Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Dev]

Even I'm not sure why I do, but I still buy music CDs sometimes. Part of me says "Why bother? It's more convenient to just download and not pay anything."

On the other hand, I have somehow convinced myself that it's the right thing to do sometimes. I like the sound I get from cds better than MP3 files. It's bad enough that we've lost the warm feeling of sound from vinyl, even worse is to get a bad MP3 copy of a cd.

This justifies in me the reason to sometimes buys CDs. I particularly like to buy the CDs of indie bands because they could use my support.

Big name artists like Bruce Springsteen, who got some kind of record deal recently for $100 million dollars does not need my help. He's not my taste anyway.

So, I am curious. How many of you actually buy a CD every now and then?

[happeningthang]

Before the advent of MP3s I was a devotee of the second hand record stores, because as much as I loved music , I just couldn't afford $30 per CD.

Now that there's a much cheaper option, I haven't bought a CD in 2-3 years, and I'm pretty sure, outside of pirated copies, I never will again.

I will pay to download a wide range of music from sites like allofmp3.com, since P2Ps are usually limited in their ranges, but the days of the record shop are dead or dying.

[Sine qua non]

[oneofthesarahs]

I dig CDs. I have an Ipod, I download music, but there still something about the having the physical CD in hand that I love.

[Qinella]

I still purchase CDs of the bands I really dig, but usually only if a) I've already downloaded the album and checked it out or b) it's a band I know will not disappoint.

Though, I don't buy nearly as much these days as I once did. As with happeningthang, I too used to be a major CD thrift store junkie. There were several spots I'd frequent and pick up about 10 CDs a month. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think any money from a used CD sale goes to the artist/record company. So now that I d/l a ton of music, I feel like it's basically the same thing as I was always doing--that is, not supporting the artists.

I don't purchase MP3s, either. I probably would if there were a site that actually had a decent selection and did not put all kinds of annoying tags and certificates on the files. Once I purchase a product, it's mine, just like a CD, not some goofy thing I can only use 4 times or whatever.

Justifications:

1. Record companies only give a fraction of the CD sales to the artists, anyhow. (so I only support small- or indie-label productions)

2. The price of CDs, unlike just about every other type of technology in the past two decades, has never gone down. CDs have always been absurdly expensive, and jewel cases are total crap that constantly break.

3. Record companies are trying their best to impede technology rather than work with it. Only as a last resort are they turning to options, which still suck because of reasons I said above.

4. Who wants to support an industry that pays off radio stations to decide who gets on the air and makes it really freakin hard for anyone not on one of the big labels to make a name for themselves? Big record companies have always been and continue to be actively oppressing musicians nationwide to the best of their ability. Screw the RIAA et al.

[Bibbitybop]

Qinella hit it on the head.

[Woland]

I still hit used cd stores because there is a lot of stuff that is not easily available online. In Seattle recently I picked up a ton of zydeco at a store called Swerve which had a great collection. Why a place in Seattle had that much good, obscure zydeco, I don't know, but I'm grateful for it.

I also occasionally will buy something new, just because it is convenient, but only with bands I know won't disappoint. When I can, I buy directly from the artist, to maximize their take.

[plokiju]

Rarely will a buy a CD. I know it's unethical and it's stealing but most of the music I download is stuff I wouldn't buy normally anyways. I download especially in Korea since they really only sell top 40 stuff. Or at least that's what I figure from the one time I went looking for CDs at the one record store I went to. Plus Qinella's reasons.

[mnhnhyouh]

I just download music now. I used to buy a lot of CDs but then stopped. I was buying digital music from a wonderful Russian website, allofmp3.com but they have been getting attacked by the RIAA. They were selling albums encoded anyway you wanted, for USD$0.02 per mb. So high quality rips were more than lower quality rips. I was buying 192k mp3 for about USD$2.00 per album.

RIAA recently sued them for USD$1.26 TRILLION.

My problem with buying digital music online from the more recognised suppliers is that they are gouging. They are charging nearly as much for a lossy mp3 album as they do for a CD with none of the infrastructure needed for the distribution chain.

*beep* 'em, I say, until they charge a reasonable amount.

Wish I was Canadian though, where all the downloading is legal.

h

[swetepete]

I gleefully steal music from the internet. I don't think I'm entitled to, exactly, but *%$ it, I'm a thief when it comes to music. Always have been: ie Qinella's used-record shops, taping stuff off the radio when I was a kid, making mix tapes from other people's cd's...that's just the way it's always been.
I figure musicians, unless they're all crippled and old, should go out and tour if they want my money. Let them work like the rest of us! Let 'em make a union for their retirement funds. They can eat my ass if they got beef with that. I'll kick Lars Ulrich's skinny little billionaire rectum so hard he coughs poop for weeks if I get the chance. %#$#ing Metallica--pseudotoughguy leatherboy cokehead pukes, anyway. They got sixty or seventy bucks from me back in the day when I bought that kinda stuff--what, they want me to buy it AGAIN, just cause the crappy cd they sold me only lasted five years? Whatever.
Screw them--I'm not tithing to anybody. Goddamn punks never bought me any beer.
Now, a touring band, selling their own t-shirts and cds, I will support. Record companies? Not so much.

"Downloading music is destroying the music Industry...and it's FUN!!"

[mole]

Bah~!
Some telemarketer talked me into the BMG music club.
I just wanna buy my last CD on contract, get my 4 free, and cancel.

[SPINOZA]

I was an avid CD buyer but - as sheer coincidence would have it - suddenly stopped once I discovered Limewire and Soulseek, which is not unrecently.

I love my CD collection at home....all those Pink Floyd and Bowie CDs lined up together. And also I recently bought the latest album from Coex of my favorite band who are not rich or well-known and whom I'm happy to support financially. That's kind of an obligation, because they've been my favorite band for 10 years, I've met them, I've been backstage, I flew to the US for a die-hard fans meet-up twice. Other than that, I feel no compulsion to spend good money on CDs when I can view the lyrics, artwork, artist info online and downloand the material from a file-sharing site, the latter I view as no different from borrowing a CD from someone and making a copy (so the 'steeling' analogy seems simplistic).

[JongnoGuru]

I suppose my habits and views re: CDs are generally in line with those of Sine qua non, oneofthesarahs and Woland.

Habits: I've been buying music (on LPs, cassettes & CDs) for most of my adult life. That's far more years than MP3s & downloading, legal or illegal, have been around. I was a poor, skinny uni student partly because of genetics, but also because whenever given with the choice, I'd opt for a new LP instead of a proper meal. So there's the habit of about two decades of paying full price, and expecting to pay full price, for my music. That and the simple enjoyment of having something tangible that I can pull off the shelf, open, load, hit "PLAY", and maybe reading the liner notes for the 50th time, as you do.

Views: I've done my fair share of things in my life that I regret, things I'm ashamed of, things that just remembering can induce feelings of general unwellness and dizziness. However and at the risk of sounding like the pompous, self-righteous blowhard I proudly admit to being, there is one thing that I am not, one thing that friends, colleagues, clients and anyone who's worked for me can count on me never to be. And that's a rationaliser.

If I know something to be unethical and wrong (excluding sexual perfidy of course) then I'm not going to construct clever rationales or compile lists of justifications to try and convince myself otherwise, or to excuse my dirty deed to others & assuage my guilt after the fact. While I think I might, under the right circumstances, make an okay Robin Hood, it's never going to be a case of "rob from the rich (record companies, etc.) and give to the Guru".


"Oh, I know it's wrong. But fark it, I'm a thief! Hyuk hyuk! "

Yeah... That *beep* doesn't fly with me. But then, it doesn't surprise me either. I've always known I have higher standards of integrity than most people. It's hereditary, so I can't really blame low-born scoundrels for their inability to rise above their genetic limits any more than I can blame Koreans for being shorter than me.

(they need a "tongue-in-cheek" smiley, but this one will have to do)

[Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat]

[JongnoGuru]