I just wanted to respond to Germanprof's point about randomness. I try to listen to albums whenever possible, although I recognize sometimes that some albums are intended to be listened to for only specific tracks.
I try several techniques to vary my listening. For example, I download a lot of free samplers from SXSW Torrent and other places. Most of these freebies feel pretty random to me.
(To put this in perspective, I have spent the last month listening to the 2016 SXSW torrents http://www.sxswtorrent.com/2016 and I am only about 2/3 of the way through.
(I rate each individual track in Amarok, discard the awful stuff, and then create playlists out of 4 1/2 and 5 star tracks. Then I explore each band
I don't mind playing someone else's playlists or trusting someone's opinion once in a while, but I trust my ears the most. I particularly enjoy trying to enjoy the early albums of musicians who became more famous.... (especially on emusic). Usually early stuff is just as good if not better but ignored. It's not as bad as it was in previous decades (where early albums were practically impossible to track down), but one thing I like about emusic is that often early albums of bands are usually easy to find on emusic.....
I try my best to listen to recommended albums -- of course that depends on the time that I have.
It's sad these days what artists are going through. I was at a Rickie Lee Jones show where she was talking about how she never thought she was going to have go out on the road again, at her age. Used to have a steady income from album sales, now can't even get a recording contract.
At another show, John Abercrombie was literally begging people to buy something at the merchandise table: "Please. Please." I guess the good news is we get more chances to see them play live. Anyway, I agree with i.p.: Spend some cash to support the artists who create good music!
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I try several techniques to vary my listening. For example, I download a lot of free samplers from SXSW Torrent and other places. Most of these freebies feel pretty random to me.
(To put this in perspective, I have spent the last month listening to the 2016 SXSW torrents http://www.sxswtorrent.com/2016 and I am only about 2/3 of the way through.
(I rate each individual track in Amarok, discard the awful stuff, and then create playlists out of 4 1/2 and 5 star tracks. Then I explore each band
I don't mind playing someone else's playlists or trusting someone's opinion once in a while, but I trust my ears the most. I particularly enjoy trying to enjoy the early albums of musicians who became more famous.... (especially on emusic). Usually early stuff is just as good if not better but ignored. It's not as bad as it was in previous decades (where early albums were practically impossible to track down), but one thing I like about emusic is that often early albums of bands are usually easy to find on emusic..... I try my best to listen to recommended albums -- of course that depends on the time that I have.
At another show, John Abercrombie was literally begging people to buy something at the merchandise table: "Please. Please." I guess the good news is we get more chances to see them play live. Anyway, I agree with i.p.: Spend some cash to support the artists who create good music!