I think I usually make a decision after 2 or 3 listens but it can take a lot more before it falls into the category of firm favourite. A lot of factors come into play though. Suppose I come to the album after hearing a fabulous track on a sampler and I dont really like it, I may not give it as much of a chance as I would if it wa by one of my favourite artists. My behavious with streamed albums is a bit naughty as I'm likely to only to listen to one once before making my decision whether or no to buy. I think I also give something that hasn't immediately made and impact, more of a chance if it has been recommended, or reviewed by someone I respect.

I haven't got time to fart around with an album indefinitely. If nothing much interesting or fun has grabbed me after three listens, I'm done, and it goes into the Shit pile.

(Although I'll often check the number of tracks before listening. More than 13 is a bad sign, generally. As is a preponderance of songs longer than 6 minutes.)

I'm totally anal about giving albums a chance, to the extent of having a tick-list in my diary, and I listen to every new record 5 times before making any "ditch it" decisions, though in my experience "keepers" usually make themselves known before then... I also try and listen to the same album in different scenarios, e.g. in the car, on the tube, out for a walk, living room, kitchen etc., but I don't make it my life's work.

(CAVEAT - magazine freebies get 3 plays, I aggregate the tracks I like into playlists and delete the rest. My "Best of Word CDs 2011" list is a tidy 54 tracks)

Usually growers will start to come through about this time. I did give Josh T Pearson's new album about seven listens in the hope it would come good given some enthusiastic critical reviews. Unfortunately it didn't get any better - tedious drivel! I then read Amazon reviews which are, to say the least, mixed - large numbers of both 1 star and 5 star reviews. I wish I'd read then before I wasted my money.

I agree with Metal Mickey's treatment of freebies - the best go on to i-tunes but often I don't give tracks as many as 3 listens. Best ever freebie track - probably 'Missing Children' by Teddy Thompson. Can't remember the magazine.

Also agree with Bob about number and length of tracks. Most of Josh T's tracks were well over 6 minutes:( After 13 tracks quality control generally goes out the window (or wherever it is quality control goes).

to tell whether it's one which you'll enjoy with further listens.

If it's more of a grower than that (ie you need to listen at least 6 times, say) then I'm sure someone else will tell me at some point. And I've got plenty of others to listen to in the meantime.

That said, the occasional album is so godawful that one listen turns out to be one listen too many.

I've been listening to Talk Talk's Laughing Stock album for twenty years now and I'm still waiting to feel love for it. I admire it greatly, and I enjoy listening to it, but I don't love it. Dare by The Human League or The Clash's London Calling fill me with an excitement and a warmth. Listening to Talking Stock is kind of odd, almost a scientific moment rather than one of passion.

So yeah, I'll give some things a very long time before coming to a decision, I guess I listen to it at least once every couple of months, but originally I listened to it constantly for about a month, every morning and evening.

Three times so far, and it's growing on me.

I must have done about 10 years with Astral Weeks before I realised I actually don't like Van Morrison, so I ended up selling it on eBay. It never quite grabbed me.

also have been known to give albums another chance months (or years) later e.g. Ricky Lee Jones' Pirates did nothing at all for me until I dug it out it out from a semi-abandoned pile a few weeks ago - what a wonderful record. Ditto Steely Dan's 2 Against Nature, which I hated for cicumstantial reasons - previous hearing was in a freezing carpark on a Glasgow winter's night with a streaming head cold waiting to collect my daughter from her Brownie's Panto outing. Under normal circumstances it sounds absolutely fine.

sensibilities, as someone on here once described me as having which is very fair, mean I like an instant hit. It's why I miss old Radio 1 and TOTP so much. The joy of hearing a single that grabbed you by the balls, seeing it performed on TOTP and then waiting for the album almost guaranteed, almost, that i would love the album. It's probably why I'm stuck in the 80's so much. Example? "Shout" and then "Songs From the Big Chair" Radio, TOTP, album, brilliant from the first listen. I was screwed by The Associates though, "Club Country" took me through stage 1 and 2 but when I finally got hold of "Sulk" it took me forever to get it, but I persevered and now it's in my permanent top 10. Anyway in answer to the question 2 or 3 listens for me as this years favourites indicate, The Vaccines, Two Door Cinema Club and Miles Kane, instant rushes of pop tunes which I will be returning to for years to come.

A few years ago I borrowed Burt Bacharach's "At this Time" album from the library. I only played about the first 30 seconds before turning it off in disgust, as I thought it sounded shite.

I'm feeling rather bad about this now. Perhaps I should have given the Walk On By hitmaker a bit more of a chance...

....who used to listen to every album on his iPod on his way to work, mark it out of ten (scores recorded on a Palm Pilot, nostalgia fans) and then deleted every album which scored lower than a certain number.

Sounded to me like the most ridiculous waste of time I've ever heard of and utterly removed from the serendipitous experience that music should be.

It's also rooted in a fatal misconception about music. It's not something that occupies space. Music - or at least the experience of listening to music - exists in time and is therefore influenced by who you are, where you are, how old you happen to be and how you're feeling. All these things change.

The best musical experiences come not when you're poring over a record, desperately trying to decide whether it's any good or not (that's the critic's unenviable lot), but when music collides with you and your mood in an utterly magical, heart-lightening way.

Add me to the list of people who listen to each new CD three times - not two, not four - before ripping it to iTunes and filing it alphabetically with all the others. After that, it’s purely down to whether I feel in the mood for that particular album as to whether I listen to it again, and how often.

I do find that the iPod’s shuffle feature acts as a handy reminder to give albums I’d forgotten about another listen, though.

Three full listens, ideally with no interruptions, before I come to an informed opinion.

Having said that I have a rather old fashioned CD player in the car and each week I load six different discs. The normal mix is 3 recent releases, a couple of old favourites and something that was disregarded in the past.This has led me to discovering some decent stuff that had simply passed me by first time around. Lambchop's "Is a Woman" is one that springs to mind.

A pint on me if anyone can 'love' the new kate bush album after 3 listens - been a fan from the start but this is just pants

Shame

In the mid 90s suggested that the average CD was listened to 1.6 times before being banished to the shelf. And that was in the days they cost 20 quid.

These days, I probably obtain about 20 albums a month, most of them free. - In truth, I probably listen to about 0.2 of most of em.

When I was a teenager, I could afford maybe an album a month, and wore out the grooves.

It took me a decade of intermittent listening to really appreciate Astral Weeks. I didn't keep coming back to it out of a sense of duty or because I felt that I hadn't done it justice. In truth I don't know why I continued listening to it. The music confused me and I didn't really understand where it was coming from, then one day it just clicked.

I have to take medication at certain times of the day. I've got a one of those pill trays where you measure out your tablets for the week. That's a regime that I have to follow if I want to have a relatively normal life. It's tedious and a pain in the neck.

Music for me isn't about timetabling or adhering to a set of rules that tell me the whether I've listened to an album too much or not enough. It's about what I want in a given moment. I may not know why I want it. I'm guided by my intuition.

That new Lou Reed album that everybody hates: The first time I put it on there were small details here and there that caught my attention. After I had played both discs I went back and re-listened to some of the tracks. I'm still listening to it. Conversely the new Ryan Adams album isn't really doing much for me. I don't know how many times I've heard it or if I'll ever listen to it again. It's there if I want it.

is that I now know that it is between 6 and 7 plays for an album I like, and around 3 if I don't. (Currently "Bad as Me" is on the 3 plays mark while 90B(C) is on 7 plays)

on the strength of the cover alone. most recently a record by the apparently popular in-the-States Lady Antebellum which was amongst a review pile.

This is my main gripe with downloads, it's harder to take an instant dislike to a list of tracks. Harder. Not impossible

Bought on release, listened to it 4 or 5 times and condemned it as a pile of self indulgent noodling (many will agree) with nary a tune or a melody to rescue it. Middle of last year, the CD fell out of the cabinet as I was moving a stock of CD's down to the darkest corners of the garage, looked at the interesting cover art and booklet and I thought "why the hell not" and gave it another spin. This time, for whatever reason, I was absolutely captivated - I can even remember the exact spot where it grabbed me. The off key horn break in The National Anthem - Maybe it's due to mature ears, more time, less pressure to actually "like" the record immediately, less peer pressure? Whatever. I now love that record (though not as much as Hail to the Thief!).

Even the records you now dislike, you once bought for a pretty valid reason. Give them another spin, you never know.

New CDs don't go to the alphabetical Ikea rack until I reckon I could recognise reasonable chunks of them. They loiter round the player itself until then, maybe for months, to give them a reasonable chance of being considered at a future date.

Last week I bought about a dozen CDs. One of them, a double for a fiver from FOPP, both billed as classics, is on the 'to eBay' pile straight away. In this case, it's a folk rock band and I've ended up with the shiny 80s-production-sound soft rock version of what I'd hoped would be either more trad or more rock, but is neither and never will be. It's a matter of competition. I will never want to play either of these 'classics' given that it's a struggle as it is to find time to play all the genuine classics by Thommo, Fairport or Sandy alone.

Sure, some albums grow on you, but I don't think they ever grow from having no impact at all in the first place. For some album purchases, life is too short for a second listen.

Sorry Runrig.

After that number of listens theres usually some sort of hook which will make me want to revisit.
After 2 or 3 listens CD is placed on shelf (often left sticking out to remind me to listen again)

Thats the normal process. There have been instances when I have discarded albums after the fist (maybe second) listen, only to go back some months/years later and say "maybe I was a bit hasty with this"
(recent example: Jah Wobble - I Could Have Been A Contender)

Probably takes about 10 further listens to become (sort of) hard-wired into my head (ie recognisable when hearing by chance).

The most clear-cut 'meh' I've heard in years!!

Bought it last week and have listened to it 4 times. 2 good tracks rest is decidedly average. I reckon if we all asked for our money back Mr Hepworth would be broke by now.

On the other hand If I had stopped persevering with Anna Calvi after 2 listens I would have missed out.

There again Joanna Newsoms Ys was binned before I fully listened to it - what a load of shite that is.

But some albums take one listen and I'm hooked. Most recently that's been:

'You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks' - Seasick Steve

'The Village To The Vale' - Autumn Chorus

'50 Words For Snow' - Kate Bush

...will probably need spinning till Hell freezes over and I'll still not like it!

these days, or on the strength of reviews alone. It's so easy to 'Try Before you Buy' that I rarely hand over cash for something unless I've heard a few snippets at least.

I suppose I'm probably denying myself some 'slow burners' that way, certainly some records grab you right away and then become wearisome on repeat listens, but then I've certainly had records in the past which creep up later on and reveal themselves much later. Food for thought.

With that in mind, and following on from an earlier post I've just ripped Steely Dan's 'Two Against Nature' to the iPod for a re-appraisal!

Took a year of relatively frequent playings before I "got it". I'm guessing around 30. After 5 or 6 listens, I thought it was the worst thing they'd ever done.