Download V.S. Buying CD's

[Diabolik]

In this wonderful digital age....do you perfer to buy CD's or just download?

Myself....I love buying CD's. I love going to the store to hunt for stuff. I can do that all day and be happy as hell. I know lots of the younger crowd would rather just click a button and hav everything right there. There was an interesting article in the paper this week about record stores all over closing down. A true scene needs a record store. It is a greeat place to meet other people who are into the same music as you and a great way to find new bands. About half the stuff I have here in my apartment is stuff that people recommended to me at various stores. I think it is much more fun to bullshit with people while buying CD's that sitting home and just clicking a button.

I will sit on MySpace and listen to song samples. But I never actually download them. I love the cover art, the booklets and everything that comes with a CD. There are always some surprises there too. Like I showed Jason last night the surprise I got when I read the Temnazor booklet.

 

[Saladbar]

Even if I download I always end up buying the cd anyway. Maybe its just me, but buying an album without having it in my hands is like buying it without a soul.

 

[Diabolik]

Even if I download I always end up buying the cd anyway. Maybe its just me, but buying an album without having it in my hands is like buying it without a soul.

I agree. I love looking at my shelf of CD's and seeing the sheer volume. Beats going...that hard drive is my whole collection. There are lots of CD's that for me were important or something happened that day makes it a little more important for me.

 

[skyrefuge]

Haven't bought a CD since January 2005. Haven't gone to a store to buy a CD since March 2003. Any losses in experience are more than outweighed by the savings in time, gas, cost, space, and the ripping I would have to do. Being a moderately-evolved primate, my capability for abstract thought means that I don't get much of an ego boost from gazing up a large pile of plastic and paper.

(oh, and for clarity, I do still pay for music, I just buy it from electronic download stores)

Neil

 

[The_Q]

Haven't bought a CD since January 2005. Haven't gone to a store to buy a CD since March 2003. Any losses in experience are more than outweighed by the savings in time, gas, cost, space, and the ripping I would have to do. Being a moderately-evolved primate, my capability for abstract thought means that I don't get much of an ego boost from gazing up a large pile of plastic and paper.

(oh, and for clarity, I do still pay for music, I just buy it from electronic download stores)

Neil

sigh....

 

[Diabolik]

I'm not proud of it, but I haven't bought a CD in years. I just don't have the money. I do however have a LONG list of must-buys for when I get money.

it's called a job, or you can sell your body to desperate old men!

 

[The Invisible Guest]

I agree. I love looking at my shelf of CD's and seeing the sheer volume. Beats going...that hard drive is my whole collection. There are lots of CD's that for me were important or something happened that day makes it a little more important for me.

I do both ... I download most everything first .. listen to it several times. If I think it's a winner I order it from The End, Laser's Edge, or CD Universe. I have 1,000 cd's or so in a big case against the wall. It is getting to the point though where I never actually play the actual cd .. I use them only to rip the cd to the computer, and to reading the lyrics and whatnot.

I have everything on my harddrive, and Ipod ... and I have a cd player in the car that is ipod compatible, and a docking station in the house that connected to the home stereo. Outside of the cover, and lyrics I honestly have no need for an actual cd. It's to the point now where I can't remember the last time I actually put in a cd.

Britt

 

[The Invisible Guest]

I'm too busy paying and working for this so-called education. Besides, no old men live around here.

I understand you have some financial issues, but I do think it's the folks like you that really are bad for the industry, and cause a lot of the debate. I realize you would like to buy cd's if you had the dough, so you're clearly above the dirt bag nickel dicks that think they are entitled to music for free. Does that make sense? Downloading can be great, but I think you it owe to an artist to buy their cd if you like it.

Britt

 

[The Invisible Guest]

I know.

Although I guess I'm doing the same as you, just with a big gap in between the downloading and purcahsing. Lame reasoning, I know.

Actually I don't think that is so bad .. you will probably buy stuff when you are able to. Some people have no intention of paying for music under any circumstances.

Britt

 

[Srontgorrth]

I buy albums when I can, maybe like on average one or two a month, but i download a hell of alot more.

 

[Heavenly Call]

My CD to download ratio is probably about 10 to 1. Similar to Diabolik, I just love holding the actual CD with the artwork, etc. Really the only things I typically download are one or two songs off an album just to make sure I'm not going to totally blow some money. I do more "research" than purchasing with downloading.

 

[eppst1]

I buy all my stuff. I will go to the website of a band or their myspace page to check out their tunes first.

 

[Helspyre]

I only buy CDs. MP3s sound like crap. I listen to samples online but that's as far as I go digitally. Plus I like collecting the CDs anyway. Most of the bands I like include pretty cool artwork. Yeah, so I can only afford one or two CDs a month and I have to be picky about what I buy. I think that just makes me enjoy them more though.

I think it is interesting that for a long time it seemed like there was a trend in the masses to want higher quality audio and now that seems that the reverse is true.

Even some high end stereo businesses are going out of business (at least around here). There still seems to be a demand for high quality video but not audio.

 

[Machine of Hate]

i buy. my friends and i share cds, so if i make a copy and like it i'll go out and buy it. and if i really like the band, i get some merch

 

[EtherealForest]

I usually check things out on MySpace. I rarely actually go out looking for things though. Usually just spur of the moment and quite a bit of my cds are used, so that certainly helps. I also like to have a tangible copy. You never really know what could happen to your harddrive. Also, I just like having the cds.

 

[Jasonic]

I can honestly say I have never illegally downloaded a CD.
Not trying to sound all "high and mighty", it's just something I am against.
On the flipside, I certainly can not fault someone for taking something that is free and there for the taking.

It KILLED me when the last Novembers Doom leaked.
I was a good boy and waited for the pre-order to arrive in the mail.

I am sure though if I were 10 years younger and the internet was around when I was getting into music, my thoughts on the subject might be different.

I come from the old demo and 7" days, where you would go out of your way to give a new band you liked your hard earned money.

I have used EMUSIC, though you pay for that.

 

[TomAwesome]

If I'm going to buy an album, I feel like I deserve to own the full 1411kbps version. I think it's silly to pay for an album and only get some crappy 128kbps version of it. For this reason, I prefer buying the actual CD. The extra effort of ripping the MP3s myself doesn't bother me.

 

[booB]

When I buy music, it is always on a physical CD. I have historically had a lot of trouble with hard drives, and I don't want to spend my money on music that I might lose; I would rather have a physical "master copy", complete with already-printed lyrics, artwork, etc.

I have no problem with purchasing and downloading software, and burning it to a disc, but for CDs, I'm more protective, and, I suppose, old-fashioned.

That is not to say I don't OCCASIONALLY download a CD illegally to check it out, and decide whether or not I want to buy it. However, I only do that when: a) the album is taking forever to be released, b) it is only available as an expensive import, or c) I can't find adequate samples offered anywhere on the internet, such as MySpace, etc.

 

[Dolamite S. Biffle]

well I get an absurd amount of promos, so I dont normally ever buy albums. I think it has been about 3 years since I paid for an album. I have downloaded some older stuff though and some in between thanks to someone stealing over 300 albums that I paid for out of my car.

Honestly artwork and lyric sheets dont really matter to me anyway since I just put the album on my computer and then put the physical copy in one of my five 300 capacity cd albums.

 

[KingsGene]

I have never used torrents or kazaa or anything like that. I use eMusic or legal downloads available from the bands, labels, stores, etc. However, I do file share with friends that have similar yet eclectic tastes. I recently have purchased download only available stuff from bands like Porcupine Tree, Tangerine Dream, etc. It seems that CD's are still the best for sound quality. MP3's purchased from eMusic are still suspect at best, especially at high volume. Also, sometimes my iTunes friends give me mp3's that sound like crap, but give me the opportunity to review the songs first.