How do you listen to new music?


Yesterday I stopped in at a local Borders that is closing. They were selling all music at 50% off so I purchased 8 cds. Add these to 3 cds I just received from Amazon and I have a lot of new music to digest.
My normal MO is to load a new cd and listen all the way through. Unless it's a total turn-off I'll listen at least two more times in the next couple days. This gives me a feel for the music and will determine where it goes in my play cycle.
I own 1,000+ cds and own many of them have been listened to only once. There are many Agon members with music collections that make mine seem miniscule. Listening to eleven new cds will take some time and starting this process made me wonder how others listen to newly acquired music.
timrhu

Showing 1 response by martykl

A fairly complicated routine has evolved over time:

New music purchases usually come in monthly to quarterly batches of somewhere between 6 to 12 CDs.

Half go into the car and get popped into the changer. I'll fire up the one I've been most anxious to hear. If it's really got me on the first listen, it stays active. Otherwise, several tracks get a quick listen, before the next CD gets cued up. Cycle thru as necessary over the next 3 to 10 weeks to cover (usually) all tracks. If one CD sounds like it might be sonically and musically special (fairly rare), it may get pulled and brought inside for main rig listening.

Over a week or three, I've ususally (not always, tho) heard every track at least once during my commute. Some get long term residency in the changer while others are quickly popped out and "migrated" for the in-house routine (below). The real losers (also fairly rare) go straight to inventory - lost in my CD racks to grow old and lonely.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the other half of the purchase gets ripped to both my Sonos (multi room) server and my QSonix (main rig) server. The former will get heard in the kitchen, yard, gym, etc, as something slightly more than background music.

Eventually, CDs are swapped from the car into the house for ripping and from the house into the car for commuting time.

Most CDs usually don't get played on the main system until "pre-vetted" on the Sonos or in the car, after they've migrated there. Main system time is now (alas) too limited, and reserved for the music I want to really focus on - meaning music I already know (at least, a little).

This process might sound a little too involved, but it usually works well for me.

Unless it gets complicated when the next batch of CDs arrives before the first batch has been completely rotated.

Then it's chaos. Chaos, I tell you!

Marty