Where should I buy music?

[atmuh]

yeah so my income is about to go way up and i figured the first thing i should do is stop pirating stuff

ive already stopped pirating video games completely just about and now im gonna move on to music and movies

id like to start buying stuff i guess online because most stores are awful

in your opinion whats the best place to get both digital copies and actual cds

oh yeah and im not interested in weird indie sites that sell all this music that you guys might laud as so wonderful i like mainstream music

thanks!

[Sixto]

I like Amazon. Plain MP3s.

Oh yeah, Rhapsody is actually pretty cool, too. You pay like $7 a month or something and can listen to everything they have. But, if you wanna upload something to an MP3 player, you have to pay extra for each track.

[Arcana]

iTunes?

Or, if you want, head down to the mall and check out HMV or whatever the local equivalent is in your area. You can even listen to CDs in the store, just bring it to the counter and say, "Can I listen to this?"

[The Coop]

Go with Amazon. They have the actual CDs, or MP3s that are yours to use once you pay for them. And all the used CD sellers are a nice extra.

[Schwaltzvald]

Amazon's the way to go pretty much, though on the rare occasion I'd actually would go to the retail shop to see if they have put up collections of particular bands/groups etc. I see this at best buy the majority of the time.

[The Biznut]

make a one shot purchase on ebay.

Happy Ripping!

[JJT]

buy vinyl+digital download*

*you may need a turntable to play vinyl. that's what i hear anyway.

[Red Shadow]

find the artists youre interested in online and see what thing they promote their music on

ive bought psilodump music from 10 different sites now but i think thats just how he is

[The Author]

Amazon using the OCR store.

[EC2151]

I will jump on the bandwagon here and say Amazon, just because you'll usually find any and everything.

You want Harry Partch's Delusions of the Fury? It's there all right (though for some reason my copy never arrived and I had to get a refund... but that was an isolated mistake).

You want Terry Riley's The Book of Abbeyozzud? Oh yes it's there.

You can do well to just really use Amazon for the most part. I don't buy CDs often, but when I do, it's usually of music not found easily in regular venues, and Amazon is the place to go.

Plus, if you get the Prime membership, 97% of the things you look at have the option of being delivered to your address in two days, no matter what, and free.

Very useful.

[Moseph]

I like Amazon. Plain MP3s.

Oh yeah, Rhapsody is actually pretty cool, too. You pay like $7 a month or something and can listen to everything they have. But, if you wanna upload something to an MP3 player, you have to pay extra for each track.

Or if you pay $15 a month you can put (almost) anything you want on your MP3 player w/o a surcharge.

I've bought I think one CD since I got my Rhapsody subscription two years ago.

[atmuh]

i was thinking amazon was the way to go but it couldnt hurt to ask anyway just to see if there was somewhere else to go

thanks

[Sixto]

Or if you pay $15 a month you can put (almost) anything you want on your MP3 player w/o a surcharge.

Whoa, that's cool. Never knew that. Thanks for the heads up.

[Olarin]

When I'm going to buy something I tend to try to do some quick searching across several different sites to see where I can get the best price. Amazon's typically pretty reasonable, but sometimes you can get physical copies of stuff cheaper on Tower.com, and MP3 prices can vary widely depending on where you look and how much trouble you're willing to go to. I've subscribed to eMusic for a couple years now - they don't have a comprehensive selection by any means (they started out as a "weird indie site", as you put it), but they do have a significant amount of major-label stuff now, and for the most part it's cheaper than anywhere else - but since it's a subscription-based thing you'd have to poke around their site a bit to see if there's enough stuff you're interested in for it to be worth it to you.

[The Coop]

Or if you pay $15 a month you can put (almost) anything you want on your MP3 player w/o a surcharge.

I've bought I think one CD since I got my Rhapsody subscription two years ago.

But isn't that extra $8 technically a surcharge?

[Bahamut]

Amazon is pretty good - I generally buy music from there, although I do buy on occasion from B&M stores like Best Buy, FYE, or the Virgin Megastore (when I'm in NYC).

But if you're looking for VGM, beware, those tend to be fairly expensive in general. I'll sometimes prowl on sites like http://www.cdjapan.co.jp , http://play-asia.com , http://gamemusic.com , or http://www.vgmworld.com (only found this recently).

[atmuh]

But if you're looking for VGM, beware, those tend to be fairly expensive in general. I'll sometimes prowl on sites like http://www.cdjapan.co.jp , http://play-asia.com , http://gamemusic.com , or http://www.vgmworld.com (only found this recently).

i dont really listen to vgm so that doesnt matter to me

[ella guro]

buy vinyl+digital download*

*you may need a turntable to play vinyl. that's what i hear anyway.

Agreed. Though probably most of the people on OCR are buying music that isn't pressed on vinyl.