[gsolman6]

I haven't bought any digital music but I am working towards 700 CDs so I was thinking about the advantages of trying out a new approach to buying music. I already know all of the quality, portability, limited-use, etc. compromises of digital music so I was just wondering from a cost effectiveness standpoint which one makes more sense. As a reference I pay about $8 a CD for the last couple years. Buying used, BMG, and lala.com are what brings down this average.

 

[Aman]

$8 is good! I'd take that! Too bad a lot of the discs I buy are imports and the like.

I don't see why anybody would buy digital if they could get their CDs for 8 bucks each. It's an investment; you'll have a tangible item in your hands at all times, you can rip it to your computer in any format you wish, and it's not likely going to decrease in value as time goes on.

 

[chunkluv]

I still buy everything on CD. When I tried to transfer to MP3 about 6 years ago, I found that I stopped listening to music. I don't want to get into any kind of discussion about it, but for me, I don't get the same out of it in it's compressed form, even at 'lossles.' I can't put my finger on it, but it doesn't speak to my soul. I still rip everything but that is only for my ipod when on the go. For me, mp3 only brings convenience. When I'm chilling at home to music, I only go CD. I would love to go vinyl, but I have enough hobbies allready

.

 

[gsolman6]

Yes I concur that there is a subjective value to having a physical copy of a recording. I actually had the Beatles, Revolver on MP3 before I actually bought a copy from Target, and you know I listen to it more now than I did before. Sound Quality perhaps? Definitely better transition b/t songs with the CD.

Aman: I see what you mean by imports. The more I am getting into older more obscure music the higher the prices I see.

Part of my going back to CDs was having dropped my Creative Zen into hard drive failure. I made a resolution then to only buy solid state portable electronics and with the recent introduction of 32-Gig flash memory this might not be too far off.

One more question: A buddy of mine bought the entire U2 catalog from itunes for what I believe is a reduced price than if you bought the songs separately. In that scenario would buying the MP3s be cheaper?

Edit: Wow 400 songs for $149 would be almost impossible to beat buying CDs assuming 20 songs/CD times $10 each equaling $200.

 

[roadtonowhere08]

8 bucks is a great number. I dread the day that might come when we download everything. I want to have the CD, the booklet, and any other cool stuff that might come with the album. Most importantly, there is no reliable storage medium for consumers. If your HD fails, who is to say that the companies will let you re-download the lost songs?

I do not see any good with the elimination of physical albums.

 

[Pangaea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsolman6 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I haven't bought any digital music but I am working towards 700 CDs so I was thinking about the advantages of trying out a new approach to buying music. I already know all of the quality, portability, limited-use, etc. compromises of digital music so I was just wondering from a cost effectiveness standpoint which one makes more sense. As a reference I pay about $8 a CD for the last couple years. Buying used, BMG, and lala.com are what brings down this average.

Yourmusic.com (owned by BMG) is worth checking out if you like cds. Every month they send you one cd off your queue- for 6.99 (includes shipping) and you can buy from them any other time as well. 6.99 to your door is pretty good. selection is average- but they have a good jazz back catolog.

 

[gsolman6]

Yeah, I used to be with yourmusic.com till they raised the price. They are owned by BMG and you can still get the 15 for 1 deal (I believe) which works out to less than $5/CD:

http://www.bmgmusic.com/bmgfreecds/

 

[Redo]

Even if you find DRM free and lossless audio downloads (or 320kbps mp3), you still don't have a hard copy. The best you can do is burn another nameless CD that just isn't the original. The real thing is always better, always. Archive in Lossless, keep your real CD's around, stay away from buying online. It's limiting getting music online, very limiting.

Honestly, do you think in 50 years from now your kids are going to be rummaging through your old circa year 2000 hard drives for lost music? Nope! But we do that today with old Vinyl's, Tape's, and even CD's. Odds are every dollar spent on music downloads today will be a wasted dollar in years from now due to HD failure, dropped digital players, or burnt CD's turned coasters due to time.

 

[YamiTenshi]

CD FTW!

I'm just too old (early 20s

) and too stubborn to change my ways. But seriously, I just love to hold the physical CD in my hands and look at the cover art while listening to it. And I need to know that even if my hard drive fails (about 4x already) I'll still have the original to rip again.

$8/CD is an amazing price, I would definitely keep buying the physical CD. I've checked out yourmusic.com and the BMG offers but unfortunately they don't carry the music I want to buy. One of the last used CD shops around here just went out of business; shortly after Tower Records. And import music, my goodness, ~$40/CD!

 

[mbhaub]

Now that EMI has been sold off, your cds will become more precious than you can imagine. It won't be too many more years before the majors stop making cds altogether. Hang on to those cds! And buy a couple of players to put away in storage.

 

[meuler]

I prefer buying CDs over downloading. I like the security of knowing that if something happens to my hard drive that I'll still have a physical copy that I can re-rip the music from. And unless you can get lossless downloads then the sound quality of the downloads will be inferior to the CD.

 

[BrookR1]

I like buying CDs for stuff I know I'm going to like, but if I want to try a new band, I download from eMusic. For me, it's only $2.50 per album. If I like a band, then I'll look for them at CD stores. If I don't like them, then I'm only out $2.50. You can argue that you can sell back used CDs, but I think you would lose more money if you bought a CD and then sold it back to the store.

 

[Digitalbath3737]

I don't see a need for buying CDs. The only reason why I buy them is because most the time I have no choice. I can't stand sitting in front of my computer ripping CD after CD. Its nothing more than a waste of time. I could care less about the "physical package". Anything I wanted to know about about the album I can easily find on the net and that includes album art. All CDs do is take up space.

I recently joined emusic and it's the perfect business model for me. I think the quality is great. They use LAME 3.92 APS, which is what I abxed and it's CD quality to my ears on my rig. It's mp3 so it'll play on anything I want. The music is very cheap, I get 300 songs for $74.99 a month. Plus there is just so much good music!

I keep my music on a backup HD and backed up to dvd (2x). Emusic will also let you re download your music an unlimited amount of times.

What kinda gets me is all the people talking about HD failure for a reason why digital music is so bad.... well what about if your place gets set on fire, broken into or a flood. Digital, vinyl or cd... you're music can be lost no matter what format you have it in. So using HD failure as an excuse is really not a good point.... oh and lets not forget about CD scratches, broken disc or just plan old losing them. Go to Best Buy and tell them you lost your cd or damaged it... let's see it they'll replace it for you...

 

[mwallace573]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbhaub /img/forum/go_quote.gif Now that EMI has been sold off, your cds will become more precious than you can imagine. It won't be too many more years before the majors stop making cds altogether. Hang on to those cds! And buy a couple of players to put away in storage.

It's sad to think that may be the case in a few more years. It won't be too bad if they manage to come up with a successful alternative. As good as SACD and DVD-A are, both don't seem to be doing so well overall in sales or selection for that matter. The day all digital downloads happens is the day I may stop buying music (probably movies too for that matter). Call me old fashioned (I'm 24), but when I spend my money on something, I like to have something physical that I can call my own. A "hard copy" if you will. Showing off your music collection just isn't as cool when all it involves is opening up a menu on your computer or DAP.

Using my place of work as a reference, however, it seems that my type of thinking is in the minority. Most people there don't even purchase any of their music, they just wait for one of their friends to buy something and make a copy for them (for a small fee nonetheless

). I also remember seeing on another thread here not too long ago that there was a discussion similar to this one with most people saying goodbye and good riddance to the CD. I say stick around, or give me something else with a disk (or equivalent), case, and some pretty artwork/lyrics to look at.

Just my $0.04.

 

[Aman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Digitalbath3737 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't see a need for buying CDs. The only reason why I buy them is because most the time I have no choice. I can't stand sitting in front of my computer ripping CD after CD. Its nothing more than a waste of time. I could care less about the "physical package". Anything I wanted to know about about the album I can easily find on the net and that includes album art. All CDs do is take up space.

Maybe you should step away from the computer for a while and actually LISTEN to the music.