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digital vs. physical


LuIzA
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well, from the artist's point of view, it's certainly easier on the wallet to go digital only. But for this thread, I'm asking from the consumer's point of view. As a consumer, I personally prefer physical CDs.

I'm saying as a consumer, it's more easily accessible and the artist makes it less expensive (because he doesn't have to pay as many fees) which is good for my wallet as a consumer. :-D

There are those of us who can get physical CD's, but there also those who can't but would still like the music. You wouldn't have physical OVER digital, you'd just either have just digital or both.

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Physical is nice once in a while if there's some extra in the CD or if it's a band you see live (either to buy the CD at the show or to bring one and get it autographed). Normally though, I'm all about digital; I can buy more with the same money and depending on the distributor, the artist probably gets more of a cut, so what's not to like?

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Digital copies via distribution networks like iTunes/Amazon are compressed.

It doesn't matter if you think that you're downloading your mp3s at a great bitrate, it won't rival a CD.

And a CD won't rival a well cut record.

Physical wins as long as you're an audiophile. And if you're not an audiophile, you might as well be ripping crap off youtube.

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Back in the days were booklets were made with love (contained tons of infos, lyrics and the like) and the whole package seemed worth the price I was all in for physical.

Now you rarely get the same ammount of detail in a physical release, but the prices never dropped. New albums cost the same as ever.

I am not willing to spend like 16-19 € for a barely 30 min+ album where the artists themselves get maybe 20 cent a piece and rest runs into a major label.

If you go physical, do it with stuff that matters. Like Songs for the Cure - for example.

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I like CDs. I like having the object and CD audio is worlds better than compressed Mp3s.

That being said I am not against digital downloads... provided I can get them in at least 320kbps Mp3.

For instance: there is no physical copy of Mega Beardo, but did I still download it? YOU BET YOUR ASS I DID.

I'd prefer to get 24-bit/96khz if ever possible. DVD audio or SuperAudio CD works pretty well. I don't mind Records, but the noise floor bothers me. *shrug* </pretentious douchery>

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Digital can be and soon will be better. Having a way to download music you own that became corrupted is better than staring at a broken CD.

Booklets can now be made as PDFs or some other file format, to be looked at and read.

Depending on where you download from you can get lossless files.

http://c418.bandcamp.com/album/minecraft-volume-alpha

The Beatles released a thumb drive of FLAC versions of their music.

http://flac.sourceforge.net/news.html#20091207

Digital can be cheaper, no large packaging, and can be tagged the way you want to fit in with your collection, brought wherever you go.

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I think there is something to be said about hunting down or coming across by chance a piece of music that you have been looking for. With itunes and others it's not nearly as big of a deal to finally have tracked down that last cd/tape/record in the entire Rush discography, trading cd's with your friends, or the simple fun of just going to a record store (remember those?). If you really want something, tracking it down is half the fun and it will stay more meaningful to you years later than if it was just buried somewhere on your harddrive.

I remember many years ago coming across the Riven Soundtrack in a used cd store for around 6 bucks. Not a big deal to anyone today but at the time I about $#!% myself. Game soundtracks were much more difficult to obtain than they are today. Now, if I want something I type it in and 10 minutes later there's a pretty good chance it will be mine. Can't beat the convenience though.

-gar

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Digital copies via distribution networks like iTunes/Amazon are compressed.

It doesn't matter if you think that you're downloading your mp3s at a great bitrate, it won't rival a CD.

You know, I never really get tired of saying that the people out there who claim to be audiophiles, are really just more snobby than justifiably particular about their audio.

Few few few people can tell the difference between a 320 kbps mp3 and red-tape audio. Especially not on the typical stereo speakers/iPod earbuds/cheap headphones/car CD players that 99% of them are listening on. It's one thing to say someone can hear the difference between CD and 64 or 128 kpbs, but 320, I'm telling you, a majority of people (probably myself included) cannot.

This rant brought to you by the number 7 and the letter S.

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I don't know how easy it is to find Iannis Xenakis, Harry Partch, Gyorgy Ligeti, Steve Reich, or Franco Donatoni on itunes, but I imagine it's fairly difficult. Hell, it was hard to even find a CD of Delusions of the Fury by Harry Partch.

Since I don't have an MP3 player, and I doubt those men and their entire output would be availiable for digital distribution, it's CD for me.

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Digital copies via distribution networks like iTunes/Amazon are compressed.

It doesn't matter if you think that you're downloading your mp3s at a great bitrate, it won't rival a CD.

And a CD won't rival a well cut record.

Physical wins as long as you're an audiophile. And if you're not an audiophile, you might as well be ripping crap off youtube.

Bandcamp gives you wavs. That beats all. Don't even talk to me about taking up space. If you have a 1TB internal and you don't do video editing or music production, you have enough space. (Unless you download lots of movies, but come on. You'd need like 400-500 movies to fill up the whole drive)

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As a consumer, I used to always prefer the physical CD. However, a few years ago I started migrating my library to digital and I've noticed my physical library hasn't grown much since then.

CD's are definitely cool, and there are some artists I always buy a physical copy of, like Dream Theater and a few others. It's nice to have the CD, look through the booklet inserts and enjoy the art, etc.

But for the majority of my music now, I stick with digital because I don't have to worry about clutter in my room and it's noticeably cheaper.

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As a consumer, I used to always prefer the physical CD. However, a few years ago I started migrating my library to digital and I've noticed my physical library hasn't grown much since then.

CD's are definitely cool, and there are some artists I always buy a physical copy of, like Dream Theater and a few others. It's nice to have the CD, look through the booklet inserts and enjoy the art, etc.

But for the majority of my music now, I stick with digital because I don't have to worry about clutter in my room and it's noticeably cheaper.

Pretty much everything here is something I agree with. That being said, I still haven't really bought CD's in a while b/c I 1)am lazy and don't like having to rip them, and 2) realized that I really don't actually end up caring all that much about what's in the booklet.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I always prefer CDs. As someone whose hardware has failed (or been stolen) several times over the last decade, files don't give me any sense of permanency. Even if it's someplace that'll offer me a re-download if I want it, I don't trust that the same site will be around in 5-10 years (as an aside, this is why I don't like being forced to get a Steam account to play Civ5--I want a game I can come back and play 10-15 years from now).

The only time I'm willing to get download-only is if it's (a) the only way I'll get an album, and (B) if it's not from some other central service (like iTunes, Amazon, etc.). 'Cause if my hard drive and MP3 player simultaneously crap out, I could probably email folks like Zircon or A_Rival and get another download.

Also, I can't get anyone to sign an MP3.

Funny thing is, I rip all my CDs to MP3 anyway and put it on my MP3 player. But, well, me being in control of that process is rather important to me. KF

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Maybe I'm way too far into the digital hole, but CD's are looking pretty useless nowadays IMHO. Reliable physical copies seem like a great idea, but with the 700mb (thats lol these days) amount you can fit, and the what's become 'absurd' size of them due to portable digital music devices, they're on their way out already whether it looks so or not. Your nowadays consumer doesn't seem to care about the nostalgia factor, or the booklet art, or any other charms of physical copies at least from what I see and hear from them. The music is what it's about and digitization of music distribution makes sense.

The only problem I've got is the quality factor, like mentioned earlier, but honestly from a consumer point of view if it's above or around at least 192kbps I can blast it in my car comfortably. It's disturbing how few and far in between true audiophiles are, as the awful mp3s / horrible listening devices most people have just boggle my mind sometimes.

So in conclusion I guess I can't label them absolutely useless yet.

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i haven't bought a CD in 10+ years and I probably never will again.

tbh anyone who buys a cd is a moron in my opinion. overpriced pieces of shit physical media that needs to be phased out (along with dvds, blurays, etc).

digital is the future, the near future. anyone who refuses to conform needs to be punted into the ocean

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i haven't bought a CD in 10+ years and I probably never will again.

tbh anyone who buys a cd is a moron in my opinion. overpriced pieces of shit physical media that needs to be phased out (along with dvds, blurays, etc).

digital is the future, the near future. anyone who refuses to conform needs to be punted into the ocean

Wow...harsh much?

I mostly do digital, but I will buy a physical CD if there is a chance I can get it autographed.

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