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To help a soon-to-be sister site out here, I was thinking English.SE perhaps could lend a helping hand as this is the best place for "word choice and usage".

I'm not looking for "naming", but rather want to see what shorter words exist for expressing "music end-users/enthusiasts", these could be "journalists, reviewers, music fans and listeners".

I've tried, but can't come up with something... Audiophiles. From Urban Dictionary I have selvyn which is another word for a Music enthusiast of the Modern age; but yeah, it's UD and I don't think selvyn is really English to begin with...

So... do you know of a single word to express "music end-users/enthusiasts"?

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  • 2
    Audiophile is an actual, common word describing them, but not mere end users/enthusiasts but connoisseurs and fanatics investing big $$$ in custom audio equipment, special rooms, paying through the nose for placebo effect of $5000 "superior cables" and such.
    – SF.
    Jul 12, 2012 at 11:36
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    Audiophiles make fun of people who buy $5000 cables.
    – Rob
    Jul 12, 2012 at 15:48
  • @Rob: you tell me? A friend at work got an order, 4000 microfarads capacitor built only off ceramic capacitors. Because they have lower parasitic inductance. Of course the parasitic inductance of all the wires connecting the countless small capacitors exceeded whatever an electrolytic capacitor would have by far, but... audiophile equipment, no inferior electrolytic capacitors used!
    – SF.
    Jul 13, 2012 at 7:19
  • That's absurd, but I'm sure it's not unheard of. There are crazies in all groups of everything (let's argue over the oxford comma!), but in general audiophiles won't spend money on "monster" cables. Those that do should be (and probably will be) ridiculed by the majority.
    – Rob
    Jul 17, 2012 at 15:59

7 Answers 7

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I don't think there is a widely understood one-word term for music listeners as opposed to artists. Most single-word options, if they exist, would probably sound strange to people.

Your best bet is probably two words that don't blend together spelling-wise too easily. I'd suggest musicfans.stackexchange.com.

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  • Fans was the first word I thought of. I second musicfans.stackexchange.com.
    – ThinkingStiff
    Jul 12, 2012 at 7:22
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    +1 for mentioning the spelling-wise blending (see my comment to jwpat below).
    – J.R.
    Jul 12, 2012 at 8:56
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    Even though OP specifically said he was not looking for a name, it looks like the group disagrees. This said, I have upvoted this answer for the same reason as J.R. That f in musicfans stands out in the middle of the name and acts as a very good delimiter.
    – Gorpik
    Jul 13, 2012 at 6:44
  • Despite the fact that it is not considered by most folk to be very specific now and never referred expressly referred just to music, I believe audience deserves an honorable mention due to its etymological origin. It also believe this answer is probably right since audience as a group of listeners, anybody within earshot or any group entertained is probably as close to a commonly accepted word as English has ever had for this concept.
    – Tonepoet
    Jul 31, 2015 at 22:14
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I found this word: discophile.

(Donna Summer haters, relax. Contrary to your first impressions, the word does NOT mean "lover of disco music.")

This word seems like it may be evolving a little bit as music media evolves.

TFD defines it as "a collector of or specialist in phonograph records." Merriam-Webster has a slightly more updated definition: "one who studies and collects phonograph records or CDs," and indicates the word has been in use since 1940. The Phrontistery has a more generic definition that fits in rather nicely with the O.P.'s desired word: "one who loves and studies sound recordings."

Then again, if that word doesn't suit your needs, there's always musicophile, which the OED labels as rare but defines quite simply as, "a music lover."

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  • Sounds good, going to wait a bit longer to see if there are any other suggestions. I couldn't get further than audiophile, but seems that you really know how to research single words. Thanks for that... :)
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Jul 12, 2012 at 3:29
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    +1 Musicphile/musicophile are being used increasingly and seem to perfectly describe the target group, but I do prefer musicfans as the name for an SE site.
    – CJM
    Jul 12, 2012 at 8:59
  • @CJM: You & I both agree on which is the better word for an SE site (see my comment to jwpat below). Thanks for your supportive words, though.
    – J.R.
    Jul 12, 2012 at 9:02
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If I well understood your question, melomane (in Italian and French) is your word. From greek: mèlos (sing) and manìa (maniac). Melomaniac is the English translation.

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  • In Spanish at least, this word suggests classical music, not just any music. I don't know if the English word has the same connotation.
    – Gorpik
    Jul 12, 2012 at 8:43
  • @Gorpik that connotation is also present in Italian as well. Mirriam-webster also suggest that the english term implies an abnormal liking of music.
    – Agos
    Jul 12, 2012 at 10:42
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    As an SE name I think it's too obscure. Only a small fraction of the target audience would know what it means. I wouldn't be surprised if the most common reaction was to misread and assume it was something to do with skin cancer (Melanoma).
    – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight
    Jul 12, 2012 at 12:25
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I like Daniel's musicfans and note that it gets about 52000 google hits, as a quoted search term. Some other such terms and counts are musication, 566000; musicair, 56000; musicfriends, 221000; musicear, 46000; musicarts, 473000; musiclisteners, 14000.

All that aside, the term I suggest is audacious, which while it has little to do with "music end-users and enthusiasts" is suggestive of bold listening and would be a likable group name.

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    For the record, I prefer a few of the suggestions by @jwpat7 above over anything I mentioned. (I provided a word because you asked for a word, but, in the end, Daniel might be right, there might not be a dictionary word as good as some of these suggestions – discophile is certainly nowhere near as good as musicfans.) The only other comment I'd like to make here is that I don't particularly care for musicarts, as it plays a trick on the eye, since nearly every online merchant uses the word cart for their checkouts, so it's easy to read that as musi-carts instead of music-arts.
    – J.R.
    Jul 12, 2012 at 8:55
  • @J.R., I agree. All of the forms musicX have similar problems when X starts with a vowel. Which accords with Daniel's advice to use "two words that don't blend together spelling-wise too easily".
    – James Waldby - jwpat7
    Jul 12, 2012 at 15:24
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I've heard of a muso used to describe someone who is a music enthusiast.

not sure what constitutes a good source; but Oxford Dictionaries likens it to:

a keen music fan

and from the cambridge dictionary

someone who likes popular music very much and knows a lot about it, often having a lot of musical equipment

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    I have also heard 'muso' used a lot but it tends to have negative implications... normally one that takes music overly seriously, particularly regarding contemporary non-art music.
    – Dan Gravell
    Jul 12, 2012 at 11:36
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I've heard 'music-lovers', with or without the hyphen.

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Aficionado perhaps?

I always thought that 'fan' was short for aficionado (somehow) but can find no evidence to back that up.

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  • I've always heard that fan was a shortening of fanatic.
    – J.R.
    Sep 17, 2019 at 14:12

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