Paying for Downloads, and Format Woes in General.
 

Has paying for downloads become more attractive an option than it was 10 years ago? Do you or would you pay for them?

Vinyl has got stupidly expensive and a lot of things are limited edition now which means you can't always wait to pick them up, CDs are just crappy and excel at nothing, tapes are cheap but kind of require the most faffing around and who has a decent cassette player these days anyway? mp3s aren't limited editon, they're the cheapest and a lot of oop stuff has been reissued on mp3, they're are most convenient in terms of portability because you can put them in your phone. They sound like crap, but so does everything if you listen to it on cheap headphones when you're on public transport. I guess they'll probably become obsolete but I find it hard to imagine they'll become so obsolete that they can longer be used.

So what does everybody else think about it?

ps- by mp3s i mean all digital audio files types.

I pay for streaming.

Around 2008 or so I shifted to buying most of my music on mp3. It's instant gratification, often cheaper than a CD and like you said - mobile. That's the biggest factor for me. I do most of my listening in the car rather than in the house.

I still buy SY releases physically, and say a major new release that has a sale price cheaper physically on release day or maybe has bonus tracks not on digitial release or whatever.

i pay for streaming too-- gives me access to a ton of stuff i couldn't otherwise afford and keeps my budget stable.

buying mp3s seems like a waste of money. why own crap when you can rent it.

and there's stuff you can buy as flac when it's not on the rental services.

i listen on the phone/car but mostly at home/office with and old stereo and big speakers.

I don't pay for digital shit.

do you listen to any of it though?

I do when it comes free as a download when I buy the LP.

Or I convert my CD's to mp3 as well.

but I hate itunes

so do, i but i love the rental services. just like netflix. worth the money because instead of being stuck with the 20 mp3s you got "for free" (that is, built into the price) last month, you have access to huge collections.

Has paying for downloads become more attractive an option than it was 10 years ago? Do you or would you pay for them?
there's a sucker born every minute

Vinyl has got stupidly expensive
I disagree, if you're buying a ltd to 300, sure, but its ltd. Drag City's vinyl costs about $15 around here.

CDs are just crappy and excel at nothing
??

tapes are cheap but kind of require the most faffing around and who has a decent cassette player these days anyway?
I do

I guess they'll probably become obsolete but I find it hard to imagine they'll become so obsolete that they can longer be used.
people still listen to AM radio

I will say getting a receiver that I can plug my remote hard drive into and play files direct is a game changer. I think I will buy a 3TB drive and dump all my live recordings onto, I figure I can get 1000 onto it, and have them all immediately accessible. I see the appeal and ease of use but I'm very happy buying media and see no reason to change now. I see people dumping media the same way people dumped vinyl in the 90's.

excel at nothing = have no distinct advantages now that they have been out convenienced by digital. Other formats sounds better, are cheaper, more portable, greater life span, bigger artwork, etc.

Another reason I was thinking about buying digital (aside from hoping that it may contribute to whoever made whatever thing may be able to continue making other things) is that it may mean I actually listen to stuff that I have. I downloaded a lifetimes worth of stuff from blogs and p2p but most of it is just sitting on my harddrive, gathering electronic dust probably/maybe because it was a massive load of free crap.

ha ha ha

same here-- a bunch of frozen hard drives.

re: paying artists, it's a bit of a tossup at the moment, as new rules are being set in place for what's obviously a new business model-- customers want free shit, services want to pay less, artists want to get more, eventually some balance is struck.

i think of streamable services as the (finally here after 2 decades in the woods) substitute for radio-- you get to hear new stuff without restrictions, and the artist gets a fraction of a penny for each individual listen, which is crap, but if a million people listen enough, times, you can see some serious cash-- again like radio i suppose which required ratings to make it viable.

also spotify claims it helps increase actual sales of digital files.

I buy downloads, its cheaper then shipping from online retailers and I don't have anywhere to stack disks anyways. Initially I was skeptical, I wanted to have something tangible and substantive for my investment,a disk with some cover art, but after buying a few downloads I got over it real quick, and now enjoy the convenience. I WOULD NEVER buy tunes from iTunes though. Fuck them.


Invest in better headphones ;)



Because you can't stream if you don't have a wi-fi enabled device, and even if you did, there is rarely accessible wi-fi on the subway and light rail, so my music device needs some files to draw from ;)

and if you actually knew what you were talking about then you'd know that those services let you offline the files you want for offline listening. :rolleyes:

Wi-Fi is not an issue for me and I don't commute much anymore, but when I do I don't listen to my own music. I like the serendipity. Pop out of the bubble for awhile.

Hey Charles, do you always act this nice?

I still have a DAAP server that I use as an archive. It feels such a chore whenever I have to deal with files.

trama, it is indeed a bit of a chore, but at least their your own files, to do whatever you'd like with them and share them with whomever you'd like. Further, sorting out your files and digital library is the 21st century equivalent of going through your record collection..

i went into a real life actual record store today.

fucking gospel and country and "local". that was it. the shopkeep didn't take too kindly to me either.

but country cds still sell like fuck because bumpkins are too behind the times to know about mp3s, and country folk often inherently distrust the internet as a form of digital witchcraft conducted through the ethereal wispiness of homosexuals, who since they don't have souls inside them probably make good transmitters. cos their braines aren't already busy receiving the voice of the LORD.

fucking bumpkin said "CAN I HELP YOU?" as soon as i entered, in a tone of voice that meant "please fuck off out of my shop".

I just dropped a grand to ship vinyl to Oz, and tore out all the cd artwork and jewel.cases to minimize weight (omg 20 lbs of paper).

If I were to buy music, it'd have to be digital because terror-bytes run cheap and light.

That said, everything I bother to listen to is free to download anyways.

www.sweetvalley.bandcamp.com Suck it and see.