CD's or Downloads

Freakish_05

Freakish_05

Freakish_05

Associate
Joined
1 May 2006
Posts
810
Location
Bristol, UK
Just come cross This Thread and it got me to thinking. How many people actually pay to download music from the internet which have severe limitations on what you can do with the tracks as opposed to buying the CD's and ripping them yourself! The poor bloke in the aforementioned thread cant even play the tracks that he downloaded from tesco!

<rant>
We all remember the days of Napsters illegal dealings...Naughty Naughty! But now, they're being good boys and charging you for downloading tracks from them. £9.99 a month is a damn good price to pay to be able to download an unlimited number of tracks. But can you do anything with them? Nope. Unless you count playing them in Napsters....RUBBISH...mp3 player and being able to transfer the tracks to all 10 (I know theres more but I'm making a point here) of Microsoft Certified 'Plays For Sure' mp3 players. And guess what happens when you stop paying the £9.99 a month after two years of downloading hardly anything since your first binge in the first month...oh look...your tracks don't work anymore. Sorry!
</rant>

I'm getting overly concerned about how tight most companies are becoming. I mean, when you 'buy' a track or an album, be it online for download or a CD from a shop, you expect to be able to do what you like with it. Not have loads of limitations forced upon you.

I, personally, buy CD's. I know it defeats the object of digital music, but at least I know that I'm not going to get a "DRM Protected Media" error.

I know this is a very controversial topic so it would be very interesting to hear others views.
 
I've never downloaded a track off the internet, legally or illegally. I think CDs will be the best medium for a long time to come.
 
Im the complete opposite, ill NEVER buy a cd again. They are an extortionate ripoff.

I have purchased mp3s and i found it to be hastle free and easy to do, and more importantly CHEAP.
 
I don't tend to buy music often but when I do I purchase CDs, I like the ability to take the CD pretty much anywhere and have it play, if I bought mp3s then some have very restrictive conditions placed on them which doesn't suit me. I can vaguely understand why some of the conditions are in place but neither solution is ideal as once I own a CD then I should have the legal right to copy it to any medium I see fit provided it is for my own personal use and I do not.
 
Efour2 said:
I have purchased mp3s and i found it to be hastle free and easy to do, and more importantly CHEAP.
Click to expand...
If you've managed to purchase cheap mp3s (rather than DRM-laced formats) then I suspect it was through The Russian Site Of Dubious Legality. There simply aren't any entirely legal music services that provide DRM-free music.

Things are looking up though... eMusic is going to be one to watch. It only has indie labels at the moment, but it seems to have a pretty decent business model (pay x pounds and get y mp3 downloads). Doubt the major labels will ever sign up to it, but we can always dream.

Until I can play digital music with the freedom that I have with CDs, and at a price that reflects the much lower production costs, I will stick to buying CDs.
 
I download from the dodgy Russian site unless it is a band I really really like. I just hate having to pay stupid prices for music and would much rather download it legally but until you can do what you want with the music that you have paid for I'll carry on as normal.
 
I used to buy CDs but most would have 2-4 good songs are the rest were a waste of space. Now that I download I only buy what I like. No more wasting money on crap songs. I dont have problems with taking my music wherever I want as i just upload them on to my ipod
 
When I pay for music i'll get a CD, just because of the lack of limitations, I don't want to only be able to copy it to somewhere once.

R0551 said:
I download from the dodgy Russian site unless it is a band I really really like.
Click to expand...

Haha, we bought the CD, the rights are ours!
 
Freakish_05 said:
Just come cross This Thread and it got me to thinking. How many people actually pay to download music from the internet which have severe limitations on what you can do with the tracks as opposed to buying the CD's and ripping them yourself! The poor bloke in the aforementioned thread cant even play the tracks that he downloaded from tesco!
Click to expand...


What restrictions are there on downloaded tracks?

If i use itunes (anyone can) i can play them on any number of ipods (i've got two ipods on the same installation of itunes) i can burn any number of discs and play that disc in any machine and rip the track from that if i wish.
 
Drizmod said:
I used to buy CDs but most would have 2-4 good songs are the rest were a waste of space.
Click to expand...

I can't say I agree unless you are somehow testing the songs before committing to purchase, I have often found that the released singles aren't as good as some of the other songs on most albulms or at the very least some of the songs need several listens before they start to grow on me.

$loth said:
When I pay for music i'll get a CD, just because of the lack of limitations, I don't want to only be able to copy it to somewhere once.
Click to expand...

Although this might come under media-shifting which I suspect will often require you to acquire a separate licence although a lot(most?) people will never bother. I don't agree with these sort of restrictions, once I have purchased the music it should be mine to do whatever I like with provided it is for my own personal enjoyment.
 
I don't buy that much music.
There are a few of my favourite bands and singers still around now and these fall into the category of always buy their album.
I know I can get complete albums online for around £7.99 delivered, so I tend to buy these in that format.
The same goes on the rare times I'm actually buying an album from somebody who isn't in my "always buy" list.
When it comes to a complete album, if I can get it for £8 - £9 then I'll buy the physical album online.

Individual tracks I always buy online - 79p per track from iTunes is peanuts.
I can play it on all the devices I want to etc.
iTunes is quick an easy to use, they carry a vast back catalogue (which has been very useful for CD's we've been making up for use at our wedding ceremony etc).

Where I don't or never will buy tracks from are illegal sites such as the Russian one.
If I'm going to be scum and thieve my music then I'll do just that - thieve it, I'm not going tp pay somebody to steal my music for me.
I never illegally download - iTunes allows you a 30 second play of a track to make sure you get the right one.
You have obviously been alerted to the track somehow, be it on the radio or one of the vast number of music television channels - so the "try before you buy" argument I don't really agree with.
As for the "most music these days is crap and that is why I won't pay for it" BS argument....then don't buy it, don't listen to it.
Don't however sit there telling us all you won't pay for this "crap" and then think that gives you some divine right to own it for free.
 
Nope, until I can download them in high quality mp3. I wont ever pay for music downloads. Might as well buy the 5 for £30 and other deals and do as I please with the content.
 
I always buy CDs. You don't have any problems with different players and I like having the physical media/artwork.

However, I also subscribe to Napster as this allows me to audition a hell of a lot of music for the price of a CD a month before I get the CDs of my choice.
 
I prefer CDs to DRM music due to the (usually) extra control I have over the music I bought. I don't buy much music anyway but don't like the idea of digital rights restricting what devices I can play the music on or the loss of my music when the store I bought it from closes.

I've used the Tesco service for single tracks to see if I like an album I was thinking of buying though.
 
I do wonder how many people will download all their tracks and not even thing to back it all up and then wonder how to get their music collection back when their hard drive/ipod crashes.
 
I buy CDs over buying MP3s. Any CDs I buy tend to be at gigs, ordered direct from the band, or jazz CDs which you can pick up for a fiver in Fopp (that shop kills me every time I go in, I must learn to stay away from the jazz section!). So my CDs always tend to be good value for money, and I like owning a copy of the album art. Plus you can get the CDs signed by the band at the gig, and I got a custom made album cover from Yndi Halda which is beaaaaautiful.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom