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How Many Different Albums Do You Listen To In A Year?


Chris A

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While I was looking at another web site, I noticed a cartoon boasting a large number of discs (in this case-phonograph records) numbering in the multiple thousands.  This got me thinking.  So while I was going through my own FLAC collection on external HD, I did a quick look at the "play counter" for the tracks by sorting on that column within foobar2000.  Over the past 3 years since I ripped my entire digital disc collection to flac (not including Blu-Ray and SACDs), I counted about 1000 albums that I listened to over that 3-year period of time.  This I found to be interesting since I basically am listening to these albums all day long, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  I really don't listen to vinyl records at all: if I do listen to one, I usually buy the CD used (if available) and demaster it.

 

How many different albums do you listen to over a year?  (This isn't the number of albums that you own--but rather only the number that you listen to in the course of a year.)

 

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In a year I probably listen to around 200 different full CDs at home, plus around 200 hours of Internet radio, which is probably around 2000 songs (let's assume each is from a different album). In my car I listen to my iPhone set on shuffle play for my 600+ hours of total commuting time in a year, which probably works out to around 6000 songs (at 10 songs an hour), which may add another 200 albums that I don't normally listen to at home.

 

So 200 + 2000 + 200 = music from at least 2400 different albums. If you subtract the Internet radio it's music from around 400 CDs that I own.

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I'm down to around 20 probably. Just not able to listen to much right now.

 

A good friend have approx. 2000 CDs, which he goes through each year, in alphabetical order, along with a short collection of older and new purchases in rotation.

 

Bruce

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I own maybe 3 thousand but probably only do about 400 or 500 a year.  I like listening to different stuff so I move around a lot.  Still there are probably 40 or so that I have to play fairly consistently.  Portions of the 3 or 4 hundred cds I own are used primarily for road trips in the car.

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Thanks guys. I just wanted to get calibrated a bit as to whether or not I listened to more or fewer albums than the norm.  It appears from the responses above that I'm pretty much on the normal distribution curve considering the amount of listening time that I get.

 

At times, I feel like Rip Van Winkle...like I've been distracted for many years when it comes to popular (and perhaps not-so-popular) music recordings.  I stumble across an old favorite from a certain artist or group that I like/liked, and I look on Discogs or Wikipedia for the background info on the discography, then search for "Best Of" CDs with the highest sales positions (for the more popular music genres, that is) and cross check to look for the highest DR Database ratings.  I then buy that CD on Discogs or Amazon Marketplace, usually used gently for $0.01 (+$3.99 shipping) and when the CD arrives I immediately demaster it after ripping to flac and put the CD on my CD collection shelf.  It's very important to hang onto that original. I now enjoy the music that I missed over the years, and new artists that I haven't heard of before--this is a real treat. 

 

I missed the greater part of the British invasion in the 60s (too young to afford the records) and artists from the 1970s to the present that I just missed for whatever reason (I remember that it was cool to listen to certain albums and uncool to listen to other types/artists, strangely enough).  I receive about 3-5 CDs/week this way.  My mailman--Tony (for 18 years)--has complained that I get a package every day...a bit of an exaggeration.

 

One example: some of those "Best Of" CDs compilations contain about 15-25 songs on one CD.  I very recently bought a Best-Of CD which has 25 tracks on it.  I demastered them over perhaps the next hour or so and then listened through with my wife.  I was really looking for one major track, but I found perhaps 6 more that I'd listened to over the years that I never knew the titles of--on the radio. An average number of tracks on these best-of recordings is close to 10 that are hits, and perhaps 5 that are keepers.

 

Once demastered, they sound very natural without eardrum-chafing boosting of highs and heavy attenuation of lows.  They actually sound extremely good without all that baggage attached, whereas as-received I really can't listen to any of them all the way through.  My wife stated that she can hear lyrics much more clearly and other instrumentation that we missed including and especially string instrument accompaniments--like the "baroque pop" string arrangements.  Once demastered, you can hear those double bass and cello arrangements clearly

 

So I add perhaps 200 discs a year that way for past couple of years and demaster them all.  Classical, blues, jazz , rock, folk, bluegrass, world, and newer genres--for pennies on the dollar, and at a fidelity level not heard before.

 

Chris

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9 minutes ago, Chris A said:

I just wanted to get calibrated a bit as to whether or not I listened to more or fewer albums than the norm. 

The norm?  Around here:lol:  Are we including music I have playing in my head even though the speakers are turned off?

+++

 

At home in a year I listen to about ten albums, all blu-ray that I own.  About 6 CD's in the car.

 

I listen to a lot of songs via Youtube but few CD length from the same artist.

 

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