does anyone ever buy albums anymore?

[artbabe]

before limewire, kazaa, audiogalaxy, napster...etc.

remember the specialness of buying a disc? now i made a disk of 107 songs and i'm sick of it by the end of the week.

is our desire for more new music unquenchable?

[Benwa]

Not just a disk, but does anyone remember getting an actual record. those vinyl platters of joy. We are the tail end of the record generation. Now records are novelty. they are something dj's spin while they're scratchin. Damn I feel old.

[Alexsy]

records are pretty much pointless now, except for the emotional appeal of them -- at least that's my take on it. i mean, i just went on iTunes tonight and thew together a $7 "album" of songs from Elton John, Boston, etc. you're not going to find all those guys on one cd on a shelf somewhere. given that i also have an iPod, i just have no use for discs of any sort anymore.

but the album art is cool. that is probably the one last redeeming thing that records have. the art. when you buy from iTunes, you get that too, but you don't get the liner notes, etc ... and i am kind of a sucker for reading those things ... ah, well.

[Deadend]

I buy stuff when it's really really hard to find, although it really doesn't come up all that often. Back in September I baught the new Faint album, and at that had to go to two record stores before I found 1 copy.

I'm going to look around for the Yeah Yeah Yeah's because I've heard a few tracks and they're incredable, but I should probably call ahead first.

[artbabe]

Alexa's got a good point. i used to spend hours after buying an album, staring at the content cover...artist picture...lyrics, who played what on what song...but the last time i entered a music store was to purchase a controller controller cd. but my store didn't have it. we only have one music store. i felt helpless and left.

[shimmer728]

I've never downloaded music, and I still buy CDs. I'm kind of intrigued by those iPod minis, however, but I know I just want one because they come in a rainbow of pretty colors and you can buy sparkly cases for them. :)

Plus, my computer's six years old, and isn't music file-friendly.

[wordsmith]

I would also have to really upgrade my computer situation to even make downloading music at all viable, so I still buy CDs. Plus, I never embrace anything, esp. technology, while it's white hot. I'll probably jump on the iPod bandwagon in like 3 years. I'm like that. :green:

[mishl982]

I still buy CDs, but I wait to buy it til I know that I will like all the songs. And with artists who aren't so well known yet I buy their CDs then try to get other people hooked on it to help support the artist. There's this other board I post on where they upload songs and albums that people request and when I see them uploading Damien Rice, Howie Day, Jason Mraz, etc, I just want to be like "Buy their CD. It's totally worth it!"

[drdeadringer]

I buy the CDs of my favorite artists or stuff that's really hard to find. Much outside of that, not really.

[paiger81]

I've never downloaded music, and I still buy CDs. I'm kind of intrigued by those iPod minis, however, but I know I just want one because they come in a rainbow of pretty colors and you can buy sparkly cases for them. :)

Me, too. Kirk laughed at me cause I liked the sparkly pink one. Kirk says the more weight I lose, the girlier I get ;):

[Ederratic]

I prefer to own the CD of any artist I like. Unfortunately the quality of music hasn't been so great for many years yet the prices have gone up. I prefer to download something first and if I like it then buy the album. If its crap then no money is wasted. That system works very well.

[Skyblade]

Well some vinyl is cool to have cuz the sound is different. A lot of albums sound a lot better on vinyl.

[cornflakegirl]

ever since i got an ibook laptop & ipod mini, i have not spent one penny on cds. now i have more access to new music & enjoy checking out new groups & then deciding whether i want more of their stuff. on the other hand, i really miss listening to an album all the way through. you really miss out when you can't hear a song independently of the compilation that the artist put together. i can't imagine appreciating pink floyd, but never hearing meddle or dark side in their entirety. plus, some of the songs i d/l aren't complete. . . but i still love my ipod.

[SunDevil]

I don't own CD player (not counting my laptop or DVD player). I went straight from tapes to mp3s. My car doesn't have a CD player, it has a tape player and a mp3 player built-in.

The last time I was in a record store was in 1998. I can hear the footsteps of the RIAA police coming to arrest me now.

[Deadend]

I too, now have an iBook, and iPod. I also have three roomates on a hous LAN that have fantastic music collections and a brother back home with a DVD burner and a fine collection of music himself.

The net result is 13 GB on my system in the first three days of having the iBook, without looking for anything online.

I have tons and tons of good shit.

[dear confused]

I buy the CD and because I tend to met the guys in the band. Since they are my age I like to support fellow artist. For example controller controller is an excellent death disco band from Toronto. My classmate is in the band. I've also met the lead singer. She is very nice. If I buy their CD I know that I can really help them.

CD are also the full version of the song. Apple (POS) doesn't tell you that they compress (read: destroy) audio information in order to make files size smaller.

[Deadend]

Of course you don't get all the info of the CD. That's what audio sampling for the mp3 codec does. In fact, that's how all digital signal sampling works.

If you're trying to say that apple in particular samples down the bitrate, you don't know what you're talking about. They don't sell the ipods based upon song capacity, but storage capacity. What they do do however is let you select your own encoding rate and also have other codecs to select from (available in most software).

There have been plenty of studies with regards to the precision of the human ear. Just about no one can distinguigh between sampling rates above 196kpbs in double blind tests. So no it does not destory the sound qualtiy, (and if you do it right, even comprimise it). Unless you're some kind of dog, you're just wrong. My guess is you're trying to be snobby. (I've met the band and baught the disc on many occation too, I just don't like toteing those cumbersome obselete things around).

[dear confused]

Yeah I am a big snob. My damn ego is larger than the galaxy that the Milky Way is in. I am not a snob.

It just cool to met somebody who's work you admire. I gush over meeting a women that makes excellent shortbread cookies for heaven's sake. If you met those guys from c.c they are friendly regular people. Its great listening to local musicians because they perform in your 'hood a lot and you can talk to them. Yes, you can talk to them. Plus I liked the dude before he was in the band. I could care less if he was a musician or an assistant caretaker. He is nice guy and I am happy he is doing something he loves.

I like buying someone's CD because it is an affordable piece of art.

In regards to file compression. JPEGS are a great compression for images but you still lose information regardless. MP3 have the same drawback. You lose information. Generation loss probably happens. Then you listen to the music through a POS iPod earbuds and it will sound like crap. But hey you look so cool with those white earbud wires.

I'm really confused

[artbabe]

Scott Kaija from controller.controller went to my high school. :green:

[tina1979]

Not just a disk, but does anyone remember getting an actual record. those vinyl platters of joy. We are the tail end of the record generation. Now records are novelty. they are something dj's spin while they're scratchin. Damn I feel old.
I love vinyl. I have one shelf at home full of it. I took my mom's old records from when she was a teenager, some of them I like some are too cheesy for even me. I would however like to get a hold of my uncle's record collection. I would LOOOOVE that! He's holding on to them though!

[Sesamebabe]

My husband runs a wbsite call UndergroundHipHop.com and alot of what he sells is Vinyl Records - in the hip hop industry, vinyl is very much alive and well. But for other genres, I haven't seen records in years...

[Deadend]

In regards to file compression. JPEGS are a great compression for images but you still lose information regardless. MP3 have the same drawback. You lose information. Generation loss probably happens. Then you listen to the music through a POS iPod earbuds and it will sound like crap. But hey you look so cool with those white earbud wires.
I'm really confused

My point that your ears (and eyes, but your eyes are incredible sensors which can detect as little as about half a dozen photons) only have so much definition to them, so if the digital sampling is above that threshold, then for all intents and purposes then no there is no loss. I'm sure you could be convinced with some double-blind tests.

As for the earbuds, well loss on them has absolutly nothing to do with where the signal is comming from. Lower frequencies need larger surface areas. Hence why subwoofers are big. But that's just a tradeoff you have to make in order to have the luxery of music that's only for you. It's not very practical (much less polite) for me to drag my home stereo into the gym. In the meantime I have an input channel on my car stereo.

What's more important is actually the internal amplifier in the device for the headphone jack, which in the iPod is actually very good on account that it's supposed to be more than just a personal stereo. In most cheap cd-players it's usually just an op-amp that's worth pennies.

Incidently, the stock white head phones are supposedly really good. They sound very good to me (for earbuds), but I managed to blow out the left one :evil: (oh well, they're on warrenty). I don't know about the fashion though. Peronsally all the white-wired heads on campus look kind of creepy to me, not to mention it strikes me as stupid to walk around advirtising that you have a very expensive device on your person.