Vinyl, CD or streaming: how do you listen to music now?

[Tia88]

Music formats have gone through huge changes in a few decades. Vinyl gave way to cassettes, then CDs, then downloads and finally streaming. Yet vinyl has made a remarkable comeback, outselling CDs in some years, and even cassettes have enjoyed a small revival. Many people now mix and match depending on the situation

Streaming is convenient, with almost every song ever recorded available on your phone for a monthly fee. But some people worry about owning nothing, low payments to artists and albums disappearing from services. Vinyl offers a physical experience, with artwork, liner notes and the ritual of putting on a record. CDs are cheap secondhand and offer excellent sound quality, which has made them popular again with some collectors

Then there are people who never stopped buying downloads or ripping CDs, keeping their own music library on a computer or dedicated player. High resolution audio and lossless streaming have also grown in popularity. Radio is still hugely popular too, especially in cars and kitchens

I stream most of my music day to day, but I buy vinyl for albums I love. Putting a record on and listening to the whole thing from start to finish feels very different from shuffling a playlist. It makes music feel special again

How do you listen to music now? And has your listening changed over the years?

[Highland Fatima]

Vinyl is too expensive new now. Thirty pounds for an album is a lot. I buy secondhand or not at all

Charity shops still have gems if you dig. Record Store Day prices are especially silly