Do you roll your own? The poll is sort of divided into several parts, the first two questions for how much effort you put in, and the second for what medium you use, and the third to turn your nose up at the whole thing. So read them all before you hit enter. It's something fun for me to do that adds to my enjoyment of music that I really like, or provides the opportunity to listen to perfectly good tracks that otherwise I wouldn't pick out very often. Mostly I mix by genre, or I put a few bands together and call that good. But for the moving trip up to Wisconsin I just kinda threw bands together on each of three CDs to add up to 10+ hours, and that was fun. And my current favorite CD is one band followed by a bunch of other tracks all mixed up so they all kinda flow nicely to my ear. I got a gift certificate just the other day, and between that and the new job I hope to have, I'll probably put together a new version of that CD soon, with all the original tracks plus a few KJ has that would fit, plus a few more I'll buy. I don't have an iThing mainly because I'm cheap. CDs feel more fun somehow anyway. You have to feel more decisive about what music you pick out. And then you burn one and you've got a creation unto itself, as opposed to yet another playlist that's just numbering files in a different order. I guess? Does anyone else still bother? Or is it all Pandora or hitting shuffle for a band or for your whole music library?
I have a couple thousand tunes on my phone/iPod/iPad/laptop that I like to shuffle. Some of 'em got burned to CD several years ago and I play them in the Mighty Jeep when Sirius isn't being cooperative.
I use music streaming services, sometimes I'll play preset mixes, but I'll also put together my own. I even have about a dozen songs to play while I'm in the shower. I use a variety of Sonos speakers in the home. Currently I have two Sonos subs, a Playbar, a Beam, a couple Play One's, and a Play Three.
I keep a couple of 160GB iPod Classics with about 12,000 songs on them in my work and personal vehicles. I mostly keep them on shuffle play, but I do have a few playlists I’ve put together for various reasons.
I have some sort of mental block when it comes to technology. I can rock a pharmacology exam, but don’t ask me to make a playlist/burn a cd or hook up a DVD player or game system. Major fail. I’m hoping and praying that somehow the laptop that I bought brand new for $299 in 2010 makes it two more years so I can finish school without having to learn a new operating system.
I still make mix CDs. The stereo in my car is a CD player, and it handles MP3 discs, too, so I pile hundreds of songs on a CD, and name them after whatever I feel like. My favorite mix CD is my "A fuck ton of 90s songs," and yeah, that's what it says on the CD.
Used to, when tapes were tapes. Then I made a bunch of mix CDs when cars got CD players. They're still around since the wife's car still has a CD player. Since my cars started having USB inputs, I just put all my favorite car-singalong songs in one folder on a thumb-drive, plus a couple of smaller single-artist folders. The new car has voice command, so I can just say "Play Springsteen" and it does. The fucking thing refuses to recognize the words "Meat Loaf" or "Bob Seger" tho.
I generally don't take music with me (like, on my phone) nor do I own an ipod/mp3 player, whatever the kids are using these days... back when, mixed tapes were sort of our spotify... the musical explorers of my social circles would come across something unique and several generations of copies would flow from there. Toronto legend "Big Anthony" has 40 years worth of obscure punk from everywhere on the planet and still unearths new stuff every time I see him. If not in the mood for a specific album at home, I'll tune into either VA playlists (usually pre 90s punk and/or "b-sides"), a couple of different web stations, or DJ sets (for deep house or trance moods) in genres I'm not overly familiar with, but enjoy.