Digital Download VS Cd Purchase

[miTunes75]

Man oh man.....

I know I have mentioned this story before, but I used to be a downloader who didn't pay for anything. There was about 5 years in which I never paid a dime. But, guilt struck in and I got rid of all downloaded items.

After about 2 years, i'm STILL trying to rip my cd collection. Time is just the issue.

Over the last 3 months, I have purchased music through iTS. WOW! What a convenience! I know there are people already about ready to click reply and go off about the sound quality. However, I enjoy the ease of having it on my HDD with a click of a button without having to drag a cd out. Plus, I love the fact that I no longer need to find additional room for my purchases. No need to keep buying binders upon binders to hold cds in. Click, and everything is done, and stored for you. What an amazing amount of storage space I have saved. Now, I have purchased a cd recently b/c it isn't avail through the store. But, what a difference this has made in my life.

This is a testimonial, if you will.

Comments?

 

[Blue Velvet]

I appreciate all of that but for me, CDs still rule because:

• DRM-free, rip at any rate I prefer, even Lossless
• Audio quality and backed-up by their presence alone
• Future-proofed to some extent
• Put them on any device or move files into other apps easily
• My kind of music is harder to find on iTMS
• Cover art and nice digi-packs, lyrics too in some cases

I might abandon CDs when Lossless DRM-free files become the norm and storage capacities on iPods and other devices increase a bit more... or I'm forced into it by record companies doing away with the format.

 

[rdowns]

I used to fell like that but since my last rip of CDs to Mac (256K AAC), I haven't looked or touched the suckers. I don't buy a lot of new music but what I buy is 99% from iTS.

Eyeing 4 boxes of CDs packed for my upcoming move. Sigh...

 

[Sesshi]

The main reason I don't buy compressed download music is because for my main listening, it seems like pouring two-stroke into an Aston. ~$70,000 of audio gear frontending my sources, both PC audio and SACD transport, likes to be fed (I think) at least 16/44.1 PCM.

But I do appreciate the convenience - so I mix up CD's with subscription.

Sub services cost basically a CD a month, and I can waste a lot more than that on music I'd never listen to a second time if I only had a 30-second preview to go on. I listen, then I buy stuff I actually feel is worth keeping on CD. I then rip it in FLAC, and I use middleware (which I commissioned) which can transcode it into compressed formats on the fly and keep the two libraries in sync.

These days though Podcasts take up a huge amount of on-the-move listening time. There's an amazing variety of stuff out there which is actually really worth listening to. It also doesn't help that I need to load subscription music onto a different player. Ideally I'd like to move everything onto the iPod, but of course there's no subscription service.

 

[jaydub]

I dedicated a few MONTHS worth of evenings to ripping, tagging, and album-art'ing my entire 500+ CD collection.

It was worth it in the end, because now I feel like it's all complete. It was exceptionally time consuming though. Now I just do digital downloads, since all the hard CDs I have are now sitting in my garage in a huge box.

 

[mactastic]

Most of my iTMS purchases come after a few drinks...

Although since I got an Airport Express I haven't put a single CD in my stereo's CD player. Now I just need one of those new Airport Extremes so I can access music off a remote HD. That will free up a bunch of space on my laptop.

 

[Loge]

iTunes is great for picking off impulse buys, guilty pleasures and odd singles I've liked. CDs for everything else.

 

[Iscariot]

Digital downloads are more environmentally sound (although certainly not zero-impact) than purchasing music in any other format, so it's my preferred method.

 

[dsnort]

Now I just need one of those new Airport Extremes so I can access music off a remote HD. That will free up a bunch of space on my laptop.

I bought an "Extreme" a few months back.
It's a beautful thang.
Do it.
Do it now.