CDs purchased:
Digital album downloads:
CDs from LaLa swaps:
Digital singles downloaded:
# of music service subs:
Live shows attended:
|
04
86
-
-
50
-
30
|
05
76
-
-
38
-
26
|
06
50
44
69
63
1
36
|
07
64
70
28
22
1
35
|
08
62
65
11
38
1
44
|
09
101
50
7
60
1
35
|
10
59
12
-
22
-
35
|
11
73
13
-
58
-
36
|
12
48
12
-
37
-
28
|
13
58
11
-
28
-
32
|
14
37
12
-
39
-
44
|
15
43
1
-
14
-
38
|
16
31
2
-
17
-
38
|
17
14
16
-
4
2
38
|
18
18
10
-
5
2
40
|
19
34
12
-
1
3
45
|
Compared to last year, not that much changed. The biggest change the addition of yet another music service. Qobuz has joined Spotify and TIDAL on my list (and I've added a new line to the annual table to reflect my music subscription habits, since they now account for the majority of my recorded music spending). This is mostly because I'm an audiophile nerd and really appreciate that TIDAL and Qobuz bring lossless streaming to me (higher quality audio than Spotify, essentially), and both integrate with Roon, which is the music management software that I adore. This brings my monthly music subscription bill to $50/mo. or $600/yr. As I predicted 20 years ago, the music industry is making much more money from me today than they did at the turn of the century (particularly when you consider that there's no retailer taking 50% off the top).
Surprise, surprise, my CD purchasing is up! But it's not quite what it seems. Now that CDs have become so unpopular, the prices have plummeted, which means I find I'm picking up used CDs to fill gaps in my catalog or to "upgrade" from old mp3 from my long-gone eMusic subscription days. About a dozen of those are classical CDs I picked up for a couple dollars each. Two are obscure albums that are not available on the major streaming services (one from Ida, one from Pooka). And 11 are the Kate Bush reissues that came out this year.
So, if we're talking about *new* CDs, that number continues dwindling for me. But I still like buying the albums that I really like. But in recent years, that means buying a lossless digital download, most often from Bandcamp, rather than buying a CD. Now that my music collection is all ripped to hard drive (with multiple backups, just in case), CDs are just clutter. Plus, artists generally get to keep much more of the overall take on a site like Bandcamp than they would for CD sales that run through their distributor/label.
Finally, in something of a surprise, it looks like I hit an all-time high for live music this year. Not exactly sure how that happened, but that's the subject for a different blog post, coming soon.
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