62 replies to this topic

[Ron Manager]

See title. Recently I've been buying more MP3s because I don't have a hi-fi or record player at the moment (lack of space and money), and when I buy CDs I just seem to rip them and store them. I've always loved having physical media, but in the last few years I've only listened to music through my computer or iPod. In terms of sound quality, I've decided that 320kbps MP3 is totally adequate for me. There's a financial element to it as well, as I'm still a student.

So I was wondering if there's anyone else out there who's made the digital switch and now only purchases downloads. Did you sell your physical media? Do you ever miss physical products? I'm interested to know...

[Anchio Arch io Son Pittore]

i don't buy in mp3 or acc, but in lossless : flac or wave... why?

bcause the compressed files cannot be bought seen that the compressed sound makes lose subtle and high-pitched sounds and thus I consider that these files have 2 exist as a kind of streaming...

the compressed files exist 2 mess the mouth of the consumers & because it's files which are not heavy thus easier and faster 2 download...

i don't like the compressed files, they have no value and I find that it is very expensive 4 a sound of such quality! Even certain DJ of clubs avoid using them and prefer lossless files even if they R heavy & take more place than files compressed... why?

simply because of the sound which saturates too much when we go up the strong volume 2 make the public dance: that deafens and makes unpleasant 2 the listening...

[jasondonervan]

I came very close to turning the corner on physical releases in the last 12 months, but a flood of decent releases found me grabbing up a bunch of vinyl again. I also have a nice listening setup, which definitely helps me to really enjoy playing them. I am in the mood to sell off a load, as I have a lot of stuff that hasn't been played in years. Short of the odd nostalgic play on a rainy Sunday afternoon, most of it never will be.

As for CDs, anything I've bought during the last few years has often hit a disc tray once to be ripped, then stored neatly back in the racks. I am a bit more picky about keeping CDs as I treat them as last-resort backups. I probably shouldn't be, as I use a server with RAID 0, and perform regular backups to external drives which are stored away from home. I should really work my through the racks and put a list together, see if anyone here wants anything for a reasonable price (same with the records).

My digital music library has been building since the pre-itunes days (I think I started around... '97-ish?), but the best thing I did with that was go through a clear-out a few months ago when setting up my server. It was amazing how much rubbish I'd been stashing away. I managed to strip about 450GB of music down to less than a hundred, very liberating.

So in conclusion, I would be happy to move to a mostly digital collection, but there are always those few records and CDs that I just couldn't bear to part with.

[mcglockers]

If I had a house fire and lost all my physical music I'd switch, but otherwise I don't see the point in going exclusively digital.

[Ron Manager]

i don't buy in mp3 or acc, but in lossless : flac or wave... why?

bcause the compressed files cannot be bought seen that the compressed sound makes lose subtle and high-pitched sounds and thus I consider that these files have 2 exist as a kind of streaming...

the compressed files exist 2 mess the mouth of the consumers & because it's files which are not heavy thus easier and faster 2 download...

i don't like the compressed files, they have no value and I find that it is very expensive 4 a sound of such quality! Even certain DJ of clubs avoid using them and prefer lossless files even if they R heavy & take more place than files compressed... why?

simply because of the sound which saturates too much when we go up the strong volume 2 make the public dance: that deafens and makes unpleasant 2 the listening...

In terms of sound quality, I've decided that 320kbps MP3 is totally adequate for me.

So in conclusion, I would be happy to move to a mostly digital collection, but there are always those few records and CDs that I just couldn't bear to part with.

Yeah, I keep thinking about this too. There are some things I'm not sure I could bring myself to get rid of, so even if I decided to just buy digitally, I think it'd be difficult to part with some of my treasured physical items. Thanks for your input!

[YELLOW]

I have within the last year or so. I broke my rule when I bought Ufabulum, because I couldn't buy Enstrobia online and I found a used copy that would have been cheaper than buying digital.

My dilemma sounds very much like yours, I found myself buying a lot of cds (gets costly) and then ripping them to my computer and iPod and then just storing them on a shelf. I think it got to a point where I was trying to be minimal and I thought, "I'm going to have to haul these useless cds with me for the rest of my life and all they do is just take up space." Yeah the artwork is cool, but I got over that. It's about the music anyways. I never had a proper record player setup either so the vinyl I would buy (sometimes rare items) would just sit unopened or untouched.

I agree with you on 320 kbps. It's good enough for me and I don't find myself buying lossless downloads for an extra couple bucks. I think for a lot of people physical media is a nostalgia thing. But for me, I'm fine with buying digital and maxing out harddrives.

I do want to eventually make sure I have everything ripped and then start selling some stuff, but I don't think I'm ready for all that work right at this moment

Edited by YELLOW, 30 July 2012 - 07:07 AM.

[Squee]

Haven't bought a CD since Massive Attack's Heligoland. I buy MP3s and Wavs.

[patternoverlap]

I've gone to about 90-95% digital purchases to save money and space. Might sell some of my physical albums but some I'll never part with.

[Joyrex]

I too have gone almost entirely digital - the only physical purchases I even consider nowadays is for deluxe editions, etc.

[Ron Manager]

I have within the last year or so. I broke my rule when I bought Ufabulum, because I couldn't buy Enstrobia online and I found a used copy that would have been cheaper than buying digital.

My dilemma sounds very much like yours, I found myself buying a lot of cds (gets costly) and then ripping them to my computer and iPod and then just storing them on a shelf. I think it got to a point where I was trying to be minimal and I thought, "I'm going to have to haul these useless cds with me for the rest of my life and all they do is just take up space." Yeah the artwork is cool, but I got over that. It's about the music anyways. I never had a proper record player setup either so the vinyl I would buy (sometimes rare items) would just sit unopened or untouched.

I agree with you on 320 kbps. It's good enough for me and I don't find myself buying lossless downloads for an extra couple bucks. I think for a lot of people physical media is a nostalgia thing. But for me, I'm fine with buying digital and maxing out harddrives.

I do want to eventually make sure I have everything ripped and then start selling some stuff, but I don't think I'm ready for all that work right at this moment

Yep, sounds like your situation is similar to mine. I'm generally a pretty minimal person, partly out of necessity as I'm a poor grad student in a small rented flat. 95% of my physical music is actually at my parents' home, so whenever I visit I can enjoy it, but we're talking maybe four weeks total out of every year? I used to have a decent turntable set-up, but it got broken in a transatlantic move and I didn't replace it with the insurance money. Although I do hope to grow up, get a job, etc. soon, I'm increasingly starting to see my collection in terms of the money I could make from selling it off...

[eugene]

i buy very little music but when i do i only buy flacs. i don't really consider it actually buying music, most of the times i could get it from what.cd or some russian tracker much easier and faster so to me it's just a way of showing appreciation towards the musicians.

it really is about music after all, the rest of the elements of physical formats are just superficialities.

[Anchio Arch io Son Pittore]

i don't buy in mp3 or acc, but in lossless : flac or wave... why?

bcause the compressed files cannot be bought seen that the compressed sound makes lose subtle and high-pitched sounds and thus I consider that these files have 2 exist as a kind of streaming...

the compressed files exist 2 mess the mouth of the consumers & because it's files which are not heavy thus easier and faster 2 download...

i don't like the compressed files, they have no value and I find that it is very expensive 4 a sound of such quality! Even certain DJ of clubs avoid using them and prefer lossless files even if they R heavy & take more place than files compressed... why?

simply because of the sound which saturates too much when we go up the strong volume 2 make the public dance: that deafens and makes unpleasant 2 the listening...

In terms of sound quality, I've decided that 320kbps MP3 is totally adequate for me.

i answered ur question :

So I was wondering if there's anyone else out there who's made the digital switch and now only purchases downloads. Did you sell your physical media? Do you ever miss physical products? I'm interested to know...

therefore, what's ur pb? i expressed my opinion...
it's not my pb if 320kbps MP3 is totally adequate 4 u... (also 4 me, i ripped some CDs 4 my Archos...) but I NEVER BUY MP3!!!

Edited by Anchio Arch io Son Pittore, 30 July 2012 - 07:54 AM.

[Ron Manager]

therefore, what's ur pb? i expressed my opinion...
it's not my pb if 320kbps MP3 is totally adequate 4 u... (also 4 me, i ripped some CDs 4 my Archos...) but I NEVER BUY MP3!!!

I'm not interested in the merits of lossless vs. lossy, this thread is about the purchase of digital vs. physical media... The fact that I choose to buy MP3 is incidental.

[goDel]

I try to buy digital as much as possible. Due to the lack of physical storage space, and like almost everyone has said already: why buy the physical product if you only use it once, when ripping. I've been buying digital from as long as lossless was available as an option. I hate throwing money at some lossy format.

It's mostly beatport, boomkat, bleep and bandcamp which receive my donations. Especially bandcamp for the last year, btw. Lots of good stuff, but with a horrible way to navigate and to search the site for new stuff, imo.

[k h o v]

40% cds, 40% vinyls & 20% with flac or wav (that i burn on...cdr), for some reasons, i truly care about physical objects...
i prefer physical cds or vinyls because much of what i bought digitally i totally forgot about it & guess what : i never forgot my Analord binder :-)

[luke viia]

i think almost all of the music i've purchased in the last two years has been from bandcamp.com... and i also download a lot of old releases that i'm not going to crate-digging for (library music, old soul/funk tunes, things there aren't even crates for, like vg music...).

my vinyl musics fund has become the pinball & ice cream fund. i have enjoyed the switch.

[RichieBees]

i only buy the finest .wma from the windows online store.
only joking i just rip it off youtube it sounds fine unless youre some sort of elitist

[spratters]

I'll only buy digital if there is no physical release. I like being able to have and hold something I've paid for. Yeah I pay a lot more for the privilege but to me it's worth it. I don't know if I'll continue to for years to come but for now I'll keep both physical and ripped digital.

[sergeantk]

I will often buy digitally just to be able to support the artist. But I strongly prefer buying CDs

[YELLOW]

I only stray to soulseek for vinyl-only releases I can't buy digitally. I don't feel bad if I have to download a rip of some record that was limited to 500 copies in the first place...

[delet...]

I only buy flac or wav. As soon as these formats were available i started fronting cash for non physical only. Although i bought a couple of 320kbps albums before that.

I certainly don't miss physical media, as i saw it as pointless clutter, annoying detritus that under my stewardship tends to degrade. My downloaded content on the other hand remains pristine, if a little hidden by a haphazard filesystem. I don't buy very much though, cause i'm not that interested in listening to most music more than once or twice.

Anyway, some get used to the idea of having possessions in a virtual only world. quicker than others. Eventually we'll all have to come around.

i only buy the finest .wma from the windows online store.
only joking i just rip it off youtube it sounds fine unless youre some sort of elitist

Right on !!

[chenGOD]

flac or wav - haven't bought a CD in a few years (since 2009 I would guess). I'll probably buy vinyl only releases that I really want.
Bleep or Bandcamp. I still think bleep is a touch expensive - if they knocked a couple of bucks of the price of a full length I would buy much more.

[Anchio Arch io Son Pittore]

therefore, what's ur pb? i expressed my opinion...
it's not my pb if 320kbps MP3 is totally adequate 4 u... (also 4 me, i ripped some CDs 4 my Archos...) but I NEVER BUY MP3!!!

I'm not interested in the merits of lossless vs. lossy, this thread is about the purchase of digital vs. physical media... The fact that I choose to buy MP3 is incidental.

OK, All right, I maybe badly expressed myself, I didn't speak about the merit of the lossless vs lossy, but about my opinion, guy! We R in a forum, no? I understood well your question!

[Ron Manager]

I'm somewhat surprised that most digital buyers seem to buy FLAC/WAV only. I definitely expected to hear from more MP3 buyers.

[Anchio Arch io Son Pittore]

as u said, u don't care the compressed format if 320kbps MP3 is totally adequate 4 u, that's ur choice! Each decides 2 choose what type of files 2 buy...