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The Advantages of Owning the Physical Album


Requiem

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themetaldetektor.com is a great starting place, and I also buy from bands and labels on Bandcamp.
Whatever you're looking for can be easily found here. It wouldn't be a bad idea to search eBay first if you don't mind a second hand copy, the advantages of which are that people tend to auction multiple items at once, and some of them when these collections go on sale tend to be out of print. If you're just looking for new stuff, themetaldetektor.com will show you just about every online distributor under the sun that has a copy. Some have better prices than others, but that may not be the only factor, as some have better selections than others as well if you're looking for more than one item. It takes some digging to figure out which ones you like best, but that's just like music, isn't it?

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ebay is pretty much the only online place I bother looking. It's just so much cheaper than other places I've looked at, and most albums I want are there, new, often with multiple sellers and I just pick the cheapest. A lot of places I buy from on ebay have free postage too. For old school classics it's impossible to beat really because you can pick em up for under ten bucks including postage. 

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ebay is pretty much the only online place I bother looking. It's just so much cheaper than other places I've looked at, and most albums I want are there, new, often with multiple sellers and I just pick the cheapest. A lot of places I buy from on ebay have free postage too. For old school classics it's impossible to beat really because you can pick em up for under ten bucks including postage. 
It's a pretty great resource. I use it a lot myself, sometimes even to order from labels that you could buy from direct. Red Stream Records, for example, is a great label/distro that has been around for years, but their online interface is clunky and cumbersome to use. Whenever I order from them, I always do so through the eBay interface because it's so much easier than their site.

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3 hours ago, BlutAusNerd said:

It's a pretty great resource. I use it a lot myself, sometimes even to order from labels that you could buy from direct. Red Stream Records, for example, is a great label/distro that has been around for years, but their online interface is clunky and cumbersome to use. Whenever I order from them, I always do so through the eBay interface because it's so much easier than their site.

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I used to order from Redstream all the time about 15+ years ago. It's a great website, I love it.

I went back there a few weeks ago and was pleased to notice that the interface is exactly the same. I searched for a few things I was interested in and was disappointed to find a lot of stuff was out of stock. I actually bought my Mayhem hoodie from Redstream in about 2003. Good times. There's a tonne of great, obscure, black metal albums for supercheap. I haven't ordered from them in over ten years, so I hope postage to Australia is still low. 

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I used to order from Redstream all the time about 15+ years ago. It's a great website, I love it.
I went back there a few weeks ago and was pleased to notice that the interface is exactly the same. I searched for a few things I was interested in and was disappointed to find a lot of stuff was out of stock. I actually bought my Mayhem hoodie from Redstream in about 2003. Good times. There's a tonne of great, obscure, black metal albums for supercheap. I haven't ordered from them in over ten years, so I hope postage to Australia is still low. 
It hasn't quite been 15 years since I first found them, but yes, the website is exactly the same as it used to be. They're good at what they do, and the dude that runs the label seems pretty cool. You could even purchase my album there if you were so inclined. The shipping is free, at least within the US. Not sure about international...

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8 minutes ago, BlutAusNerd said:

It hasn't quite been 15 years since I first found them, but yes, the website is exactly the same as it used to be. They're good at what they do, and the dude that runs the label seems pretty cool. You could even purchase my album there if you were so inclined. The shipping is free, at least within the US. Not sure about international...

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Shipping is definitely not free to Australia, but I remember it was really cheap back in the day. Probably still is. I feel really nostalgic for redstream at the moment, hence me looking it up again after so long. I'll have to check out your music at some stage - I might even order it, who knows! 

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Shipping is definitely not free to Australia, but I remember it was really cheap back in the day. Probably still is. I feel really nostalgic for redstream at the moment, hence me looking it up again after so long. I'll have to check out your music at some stage - I might even order it, who knows! 
Stranger things have happened. We might like your music too, if we knew anything about it...

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 months later...

Old post, but whatever...While I can see why many people enjoy physical copies, the added value I personally get from them nowadays is negligible. I enjoy the music only for the pleasure it brings to my ears. Good artwork and lyrics don't affect my listening experience. Also, having had to endure vinyl and tapes in my youth, I was much happier with CDs in terms of sound quality and durability; now that I only listen to music from my pc, I'm even happier I don't have to lug anything around. 

I am also in favour of free downloading/streaming. The underground metal scene has too small of an audience to make it financially sustainable for most artists anyway, even if the all of the few existing listeners were actually ready to pay for  all the recordings they listened to. The cost of producing music is today affordable to most people with a job or a generous family. So in my opinion, bands' main concern should be to make their music accessible as easily as possible to anyone who might be interested. 

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  • 2 years later...
On 4/28/2018 at 2:22 AM, Requiem said:

ebay is pretty much the only online place I bother looking. It's just so much cheaper than other places I've looked at, and most albums I want are there, new, often with multiple sellers and I just pick the cheapest. A lot of places I buy from on ebay have free postage too. For old school classics it's impossible to beat really because you can pick em up for under ten bucks including postage. 

Thanks for the tip. May check this one out. 

Never thought about buying album's on ebay. 

 

 

Will definitely get a few cheeky downloads though. 😆 Not sure why there cheeky 😂 and Spotify can go jog on as far as I'm concerned. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

As someone who listens to a lot of music on vinyl and CD, that is the biggest load of rubbish I've ever heard. The only reason I listen to music on vinyl and CD is because I have a hi-fi separates system and I can by vinyl and CD cheaply, mostly CD's cheaply. If I only listened to my music through my computer or a streaming system (which I do own on my hi-fi rack) I would still have the same joy and experience I get from listening to my music through my vinyls and CD's.  Most of my favourite albums like October rust by Type O Negative or The dreadful hours by My Dying Bride have rubbish album art and if I wanna find the words to a song I always use the internet to do so. 

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  • 2 months later...

Haven't read through the whole thread, so apologies if somebody already said something similar.

I do like the feeling of owning a physical copy of a good release. I grew up with it, going to the shops, browsing for something good and then spending my allowance on it. Times have changed though and there's so much music being released nowdays it's impossible to keep track. I listen to a lot of music. My work is bound to a computer and spend most of my time behind the desk playing something while I work.
I have a humble but growing collection of vinyl and CDs so, come weekend, I put one of those vinyls on my hi-fi and just relax and enjoy it in a different way. It's a ritual to me and I can't really imagine not having physical copies of the albums I hold in high regard.


 

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On 5/30/2021 at 11:37 AM, Vitogh said:

Haven't read through the whole thread, so apologies if somebody already said something similar.

I do like the feeling of owning a physical copy of a good release. I grew up with it, going to the shops, browsing for something good and then spending my allowance on it. Times have changed though and there's so much music being released nowdays it's impossible to keep track. I listen to a lot of music. My work is bound to a computer and spend most of my time behind the desk playing something while I work.
I have a humble but growing collection of vinyl and CDs so, come weekend, I put one of those vinyls on my hi-fi and just relax and enjoy it in a different way. It's a ritual to me and I can't really imagine not having physical copies of the albums I hold in high regard.


 

for me i go digital for music. saves on the space and ive not that much space. ive got loads of cds. most are in the attic for now but ive saved them to mp3 player. plus handy as i can link them via Bluetooth to my car or work vehicle when driving. otherwise i mostly listen with head phones as my family does not appreciate metal. 

i remember listening to stuff at the record store till i found stuff i liked. dont know if you did that. or did you just read reviews and decide that way

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As an old school metalhead having the physical copy is definitely a preference for me, I like the cover art, lyrics, pics and all those sorts of things. But after 40 years of collecting the space the collection takes up definitely has its disadvantages. I find myself using digital music a lot more these days, in the car, the truck, and on my phone, the is no doubt that being able to put so many songs onto a USB or SD card and take them anywhere is a major advantage.

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I can't profess to have read every post here but the main trend I noticed was the requirement for a lyric book which gives a tactile experience and greater engagement with the music. I agree, but this has nothing to do with the format of the music itself.

The optimum release format (for a collector that must have something to hold) is a printed hardback artbook that has all the liner notes/lyrics to accompany a full dynamic range 24 bit download.

Vinyl is a dumb format for new releases. The world does not need another spaff-spattered LP. The audio signal is filtered/degraded to account for the deficiencies in the medium (which is even more deficient in a coloured/picture disc). There are so many potential weakpoints in the playback chain for an LP it is simply no longer a viable option. For posers only.

I say that as a clown poser that has a couple of hundred LPs in a cabinet and listen to them all the time. But that cabinet is reserved for the classics. Anything new I buy and download from Bandcamp. While it is nice to have lossless for an archive copy I am quite happy with a 320kbps MP3 for portable use because it is indistinguishable from a CD unless you have super human hearing. There seems to be a persistent myth that MP3 sounds "compressed". That is horseshit. If you can hear compression it is in the waveform - which will be the same whether it is MP3, CD, or 24 bit. 

I was triggered on this topic when reading this Derrick Green interview the other day (https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/sepulturas-derrick-green-would-love-to-see-artists-get-what-they-deserve-from-streaming-music-services-its-completely-unfair/)

In my view all artists, if they are in control of their catalog, should withdraw all content from subscription streaming services at once. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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