Poll: Buying CD's or Downloading.

[Link55]

Wich woulld you prefer downloading a song or just buying the whole CD. For me I like just buying CD's because it's less of a hassel and I don't need to worry about viruses or my computer crashing. Although CD's could be used and scratched it is safer and you could get your money back. Which you can't do online. Also CD's don't take as much space on your computer depending on how long and how many tracks there are.

 

[DoPo]

I don't need to worry about viruses or my computer crashing

Is this really a concern if you buy your music legally?

Also CD's don't take as much space on your computer depending on how long and how many tracks there are.

A CD would be about 100 MB in MP3s. let's say 150 MB maximum. Considering my hard drive holds 500 GB and is still considered average (unless you go for SSD) and I still haven't managed to fill it up, I'd say I'm not too worried about disk space.

I prefer digital, by the way. The CDs are too much of a hassle for me.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I'd rather buy a CD than go with a digital download. I like to have hard copies of my media purchases.

Maybe if I had the ability to burn CDs I'd go with digital then make my own hard copy, but I kinda doubt it.

 

[Total LOLige]

I prefer buying CDs. Digital downloads cost the same as buying the CD, I'd rather pay the same price and buy the CD and have a hard copy.

 

[ubersyanyde]

Digital for me mainly because it's almost instant (as opposed to waiting for a CD to arrive/going out and buying one) and has better quality than CDs. Also most of the music I listen to can only be bought digitally.

 

[Scrustle]

You don't get viruses through download if you do it legally...

But I personally go for CDs. I've never bought a second hand CD though. I buy them because I like having something physical and they tend to have better sound quality than from download. Also having a CD is like always having a permanent backup if your hard drive fails or something.

 

[Aris Khandr]

I prefer digital, just for the ease of listening to my music. I'm in the process of dumping my CD collection onto iTunes and never looking back.

 

[Hazy992]

Whichever's cheapest and whichever's easiest to get a hold of. That's usually iTunes

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

I do both fairly regularly.

I buy the albums when I want an album. If I want a single track I get it from amazons download service. Nice and easy.

 

[kjrubberducky]

I prefer digital, by the way. The CDs are too much of a hassle for me.

Digital for me mainly because it's almost instant (as opposed to waiting for a CD to arrive/going out and buying one) and has better quality than CDs. Also most of the music I listen to can only be bought digitally.

I prefer digital, just for the ease of listening to my music. I'm in the process of dumping my CD collection onto iTunes and never looking back.

Sorry to be picking nits here, but CDs are digital. To get analogue sound, you have to go back to the old record players; cassette tapes on forward are all digital media. As music is digitized, it suffers a loss in quality, as some of the more nuanced notes are converted to discrete values; also, using a compressed sound format like .mp3 will give you lower quality than a recorded format like .wav, so CDs are *usually* of higher quality than the files you get from a download service.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I prefer CD as I just like having the phyiscal form should anything bad happen to my PC or my storage device.

 

[Launcelot111]

I buy CDs 90% of the time because I like the adventure of tracking down a CD I've been wanting to find after a year and a half. I also buy mostly used, which is usually cheaper than any download service. The only times I download is if the album is really cheap (like Amazon's $5 specials of the month) or if it's a pretty new CD that you wouldn't find used and I'm feeling especially impatient.

Plus in a good record store you should be able to get some cool recommendations if the guy at the counter is knowledgeable or they put any effort into organizing and labelling their music or if they play offbeat stuff in the store.

Plus I can play music in my car if I buy the CD but it takes an extra step if I download it.

 

[porpoise hork]

Digital. There is nothing I hate more than spending $16-20 for a CD that has at bets 2 good songs on it. Digital allows me to buy what I like and only what I like. Another benefit is I don't have storage issues with the hundreds of CD's that I used to have in my collection.

Now if the album is by a particular artist then I might buy the CD just to have it, but chances are I'll just buy the whole thing digitally.

 

[Broady Brio]

I've gone to digital now. Because I've lost my CD's around my house. I hope to soon buy a SSD and put all my music on it, so when my laptop decides to die, I'll still have my music.

 

[DoPo]

I prefer digital, just for the ease of listening to my music. I'm in the process of dumping my CD collection onto iTunes and never looking back.

Sorry to be picking nits here, but CDs are digital. To get analogue sound, you have to go back to the old record players; cassette tapes on forward are all digital media. As music is digitized, it suffers a loss in quality, as some of the more nuanced notes are converted to discrete values; also, using a compressed sound format like .mp3 will give you lower quality than a recorded format like .wav, so CDs are *usually* of higher quality than the files you get from a download service.[/quote]

While nipticking, CDs are also a physical product and "digital" is often used as an antonym to that to mean "that which is not on physical medium". And that is what I meant, and I would assume the others as well

 

[The Diabolical Biz]

While nitpicking, CDs are also a physical product and "digital" is often used as an antonym to that to mean "that which is not on physical medium". And that is what I meant, and I would assume the others as well

And, to continue on that theme, it's the soundwave itself that is digital, whilst on this thread we are talking about the manner of distribution.

OT: Digitally is the way I go. I occasionally go on iTunes binges where I buy about 5 albums at once on a whim. I prefer Vinyl to CDs, too. Probably stems from my dad's 10,000+ record collection. Nothing beats that Vinyl crackle.

 

[NoMansLand 666]

I've gone to digital now. Because I've lost my CD's around my house. I hope to soon buy a SSD and put all my music on it, so when my laptop decides to die, I'll still have my music.

Bit of a waste using an SSD for music isn't it? Would rather use it for programs/files with much higher requirements than simple music files personally.

 

[unoleian]

I do both. I get most of my music online (legally, btw, I haven't pirated in years --barring the one discography an artist TOLD me to pirate-- Gramatik's just that cool) It's easier, convenient, and now I mostly get my music from the Spotify cloud for now.

As a matter of fact, I just bought a CD just a couple days ago [http://shop.kilowattsmusic.com/album/acceptitude]. Limited special edition release of just 1000 copies in some pretty inspired packaging, so there's that.

CD's do have a tangibility to them that downloads lack, so sometimes that's a consideration to make. I'll buy special albums from time to time, but download most every other purchase from now on.

 

[CrashBang]

If you're talking about illegal downloads, this (incredible) song sums up my feelings perfectly:

Spoiler: Stray From The Path

Legally, I like buying CDs for their use in the car, the way they decorate my room, the lyric sleeve, the artwork and the satisfaction of holding a new piece of art in my hands.
However, when bands release singles, b-sides or EPs, I always get them off iTunes.