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CD vs Mp3: Which do you buy and why?

post #1 of 66
12/22/06 at 11:24pm
Thread Starter 
Have a 1350+ CD collection and over the past year have found myself moving more and more towards downloading.

I am having a problem fully moving to just downloads cuz I cant seem to give up on the whole CD buying ritual; going to the store with list in hand, shuffling through hundreds of CD's for hours on end, talking music with the employees, getting home and reading the inserts/looking at the art, etc.

On the flip side-its become incredibly easy to just stay home and download. Its cheaper, more efficient and flat out easier to do.

Still havent fully committed to downloading as of yet. You?
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post #2 of 66
12/22/06 at 11:27pm
CDs hands down. I make perfect rips in 320k or FLAC on my home computer and then burn copies for myself for my car keeping the originals at home. I don't really trust downloading other people's rips or buying mp3s. If I download anything, it's strictly a "try before I buy" case.
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post #3 of 66
12/22/06 at 11:34pm
free music is the way to go, saves money, you don't end up buying a whole cd full of crap if you don't like it either, if i wanted to look at art, i'd go to an art gallery...although cover art is cool, you look at it once and that's it, no big deal imo :P


edit: also, it's a great way to discover new artists, i've found many artists this way
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post #4 of 66
12/22/06 at 11:36pm
The day someone offers mainstream catalog albums in lossless format is the day I'll never buy a CD again. Even if it has DRM -- so long as it's reasonable and I can put it on my iPod and sling it around my house.

Right now I download a lot of eMusic albums because the quality is damn good and I can experiment with new artists, but anything I *REALLY* love -- and ALL classical -- I buy the CD. I do get some great stuff from magnatune.com, and also some stuff here and there from iTMS.

--Chris
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post #5 of 66
12/22/06 at 11:49pm
Why anybody would buy a compressed, non-recoverable digital file in place of buying the full album is beyond me. Get the album and then bastardize the music - why destroy your chances at having the best possible fidelity, with a completely non-physical object, for just about the same dollar value?

I wouldn't listen to an MP3 on my computer, just like I wouldn't view a Kandinsky painting on my computer. Transferring my CDs to FLAC on the other hand, is perfectly fine. But it seems nonsensical to buy an inferior digital copy of a work of art that you cannot retrieve or basically have any phyiscal proof of ownership for. And it's plain foolish to purchase something that doesn't come with any physical guarantee of being yours forever. Plus, there's more to music than just the music. Gone are the days of intriguing liner notes, and beautiful album cover art - thanks to the digital music downloading going on today. Sad...
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post #6 of 66
12/22/06 at 11:52pm
CD's. There's nothing like having a physical copy of the music you have just purchased in your hand. I have some downloaded music, but my CD collection consists of my favorite artists and my favorite albums.
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post #7 of 66
12/23/06 at 12:14am
I love having a physical copy of the album, and I also think it's ridiculous to pay for a low-quality MP3 of a song. When I want to download music, I go to Soulseek or OiNK.
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post #8 of 66
12/23/06 at 12:27am
well, since itunes albums and regulary CDs cost around the same, I buy CDs
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post #9 of 66
12/23/06 at 12:41am
I used to always be a mp3 guy and hated buying cds. Now that ive become mroe caring for my music I go out and buy the cds. Its alot better in terms of quality and sometimes if you just randomly get a mp3 then you wont know everything about it and of course the infamous false bitrate information.
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post #10 of 66
12/23/06 at 12:51am
The CD. Nothing beats the experience of going into the store, picking it out, reading the book, blah blah blah. Sounds a lot better once you have a good system and your ears are used to better sound. I will browse mp3's, samples, you name it to see if I like it first, the majority of the time.
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post #11 of 66
12/23/06 at 1:06am
I won't download digital music unless I can get it lossless and drm free for cheaper than I buy a cd.

I like buying cd's for several reasons

1) I can rip it to whatever format and bitrate I wish
2) No drm
3) I always have a hard copy of my music
4) I buy them used so that way I'm not supporting the RIAA

I do like album art, but only on my digital files.The physical album art I could care less about. Another great thing is that I order most my music from amazon. So I just order a bunch at a time and it all comes to my house. Sometimes I go to this cd shop around this bar I frequent and I may pick out something from the used rack...
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post #12 of 66
12/23/06 at 2:06am
I usually buy CDs off the Internet.
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post #13 of 66
12/23/06 at 2:12am
I definitely purchase CDs, because I want the best possible sound quality, and compressed music is, well...(you know the rest). I have, though, used mp3s to sample the album before I purchase the CD.
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post #14 of 66
12/23/06 at 2:14am
CDs for me more sonic fidelity bang for the buck.
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post #15 of 66
12/23/06 at 2:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Digitalbath3737 View Post
I won't download digital music unless I can get it lossless and drm free for cheaper than I buy a cd.
What he said.

I'm not going to pay for lossy encodings. I'm not going to pay for files that are locked up by DRM so that I can't migrate to whatever hardware I want to use to play the music that I've bought.

I wonder what sort of uproar there will be when someone comes out with a player "cooler" than the iPod and people realize that none of their iTunes purchased songs are portable?
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