There is no "the music" to buy in my house. There's my music, and there's my wife's music. And then there's the children. My wife rolled her eyes when I told her I was using Sky + to record a 17 part music documentary...

bought a Joan Armatrading LP in 1978 I believe.

Mrs Skirky buys stuff on iTunes that she's heard on 6Music and I get threefers on CD from HMV that I've heard on Radcliffe and Maconie. She's got an iPod, I've got a car.

all the music in our house, almost all from Amazon. But there's no thudding on the doormat. It all gets delivered to the office. Fewer arguments that way!

never calls at G Towers these days. Bought a CD six months ago. ( Didn't like it much ).

My husband buys something once in a blue moon. I buy something once a day (must must must cut down)

Have been married to my second wife for 11 years and known her for 13. During our courtship she liked almost everything i played her or said she did!! Now she likes probably less than 50 percent. Is it because I have become more adventurous in what I am prepared to foist upon her or has she just become less tolerant of some of my eccentricities?

She called a few weeks ago - she was on her way home from work listening to radio 2 and said 'darling, turn on Radio 2 - you have to listen to this most beautiful song'. I did - it was 'Who knows where the time goes?' - 'Darling, we have this in our collection'. 'Do we? i have never heard it'
There is hope for her i guess - at least she can recognise a great song. Might try her with Electricity by Captain Beefheart tomorrow.

The answer to the thread is that I buy hers and mine - hers have become less and less over the years as she has never been a collector of anything. It's a man thing on the whole.

biscuitbiscuit, does your old man moan at you for spending too much on music or is that just a thing that wives do? (In the interests of research of course - not a sexist comment).

I buy all the music in this house, largely (well, OK then, entirely) because I'm the only one here. Sigh. ('Hearts and Flowers' strikes up on soundtrack...) At least arguments about what to listen to are restricted entirely to car journeys with my grand-daughter. I like to listen while I drive, or better still, to talk to her. The Bean, on the other hand, generally would rather I didn't subject her to my 'old-fashioned' music (yet she loves Dolly Parton - consistency isn't necessarily a ten year old's strongest suit), and on a long journey likes to read. Our compromise : "If you're going to read and not talk to me, I'm going to play music, OK?" Her anti stance does soften when it comes to music I've recorded (Garageband) - Charlotte's one of our biggest fans, and as I've none on tape (very old car - radio/cassette only) she's been known to request a capella versions of the ones I sing. Happy to do so, but I make her sing me a song or two in return.

At Kerr Acres when the GLW has been let loose on the music purchasing the results heve been near catastrophic!
Last example was Master Hucknell's latest offering. When the above ordered said CD from the good people at Amazon, I tactfully pointed out we had four albums by Bobby Bland sitting proudly in the collection and the last thing we needed was MH's versions.
Needless to say domestic harmony was interupted for a day or two.
Mind you she did like that nice Tom Baker CD, no not Baker. You know? The soup people, Baxter, yes that's it, Tom Baxter.

I tend to buy almost all music, with the exception of Christmas or my birthday when the current Mrs b is given an extensive and eclectic list to select from and, bless her, normally buys the lot. Occasionally she goes off-piste and will throw in a selection of her own which is usually pretty good.

A common occurrence is that I pitch up with something slightly obscure at which she turns up her nose, but grudgingly admits to a "not bad" after a listen.

The one area I struggle with is female singers. I could produce a long list of screeching harridans that I adore but that she won't tolerate, normally eliciting a comment of "I'd rather eat my own vomit" or something similar when offered the chance to listen to Ms Amos/Wasser/Nordenstam etc etc etc.

Can't complain really. By and large we have pretty similar tastes.

In our house, I buy music and DVDs, my soon-to-be-wife buys clothes and shoes. We're probably slowly bankrupting ourselves but neither seems to be willing to be the one to back down first and keep the credit card away from the internet.

Buying CDs. The old hunter/gatherer thing. Buying books. Woman's work. Perfect location Borders - divide and shop, meeting only in the coffee shop when complete.

Mind you wo betide I do not return from my hunting expedition on the day of release when a new Mike Oldfield offering has escaped.

I tend to buy most of the music as MrsP says she never sure about buying something in case I'd already bought it. But there's some things she will buy herself. She also shows she's not locked into any genre as the the last 2 things she bought were Van's Keep It Simple and Duffy's CD.

Shouldn't this be in the "Inaccurately Predicted Future" thread?

I understand that men are outsripping their women...but why do people buy CDs from Amazon when HMV, BangCD, CDWow all have free delivery and the cost of the CD is cheaper than Amazon?

Have I missed something?

Mr Em is a master of the sale racks - his favoured hunting ground being Borders which comes up trumps A LOT. He also likes to do a pre-holiday sweep and produce a mysterious bag of loot, once we are on our way, for holiday listening pleasure (this works best when we have a car, of course).

I also like to go music shopping - Amazon, or actual shops, it doesn't make any difference really, but I need to have an idea of what I want, I'm not so good at random browsing, I get phased by the sheer quantity (I'm the same in bookshops or the library, my mind goes blank and I don't know what I want).

The real difference is in our approach to downloads. I am the downloader in our house, sometimes whole albums, sometimes the odd disco or cheese song, but Mr Em doesn't get this - he wants the hard copy with all the artwork, whereas I want the music and am happy with MP3.

I'm the techie, he's the muso, but we're both audiophiles!

I buy for me, for the wife, for the 7 year old and for the 3 year old.

What has amazed me for some time is how we have all the same taste in music. Just amazing.

And nobody ever complains. (Mainly because they don't know I buy for them I suppose.)

When we met my wife already had a collection of around 100 cds, mainly classical but with a smattering of good stuff too; Tom Waits and Pink Floyd for instance; but also a lot of stuff I'm not keen on (let's leave it at that). I have around 1000 cds and we managed to have around 7 duplicates (which now adorn our guest room). I get about half mine sent home, mainly from Amazon, and half sent to work so as not to arouse suspicion. She buys a few and I also get her stuff I think she'll like for Xmas and birthdays (and I don't think I've had a disaster yet) and playing them makes for a harmonic household.

She buys the majority of DVDs though - I tend to get mine through Love Film.

Of course in same-sex households the dynamics are slightly different! Although I must say that I know very few couples, gay or straight, who exhibit equal dedication to music buying. It just seems to be one of the immutable laws of life.

Anyway, for the record (tape/CD/mp3 blah blah) I'm a 42 year old woman who's been obsessively buying and otherwise consuming music (and the music press) since I was 11 - whether living alone or coupled! Oh and I buy the DVDs and the books too. Ever the multi-tasker!

In the process of moving in with my other half and as well as all ' the word ' cds i have hundreds of others. My other half has in the past purchased quite a few but now seems content with an annual purchase of the latest Bon jovi album. she has pointed out ' the space issue ' and suggested that if i buy a new cd that i get rid of one thus saving space. whilst i was at first horrified by this thought i have now worked out that she has about 100 cds that i can get rid of before starting on my collection by which time i would hope we would move into larger accomodation .

There are buggers on this site who could do that in a fortnight....(10 out of 11 Mercury's, Jeez, I thought 5 was bad......)

I live alone currently, so buy all the music, but it has always been the case when I have lived with people as well. It's my main interest and my taste has always overlapped at least a little bit with that of previous girlfriends.

Luckily, most people I've been out with have been encouraging of, or at worst indifferent to, my heavy music buying. Nothing worse than being made to feel bad for buying new records every week or two!