Originally Posted by lj39

For me it isn't really based upon an hourly time frame.It's more along the lines of how many artists I want to listen to in one day. I tend to track how many albums I to through in a given day, although it does depend on what I'm doing.

I mostly just listen at my house or in my car, and anywhere else I just sort of tune it out. One reason for this is I like the difference between music that I'm interested in, and weighing that with the sounds of real-life/real world. Also, I really, REALLY hate passive listening. Either I try to give things a solid 70-80% concentrated listening effort, or I don't listen at ALL. It's too important to me to just regulate sounds to the background. So I absolutely will NOT listen to anything at work or while I'm doing errands because it's just easier for all parties involved, lol.

Finally, I'm also a drummer, and after practicing for a few hours whether on a practice pad kit or the real thing, I gotta take a break for my ear's sake!