I've been sampling music online a lot over the past few months - my budget is tight so I can't afford to buy any new music. I've discovered a lot of great newer artists (Bloc party, Annie, Eagles of Death Metal, Amon Tobin) as well as some old bands that I should have known but didn't, really (Housemartins, Flying Burrito Brothers, Minutemen(!)). Mp3s and all the filesharing networks are great for finding new things, but I've found myself really missing the tactile product - the artwork, inserts, even unwrapping the case and peeling off those damn sticky labels. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I don't feel like I OWN anything; I can't put it on my shelf and browse my collection by running a finger down the CD spines. Does anyone else feel this way?

I think I'm going to start buying CDs again, maybe from used sites like SecondSpin and Spun to keep costs down. Anyone have any more good used CD sites?

Base materialist.

Just kidding. But I really find myself moving in the opposite direction. I've got all my CDs in storage, and I don't miss them. They're all on my ext. hd in 192 kbps and sound great. I move a lot and I'm sick of boxing and unboxing them. Plus, the cases are subject to the law of entropy in a way that mp3's are not.

I totally agree, Max. CDs are the way to go for me.

MP3s just don't sound good to me. I only listen to 'em at work, so I don't have to carry cd cases around and where the speakers are lousy anyhow.

But then I still buy vinyl if I can, so I may not represent the average citizen. Big, lovely artwork, distinctive vinyl smell! Having to brush them off each time, and being much more constrained to listening to all the songs in their entirety and in the order presented! The death of the album is inevitable and not all bad, but it did have its moments.

Oh, and ebay and amazon marketplace are the old faithful of cheap cds, esp as folks rip their collections and then sell them (horror!)

As soon as I buy a DVD burner (in order to data back up all my mp3s I am selling my collection in full.)

Nothing like having the physical product there in your hand.
Feel it.
Look at the album art.
Read the notes.

It's all about pride of ownership, which mp3s just don't carry.

An mp3 is like taking a virtual reality drive in a car.
gives you most of the sensation, but it's really just an illusion.

i don't think that i've ever read the liner notes to an album more than once, if that. and physical media is just so temporary and wastes space. better compression schemes should further devalue it for all but the fetishists.

For me, the term is an oxymoron. I realize that the industry is rapidly moving down that completely digitized and compressed road, and that's a shame IMO. mp*'s played on anything more revealing than cheap-ass computer speakers make my ears bleed.

Hey grampa!

Better compression schemes doesn't neccesarily mean better mp3s. It could mean lossless compression like flac. It's indistiguishable from a cd because it retains the entire frequency range.

one thing about MP3s - you're reliant upon the sampling and bit rates and worse, a sound-card which you hope compares well with whatever standalone music player you've been using. if you have that stuff taken care of, then i find there to be literally no difference btwn MP3s at 192kbps and a CD played on iTunes - or my home stereo.

also, if you haven't already, invest in real headphones, of course. i am stunned by how much of a difference this consistently makes.

KPH

Beware of disc rot.

If those dvd's go bad, and your hard drive fails, you are screwed.

http://www.manifest-tech.com/media_dvd/ ... bility.htm

Edit: I don't like to buy cd's on Ebay due to high shipping charges. $4 pe disc? I mean come on. I prefer half.com where the shipping is set, and it's also easier to get your money back if the transaction goes wrong.

Mmmmm, I love browsing my collection by running a finger down the CD spines. My friends think I'm weird because I like to BUY everything. Although as of late, I've been slacking on buying cd's because I've been discovering so much and trying to keep up... I've been getting lazy. That needs to change immediately, I'm in dire need of new music.

Ditto for me - though I'm finding it a bit overwhelming looking at all the CDs in my room and realising that, since I got my IPod, I'm not going to spontaneously listen to a lot of them any time soon...

I think I need to get an external Hard Drive and get rid of some CDs...

you need to get some of these:

and one of these:

and then you get the best of both worlds. plus slimlines take up half the room on your shelf.

i do miss the liner notes though...and oddly, that wonderful "new cd booklet" smell....

Having to go to proof jobs at printers has exposed me to the fine smell of wet ink, and I must confess that I love that ink and paper smell. Which brings up this:

A) Not all Liner notes smell the same. Some are stronger than others, like Metal liner notes. I dont know if its all the black ink or what, but they smell more strong and heavy. Try it some time... its true!

B) Mp3s, to my knowledge, don't smell.

The best damn part of the album is the fact that it is limited by how much music it can hold. Fucking cds these days have too many songs. Albums that took four sides of vinyl now fit on one cd. I don't want more songs for each penny, I want a quality album. Too much fucking filler.

I'm a sucker for digging thrift store bins for records though, whether for their musical merit or pure kitsch value.

I need the real product myself, although, I too rarely if ever look at the booklet or liner notes more than once.

I have no real reason or explanation why, i just have to have the real product, if I love the artist or record....

For me, the following are undeniable truths:

1. The MSRP's on new CDs are way too high. The record lables must find a way to set the price point at 15 US dollars or less.

2. Owning the real album is better than a copied CD of songs. I found an old copy of Achtung Baby that I won from a radio promotion. Knowing it was the actual CD case I've always had meant something to me.

3. Stealing is wrong. No matter how I rationalize it, when I download a song, I'm stealing it from someone.

4. The opening shot of Scarlett Johansson's ass in Lost In Translation is the best beginning to a movie ever.

When I went on an ebay spending spree a month or so ago, that was one of the most annoying things about buying cd's on there. Seriously, the packaging and shipping cost of sending one cd should be no more than $2 and you've got people on there charging $4-5. One of my friends sold a skirt on ebay and had the nerve to charge $8 for shipping. I asked if she was going to wrap it in gold leaf and deliver it personally on a silver platter.

well, those mailers they sell at the post office are like .99 and the postage usually runs something like $1.19, so factor in my time to walk to the post office and i feel ok charging $3.

I think you've explained, yet completely ignored, the reason for your prejudice. Do WAV files sound good to you if you rip them from a CD? All that you're listening to on any CD is a digital music file anyway.

heh. You may be right. I have listened to MP3s at home, I just don't make a habit of it. Dunno about the .wavs as I have very few of them, but I doubt I could coax myself away from the placebo effect of having the actual artifact.

ok no more than $3 then.

what's with people and their big ass sensitive ears? i can't tell the difference between a cd, sacd, vinyl, mp3, wav, etc...