How Do You Sample a CD Before Purchase?

[donidonuts]

This applies for anything bought off iTunes as well as physical CDs. I find myself too often buying CDs because of a couple of songs Ive heard before and have ended up hating every other song on that CD. Even when I try to find ways to get a taste of what the rest of the CD is all about before purchase I find it such a pain to get any clips! Sure, try limewire or some other P2P but most of the time those songs arent even available...so what should you do?

PS - I find this most troublesome when buying any house music or any indy bands because its not as mainstream as things more of the lines of U2 or something. Thx for your replies if there will be any lol!!

[WildCowboy]

For anything on iTunes, listen to the 30-second samples of each track. More and more music stores also have listening stations where you can sample a wide variety of songs. They're often heavily focused on the most popular stuff, but some do a good job of providing a wide variety of music.

[Sharewaredemon]

Brick and mortar stores I've been to will crack open any cd you want to listen to.

[donidonuts]

For anything on iTunes, listen to the 30-second samples of each track. More and more music stores also have listening stations where you can sample a wide variety of songs. They're often heavily focused on the most popular stuff, but some do a good job of providing a wide variety of music.

30 second samples on iTunes?? where lol???

[pdxflint]

30 second samples on iTunes?? where lol???
Just double-click on whichever song you want to sample, and iTunesMS will stream a 30 second sample, or load the sample in a buffer if you prefer. eMusic.com also let's you sample songs, which I stream into iTunes. In fact on eMusic you can choose to sample every song in an album with a single click.

[Sdashiki]

Brick and mortar stores I've been to will crack open any cd you want to listen to.

if I want it do I get it cheaper because its opened?

if i dont want it, does the next person get it cheaper because its opened?

[Swarmlord]

30 second samples on iTunes?? where lol???

Every single song on iTunes has a 30 second sample clip.

[khammack]

if I want it do I get it cheaper because its opened?

if i dont want it, does the next person get it cheaper because its opened?

No, and no.

But that's how I do it; either via iTunes, or the local CD store that will let me listen to whatever CD I want. And I've bought CDs that weren't wrapped before that presumably had been listened to. I don't see why it is less valuable just because someone listened to it for 2 minutes.

-kev

[dllavaneras]

Honestly?

I download songs off the internet (sometimes the complete cd) and most of the time I end up buying the cd. Thanks to the internet I've been able to discover some really great bands :D

And what do I do with those groups that I download the songs but don't buy the CD?
I erase them! If the CD's not worth buying, then it's not on my hard drive.