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Do you still buy CD's?

R

Razeus

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jul 11, 2008
5,364
2,074
I still buy CD's here and there as well as iTunes. I'm leaving the CD though and going exclusively with iTunes for music. Unless I want a hard to find album that's not in iTunes, I see no reason to keep buying CD's. Therefore, I've boxed up all my CD's and is now sitting in the garage. My entire library is 256kbps AAC files. The reason?

1) I can't hear the difference between CD and 256k AAC files on my iMac with AKG 701's, home theater system, my iPhone with stock earbuds or while playing in my car.
2) Far easier and somewhat cheaper to download from iTunes
3) Takes up no physical storage space.
4) If a new generation of sound comes available in mass (ie. 24bit/96k), I'll have to repurchase all my favorites again anyway, so having the "original lossless CD" is useless anyway.
 
Special Editions

Razeus said:
I still buy CD's here and there as well as iTunes. I'm leaving the CD though and going exclusively with iTunes for music. Unless I want a hard to find album that's not in iTunes, I see no reason to keep buying CD's. Therefore, I've boxed up all my CD's and is now sitting in the garage. My entire library is 256kbps AAC files. The reason?

1) I can't hear the difference between CD and 256k AAC files on my iMac with AKG 701's, home theater system, my iPhone with stock earbuds or while playing in my car.
2) Far easier and somewhat cheaper to download from iTunes
3) Takes up no physical storage space.
4) If a new generation of sound comes available in mass (ie. 24bit/96k), I'll have to repurchase all my favorites again anyway, so having the "original lossless CD" is useless anyway.
Click to expand...


And stuff I've worked on......Apart from that, iTunes.
 
Big D 51 said:
I haven't bought a cd in the past 7 years or longer.
Click to expand...

I think I think I'm the only person I know that buys CD's still. :D When I walked into Best Buy and Fry's the other day, I was shocked to see how much the music section has shrunk. Apple really did a number on these guys.
 
When I first started my music collection, I coped loads of songs off a good friend of mine from their iTunes (about 6 years ago now), so I never started out by collecting CDs.

I only buy a CD if I want to listen to it in the car... I own about 12 CDs in total. The rest I just buy off iTunes (if I know I'm going to listen to the album over and over, or I really really like the band) or torrent (preparing for massive negatives here, but come on, I'm a teenager and have no money).

I always find my MacBook Pro CD drive's a bit dodgy too... it doesn't read some CDs!
 
I no longer buy CD's I only buy from iTunes.

I have no problem paying for music, people should get paid for their product. Why I no longer buy CD's is because before iTunes (and briefly after) you were charged $20+ for a CD that had one to three good songs and the rest filler. No thanks.

Since iTunes lets you pick what you want and only purchase it, I've noticed over the years a lot less "filler" on CD's. Not to mention I like having all my stuff in a digital format.
 
I used to work in a used CD store. I had amassed a collection of over 1,000 CD's. It was fun. Once the MP3 encoders came out, all 1,000 CD's were sold making me quite a hefty profit :D

I only have about 20 left and I've already ripped them and are looking to sell them someplace just to get rid of them. I only buy digital downloads now whether they be from iTunes or Amazon. I'd like to get into some better media storage like NAS or something so I can stream everything. I'm liking the digital age so no more CD's for me. Unless it's some weird import or special collectors edition disc that's not available via download.
 
h1r0ll3r said:
I used to work in a used CD store. I had amassed a collection of over 1,000 CD's. It was fun. Once the MP3 encoders came out, all 1,000 CD's were sold making me quite a hefty profit :D

I only have about 20 left and I've already ripped them and are looking to sell them someplace just to get rid of them. I only buy digital downloads now whether they be from iTunes or Amazon. I'd like to get into some better media storage like NAS or something so I can stream everything. I'm liking the digital age so no more CD's for me. Unless it's some weird import or special collectors edition disc that's not available via download.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking about selling my 500 CD's (what's the best place) and just buying up iTunes gift cards with the profits, maybe some killer headphones. Hoping I can get at least $2 a CD.
 
Best place I know of is secondspin.com. I sold a lot of mine there, though I lived down the road from their shop, but you can mail them in as well.
 
Yes, I still buy CDs. A lot of the music I like would be classed as a minority taste, not to mention fairly obscure and difficult to locate, at that.

Actually, when iTunes started, it didn't have any of the songs I wanted, (I remember looking for Mason William's "Classical Gas", Marcello Giambini's "Sabata" soundtrack, and a number of others - so, I concluded that it was just catering to the demand for popular stuff) whereas small, specialist music shops were prepared to try to source unusual material for me.

I agree about the "filler" feature of some CDs, but you don't tend to find that on classical CDs, or Spanish and Cuban songs from the 1940s, for example.

Cheers
 
Best thing would just be to Google what stores are around you and try them first. There are some places where you can mail them in however, since you have 500, don't think it would be worth your while going that route with the gargantuan shipping costs. Plus, if you don't like their offer, you have to get them mailed back to you somehow. Just pick a slow Saturday on your schedule and haul all of them down and see what you get.
 
If I want the entire CD, chances are good I'll buy the CD, rather than download it on iTunes. If I intend to pick and choose songs, it's iTunes all the way.

Not every artist is available on iTunes, and I won't download illegally.
 
I still buy CD's for two reasons: the album artwork or for listening in the car.

Usually I buy movie soundtracks, so I want the artwork.

As for the car, I'd rather pop in a CD then deal with hooking up my iPhone to the stereo. Funny thing is, one of the things I looked for when I bought this car was the ability to hook up my iPhone. Hyundai's greed cured me of that desire ($30 for an iPhone cable, NOT).
 
Yes.

1) Neither can I, I think, but if it's lossless then I know that I'm not missing out on anything. Also, I can encode to a different lossy format whenever I like.
2) Sometimes. I tend to wait until CDs are reduced to buy them (I have a massive wish list that I check frequently), I often buy things for a lot less than their digital counterparts.
3) I actually like having something physical - can't really articulate why.
4) A lot of what I listen to will never be available in anything more than redbook for a very long time, if ever, judging by what's currently available on SACD/DVD-A/BD-A. Anyway, doesn't your first point nullify this one? ;)
 
I prefer lossless formats, so yes, I buy CDs and rip into Apple Lossless.
 
I haven't purchased an actual CD in years. It's easier for me just to DL the albums or songs I want. For me, there really isn't any point to purchasing, ripping, and then throwing the CD into a closet somewhere.

I'm not a huge audiophile, so I don't mind the quality that I get from DL'ing from Amazon or iTunes. I hook my iPod up in my car and listen while I drive or throw it into a speaker on my bike while I ride.

I did get a physical CD this year when I purchased tickets to the Vans Warped Tour...I was confused for a second on what to do with it. :eek:
 
Razeus said:
I still buy CD's here and there as well as iTunes. I'm leaving the CD though and going exclusively with iTunes for music. Unless I want a hard to find album that's not in iTunes, I see no reason to keep buying CD's.
Click to expand...

I look for the cheapest place to buy the music. So I check iTunes, Amazon download and CD, and another online store for CDs. CDs get ripped, and now with iTunes Match everything becomes 256kbit AAC anyway, no matter where it came from.
 
Yes.

But almost always used ones at Twist and Shout in Denver, or SecondSpin, etc. I'll buy new ones rarely - if it's an artist I really really like, I'll buy it as inexpensively as possible.

It's easy to hear the difference between a CD and even a lossless rip of one - if I'm at home. Of course, at home, a vinyl LP will usually sound even better.

Part of the problem with CDs is that they are a complete rip-off for what they provide, when you consider you can buy a movie on DVD for less than $5 at Target, etc. A movie is way more expensive to make, and to charge more than twice for a CD when the cost to make it, including making the music, is a fraction of what a movie costs to make strikes me as just greedy.
 
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