Music: Digital or Physical?

[bobr1952]

I don't buy much music anymore although I am tempted to buy the Beatles box set since it is a pretty reasonable price. I have bought a few albums from iTunes but now I mostly listen to albums on Rhapsody. Why buy them when I can listen to any of them I want for $10 a month.

 

[Daveoc64]

If I'm buying anything more than the odd song I want the CD.

I'm wary of locking myself in to any one format or quality level.

256kbps AAC (MP3 is worse) isn't really what I want to be investing in now.

Not that I buy much Music now that I use Spotify.

 

[rhett7660]

Digital 99% and have ripped all of my cd's to itunes lossless

Although I still pretty much buy all CD's. I do the occasional purchase from either Amazon or iTunes.

There should be a "Both" option..

 

[TheGenerous]

Physical in the form of a live band.

Digitally by all means, I just listen to it, I don't dick around with the booklets.

 

[conch575]

For a band that I'm really into I like to have the CD, you know, to support the band. But for those "one off" songs off an album, I just use iTunes. But I always rip all my CD's to my iPhone.

 

[ucfgrad93]

Digital for the most part. I will rarely buy CDs now.

 

[McRCN]

I still prefer CDs to downloading. Also, the quality of the music can differ from once source to another. I would rather know I am ripping the best version, than downloading something where the source is unknown.

 

[Dmac77]

I'm one of those peoples that straddle the divide.

I have a crap load of music on iTunes (last I checked over 1tb most of which is lossless) but at the same time, I have a massive collection of vinyl (over 700 LPs and too many 45s to count).

I personally think that the vinyl sounds 10,000x better then my lossless downloads and CD rips (listening through a pair of $1,000 cans), but my iPhone can't be beaten for portability and convenience.

-Don

 

[notjustjay]

I voted for both.

My preference, where possible, is to buy the CD. Then I rip it to mp3, store it on my NAS, and the music is available to any computer, DLNA device or my Sonos network.

When that is not possible, or if I'm just too impatient, I will occasionally buy tracks or albums from iTunes. (Amazon mp3s are not available in Canada.) I convert the AAC files to MP3, then file them away with all the others.

Purists will decry the double conversion from AAC to MP3, but frankly, I can't hear the difference with the equipment I've got. Should I one day upgrade to a higher quality listening room and discover that I can hear the artifacts and am bothered by them, I'll just repurchase the offending content.

The nice thing about CDs is that you can buy them used. Even when new, the cost is often only a couple of dollars more than the iTunes album.

 

[oscillatewildly]

Physical; iTunes is soulless compared to a good record store.

Cheers,
OW

 

[Dmac77]

Physical; iTunes is soulless compared to a good record store.

Cheers,
OW

I completely agree there's nothing like spending a few hours at a record store flipping through stacks of LPs and running across that record you've been looking for. And then there's the fact that you meet some really interesting and great people at record stores, who have stories galore.

-Don

 

[dxstewart]

I like to think I'm part "old school" and part "new school." With certain artists or albums, I will buy the physical CD. But then they all just get put into iTunes and the CDs kind of just sit there, collecting dust. My ancient car doesn't have a CD player (the horror! I know) so on long road trips with no radio, I used to plug my iPhone in (I've since sold that adapter). What I would really like is a record player to get some vinyl, but that's a ways off.

I'll use iTunes for ease or a good album, but sometimes buy from Amazon with their ridiculous deals.... although I really don't like the look of their site.

 

[glocke12]

There should have been a choice for people who buy physical copies because the digital copies are inferior.

If digital copies were offered in CD quality format ALL my music would be downloads.

And yes, I can hear the difference. Alot of stuff I have gotten off of itunes sounds "flat" compared to its CD counterpart.