In the "So who else bought a Tom Petty CD?" thread Jeremiah (jokingly) asks "What is this cee-dee you speak of?" and that got me to thinkin'. Jeremiah's comment illustrates how younger people tend to consume music - downloading songs off the Internet. I'm old school (being old) so I tend to buy CDs and then rip them to .flac or .mp3 format for use with an iPod or my Sonos system at home. Even though downloading songs is convenient I rarely do it because I like the packaging the CDs come with (credits, art, lyrics), I want the songs in their full fidelity (not compressed) and I want hard-copy backups in case anything happens to my hard drives. I'm a computer guy so I have backups of all my ripped music (because it was so much work to rip my entire CD collection initially) but I still don't trust hard drives as much as a CD in terms of durability over time. Even my oldest CDs play/rip fine with no signs of "CD rot" or degradation. In addition, back in the day artists released ALBUMS of material with the obscure tracks often being the best so getting a CD often led to new discoveries. I guess in my case I consider CDs as something you own (even though the record companies say you just license them). My wife and I still have CDs from college that work just fine even though we don't actually listen to them (just store them) as we listen to the .flac file that we ripped from the CD. I don't download much because of DRM and its limitations with regards to where you can play the songs (we have Sonos and two iPods), the limited frequency response compressed formats give you (I have really nice speakers at home - Magnepans) but mostly because if I buy something I want to be reasonably assured I won't lose it. So, how do you young people who download music think about music? Is it something that is part of you (i.e. a soundtrack to your life; snapshots in time of how you were/felt as you grow up or get older) or is it just cool to have in the background as long as it has a beat and you can dance to it? Do you worry about keeping the music longterm? How do you deal with DRM over long periods of time as you change computers/devices? Note: This is not intended to be a discussion on illegal downloads. For the purposes of this I don't care how or where you download your music.
I stopped buying CDs after I bought Slipknot's first album. There were only two songs I liked on it, and I couldn't stand the rest of them. I felt ripped off. Sure, there are albums that are chock-full of great music, but that's the exception to the rule. And these days you can sample tracks online. I'd rather pay a buck a song than pay $15-$20 for mystery meat. BTW, I'm 34. I still have my Tape collection, and even some records from when I was a little boy in the 70s.
I buy CDs from the bands I'm completely and truly loyal to. Otherwise, I don't even bother downloading, unless I've previewed it. Then, later, if the album is really THAT good, then I'll go out to buy it. Though it's happening less and less these days.
i still buy music install discs, i like having the backup, and you get full resolution in terms of sound quality, none of that lossy compression ****.
If I buy a new album, I buy it off iTunes. It saves $4-8 off the price of a CD. If it's been out a while, I buy a used or discounted CD. I'd rather have the cee dee, but I'll save the money if I can.
I'm not a young person. None of my music is on CD; 100% of it is electronic. I haven't bought a CD in at least 15 years. They are completely useless relics from a bygone era IMO.
How do you deal with the DRM? Don't you worry that you won't be able to play the songs on your NEXT PC (or Mac)? Also, don't you worry about keeping the songs and the licenses safe? What about hard drive crash?
The fact that downloaded music is generally compressed and not full resolution doesn't bother you? Also, all of my music is electronic as well (.flac which is lossless), however, I still buy CDs for the full resolution and the hard copy backup. How do you backup your music?
iTunes allows you to authorize up to 6 machines. I just de-authorize my current machine before moving files to a new one if I'm worried about the DRM, but DRM is a thing of the past and it will be gone soon anyhow. The Amazon store is DRM free for everything. I have only purchased one or two CD's in the past couple of years other than local artists, but I've downloaded a TON. I pay for mine, only getting for free the stuff I can't find on iTunes or something I don't want to keep - just need it for something. As a musician, I just can't take stuff from other artists unless they are ok with it. Eventually, there music will be free and there will be some other way it gets covered - increased ISP fees, etc. But, until then, I have friends who are songwriters (not performers) and producers who have left the business to find work in different industries because they can't make money from royalties any longer. These are incredibly talented people who quit making music (other than for a hobby) because they saw the writing on the wall - if you aren't a performer who can make money from performances, there's no point in being in the business. For their sake, I won't use P2P networks. I understand the change in the business and I get where it is going and I'm totally fine with that. I'm just not going to do it now.
I back up mine with external HD's that are stored in a fire proof safe. Yeah, I'm crazy like that and I already have a 1TB external 3/4 of he way full, a 160GB HD full and another 500GB 1/2 full. I back up on the TB external at least once a week. Also, if you're a member of a private torrent site with strict limits on uploading and you can actually tell the difference between a purchased CD and a FLAC downloaded rip, you have some friggin' awesome ears. I always download the log first to make sure it's ripped in secure mode and there are no errors. I have a nice home system, an upgraded system in my car and $500 Sens for the PC, and I can tell no difference whatsoever between the FLAC rip or the actual CD after I rip to upload. I do still buy some CD's, but only from independent labels from artists I find on these private sites and from bands I'm a die hard fan of. Otherwise, I download everything via torrents. I'm done paying for a CD for 3 good songs and 10 fillers of crap. Plus, with over 7500 CD's in my collection, storage became an issue.
umm...the whole point of FLAC is that it's a completely lossless compression format so there is NO difference whatsoever, unless the rip of the FLAC was screwed up
this post will kill some of you music guys - most people can't tell the difference between a compressed scaled down mp3 and a cd.
actually, if it's a MP3 encoded with a shi!tty codec and sh!tty settings, then sure you can...easily. especially with good headphones or a good home stereo setup, which most people have one or the other now with a good codec and good preset settings (like LAME VBR V2), then you can't tell a difference. the problem is, when you're downloading random MP3s off the internet you can't rely on quality settings
i'm going to disagree. i mean obviously if it is ripped in 56/64kbps or some other crappy setting then yes. but i think most reliable rips are 192 at the minimum and more than likely at 320. furthermore, where are people listening to these at? on their computer with more than likely some speakers that look like this: or on their mp3 player with some crappy little earbuds.
where exactly do you have a constant reliable source of 192 or 320 MP3s? I'm fine with those settings, but I sure as hell don't know where you can always find MP3s like that. half the ones I randomly download are still 128...but I'm no expert on finding MP3s, I still buy CDs because I'm one of those obsessive audiophiles who rip to FLAC and I listen to MP3s at home on my stereo system off my PS3, or if I'm on my laptop I have sennheiser headphones
I almost never like more than a few songs on an album, so I've been downloading for awhile. I get more music that I'll actually listen to for the same amount of money. I've really picked up the pace since the Amazon store debuted. I have an iPod at the moment, but I'm not sure that I'll buy another one. I don't really like iTunes, so I've been using Media Monkey to transfer music to my iPod. The quality of the songs on Amazon (256 kbps MP3s) are good enough for me. Actually, I take them down to 192 when I transfer them to my iPod (which is one of the reasons I went ahead paid for Media Monkey Gold). I like that MP3s will play on any player. I've even dusted off the old Rio Nitrus that has been sitting in a bin in my closet. I'm sure all of the songs in iTunes will be DRM-free by the end of the year, and that practically any player will be able to play AAC files before long as well. But I still think I'll prefer Amazon's store. No special software to use (iTunes and Quick Time with the corresponding processes running in the background at all times).
