Do you still buy music?

oops double post

Nah, I don't buy music anymore.

I'm assuming you download any music you listen to then? Apart from the radio, I suppose..

Are you fussy about bitrates and audio quality, or you don't really mind, you'll take what you can get?

Yeah, I download it. I can't say I'm too fussy about audio quality, I don't go looking for the best of the best anyway.

I'd dl but I'm kinda worried about getting caught. It makes me a little uneasy. If I didn't give a crap, I'd have a lot more music. Most of what I purchased this year was Coldplay and a Coheed and Cambria album. A few individual songs too. All from iTunes

I haven't gotten new music (in any form) lately because I haven't really had time, but I'm torn between downloading and buying a cd.

If it's a band I really love, I buy the cd. I'll usually just download new bands and, if I like them a lot, I'll buy the album. I prefer the sound of cd's over mp3's, but don't make a big fuss over it in the long run.

I really want to start collecting vinyl, though. It's one more thing I don't need to be addicted to, but probably will be.

I've heard vinyl has better quality.

I've bought three or four cd's ths year so far.

I listen to a lot of smaller local bands so downloading really isnt an option but even if i could i still want to support them by buying the albums. But most bands dont make dick when it comes to album sales so i always try to catch the shows when they come through and buy merch directly from them. But yes, i do download a shit ton of music. I'm cheap, what can i say. There are a few bands out there who have there stuff available to download for free so i take advantage of that but always try to make some sort of donation. I have played in a small local band for a while and when your small your not worried about making money from albums sales you just want people to know who the hell you are. What it comes down to is i will buy albums from small bands because that little money does help when there touring but when it comes to anything semi main stream i will pirate the shit out of it.

basically, what he said

I buy CDs and vinyls, if the artist is worth the purchase.
If I just want to see what a band is like, I'll download it, and if I like them, I'll buy it.
Fuck iTunes, though.

i buy roughly seven cds a year. our victrola needs a major and expensive reconditioning before new records are purchased and i dont see that happening this decade. ive purchased one album via mp3 and i thought it was delivered through the mail and not the "e" kind. i felt duped because i would never intentionally pay for mp3s. mp3s are free and so is youtube. albums, though, sound best and are worth the money for that sound, and i love the literature and the art.

Well, as in all audio formats, the quality varies a lot. The sound quality is dependent on the mastering, pressing, quality of the vinyl, the equipment you're listening to it on, etc. Audiophiles will debate endlessly over which pressing of any particular album is the best (do some research into Beatles vinyl and you'll see what I mean.) Some of what they talk about is irrelevant unless you've got a really expensive playback system, and obviously a lot of these things are down to personal preference. But if the sound on something is flat or too much treble or not a proper stereo master, you'd hear that on most systems. Same thing if you played a really dirty or worn record, and then a new/clean one the same, you'd notice the difference. But when it's good, it's great. The sound is so much warmer than listening to a CD.

fuck downloads right in the butt. i buy CDs and records. in fact, i bought about 12 CD's just last week. i have about 1000 in my collection. and probably about 1000 records.

i can't stand where people's attitude to buying music is going. it makes me ill. poor fucking bands. besides--and maybe this is overly materialistic of me--but i love the feeling of cracking open a new cd and sitting in front of the player listening to it for the first time ever, reading the insert sleeve, getting to know the music. and that little ritual is even better with vinyl. plus the smell of old vinyl, the way it feels. there's something very true nd honest about it. soulful. also, going shopping for the music is always good, too. something very theraputic in that for me. especially viny shopping at record fairs or old used record stores.

i buy way too many CDs and books, but i like it that way. i'm suprised everyone is saying they only buy like uder 10 cds a year!

Word. If its a band I like I will buy it and go to their shows and maybe even buy a fucking shirt. However if its something that is new out that I may or may not like I will download it first and play it for a while. If I don't like it then I don't lose out. You don't know how many damn times I have bought a CD cause I heard maybe one song and the whole CD ended up being crap.

that's when you give them away as gifts. win/win.

Sometimes I use itunes, if someone gets me an itunes card. But usually I buy cd's. I can put them on my ipod or use them in the car. Plus, I just like having the actual album.

If something's overpriced in the shops, I will download. ITunes is shit because of the restrictions on burning discs and transferring the music to other computers.

I used to buy a cd a week, I have thousands. Same with DVDs. I have a few vinyls but I don't trust a lot of sellers. I prefer to download now, I feel like I've done my duty to the music industry. Having said that, I always buy my friends' music. There's something special about buying cds and band merchandise after a gig. It makes me excited on my way home.

If I go see a band live, I sometimes buy a shirt or a CD!

i still buy music...in CD form. i like that i can hold it. and there is art that comes along. i like it being concrete.

I will buy CDs and such when it's a local band or a small band that's touring whom I like. Other than that I get what I need from torrent sites and limewire.

I love my collection of vinyl. It grows every month. I just got Walter(Wendy) Carlos' alternate score for A Clockwork Orange which is pure Moog bliss.

And nothing is better than having that giant album artwork as oppose to that tiny CD booklet.

And it seriously is addictive. I don't know why. I bought about 15 records this month. But I have money to blow from my tax return, not like I can't pay my water bill or something.

I don't buy music much anymore, except for a handful of bands that I feel compelled to continue adding to my collections (Decemberists, Smashing Pumpkins, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, and a handful of others). I'd probably buy vinyl if I had a record player, but I've bought thousands of CDs in my life and I think right now I own about 25. They've all been lost or sold off or scratched and thrown away. I do purchase random songs here and there from iTunes, but mostly I download compilation albums, or promo sets put out by production companies. Also, there are 3 or 4 monthly indie rock playlists I download, and every year I download the South By Southwest sampler, which is about 900 songs or so.

I work at SXSW every year at a club so I usually get free CD's from local bands and am able to discover really cool unknown bands.

Wholeheartedly agreed. I have never ever pirated anything, and I'm never going to. When I tell people I buy my music, they're like, "What? Are you crazy?"

It's disappointing, really. These idiots don't understand that without income, new music will cease to exist. They think that everything is without consequence.

If any pirates are offended by this post, I honestly don't care. You should be in jail.

i think when you hold a CD or record in hand it's not so much about consumerism as it is about forming a relationship with the band an their music.

i like reading the lyrics. and the thank yous. and the credits.

first thing i do when i buy something new is pop it in the player, turn it up and sit cross legged reading the lyrics and sleeve notes.

New music will not cease to exist. Britney Spears will cease to exist. The Jonas Brothers will cease to exist. The people who make music because they love it will always make music. They just won't be making millions of dollars off it, and I'm ok with that. I support musicians by seeing them live when I get a chance, or I cross my fingers and hope their song gets picked up for an iPod commercial or a soundtrack or something.

The only time I'll buy a CD is if it's a really small label or band or whoever. It just makes me feel better about the people that did all the real work on it are the ones getting the majority of the money. Last one I bought was that Steve Earle ~ Townes album.
I'd love to start getting some of my favorite albums on Vinyl though. Plus I still got like 8 old Bill Cosby albums that my mom and dad had. Alas, no turn table at present.
I want to get one of these:

That's almost exactly what my grandpa has, he just bought it recently for like $30. If I had a house and I knew I was going to stop packing up and moving around, I'd really start considering a vinyl collection. But until then, MP3 is the way to go.

And I got some non-moog albums just a few moments ago in the mail. And that makes the collection total up to 63.

An import from Spain. Viaje a 800 - Estampida de Trombones

You simply cannot enjoy album artwork like this with an mp3 player.

I agree about the album artwork and the liner notes and everything else. I do prefer having something I can hold in my hands and look at and examine, but being nomadic that's kind of tough to do sometimes. Vinyl > MP3 > CD.

Making music, like writing, is a profession - even if you like it, earning money off of it is better than just doing it becuase you like it. What you're saying, basically, is that people should have music as a hobby and work jobs they hate just so cheap pirates who "can't afford" music or some bullshit like that gets their music for free.

Agreed

i pre ordered lynch's new cd via amazon few weeks before it released, and then acquired it online a week before it came out. so i had to wait a full damn week to read the lit and see the artwork he chose and credits and thank yous et cetera. i internally prefer to sit with the jewel literature and listen to the album all the way through in one sitting first and foremost, but when your favorite artist takes seven years to drop an lp, you tend to grab at it as quickly as humanly possible.

i agree and also disagree. i never pay for mixtapes. ever. i never pay for downloads. because i'm old and think that is stupid. mixtapes promote buzz and the promo stuff should be free. drake literally had a mixtape that sounded like an album last year, and it sold well in the stores--ive never seen that happen before. i didnt pay for it. but i am anxiously waiting for his first lp to drop. i will preorder it, all that. just like with rebirth and relapse. like recovery. but if you think im a piece of shit because i download mixtapes, i dont care because youre fourteen

The typical musician makes most of their money through touring and through selling their merchandise. I'm happy to buy a t-shirt to support the band when I get a chance to see them live. Bob Dylan isn't hurting because I downloaded his discography after my CDs were stolen for the 3rd time.

True. Plus all the CD's I bought that are now old and scratched. Why should I have to repurchase them? The actual bands make about 5 cents or less per CD that is sold. It all goes to the marketing and record companies. I have even told friends of mine that are in the recording industry my views on this and they pretty much agreed.

I have a lot of friends in bands, and a few of them are starting to get some momentum. Family of the Year just released their second album, and they're going to Radiohead/Nine Inch Nails route by letting the fans decide how much to pay for it. It's tougher for them because they don't have the same size fan base, but at the same time, it connects more with the audience that way. They did a nice little US tour last year with Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, and I think they're gearing up for a European tour right now. These are the types of bands who are the biggest losers when it comes to downloading, but I think most of their peers would be happy enough living out of a van or tour bus and doing shitty little venues for little money, rather than working a $7/hr job and recording music in their mom's basement. If you want to make music, make music because you love it, not because you think you're going to become a millionaire. I'm a filmmaker, and piracy has crippled the industry, but I'm more interested in making something personal to me that some people might enjoy, rather than wasting my time bitching about how come no one's going to give me $50M to make the next big pop hit.

That's a very cynical take on what he said. There are always going to be people who will make music regardless of how much money (if any) they can make out of it - and they won't care if they make any money out of it either. Being a professional does not mean you have to be rich. Just because many musicians are not millionaires doesn't mean they're not making enough money to live on, and when you love your art you do tend to make sacrifices for it. As mentioned, most make their money by touring, not through sales. MP3 downloads are a way for smaller artists and bands to make money with fewer overheads, but they'd still have to sell a tonne of mp3's to cover their costs if they didn't tour.

There will always be a next big thing, people who are commercially successful within the music industry. Look at the following Lady Gaga has developed for herself. Like her or not, in a supposedly dying industry she is selling records, tickets and merchandise by the truckload. But she's a very carefully crafted product, with a publicity and marketing machine behind her. Many musicians don't want to be that thing, and many more still do not have access to the money to be able to develop into it.

The bottom line is that most musicians aren't making millions of dollars, and still wouldn't be, whether people were able to illegally download their albums or not. This isn't a new thing. Yes, the internet and file sharing technologies have made it easier, but it was always possible to copy a record or CD to a tape (or even to do what i did as a kid and tape songs off the radio, if you had the patience). The market is oversaturated, and what gets to be big is usually something that appeals to the widest range of people - the lowest common denominator. There will always be struggling artists and there will always be commercial successes. That's the way life is. Nobody wants the bands that they like to be failures, but you have to accept that if you like any kind of obscure or indie music, it's always going to be hard for them to make money.

This. My favorite bands still haven't "made it big" by conventional standards, but are doing very well for themselves by touring. I download AND buy all of their albums. And while I love the order and crispness of their albums, it's nothing compared to seeing them live. THOSE are the types of bands I will buy music from, not Lil Wayne or Lady fucking Gaga.

then there's also the fact that most bands when they do make it big and become millionaires, they start sucking. Without the struggle and hardship, there's not a whole lot of good music. Piracy helps. a teeny bit.

Says the man with the pirate avatar. :]

yeah, it looks like a fucked up lord of the rings popeye--but that's a sailor, not a pirate. so, yeah, it cant be that.

If I couldn't download anymore, I still wouldn't buy CDs.

I download, quite a lot of music. I'll only buy cds of my favourite albums. If it weren't for downloading, I'd have a very very small music collection. I can't afford to be buying lots of cds. And I'd rarely take risks on new bands if I couldn't download their music before committing to spend my money on them.

And yes, as many people have said, I support bands by going to their shows.

Most revenue from cd sales doesn't even go to the artist, and you have to question WHY people download.

A lot of musicians download too. I play in three bands, one which is signed by a small label and pretty much everyone I know in music downloads... or at least makes a balance between downloading and buying music/merchandise and going to gigs (which they get more from anyway).

Less successful bands are harder to download anyway, so they're usually the people who still have people buying their albums.

I don't see your point.

Anyway, I guess I'll back out of this thread - if I don't, I'll just flame and invoke flaming, which I don't want to.

Hahaha. You're right. Although in my defense, I was thinking that sailors would look more wholesome, I guess, and so I went with pirate. :]