at one point a few years ago i had 1,000 cd's and was buying them like crazy...now i find myself going to FYE and scanning cd's, listening to see if i like the whole cd (which is rare these days). is anybody else being picky about what they buy vs downloading, or are you still buying cd's and hoping for the best

In terms of hard to find and collectioney stuff, I buy a lot less. I tend to download a lot of that. My vinyl intake is way down and there aren't as many singles that I'm interested in having. But downloading and the internet in general makes me much more open to giving a relatively unknown artist or someone I've heard nothing by a chance. So I think my CD purchase quantity is the same, I'm just buying different things.

i rarely buy cds because of downloadin, and if i do its on ebay

nope - i still buy a lot of cds even though i download. i like having the liner notes & art from a cd.

I gotta like 2 songs or more to buy the cd, but I've always been like that. Downloading just makes the singles easier to get for me...

Probably the same. I download lots of stuff. Because of this I buy more CDs that I wouldn't have. Also, because of this I buy less of the CD's that I would have just picked up because I heard a couple of tracks.

I stopped buying CDs for a bit, but lately I have started buying them again.

i very rarely buy commercially available CDs that are available for download on iTunes. I mostly listen to music on my ipod now, and itunes is more convenient for that because i don't have to rip the CDs - and also if i want to listen to them in my car, i can always burn them to disc.

the only thing that i get from other d/l sights is stuff not available - out of print, imports, rarities, live stuff, etc.

I don't download music. Unless it's like 1 or 2 songs off an album i don't necessarily want.
I would never download entire albums though.

I'd much rather have the cd with the artwork, etc.

I fear the day when the record stores close because of the internet.

i'm buying more and more cd's ,.. simply cos they are getting cheaper all the time !

I rarely download anything. I still like going to the store, flipping through the racks,buying the Cds not only for the music but for the artwork,liner notes especially if they're reissues.I'm not an audio purist, but I think CDs will always sound better than anything you download.

I actually buy more CD's than I used to because downloading makes it easier for me to preview an album and decide if I want it or not. If I don't want it, I delete it. Simple as that.

I don't download songs. The one exception being mash-ups which can't be bought obviously. I'll preview online samples of an album to decide whether or not I should buy, but I won't download the entire track to keep.

jayaredee said:

I've downloaded nearly entire albums to CD's that I already have. I've also downloaded and trashed so much stuff. It's no different than listening at Virgin or Barnes and Noble ( sometimes the little sample you get online isn't enough ).

I suspect I'll probably stop buying CD's soon. I have a stack behind me that I haven't even listened to yet. I like the act of actually buying the CD...but it's now becoming more of an inconvenience.

Besides I never listen to the actual CD's anyway. My listening habits have changed drastically in the past 5 years. It's now all about the playlist.

RE: the quality...there are other types of compression that are the same size and smaller but far superior to .mp3 that just happens to be the standard now.

That's probably the reason I still buy the CD...just knowing that I have the better quality and yes there's a big difference but it's seeming that convenience will win out with me.

RE: The art and all. Though it's nice to have it...the artist websites will probably end up filling that void.

It's unfortunate but the record stores may become a thing of the past.