and hardly ever buy anything by 'new' artists but I do stock up on 'new/old' stuff that I never got round to catching first time round either because I was otherwise distracted or because I was too young. The only 'new' artists I've bought have been Sufjan Stevens and the occasional CD by Bright Eyes. I sometimes hear new stuff I quite like but I can't really be arsed taking it home because it usually reminds me of something that was done a while back, much better, by someone else.
I recently went into HMV in London and came out with Mott the Hoople live at Hammersmith Odeon 2009, Clifford T. Ward rarities CD, Beethoven's Symphonies ( Karajan- a snip at 13 knicker ), The Rockingbirds and Martin Stephenson's Boat to Bolivia ( expanded ).
On Amazon I've just received Jonathan Richman's 'O Moon' CD which he came out with last year. There are usually at least two or three truly great tunes on any Jonathan album. Sometimes even more.

Don't worry...it'll pass.

Not buying music at all is probably a better approach than what I'm doing these days. I was excited about the Word end of the year CD, and bought 2 Cd's in January based on that. Also bought the new Grace Potter CD after seeing her in concert (great show, by the way). Was excited about buying new music, but have I listened to any of those Cd's yet? I have not. Can't find the time. So if I'm not listening to it, not buying new music probably makes more sense.

That's just what happens. In the same way that you loved music more when you were 16 than you ever have since, now it's tailing off. Same as sex, booze, drugs, books, ciema - eventually your interest just tails off, and you end up looking a fool if you try to pretend it hasn't. It's brain chemistry preparing you for death. After a difficult few years, I replaced my old mojo wth fine gentlemens'tailoring, cookery and career. As long as you don't end up in the shed, you're fine.

80Gb and full. It was putting on Peggy Suicide that did it. So I have 12000+ tracks, and a hundred or more CDs I've never ripped. And apparently I last played one of my favourite songs (Things by Paul Westerberg) nearly five years ago. Five years.

So I too don't buy much. But that is just because I am getting old. And don't have the time to listen (young twins, own business, GLW in management). Or much money.

It is a problem for the advertisers in The Word - people like us who are still interested but not spending. Or not spending much.
There is still great new music out there - but rock n roll was always about young people and sex. It is quite amazing us middle aged folk are still interested in it at all.

I feel extremely blasé about buying new albums by acts I love whose new records just aren't going to be a patch on their peak years (Richard Thompson, for example). But I still have an appetite for searching out records from the past that have somehow escaped me until now: I just ordered Marlena Shaw's The Spice of Life which I'm very confident will be brilliant.

that a few years ago and when I recently moved - what the hell was I thinking about - and went through a phase of feeling a bit stupid in record shops thinking I was too old flicking through racks and shouldn't I be doing something serious. But it passed and I can still get excited by new tunes. Still feel a bit ridiculous in record shops though.

I think in part it's because nowadays I find a lot of rock lyrics annoyingly trite and I prefer instrumental pieces where I can make up my own words and paint my own pictures.

I've also got to the point where I find a lot of stuff, "OK but not as good as..." so I'm spending most of my listening time digging back into the collection and listening to some old. I'm much more selective about buying and rarely buy on spec nowadays. I'll still take a punt on something recommended by a critic I like but otherwise I'll listen on Spotify or iTunes before I purchase. And my default position has become, "Do I really want this?"

I've found myself going through phases recently. For whatever reason a couple of years ago I got excited by new music again and in 2009 I bought more new music than at any point since I was an NME reading student more than 15 years ago.
Then last year, I had the traumatic experience of sitting through the Grizzly Bear and Vampire Weekend albums whilce conscious of having spent good money on them. My new music buying stopped overnight. But in 2010 I ended up buying more 'new old' than any point in my life.
So far this year I've not really gone for anything. But I await with interest my next enthusiasm but it's just as likely to result in me buying loads of books or films as music...

I'll just get my tartan blanket, my slippers and put in an order for me cocoa before we start through another 'grumpy old rocker' session.

Already this year, I've bought albums by The Decemberists, Rihanna, Half Man Half Biscuit, The Fall, Broken Records, Low Anthem, Led Zep, Captain Beefheart, Roxy Music, OMD, REM and The Ramones. And I've got some Jimi Hendrix, Specials, Grinderman, more Led Zep and Roxy Music put aside for myself at work.

to operate if you restrict what you buy to things you can truly work up some authentic real life enthusiasm for.

Last year I decided to limit myself to only £200 on music for the whole of 2010. At the end of the year I had only spent £150. Two reasons why spring to mind.

1. I feel I've got the rock/pop waterfront covered by now. If I don't have it by now then I'm probably just not interested in it and can continue without.

2. Once you get out the habit of buying all the time it becomes the default to not load up with pointless purchases. At first I had to force myself to pass up great offers (none of which I can remember and so have no regrets missing). After a few months it became very easy to not buy anything.

This year I'm keeping to the same £200 target. I now find myself picking something up, walk around the store for five minutes and then re-evaluate what I have in my hands before I join the queue. I simply ask myself, "Do you need this? Will you listen to it of your own freewill for pleasure at any time in the next few months?" Often the answer is no. And so it goes back on the shelf. I can always get it later when I do authentically want to hear it.

I buy shitloads. About four or five CDs this week, all for about £1-£2 each.

Thanks to a longer commute I now have more time to listen to albums in their entirety and I love it. Recently bought 'Willy and the Poor Boys' by Creedence, thanks to a recommendation on the 'best of' thread, Zodiac Mindwarp, 'Before The Flood', The Tears, some REM old, Sam Cooke 'Live at the Harlem Square'....

And all have put a big fat smile and my face. Some have made the hairs on my neck stand up.

So much more still to discover - thousands of wonderful moments await me.

My love of music gets ever stronger, sorry boys!

My friend had a similar problem with videos/DVDs. He now has a one-in, one out policy. Not just for space, but that was the driver. He did try and cheat and give away one DVD when buying a boxset but we soon put him right.

I recently decided to go through my CDs and get rid of those that I know I don't really like, or that having them ripped is enough. I got rid of eight. Yes, eight. I think I need to be a bit more ruthless.

This may sound a bit like a paradox, but since the advent of Spotify/other online music services, I've found myself buying more music. Not less. I think its because I can now separate the really brilliant stuff from the rest. I'll listen to something for a bit, get hooked, and need it on me all the time, so I buy it.
I'm a student, and cash is pretty tight, so this is kind of cost-effective too.
On the topic of new vs old, there are so many great acts popping up all over the place at the moment, I find myself buying more new stuff. Where I know I'll always be a Nick Cave fan, I find myself saving his new releases in favour of genuinely new sounds (past few weeks has seen new debut releases by Banjo or Freakout, Nathaniel Rateliff, Le Corps Mince De Francoise, and they're all amazing).

They've always been a three song album band for me up until this album which has a significant higher ratio of wow to ohhh. It is a corker.

As you were.

As a 39-year-old I find this thread thoroughly depressing. Is this what life has in store for me? Declining enthusiasm for music? I certainly hope not.

I adore music. I would listen to it morning, noon and night given the opportunity, and love getting new music. My 80GB iPod was full a while ago, and I've no idea how many albums I haven't ripped yet.

Yes, given a demanding job and GLW, it can be hard to find the time to listen to as many as I would like, but off the top of my head I've picked up the following in the past month or two and somehow found time to listen to them all:

13 David Bowie CDs to complete my collection (apart from Tonight, as general opinion is that it's pretty poor) - ridiculously cheap on Amazon
Five Project Pitchfork albums
An Elton John double best-of (40p on Amazon Marketplace - used, but 40p?!)
Thomas Dolby's Golden Age of Wireless (where have those 30 years gone?)
Alice Cooper's Theatre of Death (a single CD that runs for 90 minutes - I didn't know such a thing was possible)
Jean-Michel Jarre best-of
Four CDs from Placebo
Jethro Tull's Thick As A Brick
The Story of The Clash
Loreena McKennit's latest
Talk Talk's first three (I'd forgotten just how fabulous Mark Hollis' voice was. The title track of The Party's Over is incredible)
FGTH's Pleasuredome remastered
Etc.

Later this year should be an Ultravox EP, Rammstein best-of and Kate Bush's Director's Cut (OK, so it's altered versions of old tracks, but it's Kate Bush! New(ish) material!).

I don't drink, smoke or follow sport or other costly pursuits, so I think of music as my one indulgence, and I would hate to imagine a day when I didn't want to hear new songs.

go for getting a bit of the older new..f'rinstance I recently left sister ray's in soho with the new cornershop, PJ Harvey and Gruff Rhys. None of these artists are exactly fresh from the wardrobe but they aren't so ancient as to have gone into a sad decline, and they're new enough to make me feel not too lodged and dim and distant past. Mind you on the way to the counter I go and buy a cheap replacement copy of Joy of a Toy.Just to remind me of anno domini

Those CDs I'd not listened to much or in ages were put into a listening pile. Each night at bathtime I'd play one CD (or at least the first 20 odd minutes before I turned into a prune!) and if I wasn't bothered it went on to eBay either singly or in a genre job lot. I got rid of loads and made a few quid - which promptly got spent on new music! Mind you after a couple of feverish years of music buying I have settled down again and am much more selective, listening before I buy. Having Spotify is definitely a money saver.

50s modern jazz, rock 'n' roll, calypso/mento a plenty and it costs diddley squat.
'That's nothing to you, squire.'
This is where the tax payers money is going and, judging by the lack of queues around the block, I think I'm the only tax payer that takes any of the regularly updated stock out.
Strange.....but, result!

to the reality that nothing new was going to blow me away like stuff used to. I like the odd new thing but actually wanting to get into an artist's back-catalogue and gagging for their next release - naah. But a couple of years ago I got heavily into classical music after a lifetime's indifference, so I do buy lots of that now. But for Rock and pop I prefer to just haul out the oldies and harrumph at how the youth of today don't realize that it's all been done before.

This subject has come up before and I notice that people don't tend to mention live music. I like to investigate and buy new music so that I can see artists live in nice small venues. I accept that the music may be derivative but if it's good I don't see that as a problem.

I'm 48, I'm buying more music now than at any point in my life - for the first time I can really afford to, I'm going to more gigs than ever and loving it.

Recently reverted to vinyl, buying up lots of records that have gone awol, or are worn, or oldies i should "have" if I want to take myself seriously as a music fan (e.g. Bringing it all Back Home (mono) bought yesterday).

At around 5,000 cds and about 600 lps music new, old, recorded and live still excites me, surely I'm not the odd one out on this forum?

Just a couple of weeks ago I was thinking that, thanks to Word, I've probably listened to and bought more music in the last few years than for many years previously. I've also rediscovered the vinyl that's been languishing in a dusty corner.

But this did lead me to conclude, like the original poster, that I'm full up now thanks and don't need any more new music.

Then someone on twitter mentioned that June Tabor's version of Shipbuilding on her new CD is better than any of the other versions, so I had a listen on Spotify, liked it (dunno about better than all others, but hey) and bought the CD. Which has made it to the ipod but not been listened to yet. High hopes for the weekend though...

I'm tempted to put one on Ebay per day, starting with my least favourite, until I'm left with just my favourite 100 albums. That'd be enough music for me.

Mind, I'm always creating these hair-brained schemes and giving up after about an hour.

And I've introduced a monthly record-buying budget of £30 recently, which does me plenty. It means 4 new records a month, which is still 48 a year. I mean, bloody hell, let's face it, most people don't have 48 records, let alone 48 new ones a year.

But I won't ever get to the point where I only want to hear old music. I don't know how you can love music and not want to keep up just a little with new stuff, but then I don't know how a person can straight-facedly espouse the view that everything worthwhile was recorded in the sixties and seventies either. Doesn't stop people, though.

I am trying to put more effort into the albums I do buy, not with my finger over the skip button. I keep reminding myself that many of my favourite albums I didn't 'get' until the 4th run through.

I've got a very large collection, both physical and digital, and I still add to it although mostly 'old' music rather than new stuff, which rarely excites me. When you get to the point where your collection realistically exceeds the remaining lifetime left to listen to it all you probably ought to stop. Someone pointed this out to me recently and my reply was on the lines of 'at least I know I've got it if I need it'. Pathetic, I know.

Another tell-tale sign is if there are a large number of CDs which still have their wrapping untouched.