Why (do you) still buy cds?

I just torrent everything. I don't have the money to buy CD's plus its much more convenient and less time consuming then going out to buy a CD. Plus once I rip it, what am I going to do with the CD? Although I do enjoy having some CD's. If its my favourite album of all time I'll buy the CD just to have it, even though I already downloaded it. And when ripping a CD you have a lot more options for quality and file type then a download. iTunes gives you 128 AAC files while from a CD you can choose lossless.

I buy cds regularly because I have a fullsize home set up and tons of vintage PCDPs that I use. Also some of the cds I own are rare and discontinued (MFSL cds, Japan 1st pressings, Japan and Europe single track cds, etc.) making them worthwhile to purchase or collect them.

CD's because I enjoy spinning them in old cars, players, and transports. Nevertheless, I spend a lot of time ripping them onto my iPhone. I just feel like having a CD for backup, and there's some magical energy in spinning CD's through a CD player, or looking at the back for the tracks, or reading the lyrics in your hand. Also, some of my more obscure CD's are impossible to find/special edition, making it harder to source on internet. Of course, this applies with me to vinyl also...

I still buy cd because legal flac download sites are limited.

quality and availability.  half the stuff i want to buy isnt available outside the US period, when its on a cd amazon is happy to ship but for digital stuff its not allowed.

 

cd's dont recognise boarders and rights ownership differences and thats how i want it to be

I'm really only into the amateur stuff (indie?) in Japan, they call it doujin. Since they aren't popular, no one really bothers to upload them.

But at freaking 30-40 bucks a pop after shipping, it gets very painful for the wallet. Especially considering they only 'actually' cost 5-10 dollars each.

 

Oh well, at least it's easy-ish to get them signed by the singers themselves, since they are the actual person selling it at them conventions ^^

I buy used CDs because they're so cheap today. I regularly find them for $1 or $2 each.

I won't pirate. Though I will (eventually) rip all the Red Book discs into lossless and put them on a music server while dropping the CDs into deep storage as a backup.

The SACDs will stay out on the rack. You can't rip Scarlet Book and the grumpy old side of me still enjoys putting a disc into a player.

I buy CDs because I grown up with the format and became a collector of early CDs.  As a collector, this is a great time as people dump their CDs without knowing what treasures they have in their CDs.  Nothing beats having a disc in my hands.  I don't intent to give up on the format and refuse to do any downloading.

Edited by soundboy - 5/20/11 at 10:53am

Exactly. Where the heck do I get good quality music legally? 
 

 

Ebay is amazing for cheap music. Get a good seller that will really combine shipping, and you can get CDs for around $3 shipped. Although I have been buying some new stuff lately that is around $10.

 

To rip to FLAC.  That's about it.  Occasionally I'll buy a cd directly through the band (especially if I'm at a show) so they get the money directly.  All the cds in my cars are burned, since life in a car is rough on a cd; the original physical copies sit in their jewel cases on a shelf next to my computer desk.

 

Also, quite often when I'm using music as a background for doing something else (drafting, gaming, etc), I queue up a couple songs from each album and compile them into a rough, very elastic playlist.  Just makes more sense to do everything digitally.

I just like having the physical CD

I have never bought a CD personally, but some of my friends sometimes buy it because of the mythical substance they call "SOUL".

However, they torrent the music before that.

HDTracks.com is a good place to get lossless downloads.

Unfortunately, their selection is extremely limited when it comes to a more eclectic mix than the bog-standard classic rock, jazz, classical and occasional modern vocal-centric music.  I spent a couple hours browsing through the selection there, and came up with just two bands I like - Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance.