Buy CD or download?

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Buy CD or download?

CD
17
57%
Download
3
10%
Both
10
33%
 
Total votes: 30

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Meriphew
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Buy CD or download?

Post by Meriphew » Sat Feb 18, 2006 1:58 pm

I'm curious as to what the ratio of CD purchases vs. downloads are now. Do you still buy CD's or do you mostly download single songs (or whole albums)? I'm one of the people who buys CD's.

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inverseroom
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Post by inverseroom » Sat Feb 18, 2006 2:17 pm

Mostly CD's, but I've bought three or four albums on iTunes and emusic recently and the experience was basically excellent. I can get the music immediately, pop it on the iPod, and go out walking and listening. Probably I'll do this more often now...

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nlmd311
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Post by nlmd311 » Sat Feb 18, 2006 2:31 pm

I voted CD. I just like having the physical cd, liner notes, artwork... the whole package. Don't mind paying the little extra either.
I have purchased a few things through iTunes and have to agree with inverseroom in that it is just extremely convenient, and has gone off without a hitch. Even with my dial-up connection!
Still prefer CD's though.

-Darrill
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spankenstein
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Post by spankenstein » Sat Feb 18, 2006 2:34 pm

Download for me. I've been an emusic subscriber for quite a while and really enjoy it. All my cars play mp3 cds, I have an mp3 player on my home stereo, I have an iPod... Even when I buy a real CD it gets ripped onto my file server and the CD goes on the shelf.

I know a lot of people on here poo-poo mp3s as sounding bad but I really have no objections to the high quality VBR mp3s that emusic has or the ones that I rip. I use LAME with VBR with 128kbps being the lowest and 320kbps being the highest. I'm completely happy with the quality.

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inverseroom
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Post by inverseroom » Sat Feb 18, 2006 2:38 pm

Yeah, I know we already had a thread about formats, but I had thought I was using AAC then, and recently realized I was actually ripping to 160kbps mp3! And it is just fine for everything except critical listening, to my surprise.

John Jeffers
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Post by John Jeffers » Sat Feb 18, 2006 3:07 pm

nlmd311 wrote:I voted CD. I just like having the physical cd, liner notes, artwork... the whole package. Don't mind paying the little extra either.
Plus, if I have the CD, then I get to choose the format I want to convert it to, and I don't have to worry about someone telling me where I can play it (for the most part). I will steadfastly refuse to buy any product with any kind of DRM for as long as it's possible.

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Meriphew
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Post by Meriphew » Sat Feb 18, 2006 3:54 pm

I'm wondering how long it will be before there is no longer a "physical" medium that music is sold as, rather than just purchasing data via the internet.

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Mark Alan Miller
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Post by Mark Alan Miller » Sat Feb 18, 2006 7:03 pm

I voted both.

My wife and I have this thing now. It's like the return of the 7" single's heyday!
We check out previews (on iTunes or wherever) when we have one song from a record we know we like. If it seems we'll like more than a couple of other songs on the record, we by the CD (or LP!) - otherwise, we download (legally) the "singles" we like and feel good about it.

"Back in the day" I used to buy 7" singles a lot, often/usually for less than two bucks for domestic issues. Count for inflation and $.99 a song is quite similar. And affordable. And supporting the artist! Yay!

But, to answer the question more specifically, we mostly buy CDs. Much more than downloads.

I really like the physical delivery medium too. Covers, all that music sitting on the shelves, etc etc.
he took a duck in the face at two and hundred fifty knots.

http://www.radio-valkyrie.com/ao/aoindex.htm - download the new record (free is an option!) or get it on CD.

raw-tracks
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Post by raw-tracks » Sat Feb 18, 2006 7:16 pm

I much prefer CD's to downloads. I want to know I have the highest qulaity release format available. I will rip to MP3 myself and put it on my player. If I download the song, then think that the mix is somewhat strange or inferrior, It drives me nuts wondering if it is the MP3 encoding that is causing the problem or if that is just how the mix sounds. If I have the CD, I know that the mix just sounds that way. I can't say I am ever 100% satisfied with an MP3. I always here artifacts, and that distracts me.
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Jeremy Garber
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Post by Jeremy Garber » Sat Feb 18, 2006 7:52 pm

I love owning albums. They are my precious. With my Minidisc, I just copy a full album or few onto it, and then go off to work or whatever. I guess when I listen to music, I really enjoy hearing the whole album. Which is funny, since my writing/recording method is the complete oposite. The only time I listen to singles is on the radio, both terrestrial and net based. I have a hard enough time trying to organize the MP3s of my own music on my harddrive. lol

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trashy
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Post by trashy » Sat Feb 18, 2006 8:53 pm

I hate cds. I love albums - y'know: records, vinyl. I voted download. If I'm going to have to put up with a digital format, it had better be as convenient as possible.

and itunes is the best program ever written.

I download (legally) a couple of albums a month. And maybe one or two songs, besides.

I really do like having the cardboard and art and liner notes... We're still pretty soon into this whole process, and I expect itunes albums to start including more than just the cover. The new jack johnson (didn't buy it, I promise) comes with a pdf coloring book and a pdf kids book. Take that idea, times ten, and make it more computer centric (hidden website portals, flash animations, maybe even album-specific itunes visuals) - that's what I think we'll see in just a few years. Probably sooner than that, now that I've come up with the idea and you're all gonna steal it.

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trodden
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Post by trodden » Sun Feb 19, 2006 2:55 am

I'd rather buy a cd than download.. but we're releasing our new record on a double 12" lp next month. We still don't have the cd version lined up yet. I'm looking forward to having two slabs of vinyl with kick ass packaging and artwork in my hands and on the turntable.

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inverseroom
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Post by inverseroom » Sun Feb 19, 2006 7:18 am

trashy wrote:and itunes is the best program ever written.
Wow, that's a stunning admission... and I have to say, iTunes has surprised the shit out of me. I think its copy protection schemes are very fair, allowing plenty of "fair use" of music you have bought without encouraging piracy...the interface is great...and the store works perfectly. I feel like its very existence has been the #1 thing that has opened up downloading as a viable way to sell music.

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Meriphew
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Post by Meriphew » Sun Feb 19, 2006 7:33 am

trodden wrote: but we're releasing our new record on a double 12" lp next month.
Cool. Good luck with the new release Trodden.

spankenstein
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Post by spankenstein » Sun Feb 19, 2006 7:38 am

I think iTunes is a big piece of poop personally. THe only thing it has going for it IMO is that it integrates the store in. That's mostly good for Apple though.

It's SLOW. Just scrolling through songs on my computer is slow as crap. It's not configurable enough and the handling of collections is a pain in the butt. I hvae a very organised collection on a server here at the house and everything is named as follows:

Artist\Album\Artist - Album - Track - Song.mp3

So if I download something I have to save it... go to iTunes and take for freaking ever to browse to that directory to add it to the library. Then if I add (like buy another track from that album) I have to go back and add that song.

I downloaded the trial of Anapod Explorer. That looks to work a lot better for me.

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