[PanicLord]

Originally Posted by Sarge

Not necessarily. Some people don't buy art because it appeals to them but because the artist has a big name. It's an investment and/or a way to show that you can afford spending money on things like that. (On the art market, an item is not rated the same way people tend to rate music, by the way.) The people who do buy art because it appeals them simply fork out the money because they like a particular painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, they usually don't apply rating systems to it.

True, it's not always down to appeal. But what I really was trying to say is that people who buy it because they are interested in art rather than showing off or making money are probably willing to spend more money on something they really like than something that they find quite nice but not exceptional. Therefore, in these cases, the amount of money they spend is a good gauge of how much they like it. I'm not saying you can necessarily equate each mark out of 10 to a certain number of £ - but people will spend more money on something they love.

Originally Posted by Sarge

Do you buy and listen to music because you like it or because of the way someone else rated it? "Oh, that album got only two stars in the latest Rolling Stone... and just three stars on Amazon... Hm... I like that band but it's probably not worth purchasing it."

Well, ratings do come into my decision about a purchase. For example if a band I really like release an album that gets slated I may decide to defer the purchase until it becomes available in bargain bins or on special offer or something. Also, when I am looking into buying music from someone I am not familiar with and haven't heard before, I use ratings to help me assess whether it is something I am likely to be interested in. Again, it's not the only thing, but it helps.

Originally Posted by Sarge

Regardless of how many points/stars/whatever someone grants HIAH, will that have an influence on other forum members' decisions on whether to buy/like it or not? I guess most people are more interested in the style, the arrangements or to which extent Patti is featured on the album than in whether it gets a 5/10, 7/10 or 10/10 rating by someone.

Forum members, probably not to a huge extent, although I have to say the positive reviews do seem to have encouraged some members who wouldn't have bought it to get a copy.

Originally Posted by Sarge

It's alright to exchange feelings and opinions on a song but applying some kind of grading system appears kind of odd to me, especially since it's not clear to which criteria it actually refers to, as meatpatti pointed out. I have to admit that I did that once, too, but it turned out to be a waste of time. I rather attentively listen to music than rack my brains about whether I should grant a particular song/album x/5 or x/10 stars/points. Sometimes I have the feeling that some people are more concerned with the review they are going to publish than with (hopefully) enjoying the music.

The score is only a way of reflecting an opinion - ie 10 out of 10 is a very glowing review, 5 out of 10 an average review, 1 out of 10 a poor review. It's a really quick and simple way of summing up an overall opinion on something. I don't rack my brains or overanalyse it, I give a score that feels right and shows how much I enjoyed the music. I have to say I don't review things very often, but when I post one, I do like to take care over it so that it is (to me) well written, clear, fair, and hopefully interesting to read. Doesn't mean I've not thoroughly enjoyed listening to the music first - in fact it tends to mean I listen to it even more attentively so that I have a clear idea of what I'm going to say about it so that it truly reflects how I feel about it. The 2 things are not mutually exclusive.