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Question, or Survey, if you will.


Craig B

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In the week where Napster reckons most of it;s customers don;t buy music on CD's anymore, I just wonder what's the point of having an entirely 'not real' record colection, or, in the case of Napster, no record collection at all?

I mean, the sound quality is a bit worse, you miss out on the cover art and it's no cheaper.

Maybe it's slightly more convenient as it means you don't need to leave you home to buy music, but most people like to leave their homes occasionaly.

Also, it's probably harder to insure your i-tunes library, if your CD's get stolen you can get them back at least.

Personally, I use i-tunes to listen to stuff I'm given to and downloaded from here, not whole albums, just a song here and there in order to see what people are like before I buy their albums on CD.

I just wondered why downloads should be more desireable than a physical record collection.

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Guest tv tanned

I don't buy downloads.

To me there is nothing better than wandering around record stores leafing through the racks in search of titles, occasionally finding a great CD you would not have stumbled across had you been online using a simple type and search to get your tunes.

Record fairs are also fantastic places.

Only when the last record store has been boarded up will I recourse to buying downloads. Until such time, I will continue to be 'traditional' in my methods.

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I don't buy downloads.

To me there is nothing better than wandering around record stores leafing through the racks in search of titles' date=' occasionally finding a great CD you would not have stumbled across had you been online using a simple type and search to get your tunes.

Record fairs are also fantastic places.

Only when the last record store has been boarded up will I recourse to buying downloads. Until such time, I will continue to be 'traditional' in my methods.[/quote']

See thats what I thought as well.

I've asked this question on other music sites and everyone says that, so I should maybe post it on a download fans forum (there must be one somewhere) and ask there.

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Guest Jake Wifebeater
I don't buy downloads.

To me there is nothing better than wandering around record stores leafing through the racks in search of titles' date=' occasionally finding a great CD you would not have stumbled across had you been online using a simple type and search to get your tunes.

Record fairs are also fantastic places.

Only when the last record store has been boarded up will I recourse to buying downloads. Until such time, I will continue to be 'traditional' in my methods.[/quote']

Fine sentiments indeed. I've bought maybe one or two vinyls from shops in the past 3 years, it's purely through the mail I get my noise these days. You usually get some extra stuff thrown in, flyers, a nice letter, all gives it the personal touch. Much more fulfilling than going into a shop and handing a case over the counter. I'm sure my postie hates me now, though.

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Guest onlynik

I have only purchased one song online, and it was only available on Napster, not Itunes, however i'll download music which I already own on CD or LP, and new stuff I download if I like it I tend to buy the ablum - normally on ebay cause its cheaper too and i've got some real rare stuff too- , if I don't like it I just delete it, no use taking up gigs of space with shite you don't like.

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About a year ago I used to download stuff illegally, but it was only ever songs that were unavailable on CD (ie long lost b-sides and live bootlegs) or one or two songs by an artist I'd just heard of. In the second case, if I liked what I heard, I'd go down to One Up and buy the album. Because of this, I was buying between 8-10 albums at a time at one point. But then my computer fucked up and I couldn;t be arsed reinstalling Soulseek (it was fucking up my computer in the first place), and ever since I've found it hard to come across new music, and that's not because it's any less sexy.

I've only recently started buying lots of albums again in fact, and that's just cos I've suddenly got cash to spend with nothing else to spend it on, so I just buy albums off Play, almost just for the sake of it.

I would NEVER pay to download a track though (except the song Leviathan that the Manics are doing for the new War Child album maybe, cos I don't want to end up with a CD full of other pish) and I think if bands made past b-sides available on their websites, as well as tasters from their albums, the need for commercial AND illegal downloading would diminish significantly.

Except among the cheapskate thieving bastards that is.

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Guest Page 99

I'll happily download stuff, especialy the more obscure stuff which can be near impossible to buy anywere, but I do prefer to go into a shop, or order somthing from a distro and actualy have the article there in my house. With all the artwork, lyrics, and casing. It just makes it more real than having some files on a computer. Also the bands can get the money slightly more directly that way, which is a cool point.

Paying for downloads is a pile of crap personaly. It's just an easier way of making the big record companies rich. I don't mean to come across like some teenage che guevara cliche, but it kinda annoys me how some artists are fucked about by record companies.

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Guest AmbientMood

You must all be rich or something. When I get broadband in three days I'm going to be able to 'leaf through the racks of the internet (that happens to not be a complete rip off, its right infront of your noses, music shops may as well be extinct ) , ocasionally finding a rare old somthin-somthin when I would never have expected it.' Rock on suckers, or maybe 'pay on.'

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Guest bluesxman

I never buy downloads, if there is an album I want I can't even settle for a copy, I need the genuine article. Most of my CD's are now bought from Amazon, used to be CDWow but they now have an annoying habit of delaying delivery by as much as 2 weeks on a regular basis. Asda can be pretty competitively priced for anything more commonly available.

If anyone is searching for something I recommend searching on Amazon and checking out the 'New/Used' listings - a lot of bargains can be had from the States, the postage is usually less than 1.50, although delivery can be a bit slower.

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I think people who buy Mp3's are stupid. I couldn't buy something that didn't physically exist

Eh? Insurance doesn't physically exist, neither does a lot of things. So you don't buy them? Ever heard of tangible and intangible assets? They're not different species of orange.

I DJ with mostly downloaded songs. Why?

- I've saved a ridiculous amount of money. For DJ's, we don't need the entire 14-20 songs on an album, maybe just one or two.

- Sound quality is not that much different, and if you're in a bar/club could you really sit there and for every new song the DJ played, be able to say whether it's vinyl, cd, md or downloaded and burnt? Doubtful.

- It's a shit load less to carry.

- And before anyone starts with "real DJ's use vinyl" bullshit, which, by the way, only non-DJ's ever say, most top DJ's use CD's, MD's even laptops (Ableton Live) these days. Some made the switch years ago...can you argue that with someone who makes 2000 an hour?

- Raking through dusty record stores is great but spending 6-8 for one song is for serious collectors. DJing is a business and if you can spend 79p on a song or buy the vinyl for 6, then economics dictate that you go for the cheaper option. It's still the same song.

Just read all that back...sounds a bit of a rant, but it's just common sense. Then again, not everyone has common sense.

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Guest AmbientMood
I see what you mean about one or two songs. But most people arnen't DJs.

Fuck it, I'm a listener, if I take a gamble on a cd, I may only like one or two songs, then look I'm a tenner down!

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In the week where Napster reckons most of it;s customers don;t buy music on CD's anymore' date=' I just wonder what's the point of having an entirely 'not real' record colection, or, in the case of Napster, no record collection at all?

I mean, the sound quality is a bit worse, you miss out on the cover art and it's no cheaper.

[/quote']

The sound quality is not necessarily worse, it is entirely dependant on the quality of the encoding method used to convert it into a portable digital format.

I seriously doubt anyone can notice an audible difference between a competently encoded 192kbps mp3 and the original 16-bit 44.1khz audio source.

CD's are basically digital data, essentially all you are doing with mp3s is changing the medium that data is stored on. Personally, I would rather have a couple of harddisks full of mp3s than a huge shelf full of cd's. Every CD i've ever bought since 1994, i've re-encoded as mp3 and stored on my harddisks, and funnily enough, even though I have lost quite a lot of those CD's, either through lending them to people, or damaging them, I still have the mp3's all these years later.

Let's face it, it's far more convenient to have 1 laptop hooked up to your hifi, with all your music stored on it, available at the click of a mouse, than it is to waste physical space in your house with a big shelf full of clunky old cds.

Who gives a toss about artwork anyway, it's the music that I'm interested in, cd artwork doesnt make me buy a cd, and it doesnt make me want to keep the case either.

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