SGR

Okay, I know it varies greatly between person to person and it also varies greatly with how much depth the album has, but what would you say, for yourself personally? When you get a new album, how many listens to you give it before you shelf it for a while and move on?

For me personally, it's probably in the range of 5-10 times.

Unknown Soldier

No wonder you don't know too many albums, if you're listening to each album that many times.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Janszoon

It totally depends on the album. If it really clicks with me, I'll wind up listening to it once or twice a day for a few weeks before I start feeling like I need a break from it. So I guess that puts it in the realm of 20-something times. On the other end of the spectrum, I'll only listen to an album that doesn't click with me once or twice before moving on.

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A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

Forward To Death

Depends. If it's an artist that I like, making a ****ty record (Mastodon, The Mars Volta and The Hives' previous releases come to mind) I give it a few tries to see if I can acquire an appreciation for it. If some new band makes an awful record, I don't give it much a chance at all, one try, if I even make it all the way through. Same goes for acts like RHCP and Metallica, the ones who.haven't released any good material for so long that it almost takes away from their legacy.

Pure sellout material is the worst though, if Tool's anticipated next album is just some generic alternative metal, or some electronic ****, I will not even get past the first song.

Otherwise, good albums stay in my rotation consistently, and I obsess over them for 10-20 plays, maybe more if it's an absolute gem.

Duraddict

Depends on the artist. I like to give new records a good listen through multiple times if the artist is worth it.

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Geekoid

That's an interesting question, because another variant could be whether you purchase or download an album.
I have a process:

If there's an album that looks promising, or that catches my attention, I make sure I listen to it at least 3 times before deciding whether I like it (unless it's something I know I won't get into after the first listen). Usually streamed via Grooveshark or played on YouTube, if available.

If I end up liking it, I make the purchase, and listen to it once or twice on my computer, once or twice through speakers, and a couple more times on my iPod (to see how those experiences differ).

Then, if the album has stood up to all these tests, it completely depends on the album and how much I connect with it. Much of my listening has to do with mood, so if an album doesn't fit my current mood, I'll end up avoiding it for a while. If my mood changes right after I get an album, there's usually an awkward phase where I almost feel as if made a mistake in buying it in the first place, but I usually get over it. If I don't, it probably won't get played very often after that, and I imagine bills and coins being washed into a gutter somewhere.

So, long story short, I give every album at least 7 plays on average for boot camp. It doesn't happen often that I buy entire albums, anyway, as I'm more of a cherry picker, going on a song-by-song basis after hearing the album in its entirety once.

Paedantic Basterd

Are you serious

http://www.musicbanter.com/general-m...ten-album.html

http://www.musicbanter.com/general-m...you-shelf.html

And they're both YOURS