Buy or download music?

Buy or download?

  • Buy from a shop

    Votes: 15 40.5%

  • Download

    Votes: 13 35.1%

  • Either/don't mind

    Votes: 9 24.3%
  • Total voters
    37
I prefer downloading my music because sometimes I only want one song off of a cd, and it's a complete waste of money to buy the album when that's the case. It's also so much more time consuming to go to a store and buy the cd when you can just click a button and be listening to a song in about 20 seconds.

If I REALLY like an artist/group, I'll go and get the cd, but I only do that on rare occassions. If I'm lucky, my friend will want the cd and go buy it herself, and then I can just get her to burn it for me :P
 
I see DLing as previewing or for one-hit wonders. If you can't make a decent record, then I don't have to buy your subpar BS. But if it's good then buy it, or at the very least, go see 'em live! Gotta support 'em somehow, right?
 
I think you should download and if u really enjoy the artist, you should support them by buying their cd's from stores.
 
Downloading music allows me to be lazy. I don't feel like prying my ass from this computer chair to get some music.

So yeah, put me down for downloading. I miiiiight be able to save some money if I download music illegally. I wouldn't do something so horrible, though.
 
I usually buy my music on either CD/vinyl. I like having a physical product, and flipping through the booklet while I listen to it on my stereo. I only download if what I want is not commercially available anymore or has never been commercially available. Stuff like live bootlegs, demo recordings, and on occasion stuff that is out of print.
 
I usually tend to download music as I get desperate to listen to it and can't wait to go and buy the album.

Often I find that I only like a couple of songs off an album and don't want the rest of the songs anyway and don't want to waste my money.

It's bad, but it does save me money. =/

But if I really love a certain artist, more than often I'll buy the albums. Usually then I love more then a couple of songs on the album too and makes it worth buying. >.<
 
Well, buy as in from itunes and get it from there just so that I can have an to-go thing and download onto my computer when... im on my computer xD So i'd say both although i'd prefer itunes just because when im not at my computer I can always get my ipod out :D
 
I used to download a lot through pirating torrents and also legitimate itunes means and paid downloads, but I prefer owning a physical copy of an album.

The way I do it now is if I have heard tales of a weird and wonderful band then I'll download a few songs... If I like them then I'll buy the album they are from.

I used to download whole discographies for free (though only for a few bands), but I feel bad about that now, and I plan to make it up to those artists and eventually own all the albums I downloaded. It would be better to have physical albums to hold and look at anyway.
 
Even though I think IPODs are great for storing stuff you don't want to lose--about 25% of my CDs are from local bands that aren't even around anymore so I can't replace them--I still prefer having the actual CD. One reason is that when the artist puts an album together, they don't do it as just a group of random songs. There's usually a theme that ties the album together and makes it an "album", and even the order the tracks are played in can be important for realizing what the artist was trying to present to us. If you just download one song, it can lose its context. Another reason is that the CD jacket and even the case can often contribute to the theme of the album--some bands have really profound inserts that they put a lot of thought into designing, and often they include the lyrics, so that you don't have to have "GET 'Mary Had A Little Lamb" AS A RINGTONE! CLICK HERE!" pop up in your face when you want to know the words to a song. Either way though, as long as the artist gets paid for it, that's good enough for me. :)
 
It depends on how much money i have, i usually go out and buy cds i want from bands i like. If i don't i download them and make a note to buy the cd later on, to support the band an all. But before doing either i listen to see if there are any good songs, if there aren't at least three i like i don't get it in either form of cd or download.
 
I don't pay for mine. I never think I would, it seems stupid to have to pay to listen to something - BUT - I suppose it is for the artist, if you pay for it, you help the artist and it is there job so I suppose you pay their wages :D
 
If I really want the album and its by a band I like, say Muse, then I'll defo buy it. If its an expensive album or 1 I can locate, then i ask someone to download it for me. I cant download lol XD
 
Most of the time I do download and in full albums but that's because what I download are mostly soundtracks from games or movies. As for big artists, it's hit and miss. I do sometimes download their music off of a site like 7digital if it's maybe an exclusive or if I just want a few tracks. Then those artists that I really like I will still buy their CD(s). The most I ever spent on an album was $80 and that was last year, so when I'm committed to an artist I like, I will go out of my way and support them. Like Depeche Mode for an example, over the years I had bought all their original albums, singles and even solo albums. In 2006 they re-released all their old albums as CD/DVD remasters & extras for obviously improved sound quality purposes, plus mine were worn out anyway and I bought all 10 remasters at about $23 ea. So when it does come to music it all depends on the artist.
 
Download. More often than not I only like one or two songs from a certain artist, so I wouldn't waste money on a whole CD with extra songs I might not like, just to get the one or two that I do like. It would be better to download. The only bands/artists I'd ever get a whole CD for would be Breaking Benjamin and Saliva. :wacky:
 
I tend to download most songs, unless it kings of Leon i just get an urge to buy theirs for some reason.... :)
 
I used to download music all the time but then my computer started running way too slow. :mad: Plus i heard all those crazy stories that i'll get caught and be in jail because fuck me, right? Ugh it was so annoying.. why buy shit when i can illegal download it? I'll take that chanc-- never mind i'm good.

My boyfriend loves buying his music and will support the artist forever..or until he has no money :lew:

But now that I think about it, buying music is better quality and won't slow it down as bad...

You can say that I love Pandora. :ryan:
 
I prefer to buy music. Firstly, the quality sounds better. I also prefer listening to a CD in the car on repeat for a week or two as I find it allows me to become more familiar with the album.

When I used to download most of my music, I found that I didn't appreciate it nearly as much. I'd just have an abundance of random albums that I'd listen to once or twice.. if that. When I buy music, I take more time to listen to it and generally enjoy it a lot more; it seems more valuable than when I download it.

The other reason that I prefer to buy music is because I enjoy supporting local, independent record shops. Because let's face it, they need the support. I enjoy going to small shops and chatting about bands etc.. they often have more interesting stuff too. It would suck if you could only get music from itunes and Kmart.
 
Mostly I buy the album on iTunes first since it's cheaper than getting the CD. Later, when I have the money I'll either special order the CDs from Golden Discs or trek all the way to the city and hunt around in HMV or Tower Records for them. I like having the discs as back up just in case anything were to happen to my digital music library. That and the fact that I like listening to a CD in the car, vroom vroom!
 
I'll probably never buy music from iTunes again after getting burned bad by Apple erasing my entire library and refusing to give it back to me even after I spent several days arguing with customer support and hours tracking down purchase history information Apple should've been able to access in an instant but couldn't, and because iTunes disallows copy/paste of purchase history I had to type it all into an email manually. Their excuse was that the iTunes TOS says that if items are changed or removed from the iTunes store the new versions do not count as purchases. But considering none of my library had been altered that TOS argument didn't apply. Apple didn't listen, so eventually I just gave up, sold my iPod, and kissed all things Apple goodbye. I'll not be victim to losing several hundred dollars worth of digital media because of Apple's horrible company practices again.

Why is that story relevant to this discussion? Because it opened my eyes to alternatives that are soooo much better. Amazon Music is a terrific service that frequently offers discounts and even tons of completely free music for being a Prime subscriber, or even for no reason at all. Sometimes you get $1 MP3 credit for downloading Android apps--even free ones--and sometimes they just hand you a $1 credit at random for buying other music. How they are able to do this I don't know, but it sure removes all excuses for piracy. There are legitimate ways of getting music legally for cheap or possibly free depending on what services you already pay for, and if you do, you're getting the best quality and supporting the artist at the same time. Everybody wins.

Also, as independent artists have been on the rise, I've found myself listening more and more to music not licensed by a record label. All of these independent artists put their music on services like Loudr.fm, which I like because it gives the highest profit margin to the artist of any service out there. Using Loudr is a much more personal experience than iTunes, since I go there specifically to support people who otherwise would not earn as much on their work as if I buy it there. Plus without the record label it's just a more personal thing overall. Pirating an MP3 from some company you've never heard of is one thing, pirating an MP3 from a human being you actually know things about and can interact with is another.

All that being said, I do use YouTube to listen to music a lot, and sometimes Grooveshark. But in these cases I'm just checking things out. If I like what I hear, I buy it to support the people that make it.
 
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I'm not a huuuuuge music person, so I just make a playlist on Youtube and add all my favourite songs to there. You get a vid then too if you like. I did go through a time where I'd use the free Spotify too, but the ads got in the way so back to Youtube.
 
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