When Silverlight is released for Windows Mobile and Nokia you guys should consider using it for Pandora. :)

First off as a former vinyl junkie, I have to say the very low incidence of defective product with CDs and other digital media far outweighs the lure of vinyl to me. In addition the ease of use, portability and lower storage requirements have me prefering digital media as well. Even though others are going back to vinyl (or are discovering it for the first time) I doubt I'll ever go back. If a release is vinyl only and I want it, I might consider it, but only if I *really* want it.

-- Given all that, I'm wondering some things: does a rich experience matter to you, either in terms of enjoying vinyl or CD album art or videos, or in terms of finding a way to interact with a band you like in some new way?

A rich experience is a nice one for me, but it isn't totally necessary. I think that I already have a richer overall experience than I did during my vinyl days of the 60's, 70's and 80's. I do miss the album covers and the special packaging of some vinyl releases, but there's so much more to enjoy than I got before.

I find today's artist more approachable and more informative. In the past I'd usually have to wait for someone to interview an artist, find the article and then read it to get my questions answered. Now a lot of artists have websites or pages on social networks where one can find links to reviews, interviews, etc... Some artists post blogs so one can often find the information they're interested in. Even though the information is only there in cyberspace, it makes an artist seem much more real to me.

The other great thing about artists with web presence is that they're sometimes accessible through email, chat or arranged online interviews. I enjoy being able to let an artist know how much I loved their music and sometimes ask them questions about their music. I know they can't answer everyone, so I don't feel slighted if I don't get a response, but at least it's a clear avenue for me.

Although I'm not that into videos, it is nice to find them sometimes to see the artist's video vision or see how they performed a song live if I haven't been able to catch them locally.

-- Do you seek out or remember those kinds of experiences?

I do try to find out more about the bands or artists I enjoy and having the internet for finding that information is wonderful.

-- Have any unusual opportunities to meet or interact with your favorite artists or music really added to your experience of the music, or otherwise been cool?

I'm afraid I suffer from fan-shyness, so most of my face to face interactions with artists I like have been limited by reluctance to speak up. I do think that seeing a band or artist live often does enhance my enjoyment of their music. Getting a thoughtful email reply to my comments on their music makes me appreciate their music more as well. However I'd still enjoy most of the music I like without any artist interaction.

-- And I'm especially curious to know the following: if you could ask your favorite artists or bands for your ideal rich experience of their music, what would it be?

I think most artists are doing about all I would expect them to for giving me a rich experience. Some of them might share more about their process. Others might tour a little more often. Other than that I think I'm very happy with the way artists are giving me and other fans a rich experience.

First, I agree with everything you've mentioned in this post - I'm definitely all about having a richer personal music experience. But this generation is ready for something more than pressed vinyl - I have always always envisioned an interactive mixable music that gives people the raw materials of the music format. We saw this in Nine Inch Nails' Garage Band release. I wish others would follow suit! Why don't consumers get the same goodies for remixing tracks that DJs have access to? The issue is the platform. There is no standard consumer platform for having fun with multitrack music. Quite frankly, however, this problem could be solved with a tiny Flash application or a cross platform Java program bundled on a CD data track!

vinyl was great as a listening experience because it included the entire ritual of taking out the carefully preserved vinyl, lacing it on an expensive turntable with an expensive (and wears out) cartridge and stylus, with special tonearm and adjustable arm weight, (or the horicontally sliding tone arm).

It was also a much more involved experience in reproducing vinyl in high fidelity.

For those of who learned to listen to music on vinyl was a heady social experiment. And the lack of portability required that listeners gather together at places that were often carefully arranged for the purpose of listening.

(My frat house had a "listening room" with all the hi-fi gear)

I that that is what we vinylphiles are referring to aas a "rich" experience, that can only be very loosely defined as "lisening to vinyl."

Would we who love the vinyl experience enjoy it as richly if it were available portably? I think so, after all, we all put up with 8-tracks and cassettes that were, for the most part, a HORRIBLE reproduction of what was on the vinyl.
(wow, flutter, stretch, diostortion, need I go on?)

I think the experience of enjoying the music communally, instead of with earbugs and text-phones...(which my son tells me allows him to listen to music and chat with a friend at the same time, which is not a bad deal, all in all, since the time spent reading is minimal relative to the time spent typing and waiting for a response.) offers the richness, and vinyl records, with the necessary turntable, cleaning, preserving, picking through, changing, etc. is the social context in which the listening goes from being an average experience to the near "richer" experience of vinyl.

Even the best recordings done on vinyl cannot be played more than one or two times on high quality gear without suffering from signal loss due to wear. Not to mention surface distortion from temperature and humidity changes. (Ever warp a CD leaving it in the car?)

Any warmth or richness derived from using the antiquated (and not very accurate) technology cannot possibly be from the fidelity differences.

But that is only what I think

I'm really just into the music itself and the creative ideas that produce it, not the artists as people.

I write and record a little when I have time, so I'm always interested in knowing how various songs were composed or sounds were imagined or created in the studio. Therefore I like the ubiquity of modern media coverage, as Tony mentioned above, because it can provide more info. But I don't feel any desire whatsoever to have extra "richness" with regard to making my own CD covers or videos or interacting with artists or other fans in any way.

I was born in 1974 and never really had much vinyl. I grew up on cassettes and CDs, so I don't really miss the new-vinyl excitement, although I can sort of grasp why it was so memorable, because I did tear open new CDs and read every single word in the booklet. I also have a little tinnitus (I first noticed it after seeing Guns N' Roses -- serves me right, I guess), so the highest fidelity recording and warmth of sound issue doesn't do much for me -- my ears aren't that good anyway.

I do miss vinyl sometimes. I dont miss the up keep. With out a doubt it had a quality that is hard to surpass. The sound was really only as good as the stylus you played it through Ortofon,Lyra and of course then the receiver or amp and pre amp and the speakers. I miss the album cover art. They were always so captivating and the liner notes. I dont miss the storage, I dont miss the dusting or the obvious scratches. I still hold on to a couple hundred of my LP's from the 600 hundred I had at one time and I still have a reel to reel and and equalizer. I dont play them anymore. So why do I have them? I think it is reflection of a time when I had to run down to the record store to the get the new Stevie Wonder L.P. in the seventies and rave because I was the first one in the neighborhood to have it. Or to remember side two of Electric Lady Land, Dark Side Of The Moon, or Kind Of Blue. Or to tell my son what it was like to rubber band a quarter on the to the head the turntable arm to keep it the album from skipping,everytime some flopped their butt on the floor. So yeah it my little museum. If I look hard enough I might find a eight track in a box in the attic. I remember my first Quadrophonic system. (Wow!) I have paddled to stay afloat with the evolution of music. So now my 500 Cd collection sits. Because I'm fifty something and I'm thinking greener and I'm hooked on Pandora and buy my music used through Amazon or via MP3 for my Zune so I dont have feel bad about the energy it takes to make a new one. Time has changed and I still enjoy pure quality sound. I just dont miss the crackle and pop.

To me vinyl has always sounded better than a CD. If you have decent audio equipment and of course the turntable would have to follow along as well as a good ear, you can tell the difference. That's not to say that some of the CD's are not well mastered, but none the less,it was more of a matter of convenience for this generation. I didn't help the music industry ether when they try to rape the consumer for there price gouging which lead to trying to phase records out.The prices have come down on CD's due to technical achievements but not too much on the improvement on the sound quality. Probably due to cheapness and mass production. However things can only get better. I believe vinyl adds a presence and tonality to the music, where as CD's tend to be very flat at times. I buy vinyl when I can find releases I want and remastered albums as well. This of course is a very old argument and in most cases people have put it to bed, but it is still nice to know they're both still available.
Long live music

I know nothing about vinyl, but I know that a big part of the 'rich music experience' for me and many other fans is "cosplay", short for "costume play": making and wearing costumes representing the band members.

This sort of thing is popular in Japan, where Visual rock is a huge part of the music industry. And of course, with many young Americans' (including myself) growing obsession with Japanese (pop) culture and music that has been fostered by the internet, "cosplaying" as favorite musicians is becoming popular here, too, especially in the Anime convention scene.

It's not as creepy or stalkerish as it might sound. xD Japanese visual bands tend to be very flattered and pleased when their fans recreate their (often extremely elaborate) costumes. It's just another way of expressing how much you love the music and the characters the band members portray. You become a part of the music (or at least its 'image' xD). That's what *I* call a "rich music experience"... ^^

Well vinyl is ok. But in this generation, where are we going to find some? Oh, wait I just have to look in my dad's closet, so never mind.

My thoughts on vinyl? Well since I was born in 56 and grew up with vinyl as well as passing through the 8 track, cassette, CD, MP3 eras I've found that I'm always drawn to the vinyl for nostalgia's sake, but only for my old favorites. With all the media options we have these days and the reproduction quality of those options, I honestly only listen to my vinyl on the turntable once in a blue moon. My IPod does everything I need in my music world.
The deeper, closer experience with an artist or band could apply to a few of my favorites, but for different reasons. Coldplay's lyrics and style make me want to know Chris Martin better as a person. I'd like to hang out with Jack Johnson and talk about life over beers. I'd like to get inside Larry Carlton's head to see what inspired his music, etc. Being close to an artist or band in a concert setting is one thing, and being a close friend with same is quite another now isn't it.

I remember vinyl was trying to come back into stores for retro's sake but it really is just far too inpractical. Where are you going to find a vinyl player these days? Especially when you could just use an mp3 player which is infinately smaller than a vinyl record.

Vinyl, 8-track, cassette, cd and mp3 are just the way to the music. For me, having the music is more important than anything else. What is particularly important is having the songs and instrumentals that I personally like and that are becoming more and more difficult to access. We cannot legally share the old songs that we have and cannot find without the worry of being sued even though I have purchased Frank Sinatra's In the Wee Small Hours 5 times in all formats.

So I like vinyl, and I like cd's and expecially MP3's because I can mix and remix all of my favorite songs. I save the vinyls by converting them to MP3 and play the MP3s over and over without harming the originals.

A lot of the tunes from the 30's thru the 80's preclude my interaction with the stars :-) for a few more years anyway and if I wanted to interact, I would have to ask the artists to dinner and do the cooking so that's out of the picture. Basically if I want to know more about the artist, I buy a book. But I surely do enjoy this venue along with my vinyls, CD's and MP3's. We only have one station that plays the Hit Parade format and that only on a clear day.

So basically, this 60 year old simply likes the old music any way I can get it!

The main thing I miss from the digital music experience is the lack of credits -- composer, musicians, etc. This is an important means for learning about music; finding out who else plays on a record you like is a great way to begin exploring new musical paths. Granted, Pandora is doing some of this work for us - finding new music. But its track and album info lack this key data. So does my iPod. The internet and my iPod can handle so much data, but for some reason the musical credits get left out. I'm sure someone is working on this problem right now, so I look forward to the solution.

ah the times of vinyl..remember those paper thin rca lps? you could bend them like a tortilla....saw led zepplin in central park for 2.50..played the whole 1st lp note fer note..nobody really knew whom they were..place was half empty..the second lp was a female volcano eruption......i got laided so many times playing that whole lot of money side..but for me..its my stones mono recordings..now thats vinyl nirvana for me...my import of decembers children..sonic bliss...all their mono recordings..still almost mint..even back then i had money to buy good audio equipment..took good care of them..and holy failed carpenter..i have the mono version of santantic magesties request..ya know the 3d one..but only this lp is scratched..its very rare..95% of the pressings were stereo..so kmart shoppers how many other 3d lps were ever put on the market??? your prize maybe will be to meet me and play with my other 4ooo lps..many are promo copies..how and whom i knew in radio land and what i did to get my collection..now thats classifed..lol...

Speaking as someone who grew up with vinyl, I do think that the digital sampling reduces the complex richness of the sound. I'm moving as much of my remaining vinyl as I can to CD's, both purchased and home-transferred, but I do think we've lost something. (Yeah, I know, the pops and the crackles, too.) And mp3's, even at the highest sampling rate, lose even more. We get used to the limited - and distorted - sound, but it's really too bad.

Hi, my name's Jeff I'm a new Pandora listener, I love the fact that I can find new music on Pandora I think its the best way yet to dicover new music thanks and keep up the good work.

I would like to offer an explanation of why vinyl can sound better than digital for those who are interested; But first let me say for those unaware vinyl has never sounded better than it does today, yes you can still buy turntables in fact there are more and much better record playing equpment avalible today than twenty years ago, technology even in vinyl play back and recording has not stoped quite the contrary.(check out: acousticsounds.com or musicdirect.com to see whats new in vinyl today).
I am part of the current resurgence of vinyl I'm also an audiophile with modern highend equipment including a new $5,000. VPI turntable and as an audiophile ultimate sound quality is of prime importance to me. I find vinyl to be the most engaging format there is,(altho SACD is right up there) it is the highest resolution format we consumers have, digital is more of a computer model of music, the computer samples the sound so many times a second (called the sampling rate) then writes a code decribing each of those instances in time, then kind of like the way video tape works with each frame representing an instant in time but when played back rapidly it fools your brain into thinking your seeing or hearing real motion or sound. Vinyl on the other hand is analog, when playing a record you are hearing a continuos smooth wave form (no sampling involved) just like the original electrical wave form that the microphones that recorded the performance generated, so you could say that only vinyl (or the original master tape) is true full resolution audio.
What that means is that due to the lower "sampaling rate" of digital some of the information is lost (as in not even captured) it falls between the samples of time. It is this missing information that makes digital less engaging less satisfying,
because our minds have to work harder to believe that we are hearing real music, because it has to try and fill in the missing info for it to make sense, it doesn't flow smoothly due to the stair step wave form generated by the low sampling rate (play an MP3 on a high end audio system and you will be amazed at how bad it sounds) with analog all our minds have to do is sit back and enjoy the music, it flows smoothly into the mind no extra work, its just easier, after all we live in an analog world, and all other sounds (other than our digital music) that we hear in our world are analog sounds.

I hope that helps for any one that wonders why.
Thanks for reading.

Nostalgia is a great thing but it is limiting. I like driving around in a 49 Ford but I wouldn't want to use it as my main method of transportation.

I do miss the covers. Why not issue a cd with a 12" record jacket instead of those cheap plastic cases. Just add a pocket that can hold the cd. I can rip the CD to my computer and enjoy the jacket art & liner notes.

I have heaps of vinyl post-punk, new wave album from when I was a teen, I treasure them a great deal because many of them can not be bought in cd format and those have have been brought over to cd have had tracks removed from them.. take for example the long version of Thomas Dolby's airhead. its not released on any cd its on vinyl only. Before Aimee Mann is today she was in 'til tuesday, and before that is a record I have from the The Young Snakes, a very punky sound that isn't like her present stuff. I also have tons of shalac but I won't get into my johnny cash collection right now.. ;) peace

Vinyl, I can't believe that so many people are still talking about it, I thought this issue had been resolved. I must tell you all that anyone who knows much about Hi-Fidelity knows that vinyl won the debate many years ago. If you are lucky enough to attend the Consumer Electronics Show and decide to visit the High-End suites, you'll notice that everyone is using vinyl. Vinyl is a pain in the butt and I wouldn't go back unless I won the lottery or something and had tons of extra time to play with my audio system.

I do miss the album art but find that the internet is a great resource for so many things. This is where I've been getting my richest experience from music lately, the internet. I like documentaries about bands or artists, these usually give a much clearer or more complete picture of where an artist is coming from. I know this probably leaves some artists out in the cold because they really don't have a thought in their empty little heads but this is good to know too.