1. You are going to miss out on a hell of a lot of good music if that's your process. Three times is way too many for albums you don't like (I can understand if you see some appeal but it just doesn't feel like it has clicked)

2. Not always. I listen to so much music, no time for listening to every album by the 3,700+ artists I have listened to.

I find most times after listening to an album once or twice, I don't know if I dislike it or not. Sure, everyone has first impressions, but I don't think you can judge on that. By the 3rd or 4th listen, I feel I can better judge the album and then I decided if I want to keep listening to it or not.

When you listen to albums MANY times, you learn the intricacies of the music and, excuse the cheesiness, the music becomes a part of you.

How rare is it that you dislike an album after three listens then? I assume you are pretty careful with what you choose to listen to as I would hate to waste my time listening to an album I hated three times.

Agreed, the majority of the albums on my personal list of great discs have all required about 3 listens before they fully clicked. I don't see the point in rushing through the ever-expanding quantity of music rather than sitting back and enjoying the quality of what you've discovered, but I'm lazy like that :afro:

^ You only buy physical copies/legally own, am I right? I would be the same if that was the case with me.

Yes and no. I'll stream albums through youtube or grooveshark to check out new material. The only time an album doesn't get a subsequent listen is if I can't make it through the first track. Conversely, if I find myself reloading the same album stream more than a few times I normally make an effort to try scoring a physical copy.

I turn into a listening beast

I listen to all the discography literally and eventually after hours of listening I never find but 2 or 3 good songs similar to the one I liked

I hate it when it happens -_-

i dont own entire discos now a days i just run throw various artist alwasy looking for something new

if i dont have anything by them i sometimes just buy there greatest hists and then move on

but Alot of artist these days dont even have a greatest hits album they never reach tha point LOL

Yeah and I think it's something you learn to pick up on. I can sometimes tell if an album is a grower when I don't enjoy it upon first listen.

Also depends on what/who refers you to the music.

It sounds to me like you try and listen to more and more music rather than actually enjoy what you have already discovered. I mean, sure there's lots of music, but there's also lots of food. Do you also eat meal after meal before the others digest just so you can say you've ate every dish in the world?