I posted a while back with a pretty raunchy article about how the iPod has killed music, and while it was extreme I feel that the message I got from that article was a potent one. With the accessibility of digital media and the abundance of iPods and large hard drives, it seems like some sort of OCD is prevalent with people that have MP3 players that keeps them from fully enjoying their music.

I, for one, am hugely guilty of not listening to things as much as I should have. The shuffle option on my iPod and iTunes is a curse; all I do is skip over the first 10 seconds of each song and never really take things in anymore. I'm still discovering cool songs on my Shadow Hearts FTNW OST, and after several months of owning it I am really digging into Azel's soundtrack. I've put my iPod in the corner for now and have only been listening to music on actual compact discs, and the results have been great for me. Instead of having the temptation of changing songs halfway through or skipping around aimlessly, I am actually listening to music and enjoying it more than I usually do. When I hear a cool song I'll listen to it again, instead of mindlessly skipping to the next track.

I get more enjoyment out of CDs, like the digital stuff has no soul and isn't as enjoyable to listen to. I've talked to a few people about this that feel the same way, so I don't think it's just me being OCD and ADD or whatever three-letter mental ailment you can think of (DUM?).

My question to you is this: does anyone else have trouble really listening to music, especially since listening to digital files are starting to take the place of listening to full compact discs?

I have tried using various mp3 players, but I am not happy with any of them for one reason or another, even the iPod.
Also, even when I did have a mp3 player, I ended up listening to my music at home anyway via CD. 

I have rarely used the skip function on a mp3 player, preferring to make up a set tracklist rather than letting the device go on random.

I also have a preference for CDs that have a high number of tracks that I enjoy, so I don't have to skip or selectively not rip to mp3.

I don't think it's entirely fair to say that the iPod/mp3 player has killed music; however, I think what killed the idea of listening to albums in their entirety was the CD itself.

Look back to older forms of musical media such as tapes and LP's - skipping a song on an album was more of a chore than it is on a CD or mp3 player today. On a tape it's a turkey shoot if you hit your target (especially if you’re multitasking like in a car) and on an LP while you have an idea of where to place the needle it seems like its more trouble than it's worth. I don't think iPods/mp3 players destroyed album listening as much as one button track skip – iPods/mp3 players are just an extension of that idea. Also, one could take into account the whole idea behind a mix tapes or CDs - the idea of listening to favorite tracks over individual albums has been around for a long time.

Still, I grew up on stories that when my parents were young they would listen to their LP's the whole way through, not because they HAD to but because they WANTED to. An album was an experience, not an "I like one song and the rest of the tracks can take a flying leap" grab bag kind of thing. Granted this sounds like any normal "in my day speech" a parent would tell their child, but I have to say I believe them in most respects - I think we are bombarded with much more musically and image wise and I think our “pick and choose” behavior is the result.

I admit, I'm guilty of the whole "pick out my favorite tracks and slap them on my player" mentality myself, with the above it's really a reflection of our society itself: people hurry and rush all over the place don't want to be tied down with what seems to be undesirable material. It seems like a good strategy but it isn't... how many times have you dismissed something like a song only to become addicted to it later? I have - too many times to count.

Right now this is what I'm trying to do with the Lost Child albums and I'm noticing things I missed the first time around: how little pieces of songs appear in others, how one side is more straightforward with its speed while the other one is a little more abstract in it's execution - stuff I wouldn't have picked up if I didn't make a point to put the full albums on my player instead of individual songs I had on there before.

I think all of this sounds crazy.  I have no cds outside of those from Connary; everything I have is digital.  It has been that way for quite a long while too.  The only album collections I have are soundtracks; I have never, EVER enjoyed most full cd releases by bands.  Usually there is one to three good songs in a collection of fluff.

The solution that I have made for myself is to put entire albums on my mp3 players and separate them with playlists.  Thus one has a self-contained album with the convenience of an mp3 player.

Since I got my iPod Shuffle I'm actually listening to more music. As I only put stuff on there I actually like the shuffle feature (with the forced inability to go to a specific track) is actually a godsend for me as I'm now listening closer to tracks I did care that much for in the past.

I'm tending to agree here.  My ipod is cool and everything, but it takes a small portion of joy out of my whole music experience.  Gone are the days when I could go browse Tower Records or the somewhat modest release of video game music (Final Fantasy VI anyone?).  With the surge of releases nowadays, it's hard to pick out the good ones from the mediocre ones.  Now it's finding music to put on the ipod, but where's the heart?  My practice has been to find an album that's worth listening to and then burning that to a CD to fully experience it in the car.  I bought that iTrip adapter for the ipod and boy does that suck a**.  The sound quality isn't what it should be, and the signal goes in and out.  Somehow I am able to appreciate a CD more when I've listened through it all the way.  In all actuality, the car is the only place I'm able to actually give at least 90% of myself to the music being played.  (Yes, the other 10% is driving the car)  It's almost like I need to be "forced" into listening to it; similarly to the way playing through a game will "force" you to listen to the music.

What the f---, man? I thought listening to music, and enjoying music were one and the same. When did we begin to split hairs, here?

I'm not trying to split hairs here at all.

Maybe it's just me (and a few others) that feel this way, but I find it easier to skip over songs and spend more time organizing MP3s and shuffling around my computer/MP3 player than it is to actually sit down and let things play through, and I was curious if other people felt (and acted) that way, too.

I guess I just miss the "good ol' days" of listening to compact discs instead of ripping shit and transferring everything to a portable hard drive that holds 4,000 songs that I'm just going to skip over. For those of you with MP3 players that can keep focused on a song/album without skipping around: I envy your attention span and willpower. I spend most of my iPod time just skipping around.

Because of MP3 Player technology, and the art of making playlists, I'm more likely to listen to the music:

1) Because of the portable and accessible nature of digital technology,

and

2) Playlists allow me to sequence an individual album's songs perfectly so each song feels like it leads right into the next. And, of course, to be able to make a logical, efficient playlists, I have to get to know the album pretty damn well in order to do so, I take part in relatively active listening.

3) Certain labels I can use to identify my music allow me to set it off into choices in which I can choose music that I like to listen to during a certain time of the day, or depending on the weather. I set off into Autumn Vs. Summer Vs. Winter, Day Vs. Night, and Sun Vs. Rain; that way, I'm often able to easily find exactly what I want to listen to at a given moment. By this time, you've probably figured out that I like the maintain some atmospheric context preservation of the music in question - it's like recreating scenes from the respective game!

4) You know I'm a connoisseur because I'm posting on a video-game music messageboard, of all places, or out of all things I could possibly be doing right now.

The only time the music gets blocked out is when I'm trying to concentrate on something else while I have music playing, and most of the time, I only have the music on simply to make me concentrate on whatever I'm doing; it helps blood circulate to the brain.

With that said, I understand what you're trying to say. For the most part, I don't really concentrate on what I'm listening to unless I'm sitting or laying back, and not paying attention to anything else, and partaking in the "active listening" I was talking about. It also qualifies as a form of meditation, as you focus on that one thing, and block everything else out.

I think, for the most part, messing around with digital files (even of CD's I own) and removing/rating tracks has been really beneficial for me and my listening habits. Especially with VGM and especially with albums with so much stuff on it...Effectively removing dead weight from albums and seeing 5 stars in iTunes (as opposed to remembering my favorites off the top of my head from looking at tracklist) makes listening to albums far less cumbersome. I think with CD's, I tolerated a lot more crap than I normally would have if I had the option of ditching certain tracks. Then throw in smart playlists and give me all my 5-star tracks on random based on the grouping tags I have filled in (or whatever...I tend to over-tag too much)...That's too good.

I mean, it's great I have the FFVII OST with all the game's music on my shelf, but my personalized digital version has my ripped 128 AAC files (which are nice and small to begin with and sound great) all the crap skimmed off, my favorites marked for when I pull up a smart playlist and I want them included, a place for album art, and then seperated into listings by "Disc 1/2" and "Disc 3/4" (as opposed to one with all 4 or all 4 individually...I do all my 4-disc albums like that, unless there's so little material I only need 1 listing). All that for 140 MB or so of iPod space, VS sitting through (or skipping) Tifa and Barrett's themes on disc 1 and manually flipping to another disc in an hour? No comparison.

I love CD's in general (if nothing else, for the fact they're hard copies and for their ripping flexibility...Which is why I'm not a fan of digital media downloads becoming the standard for music retail). They look good in a room, are generally well-produced with the art and stuff and I still use them in my good home unit with good headphones (which, in turn, work like shit on an iPod...So there's added motivation to keep CD's around!). But I think digital media and iTunes/iPod (or whatever) is a tasteful and natural evolution that allows far more control on the user's end.

Of course, I still have to actually listen to the music to determine whether to junk it or give it 5 stars. That really hasn't changed at all, outside of the ease of hauling digital media around (I don't miss the days of loading 24 CD's or so in a case or wallet for travel, along with having enough AA batteries for my CD player and being careful not to rattle it while it was playing). It's rewarding to know if I don't like a track, there's a very good chance I'll never have to see it again in my lifetime once I junk it and if I do, it's marked for future reference. It really puts the music on the spot, compared to letting it go in one ear and out the other. The ONLY drawback is the guilt I feel listening to my 5-star tracks after they've been tagged, when there's so much more I need to hear and evaluate...And that's guilt I can live with.

Everybody's welcome to their opinion but I'm another who thinks this "I preferred it old skool" when it comes to buying and listening habits for music is silly.  Even if you have an iPod or what not, you can still do things old skool if that floats your boat...

-Go to a CD shop, buy a CD that interests you due to the cover art or artist or word of mouth - but without having actually heard more than a song or two off of it - and run the risk of getting burned.

-Put every track from each album on your MP3 player, regardless of whether you actually like that track or not, and be forced to navigate through all of them.

-When you switch from one album to another, maybe even pretend like you're rummaging through your bag or go walk to to your shelf and back, to compensate for the time that you would normally be having to switch CDs.

-If you really wanna go old skool, forget about skipping tracks.  Instead rewind or fast forward all the way through those bad boys since that's what you would've had to do in the days of cassettes.

Personally I am content with listening to complete (or most of) albums before investing my money in them, spending most of my music time listening to tracks I actually really like, and carrying them around with me in a pocket-sized device without the need for bulky CD or cassette wallets.

I understand the argument that technology has changed our listening habits, but not necessarily for the worse.

I'll agree also that this topic is actually rather dumb in my opinion.  Really just suck it up and don't be so ADD when using your iPod.  There's no difference between hitting the next track button on an iPod than there is on a cd player.

Hahahahaha! Very funny.

A simple "no" would have sufficed.

Don't you find that you need some filler to skip through?  It's hard for me not to touch my ipod or skip tracks when I'm not listening to exactly what I want.  I think I may connect more with Zane on this issue (a first!).  Sure, some albums warrant filtering out the crap, but if there's only like 3 songs from one CD on the ipod, it doesn't feel the same as listening to it through the same album on a CD player.

Nice topic.

I might have the same problem, at least partly. I have like roughly over 500 songs on my iPod but I keep finding myself listening to atmost 50 of them and that over several weeks sometimes. It usually takes me a long while to realise that the other stuff could need some attention too or that I just need a complete new playlist. For some weird reason I prefer to stick with the same songs over and over when I'm on the bus, walking or cycling somewhere. It's just that when for example I cycle to my dad's place which takes like 10 minutes I can't be arsed to explore new songs during that short while. The same when I'm on the bus whilst my usual ride to work takes 30 minutes. It's a feeling like..."I don't want to waste my precious 30 bus-minutes listening to new stuff from which I might not like half of it so I better listen to the good old stuff I'm used to". I know it's silly. The time I spend actually exploring music is at the PC where I'm mostly too busy/lazy skipping songs so this is the time I get to know new music.

Anyway, I don't have a discman and my VGM collection is rather small (10 CD's) so heck...will stick with the iPod for now.

That's exactly why I love my iPod Shuffle, it just doesn't offer you any good way to skip to some specific music (especially with huge collections) so once one gets accustomed to that it's very relaxing (and it's really easy to take anywhere, making the headphones the bigger issue).

Another thing I like about being able to rip music to my computer, and put it onto an MP3 Player, is that I never have to deal with the disc again. I can keep the disc in pristine condition, and even sell it away if I feel so inclined, while my digital files stay nicely preserved.

Back when I used to mess around with CDs and CD players, I always thought to myself, "Isn't there a better way?!" Then again, I only held off on MP3 Players as I did because I didn't even have a computer of my own back then; at least not one that would've been able just to handle the software for the PC to communicate with the MP3 Player.

Yes and no...I mean, for some bands, I'll leave the power ballads on and for others, they go in the trash can about 30 seconds into them. It depends on how much I like the actual band or song. Home Sweet Home? Yes. Every Rose Has Its' Thorn? Yes. Just about about any other Poison or Motley Crue ballad? Goodbye and good riddance.

But all those slow "sad" themes, extensive "mood" tracks and long ending themes that take forever to develop and still aren't impressive even when they do on game albums? It's too easy to dump them and focus on the interesting parts of the soundtracks. Sure, I'll leave them on for Suikoden 1/2 or Chrono Trigger or FFVI or anything I have an actual connection to, but there's no point leaving them on for "random RPG whose music is half-excellent and half-boring".

And very rarely, do I get down to only 3 "good" tracks per CD/album...Normally for that, I'll just add them to a "single track" directory and not even bother giving it a folder, so I salvage SOMETHING from it. I'm not saying "get it down to the bare bones and ONLY the five star masterpieces and battle music", but on the same hand, what's the point of even keeping something that would only get 1-2 stars? Something that has 3 or 4 stars has the potential to grow on me and "bloom" into a 5-star track the more I listen/pay attention to it (just as a 5-star track can morph into a 3 star track if I get bored of it...Which isn't uncommon either). 1-2 star songs, I can pick out really easily in the first 20 seconds and maybe 1 in 100 will develop into something I'd normally listen to.

For me, it was a realization: Composers aren't putting their best effort into every track or even every album, so there's no point in not trimming the fat. I think just about everyone acknowledged in an earlier thread that about half the material in a 4-CD set is normally junk. I can use the space and I can use the time saved for listening to bonafide classics...Why not trim off the fat?

Unfortunately, this is the way I feel about most of Sakimoto's work.  Breath of Fire V had like 5 maybe 6 offerings to make.  The same thing goes for Legaia Duel Saga.  Still, the idea of browsing to the BoFV album on my ipod and seeing 5 songs there just makes me shudder.  What a selection!  If I didn't have the filler to sift through, I think those tracks would become stale much quicker than if not. In essence, the "fat" preserves the "meat".

I loathe digital music and downloading.  I plan on listening to CDs until the day I die, unless I go deaf sometime between now and then.  Nothing against the medium itself or the people who use it, it's just not my bag, baby...

...but why, WHY don't I like digital music, I ask myself.  I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I am a very visual/tactile person, in that I like to look at the album art and the track listing, read the liner notes, hold the CD in my hand, caress it ever so gently... 

Another reason is that I don't ever listen to music "on the go", except for in the car, and for that purpose my CD player does the job just fine.  I generally don't like using headphones and having the music "pumped" directly into my brain.  I like to hear the music throughout the room, you know, in the atmosphere, so an ipod doesn't interest me in that respect, either.

As a matter of fact, a friend of mine gave me his ipod for free over a year ago after he upgraded to the newer, smaller model (whatever that is/was), and as of today I've got exactly one song on there, and I've never even played it.

^ I can play digital music on all three of the current systems, and my PSP, as well as hook my Zen player in through the aux port on the CD player in my car.  That tends to be where I use the Zen most, in my car, since it is 4GB and holds a lot more than a puny cd.  I don't have to worry about scratches to the discs, changing discs, or worrying about the heat (goddamn it's been ridiculously hot this month compared to any month earlier this year) melting/warping them.

I get what you are saying about being visual/tactile or what not.  For me, that's why there are Google and such.  Plus, it breaks you from worrying about ruining the condition, caring for its condition in storage, or worrying about those stupid ass obis for which people have a ridiculous obsession.  Speaking of which, digital media lacks resale value, assuming it was legitimately purchased in the first place.

I suppose, if I were to sum it up, I'd say digital media brings freedom from materialism.  Well, I guess it can also be free for quite a few too, which means that it frees them from capitalism, but also carries a chance to get caught, which the RIAA or MPAA happily would free them from a lot of money they may or may not have.

after 3 years i finally bought a mp3cd player for my echo.. but i only drive 100 miles a week now so i still do most of my music listening while at home playing with the bunnies or packing up dolls..

I can't say I agree with these sentiments exactly, but here's my perspective:

When I get a new album, it lives in the car for a few weeks.  I either bring the album if it's a single disc, or I make CD-R copies of it and toss the CD-Rs in the center console where they can get mauled to their hearts' content... much easier to flip through them than opening jewel cases. 

I mostly listen to music "seriously" in the car - forcing myself to listen to an album all the way through, for example.

I've been in the habit, when downloading music lately, to only download lossless FLAC copies, so I can burn those to CD and hear it exactly as it were intended, with no dynamic loss... but let me tell you a secret - three out of the four of my poor car's speakers are blown, so this quality retention is in vain.

I don't use a portable digital audio player, so I'm not yet a victim of the "shuffle bug" and I honestly prefer not to use the shuffle feature; I prefer to listen to albums in their entirety, from start to finish, only skipping over tracks sometimes, but always listening to them in their intended order.

I like CDs.  They help prevent that ADD that's discussed.  I agree that it exists, and it works better for some people than for others.  For now, I'll keep my single CD player and XM radio in my car.

Things have taken a major turn with me in the past few years. Nowadays I mostly listen to mp3 files that I have ripped myself. It gives me a lot of freedom choosing what I want without hassling too much with discs. If I don't want to listen to a certain track, it can be easily skipped. It doesn't happen all that much, really. And I only have one playlist on which I have every single piece of music I have ripped. When I sit in the bus or train or am biking, I have my 6-GB mp3 player stuffed full of music. Unfortunately I can only fit a fraction of what I'd like in it, so I just have to choose the best for it. With mp3 player I hardly ever skip a track.

I think I have quite a large collection of albums, and you might call me a materialist in this respect. To me buying music does not include paying for downloadable stuff. Buying always nets me with something physical, that is, the CD. I do give my discs a spin every now and then, but as I said, most of the time music is coming from my hard drive. The audio out of my laptop is connected to the aux of my stereo system as I'm not into listening to music via headphones when there's an alternative.

Most of the time I listen to music semi-actively: I don't concentrate on it, yet it's not just background noise, either. When I get new albums, I always try to fix some time for them so that I could actively listen to them all the way through. Usually they then begin to line up for the ripping operation and eventually become a part of my ever-expanding playlist where they first receive more playing time than others. Still, everything is always on shuffle, so I have to manually pick the tunes for listening.

It's not rare that when I'm exposed to massive amount of randomly played music, I find "new" music. Pieces I didn't remember, pieces that might not be found if I was giving the disc a spin. Besides, who says that you can't listen just to the best bits of a CD by programming the tracks to be played with your player? It's not a bit less "guilty" than having playlists of your favorite music.

By the way, I always thought that CDs were a digital medium just like mp3 files. I guess I was wrong, and the info on the discs is something else than ones and zeros...

This is an interesting topic--I've had thoughts similar to this ever since my CD collection started spilling out of its designated place by my closet. I don't have an MP3 player, but I can identify with this tendency to skip instead of listen through. I've had to really cut back on my purchases because I've ended up with too many discs that I hardly listen to. Like some people have said, listening in the car is probably the #1 place I enjoy my music. There's nothing like getting off work, popping in Oath of Felghana, and rocking my stress away. At home I always feel like I have to be doing something else, and it's hard taking the time to just relax and listen to my favorite music like I used to. (And there IS time, by the way. Sometimes I play video games much more than I should, heh.)

Anyway, the mindset of instant gratification can leave you with a shorter-lasting satisfaction when you walk away, but it all really depends on your mood. Sometimes I get a hankering for a few specific songs, and that's all I'll listen to. Nothin' wrong there. Other times I want to relive the whole album experience. That's when I take it along in the car or find something I can do in my room while I listen (draw, look through art books, exercise, create a miniature robot army that will one day rule the neighborhood). I guess my problem is that I have so much to choose from I gloss over the lesser titles again and again, letting them go to waste. And when's the last time I actually listened to an older classic like Chrono Trigger? Hmm, it's been awhile....

This also brings to mind a related scenario from Jerry Seinfeld, if I remember right. He mentioned how hearing a song on the radio is somehow better than listening to it off a tape he'd recorded. He knows it's the same song, yet hearing it over the radio, where he has no control over it being played, gives it some kind of magic quality and makes it better. Well, it made more sense when he said it, but that's the gist of it and I agreed with him. =P