Music How often do you listen to entire albums vs just selecting a song on a playlist/in your library and hitting shuffle?

[EvilChameleon]

I'd wager the answer for me is 80% album listening from start to finish, and 20% playlists and library shuffle. If I'm in the mood for an artist, I want to hear them for 30+ minutes, not just one song and then hope they come up again later.

 

[Yamanoi]

I probably have a similar full album to playlist ratio. It mostly depends on what bands I'm listening to I guess. I sometimes try out a playlist to discover new bands and then go the full album route.

 

[Nanashrew]

Similar ratio. Sometimes I do get that urge to listen to an entire discography though, which I did do recently with Boom Boom Satellites a few months ago.

 

[Kingpin Rogers]

I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a full album or even close to it.
Basically all my music listening is just random single tracks that I feel like listening to at the time.

 

[chocolate_supra]

Probably 60/40, in favor of playlist. Used to be a lot higher because I had very few albums and mostly had mix CDs of jpop, ocremix, and individual songs that caught my ear. But I'm talking, like, early 2000s when you really had to seek stuff out and the 30-60mins it took to download a single song meant "this one better be worth it." Now that much more music (most of it, actually) is available on streaming services it's easier to say "I wanna listen to the whole Nier Automata OST" and just put the whole thing on while driving.

But I'm still picky enough that I'll usually only like a few songs from any given album, even of artists I really like, so I still tend to do a lot of cherry-picking and playlist-making.

 

[meatbag]

I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a full album or even close to it.
Basically all my music listening is just random single tracks that I feel like listening to at the time.

Same here. I pick out specific songs that I like then make the playlists after bunching them up.

That said I’m also not that particularly musically-inclined so there’s probably a ton of finer auditory details I just don’t appreciate from listening to an album in full.

 

[Phosphorescent Skeleton]

If I'm listening on my phone, I'd say 50% of the albums I listen to have at least 1 skippable track, but on my record player I only skip if I hate the last song on a side.

 

[xghost777]

It’s very dependent on how much time I have. I also sometimes intend to listen to a full album, but only get so far through it. I’d say lately it’s more in favor in listening to albums.

 

[Irene]

Since most of my favourite artists and their albums tends to make long, conceptual albums with running leitmotifs going through them, I definitely prefer album listens. Nothing like having coffee in the morning on a Saturday while blasting through Måsstaden under vatten, which clocks in at 81 minutes.

 

[Belinda Blumenthal]

50/50. If I'm in the mood for a specific album I'll listen to it, but if I'm driving or walking or cooking then I'll just shuffle my saved songs as I'm quite picky with what gets saved.

 

[slide's]

pretty much exclusively full albums, rarely even think to skip individual tracks lol, and on occasion I’ll just put on an individual song or two or put a big set on shuffle…but I’d say a solid 95% of the time it’s just albums

I use playlists in Swinsian almost exclusively for organizational reasons (e.g. to lump together every album by an artist who uses a dozen different names, or to keep track of a bunch of stuff from the same genre), but even then I’ll still be playing a full album from it…I’ve tried the “throw a bunch of singles into a playlist” approach before and it’s never really worked for me

I know plenty of recent music in the Streaming Age isn’t really being released with the album structure in mind anyway, but idk! it’s just what feels right

 

[kvetcha]

Mostly full albums, the rest of the time playlists (more like mix tapes) that I’ve put together for my various moods.

 

[jkm23]

Mostly tracks when using pc, mostly albums in car and always album with my still large cd library.

 

[Earthbounder]

I am an album kind of guy. So that ratio must be something like 99 to 1.

I do go to playlists almost on a daily basis, but that's when I want to listen to some specific songs. It's extremely rare for me to go to a playlist and either hit shuffle or listen to it completely, hence the very tilted ratio.

 

[Yazmat]

I'm just listening to the tracks on shuffle while going to work.

 

[Red Monster]

mostly full albums, start to finish

 

[Megafan96]

Pure shuffle, full album listens are reserved for dramatic events. Wrapping christmas presents? Entire Protomen discography. Training in Tekken from scratch on a character? Pink Floyd. In the shower? On a walk? grinding in ffxiv? we shuffle.
I do listen to one artist exclusively sometimes though, usually Paramore, Alstroemeria Records, MCR, Green Day, but I like variety when I'm doing something monotonous.

 

[Cubs017]

Depends on how long I have. If I’m sitting for an hour I’ll do a whole album. If I’m in the car for ten minutes it’s just a playlist or random songs.

 

[neil]

Most of the time I listen to albums. It’s how I was raised lol.

I don’t like album editions with bonus tracks on the same disc either

 

[Zeal543]

50/50

 

[Earthbounder]

Most of the time I listen to albums. It’s how I was raised lol.

I don’t like album editions with bonus tracks on the same disc either

Oh, don't get me started on that!

I am particularly annoyed by it on Spotify, especially when I am listening to an album I don't know very well, because the player goes into the bonus tracks automatically, so sometimes I am listening to extra tracks without realizing it.

In my mind, it sort of works against the idea of an album as an artistic statement.

 

[Christo750]

I def prefer albums to playlists whenever I can. I like to hear songs the way the artist intended you to hear them. Growing up and even writing music, I always loved breaking down why songs on an album are in the order they are.

 

[Síriocaz]

Full records only, I'm always on the look for new stuff.

 

[frog]

95% full albums unless I'm in the YouTube hole and just clicking suggested songs at random

 

[codacious]

Sometimes I'll look for specific songs but mostly I'll just shuffle all my music. Sometimes I'll skip a song if I'm not in the mood for it, but all the songs on my iPhone are ones I really like so I'm fine with just seeing what plays.

 

[Bulgowski]

Generally I'm an album person but it really depends on what my life is looking like. When I'm in a job that requires me to commute or I'm doing a lot of routine walking/jogging, I mostly listen to albums. Currently though, I'm work from home and find I my music listening is much more reduced so I will usually listen to a playlist for a few songs and that's about it.

 

[Josh5890]

It's at least 95% playlist. Sometimes I will listen to stuff like side B of Abbey Road, but otherwise I just put on my playlist and go.

 

[Armoured_Bear]

In the car, whole library on random.
Proper listening at home, single album on vinyl on my cracking system.

The only playlist I’ll ever use is one as background music when people are round.

 

[Varista]

I used to only listen to albums and never did playlists/shuffle. Now that streaming has taken over, i’ve let the algorithm take the wheel. I think it’s working in my favor since i’m now at that age where people just stick to the bands they knew in their teens and 20s. I’ve mostly shelved the music from that era in my life and listening to new bands and genres.

Since streaming is the norm, the concept of an album as we know it doesn’t seem like the way to go. It’s probably better for a band to just do small batch releases. Basically singles and EPs. Unfortunately, it would mean musicians producing more hits and less of those songs that fill out an album that aren’t popular as a single, but let artists be a bit more creative. There’s also the issue of less ownership in music. I used to know every artist and album name in my collection. Now I have plenty of favorites where I can’t recall any of that info.