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Comment by midasz | Hacker News Reader

I just miss listening to full albums. I know I can, there's nobody stopping me - but something changed in me I think. When I was a kid we didn't have a TV at home so evenings were sitting together and either having discussions or listening to music together (Opeth's Damnation and Deliverance were a staple). We had a room with a beamer that we explicitly used for movie nights. Now I've got a TV show on in the living room while checking stuff out on my phone and still feel like I should be doing more stuff.

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Getting off of Spotify has allowed me to switch back to album listening. Buy a record/cd player or for the more advanced rip CDs and use Plexamp (or purchase flac albums if available).

I listen to full albums on spotify all the time. Why would i need to buy anything to do that?

Some people prefer the minimalist approach and avoid all the disturbance from streaming websites, especially playlists or podcasts or just the ability to bounce from an album to another as they make links between artists or period or whatever. I also prefer listening to my mp3/flac collection on an offline player. It helps focusing.

You don't have to, but it does often feel like when you use Spotify that isn't what the app would like you to do. The initial load in heavily steers you towards using a playlist instead and whilst it will occasionally list albums on the home screen it's often broken and will give you a single instead. I'm a huge Spotify user and listen to a lot of albums on it, but there's definitely merits for a more focussed experience like physical media or a digital player.

The audio quality from CD (or FLAC rips, no audiophile voodoo here) is better than what Spotify has to offer.

You certainly can but everything about the UX seems to redirect you to their algos. I also find it really painful to navigate and organise albums on Spotify (maybe there is a way, but I gave up on it a long time ago). Plexamp / playing vinyl works brilliantly for me.

Albums, especially concept albums, are something that I really appreciate. My current (digital) playlists consists of various albums scheduled to play in random order (albums are shuffled, not the tracks themselves), which makes it random enough but still allows me to enjoy the album on it's own.

Talking about concept albums, have you listened to Queen of the Murder Scene by The Warning?

A Rock masterpiece composed by 3 teenage Mexican sisters, in English!

It's why I listen to a lot of vinyls. During the day/at work/gaming/coding I generally go for Spotify, but when doing chores, cooking or hanging out with the missus we listen to whole albums a lot.

Both Damnation and Deliverance are classic Opeth albums!

I've been trying to get back into the habit of listening to entire albums and have been mostly successful. Even when I search for a single track on Spotify I view the album first and listen all the way through. It's been enriching.

Start by turning the TV off. That's your problem.

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