SkiBumMSP
Member
Admittedly, when at all possible, I do find I prefer getting the actual CD, buuuuttt, since the question was where do we primarily buy our digital downloads....
My order of preferences are as follows. I start with eMusic, and then followed by Amazon.com. I've also bought the occasional album off of Bandcamp (in FLAC). I've also bought a number of albums off of Mindawn.com as well, also in full lossless FLAC.
Yes, we can go on and on about how people like getting a physical item, or the classic old "what if your harddrive crashes" (umm - have you heard of backups and perhaps even using a cloud service such as iTunes Match or Google Music?), or the quality issues (unless they are playing this on a really high-end system, how many people are actually going to tell the difference between a 320kbps MP3 and a 256kbps AAC, or even that matter between a lossless format or the CD itself? Hell, I get into this argument all the time on the Klipsch forums! There are a few old coots on there that will only listen to vinyl through tube amps on the big corner horns). However, there is nothing that beats the sheer convenience of buying digital downloads. There are no more record stores in this town and Best Buy selection of CDs is now downright pathetic. Unless you are looking for Top 40 crap, you are pretty much not going to find it there anymore (although I was impressed when I saw Unisonic album there as well as the new Periphery album as well!). Thus, unless I want to wait days or even weeks for something to come in through mail order, it is nice to that in a couple of clicks, BAM, I have the music on my server, ready to be listened to. I still like to go on to Nightmare or Laser's Edge and go through a shopping binge and buy several albums from time to time (in fact, I see some titles that Lance just came out with that I will want to get off of him), but otherwise, I am grabbing it off of eMusic! Not only that, but it sure as hell makes it easier to find a title that I want to play by searching my server instead digging through my CD racks looking for something to listen to.
My order of preferences are as follows. I start with eMusic, and then followed by Amazon.com. I've also bought the occasional album off of Bandcamp (in FLAC). I've also bought a number of albums off of Mindawn.com as well, also in full lossless FLAC.
Yes, we can go on and on about how people like getting a physical item, or the classic old "what if your harddrive crashes" (umm - have you heard of backups and perhaps even using a cloud service such as iTunes Match or Google Music?), or the quality issues (unless they are playing this on a really high-end system, how many people are actually going to tell the difference between a 320kbps MP3 and a 256kbps AAC, or even that matter between a lossless format or the CD itself? Hell, I get into this argument all the time on the Klipsch forums! There are a few old coots on there that will only listen to vinyl through tube amps on the big corner horns). However, there is nothing that beats the sheer convenience of buying digital downloads. There are no more record stores in this town and Best Buy selection of CDs is now downright pathetic. Unless you are looking for Top 40 crap, you are pretty much not going to find it there anymore (although I was impressed when I saw Unisonic album there as well as the new Periphery album as well!). Thus, unless I want to wait days or even weeks for something to come in through mail order, it is nice to that in a couple of clicks, BAM, I have the music on my server, ready to be listened to. I still like to go on to Nightmare or Laser's Edge and go through a shopping binge and buy several albums from time to time (in fact, I see some titles that Lance just came out with that I will want to get off of him), but otherwise, I am grabbing it off of eMusic! Not only that, but it sure as hell makes it easier to find a title that I want to play by searching my server instead digging through my CD racks looking for something to listen to.
