl" discussion. Of course I checked it out.

I pasted this link from page 453 of the thing. That is a FN lot of words. If you go to page one it looks rather the same as page 453. I am right you are wrong kinda thing, forever and ever.

Some classify it as a debate to be won. Others defend their right to hate / love LPs depending. Why when something measures poorly do people prefer it? The tone ranges from hostile to placid. And there are hard alliances to various tribes.

When I see this stuff I twitch. Maybe I should join in? Oh that guy just said what I would have said, do not bother.

Any person who wanders about ASR is basically a measurement person. AKA an objectivist. I am to a degree. I am an engineer after all. Funny but the subject is music which is absolutely esthetic. Ironic.

There are facts in play, but do they matter, or more precisely are they significant?

This is not a debate to be won. No one will win. It is a discussion comparing ideas, and would go much better if it was treated as such.

I have some extraordinary CDs and LPs. I have a few albums with both types of media. I may prefer the LP version because my analog system is quite high end, and my CD player is less. Still some of those CDs are amazing.

I really have no preference for CD versus Vinyl media.

My streaming capability is limited, but I only use that for background listening, or browsing for new music. If I want to buy I want physical media.

It is true that many remastered albums are better as more care was taken in making them. It is also true that much streaming music is poor due to compression, and the "loudness war" syndrome. Not much care is taken to produce it.

It is my position that the fight between digital and analog is not actually about quality of sound. It is about something else. What, I do not know.

That Getz Gilberto Impex LP is my most extreme example of quality of reproduction. Very expensive by far of any album I have. I got it to experience something. The sound quality is amazing even with flaws that are recognized as on the original tape. It is a document. The LP has an accurate rendering of what is there, and I can hear it. The music is "Classic" Jazz. I imagine if you were to buy a digital copy it would sound pretty amazing too. Impex sells CDs and Superaudio CDs too. Not the GEtz Gilberto yet.

This is an exact parallel to tubes versus transistors. There are no manufactured Tube amps that measure as well as even medium quality solid state. Tubes are a preference for "something" it brings to the party. I actually think I have a pretty good idea of what that is. I like it. I play both sides.

If you want to go really far out there are reel to reel tape fans that scoff at those limited to turntables and plastic discs. You want expensive and hard to get media this is a whole other level.

I have said this all before and probably will again. I am reacting to what I read.

In a related thing I am getting small streaming thing to improve my Apple Music path. Will it sound better with a fancier set of chips?

[etlu-yume]

Hearing similar stories to socialjusticeissue's problems with Google Play right from the get-go when Apple Music was released. People losing the music they'd downloaded from Apple Music, or itunes, or even in some cases their own original music that they'd made themselves.

After hearing that I never wanted apple music to even remotely TOUCH my music collection, as difficult as they are trying to make that with the way the "music" app works now (sigh. I need to review music library app options again)

Buy the music where you can; some groups are making special versions of tracks or even hidden tracks you can ONLY get on physical media (... okay or probably through other less-legal means. But that's another story).

What bothers me the most is where some albums, like for example Halsey's Manic album has 16 songs on spotify. The standard phsyical version I can get from a local retailer, only has 13 songs.

Same thing with Yungblood's Weird! album. Spotify has 14 songs, physical release only has 12 songs (aaand is no longer listed on the local retailer. There's a Vinyl, but it's out of stock and $85. Owch.)

It gets even more frustrating because - at least in terms of 'online retailers that count towards local charting systems' - the ONLY one that ARIA will support for Australian sales is iTunes. (A few others - bandcamp, etc. But last I looked, places like Amazon don't, and well Google Play... we know what happened to Google Play, right?)

So basically tl;dr

• Support the bands you like and buy physical media where you can • Buy physical where possible but if digital is all you can do, do that. (Listing for stuff that has gone out of print or for songs or bonus tracks that were missing)

(Also iirc the profits from CDs/physical media is also a loooot more than a stream. Most charting systems will determine x-many "free" streams to be equal to a sale unit of an album, and x-many "paid" streams to be equal to a sale unit. Remembering that they only get paid like. $0.004 per stream* depending on the platform, if for example Australia's charting system declares 170 paid streams are equal to 1 sale unit, even at $0.004 x 170 that's 68 cents??? For a "Sale unit"??? And thats *IF* all your streams are counted.)

*Google says between $0.003 - $0.005 per stream for Spotify ** my math may be a little off alkshdjf and I don't know how that compares with royalties from CD sales or digital sales. *** My ARIA stats may be out of date they're from like 2021 but it was what I had on hand

HOLD THE LINE!! KEEP PUSHING!!!!!

[lastchancevillagegreen]

Tuesday, 7 February 2023:

What’s Going On Marvin Gaye (Tamla) (this reissue came out in 2021, original album was released in 1971)

This reissue has been on my radar since I saw it at Walmart last year.  It was a double album there and I gave it a cursory glance, never checking the price.  When Walmart ran their Black Friday sale and all their albums were marked down to $15 (everything: double albums, boxed sets, new releases, everything) I had big plans to get several things.  But then so did everyone else and Walmart was seemingly stripped clean of everything save Taylor Swift, Adele and the store’s endless crap soundtrack releases in a matter of a morning.  Then next time I finally saw the double album version of What’s Going On was just a couple of weeks ago and the asking price was somewhere around $45.  With tax it would have exceeded $50 and I’m not paying $50 for any album at the moment (not even Luke Haines and Peter Buck’s excellent All The Kids Super Bummed Out), so I opted out of buying the double. 

Yesterday was shopping day at Target and I scoped out the albums, of course.  They had a single version of What’s Going On which I knew my brother had just bought a couple weeks ago.  I decided to not get my own copy becuase I had other albums I would rather chase.  I have the 2001 two CD deluxe edition celebrating the 30th anniversary, that would have to suffice me.  But when I bought two 16 pound plastic contains of cat litter I got a five dollar gift card. 

This morning after the gym I dashed home for a shower and saw a new grocery list on the kitchen counter.  I made a mental note to collect all those damn plastic bags and take them in to Target to recycle.  While there, I figured I might as well cash in that gift card and buy this album which was nagging at me.  And here it sits. 

Above you find the album cover, the gatefold and the back of the album.  This is a repressing from 2021 celebrating the 50th anniversary.  Can 2001 really have been that long ago?!  This version is pressed on green vinyl which you can see below in two different shots. 

That bright light might just be Marvin’s manifestation or it might be the sun.  Either way this looks more bluish green in these photos when it seems to me to look like shamrock green in reality.  This album also comes with a poster and wow, is this poster big.  You can see a glimpse of the album cover in the bottom left hand side to allow you to see how big it is.  Yes, it is essentially four albums covers big, but that doesn’t do the poster justice.  It feels immense.  And how’s this: I always knew poor Marvin was standing in the rain on the back cover but how did I never realize he is also in the rain on the album cover.  I swear I don’t think I realized that until I saw this immense poster (surely I knew he was covered in rain, after all I remember when this came out so I’ve been seeing this cover for half a decade now).  Check out the poster below.

Then you can find a close up of the hype sticker that I always, always believe is a Coca-Cola ad, I think the microphone ribbing are the bottles and the red is the red circle of Coke’s logo. (So Rolling Stone has bumped this up to the Number One spot?  So many critical changes on everything.  I wonder if Jeanne Dielman ever listens to this while she chops up veggies and johns? 

I close out the entry with the labels from both sides of the album.  Looks like someone got sloppy with my copy and glooped green coloring on the label.  Oops. 

Digital photography is a seriously poor substitute for real life color.  It rarely resembles what you see.  The camera gets tricked by the surrounding colors, in this case the shamrock green and it drains the life out of the yellow and brown Tamla label rendering it the yellow color to that of spoiled meat.  I once upon a time was a photographer who shot pretty much only black and white and when digital photography became huge, Kodak and everywhere else opted to kill real film.  I ended my photography because I despise virtually every thing digital.  Looking at these labels and comparing them to the photo of the green vinyl reveals how inconsistent digital photography is.

[twototwotoo]

Research: ALBUM and SINGLE covers and other forms of musical media

Album art is unique in the idea that it needs minor to no changes when moved into other musical mediums, unlike other forms of media like games. Vinyl album and Single sleeves and even CD and phone displays all adhere to the same sizes, the same ration all the way up and down. This means that a publisher who prints the product can make one one design and copy and paste it onto another product saving time and resources. 

Most digital covers can fit a 3000x3000px measured square, as all album art, except a few outsiders, is square in nature, but it can easily be changed to any equal variable of height and length as the product can be downsized to a smaller size later on, and by working on a larger canvas you are able to include more details even if they could become blurred when made to fit. Other measurements are 8x8, 4.7x4.7In, 10x10, 12x12 and even 4000x4000px, anything is allowed if it is to a 1:1 ratio In real life though, the standard size of a vinyl cover ranges around 12.375x12.375 inches. In my project I have worked on a 3000x3000px canvas that can be fitted into this size, but I picked this size as their art is not going to be printed due to their garageband nature.

As you may be aware, Vinyls are now a form of collectable media, they are rarely kept for the sole reason of playing music due to the decline of physical media that is being seen in nearly all forms of art as we move towards a far more technologically advanced future. Vinyl was overcome by the CD, as much smaller, one could say, compact disc, that could hold tenfold what any vinyl could keep, and to boot they were cheaper to produce, took less space and were portable ulike a record player. The writing was on the wall at that point, and this was a Huge blow to vinyl sales, and eventually the were basically put out of production around 1989 when they were no longer mass produced, being overtook by CD around 1988, only a year prior. But even now, CD’s have also suffered a similar fate to their bigger brothers as streaming music became the next big thing with their digital predecessor, the MP3 players, being released during 2001.

Welcomingly, Vinyls had made a resurgence in recent years, with people becoming sentimental with the past and trying to retrieve what they sold off. Not only are vinyls being sold again, with some stores opening specifically top sell them and other having them in stock, such as His Masters Voice and record stands down back alley streets, but new vinyls are also getting printed, and not only be larger companies but also by indie labels due to the profitability. Records are being reprinted while others are being printed for the first time, like Jamiroquai’s discography that came out after the first vinyl release of his most influential album, Travelling Without Moving, for its 25th anniversary in 2021, a personal favorite of mine. 

This uprising began all the way back in 2007 and has been steadily increasing ever since, just this year, Taylor Swift's most recent album, Midnight, had reached over one million presses on vinyl in the U.S, outpacing it’s CD brethren in sales. In the UK, it was determined that at a time ¼ albums brought where in the vinyl format, an oddly frightening scale.

It is clear to see that the vinyl has returned to a nice position of relevance, while the format is not the best way to indulge in the music it plays, its size allowing for a nice sized art piece, it slight, homely imperfections, and the bonuses that are usually found with them make them a great buy for nostalgia and to support artists work, what with streaming has become a cause of concern for smaller indie artists that could have been harmed in the transition.

[sillyfun214]

So I need to vent (quasi-publicly which is very weird for me but I am very frustrated). This is a bit of a long post.

So being a low-key Swiftie I was obviously super fucking excited when Taylor was finally able to start re-releasing her music and re-take ownership of the songs she poured her heart and soul into.

I knew this was a big deal and the concept of getting people to buy new versions of albums they (might) already own was confusing to a lot of people. And it was about setting a precedent for artists owning their work - which has majorly wide reaching effects for music and beyond.

Fearless (Taylor's Version) is announced and I buy the first physical CD I've bought since high school. It arrives. I'm thrilled. Then Red (Taylor's Version) is announced. I decide I need to go vinyl on this one and order it.

At this time there are news articles about vinyl shortages and delays in production. And the email confirmation says some items are expected to ship in 12 weeks. So I prepare myself for a long wait.

I check the website and my email pretty frequently for a few weeks. I also ordered a Fuck the Patriarchy keychain for my friend. Eventually, I kind of forget about the order.

About 7 weeks later I get an email saying the keychain shipped. I was like cool, hope the record ships soon. (The email subject line re: the keychain said "the last item in your order has shipped", but I didn't put 2 and 2 together).

I received the keychain, but no record. Okay, I thought, must still be delayed - especially since I hadn't received notification that it shipped.

Once again, I kind of forget about the record. I would occasionally remember, but only at the most inconvenient times, of course - driving, in the shower, at work.

Cut to October 20th of this year - my motivation and my memory lined up and I acted. I emailed customer service. It was terrifying! Having been in customer service, one of my biggest fears is being somebody's Asshole Customer. Overall, I think I was polite.

Attached to my 10/24 email were screenshots of all the emails I had received and the order status page. To clarify, this is still how the order status page reads - does not say it was shipped or delivered!

While I understand that it is now the one year anniversary of placing the original order, how the fuck was I supposed to contact them within 60 days of the item being shipped if the item was never shipped!?

Long story short, if anyone has a vinyl copy of Red (Taylor's Version) they want to send my way, I am very open to it. I'd even be willing to pay shipping (again) (as long as it actually ships).

On the bright side, I did just buy tickets to the Eras Tour. Unless there's a shipping problem with my digital tickets. 👀

[thetragicallynerdy]

fungi anon again (sorry this is the last one i promise) wondering about your opinions on CDs/vinyl compared to digitally downloaded music

Fungi anon you are welcome to ask as many questions as your heart desires <3

Hmmmm okay okay. I'm actually going to go by each item, for funsies

CDs - so, I grew up with cassettes and CDs, and part of me deeply loves the hard copy aspect of CDs. I still have a massive binder of CDs that used to live in my car (I can no longer drive with music on for disability related reasons, so now it lives in my apartment), and I really value having certain albums on CD. And I also appreciate that it was a one time purchase, and my money (or at least a bit of it) actually went to the artist - especially with smaller artists and indie CDs, which I have a lot of. Or at least, more of my purchase went to the artist than it does with Spotify. I'm also a huge fan of CD booklets. I love reading lyrics as I listen to music, and love the physicality of it.

However - CDs also scratch *really* easily. They're so easy to mess up, and then you're kind of shit out of luck - you either buy a new one, or you deal with the terrible skipping CD. And they can be bulky to keep and carry around.

Cassettes - I adore cassettes. They take up a lot of space, and are an obsolete technology, but there's something so beautifully nostalgic about them. And something beautiful about not being able to skip songs, and having to just listen. As a bonus you can get them hella cheap at thrift stores (same with CDs actually). I have a cassette player still and a drawer of cassettes, some of which were mixed tapes made for me by friends and family. Love them.

Vinyl - love it in theory, but I have 0 space for a record player, and vinyl takes up even more space than cassettes. Which, if you have limited space, is not ideal. Also they're often expensive! And I am poor! So!

Digital - Honestly digital is just so convenient. There's a reason that mp3 players became so massively popular - because you went from having a bulk portable cassette or CD player that you had to carry around (and extra tapes or CDs if you wanted to listen to more than one album) to having a device that fit in your pocket that could fit many albums. My first tiny mp3 player fit like 4 albums, and it was a game changer.

Realistically, 99% of what I listen to is digital music. It's much easier to get (either through streaming, sites like youtube and bandcamp, purchasing albums, or illegal downloads), much easier to keep backups of, and much much more convenient. Also as someone with some sensory auditory needs, it's easier to listen to things on my phone speaker than my stereo. I find that I rarely listen to a full album all the way through these days, and I love the ease with which I can make only playlists etc.

And Streaming services made it much, much easier to listen to a variety of music. I can find things that I would never have listened to if I stuck to only hard copy music.

So my feels are kind of complicated! Because I really adore hardcopy, and really value having physical copies of things - but also it's a lot cheaper for me to spend $10/month on Spotify than it is to even buy one $20 CD a month. (I have no idea what albums cost now, but that was around how much they cost when I was a teen and buying CDs a lot.) And that doesn't even take into consideration the space needed to store things. Digital is more convenient, in many many ways. And convenience isn't always the point of things - but I'm not going to pretend it's not a factor.

Thanks for the ask anon, sorry this was a bit rambley <3

[94erz]

Something that’s been interesting to watch with the general fandom is how ANGRY they are j-hope fans want CDs. As if wanting something so simple is demanding too much when HYBE just released a nearly $300 collectors edition (over $300 when you factor in EMS and S+H) that came with the same CDs for Proof as the standard edition and the compact edition. Re-releasing LY:Her as a vinyl (and JITB) despite there being massive production issues ongoing with vinyl’s, versus just simply releasing a CD.

And I have to question, if Coldplay wasn’t involved with Jin’s single, and it was treated the same way as JITB, would they have been as angry? Would Jin’s fans demanding more for him be seen as asking too much? Demanding too much of HYBE? Insulting Jin?

And what about future releases I wonder. Depending on who releases a FULL album next, and it’s once again back to digital albums, will they care about it too? Will they be angry and want more? Or will they simply not care like they’re now showing for JITB?

It’s almost like...there’s a really noticeable bias within the fandom...

Also related side tangent

Seeing some just awful takes about PCs and multiple versions like no, fans don’t NEED PCs or several versions of an album, if BigHit/HYBE went back to one album with 1 PC per album (or NO PCs honestly) life for a lot of people would be a lot better actually. The collector obsession would honestly die in its tracks if LESS PCs were even an option, but a company will always maximize profit so if they can sell 4 versions collector’s and diehard fans with buy all 4 and yes, PC collecting will be more rampant in order to complete sets. 

They could easily go back to the skool luv affair era, I prefer my Dark & Wild album the most ANYWAY, the only one similar was Butter. Though I will confess album wise YNWA are the best, they’re slim, simple, look more like books than albums, there were 2 versions of that which is still better than 4, but they could have also only released one of those too. 

I mean, I only bought one...I’m not that intense about BTS albums since they all have the same songs anyway.

[theshootingraistar]

OK I know literally NO ONE asked but i'm going to give you at LEAST 5 reasons why CDs are still better than every digital media in the year of our lord [current year].

1: Real Ownership 2: Support Your Favorite Artists 3: CD Releases Have More Things To Look At 4: It's Technically Retro 5: It's Just Nice To Have Something Physical 6: One Time Payment 7: They're Still Being Sold 8: Interesting Shit In The Lyric Booklet 9: I Like CDs, Okay?

I go into more detail in the read more if you care, but there's your basic overview.

1: You actually own the bitch.

In digital media, and EPECIALLY streaming, you don't actually OWN the music. (You don't with CDs either, unless you made the songs) You just own the right to listen to them when the service decides you get to. Did that song get removed off of that streaming service? Did your hard drive get wiped? Whoops, guess you just lost the right to listen to that song! With a CD, all the songs are on that CD. The only way they're going away is if the CD gets destroyed.

2: You can give an artist you support more than a fucking quarter of a cent for thier work.

Streaming notoriously gives artists a terrible fucking cut of the money. Every million streams is, like, a cent tops. You buy a CD from a record label for $10, a majority of that goes DIRECTLY to the artist. And if you buy it from thier website of bandcamp, it goes COMPLETELY to the artist! That's, like, 5 decades worth of streaming money!

Yes, I'm aware you can also buy digital media from bandcamp, but that's why this isn't the ONLY benefit to CDs.

3: Pretty...

Digital media can really only show you what the album's cover art looks like. Which, yeah, that's nice. But there's SO much more to look at on a CD release! See what cool design they put on the disc! Check out what they did with the lyric booklet! The style guaranteed to be appealing! Maybe it's secretly a poster as well! Check out the BACK cover art! The inside art is cool, too! Maybe it's in a case that isn't just a basic jewel case! They put a lot of effort into that case, y'know! There's SO much more to look at and admire about a CD or physical release!

4: Be a retro bitch with this shit.

CDs are the next Vinyl. Or Cassettes. In a few years, this shit's gonna be STUPID retro. Back in MY day, music came on a 120 millimeter disc you had to pay $20 for! I mean, think about it: CDs are technically ALREADY outdated ever since we all moved on to digital. All the new kids are fuckin' prancing around with thier $3000 iPhones packed with every song ever fucking made on a free app they can shove in thier goddamn pockets. If you really wanna be old school, you'd get a CD. Because, honestly: Even Vinyl is so old and retro at this point that you'd have to be REALLY retro to even give a shit about vinyl, honestly. Although...

5: Physical media go brrrrrrrr.

Take that CD. Or Vinyl, Or Cassette, or whatever. Hold it in your hands. ...Feels nice, right? Honestly, as someone with autism, owning something physically makes my brain smile. I can hold it in my hands and go "i own this!" and i do! i do own it! i bought it with my own goddamn money, and the proof is that i have it here in my hands right here! Sure, this may not be the same for a neurotypical, but you still have the ability to hold it in your goddamn hands and maybe feel good about that fact.

Lightning Round Time!

6: CDs are a 1-time payment, and you don't have to subscribe to any bullshit and waste $20 every month just to listen to "Barbie Girl" on repeat. 7: There's still a demand for CDs, which means that OBVIOUSLY the format isn't DEAD. People still want new albums in CD form. 8: That booklet has other good shit in it, too, like who the band members are, who produced the album, and who the band members thank! Stuff that you might want to look up on Wikipedia if you care that much about it, is usually right in the booklet for curious listeners. and 9: Fuck you. I like CDs, okay? Get off my ass.

Thank you for reading if you got this far. have a cookie. 🍪

[bandsanitizer]

wanna do the album ask game with wfttwtaf? I’d love to know your answers 🥰

hi em!!! thank you for the ask 💖 hope you have a great day!!

wfttwtaf

the first song from this album I heard: starting line!

do I own the album?: yes! cd and digital and came really close to getting the vinyl except I already gave luke all my money buying purple merch

my favorite song: comedown! or like the whole album bc while I was listening the first time I decide each next song that played was my new favorite

my least favorite song: okay. so I’m going to say motion but that’s not even close to being a song I dislike or would skip. it just isn’t always sonically my cup of tea but really? no skips on wfttwtaf

a song I didn’t like at first, but now do: a beautiful dream. like it has grown on me so much and the voicemail thing just makes me feel so many feelings and every time I listen to the track I fall a bit more in love with it.

a song I used to like, but now don’t: place in me? I listened to it A LOT when it came out bc I really love it but I have just had enough of listening to it right now. then again that’s kind of my feelings for all the singles.

my favorite lyric: “your heart can’t keep a vacancy for me” or “let it come down on me / let me see all the things I was supposed to see” or just the entirety of bloodline and comedown. the lyrics on this album!!! are just!!! so good and so luke!!! but like with bloodline and comedown particularly, if the album is about reflecting on your past self, then those two end the album on this feeling of self-awareness and growth (or at least character development lol)

overall rating out of 10: when I did my first listen I told my partner it was 9.5/10 and I think I’ll stick with that. it definitely one of my favorite albums and I’m really proud for/of luke for the album. but it’s mostly been making me excited for what’s in store for 5sos5

Send me an album and I’ll review? it