I would say that I have a rather big collection with my close to 16.000 albums on the hard disk. And these are my tips to not get restless:
Per definition I am listening to a full album at a time. I don’t skip songs, I don’t skip to other albums. Only exception is when I by accident haven’t chosen the right style for my current mood or when the album is difficult to access and I am in an easy mood. But the exceptions are definitely not the rule… I 99% or the times stay on course.
When I started with an album of an artist I very often try to stay with the artist for the next album and the next album. It helps me to also go beyond the usual favorite choice for the artist.
The initial selection is either triggered by just scrolling through the collection (I have sub categories), or by reading something either in the press or in this forum.
When on the road or at work I tend to let the walkman run after the initial choice of album to the next album…, when the albums are done it automatically moves to the next artist in the collection.
But the key is to listen to complete albums I think.
It’s one of the disadvantages of streamers/computer audio in general that you can easily jump from album to album let alone track to track. Even with CDs you have to get up to change the CD, let alone vinyl.
More often than not I listen to purchased music, and there are a handful that get played week in week out.
Currently I often listen to music in the background while working at the computer the other side of a knock through room to where the speakers are located, so not ideal but streaming via Audirvana/Roon etc just works well without having to get up.
More recently I’m thoroughly enjoying just having Classic FM on in the background for hours on end, it may repeat a lot or favour certain popular compositions, and all tracks played seem to be short not full works but it really does give me lots of ideas of new things to try on Qobuz. The adverts are the only annoyance, but they need their revenue.
I’ve got a love/hate relationship with Roon, but it’s nice sometimes just letting Roon Radio offer up things you may enjoy and not thinking too hard about what to play next.
I never have gotten restless. I do have a large enough collection where there are some albums that do not get played often but if I live long enough they will once again see the light of day!
99% of the time I listen to full albums and never skip tracks. From the first time I started buying albums in the 60’s I have always enjoyed listening to every song, although I will admit back then I would replay a favorite if I loved a particular song on an album. Now a days it is start up the album and sit back and relax. I have a few Tidal playlists built for the occasion that guests are in the house and some background music is appropriate that can just be started up and will last for a few hours or more.
@popeye I think the conclusion is that the problem lies with us “younger” members (late 30s / early 40s)!! Our attention spans are inferior. The more experienced members here have no such problems and always listen to whole albums whether streamed or on vinyl.
I’ve checked my frequency use and not really surprised to find I listen to a select few far more than 95% of my collection.
I have however, listened to a great many albums for the first time in years and I think this is the great benefit of digital storage.
Interesting, and I wonder if indeed that is a factor. I think I probably would class as an ‘older’ member, and almost I listen by album not track - but then a fair proportion of my music is written to be coherent, whether a concept prog rock album or a symphony, though others are not, but with those I often will have first hear, and in the days of vinyl effectively had to hear, in the order recorded unless I was going to do a lot of getting up and fiddling. So it might be that rather than attention span per se - although I have the impression that young people these days are simply unable to concentrate or hold focus on one thing for long, which I blame on the mass media dumbing down of everything and creating ‘soundbites’ or there equivalent in print or in scrolling banner text on a TV screen, which has been goung on for probably 30 years now.
I had never created a playlist from my albums on the Unitiserve until recently.
Set a theme and get creative.
I find I am quite enjoying the effort - both going over material than could fit, and the outcome. More so for casual listening I dare say.
There is definitely an art in picking the right thing to listen to at the right time.
Although at 2 am the right thing always seems easy to pick !
Another tip is to not actually play anything for a few days, but keeping a zen like awareness of sounds and music that can be observed within peripheral everyday earshot.
Enjoy the silence.
You might find that anything will do.
Interesting topic, I was less than keen on streaming 10+ years ago as I liked being able to physically browse all my cd’s on the shelves that I had nicely sorted alphabetically. Plus I loved my CDX2 and didn’t want to give it up!
I went through the tedious process of ripping all my albums (about 400) before buying a Uniti in 2010. I very quickly came round to the idea of streaming. The convenience of it won me over. I found myself playing more music and also different music to what I had been before. Yes, some albums need to be played in full, but other weaker albums with one or two great tracks on would get overlooked on the shelves. With streaming everything is there at you fingertips on the screen of a tablet. I would struggle to go back now.
That said, I still like to browse through things. I find streaming services where I need to type in what I want a little overwhelming and I can never even think of what to search for, so having a NAS full of my music and some upnp software and a tablet to browse it is still my preferred method to any streaming service. That said, Tidal has come up with some decent recommendations of things I might never have heard otherwise. So having access to a vast streaming library is a good thing too.
I recognise the OP’s problem from my fairly large collection (although I don’t stream) but if tempted to skip around individual tracks what I tend to do is spend a bit of time making a play list for the next 30mins or so then put the phone/ipad or whatever out of reach!
My listening life is still generally measured in album sized chunks though and I think much of the music I buy still works and has been created to work as a complete album, albeit not one with side one and side two any more!
Playlists have not held much appeal to me (even in my my tape days).
Now with Roon Radio and Radio Pradise I think there is some merit, if only I could be bothered!
I’ve never been one for playlists, usually playing whole albums unless I get part way through a disc and find I’m not really in the mood for it, then I’ll try and clear my cluttered mind to find what I’d like to hear. When I’m in need of something I’ve not heard before, I tend to go to Spotify which is included in my monthly phone contract and go for their ‘discover weekly’ option. This I have found very useful and my cd collection has grown considerably over the last five years to somewhere in the region of 450 - 500 discs so nothing quite as vast as many on here.
Popeye, really good topic.
Exploring music familiar or not is for me an adventure. I have 5,000 cds. I know I would be decised before I could get through them all. For me it’s. The hunt and discovery of new music is very rewarding. Certainly some have been more important than others.
I have learned so much from the music I’ve found. There are recordings that didn’t like on first listen that turned out to be favorites and other’s that I quickly tired of after the first listen.
I almost alway’s listen to the whole recording. I try to pay attention to what I’m listening to and not get distracted.
I have friends who haven’ bought music since the 70’s.
I’m a ‘play the whole album’ type, even listening to CD, I’ll rarely skip a track. Even if I went streaming, I think I’d still be same. I always think of an album as being on journey - a start and an end. I don’t have a huge collection (1200 +) either but it grows steadily all the time and obviously contains the odd dog (one play was enough)
Recently going through a bunch of CDs that haven’t been played in a long while. It’s easy to fall into the trap of playing your favourite 60-70 albums.
It’s also a good excuse for running in the recent upgrades.
I play albums and all the way through. That is the way I enjoy listening to music, put something on and let it run its course. Just perfect…
I do have a few playlists made up and rarely use them. The only occasions there used is when people may be at the house socially and want some music playing without having to pay any attention. Second is when breaking in a new piece of gear. …and recently, the third is the NAIM Bristol Show list just to hear what they were playing at the show.
I did not get into streaming to use Roon Radio, but I have to admit, my listening has morphed to using it
a lot when I am working and its just secondary entertainment. Quite often I find something that I would have not known about, that sounds marvelous, and I add it to my artists or albums collection. The other
half of the time, I am picking out things that I want to hear, or have heard about on the forum and want to investigate further.
