Thursday, May 01, 2008

Simple Question


So, here is the question.
CD's or MP3's?
When was the last time you bought a CD?
When was the last time you bought/shared a MP3?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I prefer Mp3s. Cds hold 80 minutes whereas even the smallest mp3 players can hold hours of music. That being said most car stereos only support cds so I still buy the occasional one.

CriticalDreams said...

CD's all the way. I buy them, I share them, I trade them, I love them.

There's something so primary yet tangibly fulfilling about picking up a cd, fighting with the plastic packaging (that will inevitably be fought out with my teeth), taking out the insert, smelling the "new smell" smell of the paper and looking through the artwork for hidden, inside jokes that no one but the artist and dedicated joke recipient would understand. It's personal. Yep, to me, buying a cd is relational.

Even if you end up not liking what is actually on the cd, you still feel like a participant, brave enough to spend your $21.99 and still be okay if it sucks. The simple act of slapping down your (paper) money at HMV to buy a beautiful and shiny new cd, makes me feel like I've done something.

I don't think that people really give downloaded (only) songs a fair evaluation either. Why listen and critique when you can just delete? Life's made too simple, but the simple truth is that it really isn't after all. Simplicity costs us because we lose our ability to deal with things, to evaluate and truly participate. So this simple, little question that you pose of cd vs. mp3, to me, is not so simple after all. But then again, what is?

Also, it has to do with ownership. When you own a piece of something you believe in, it creates personal meaning to you and adds to your identity (who hasn't been judged by others for liking music that someone else hates?). By having a non-liked cd on your very openly displayed Ikea shelving unit, you must stand up for your choices. And if I can't stand up for my cd's, how am I to stand up when I face the devil?

So I choose cd's (and admit to still calling them records once in a while), listen to them in my discman and THEN putting it into my ipod for ease of travel.

Long live cd's!

Misty said...

I downloaded some songs a couple of weeks ago. Last time I purchased a CD was January or February.

I agree that there is something about having something more tangible than a file that you can play. I also find that there is an experience to listening to a whole CD. I guess I could download the whole album but I just don't. Downloading songs has its place for me. I download songs when I don't think I will enjoy the album. It broadens the music I listen to in some ways.

greenlightarnie said...

They made the stupid slot on my CD player so small that I am unable to get my 8-tracks in anymore.

I am seriously going to grab my rotary dial phone and yell at someone in Japan.

Anonymous said...

I am a finicky music listener:
I have bought a CD in the last month, but end up throwing the songs I like on my ipod because I need the random.
I can't sit and listen to an entire CD or I get bored! I also end up buying CDs for which I like only one or two songs and think, "What a waste of money!" I cringe when I fork over the money...

Evan said...

For a long time it's been mp3's, although I've been in the car more lately and for that I need CD's.

If I'm at home I listen to Internet radio. There's a site that asks you for an example of what you like, and keeps playing things with similar characteristics. You give it a thumbs up or down on what it plays and it builds a frighteningly accurate profile of what you want and introduces you to artists it thinks you'd like.

That's been my mainstay lately. CD's just can't do that for me!

Brad said...

CD's!!! Nothing beats a good ALBUM, though these days most artists decide to release albums of one or two songs and then filler. Still, nothing beats an album in which the songs work together, as opposed to merely a collection of unrelated songs. Last CD I bought was a couple weeks ago at West Edmonton Mall....a hard to find one I couldn't find in Winnipeg.

I do like the mp3 format for checking out new artists, though. (And you don't have to go to Edmonton to find the mp3 you're looking for.) Usually you can pick up a song or two for free or else pretty cheap to listen to the next overhyped band. However, if I enjoy the songs I download, I'll almost always go out and buy the disc.

But really, vinyl trumps all.

Manetheren said...

I just bought a CD last week, I have never downloaded an MP3, and I do not have a portable MP3 player. Having said that, I think I'll be buying albums from itunes in the future since they cost much less than the equivalent CD. I actually buy very little music these days, maybe two or three albums per year. I listen to internet radio exclusively, as opposed to local radio, due to the fact that my niche music tastes (metal by Christian artists) cannot be met by local stations.