how do you pick your next music?

this is a recent post with a similar concern:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1302145976&openfrom&1&4#1

I have 2500 cd's and 300 lps none in order. Makes it much easier to just pick things at random

For me, it really depends on my mood at the time I am searching my vast library.

I have mine indexed by 20 genres. I like to deep dive genres. I am currently in Reggae mode.

I'm just like Bongofury only in Jazz-Baltica mode.

I close my eyes and grab a record from a section!!!!

The choice is mood dependent , the bad news is , it seems like we have a top 30 or 40 list and the rest rarely get played .

How do you pick your next music?

To play, or to buy?

To play, it is all a mood oriented thing. Or it’s an effort to change or lift up a mood, by playing upbeat tunes. Working around the house… etc. Company, background, dinner, etc.

Nominally it’s all done by hand picked playlists all in genre oriented form, or Auto generated Playlists from the SMART list function of the media player I use.

That said, I’ve also of late been hanging out online at Pandora and Slacker, two streaming sites for music..

Picking the next music that I will buy often comes from listening to portions of it in advance. Previewing has it’s merits. Listening to the whole song is best so I’ve gone over to Youtube for some of those which really interest me… or I merely cherry pick a few tunes… 2 or 3… and download them from somewhere. If I find 4 songs or more on some released disc, CD, BR, DVDA, or SACD… I simply go buy the thing outright.

If only one or two tracks are attractive… I’ll just keep on cherry picking downloads and refrain from buying the whole album.

AS for any HD tracks from online sources, I’m yet to be a frequent flyer there but have bought a few albums so far. I’m not keen on re-buying time and again, the same album in a different jacket. It’s gotta be quite special for me to shoot still more $$$$ into the exact same song/track. In fact all the HD cuts/albums I’ve bought so far are ones I did not own previously.

Neither am I enough of a groupie to rush out and buy whatever eclectic arcane ‘oldie moldie’ that had languished in the forgotten fold of public domain and has been brought back to life by some entrepreneurial gambling winds.

Lastly, simple boredom, and curiosity propel me into new music genres. New artists, and new groups. Recommendations from friends, and the recommendations you see if choosing online in the “people who bought this yada yada also bought these…” section have proven a path to further musical enlightenment for me, as it/they have opened many many enjoyable musical doors.

Of course, if your mind is open to new music genres you’ll enjoy the seeking and searching out process a lot more and not refrain from it as a droll task in a tedious effort.

The only exception I find to this last phrase is the classical genre. 50 versions of the exact same opera, symphony, concerto, etc, gives me great pause in delving deeper into this genre than I have so far. Beethoven’s 9th by whom? Which conductor? Which orchestra? Where? London Philharmonic? Pittsburgh Pops? Calcuttas Backstreet Chamber group? Sheeeesssshhh.

I don't, my pet frog leaps on the selection of the day.

mine is mood dependent, which is time of day dependent. Sometimes I will decide to look for something I haven't played in a long time just to freshen up the rotation.

I usually get prompted by something I hear on the college radio station I favor and go look for something similar.

I sometimes go thru old CDs and it is like going to a music store, selecting music that I have only heard once and long forgotten. It can be fun!

the more you buy..the fewer you play..the more you need.

I, like Ahendler, have my music disorganized, so when searching for something I find others that will get playtime that normally would never have been looked at. But I find I have bought multiple copies because I'm not sure I have a copy or not. Better to be safe and buy a copy and have two, or three....