So, I purchased my first album ever from iTunes...

For Christmas someone gave me a $10 gift certificate for Itunes. It's been sitting in front of my computer for the past couple weeks. I decided to grab the new King's X, as I have yet to get to the store to buy the CD version.

It kills me to PAY for MP3s, when I can buy the CD and just make my own to put on my iPod, even if it's not even my money I'm spending.

Now I have the new King's X on my iPod, yet I still feel the need to go out and buy the actual CD from the store. Perhaps it's my age and growing up in the age or records and CDs, but I don't even feel I actually own this album until I purchase the CD.

This idea of purchasing cards at the music store to download the album sounds incredibly stupid to me. A stocker at Best Buy told me the store would be carrying less and less CDs to make room for the new "digital download cards". How friggin' stupid! Purchasing MP3s is dumb. Why would you not purchase the CD, which you own and can always resell or trade? With MP3s, you neither own them or can you resell them or trade them. You are basically renting the music and you own nothing. While people obviously trade MP3s and send them to friends and such, it's actually illegal.

And my cranky old man rant is done

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Now I have the new King's X on my iPod, yet I still feel the need to go out and buy the actual CD from the store. Perhaps it's my age and growing up in the age or records and CDs, but I don't even feel I actually own this album until I purchase the CD.

This is exactly how I feel. It's like when I was a kid, I would make cassette dubs of albums from my friends, but until I actually bought a copy of the album I felt like I didn't own it.

I third yours and Spectrefate's comments, I love owning the physical product, checking out the art work, reading the liner notes ,etc to me it is part of experience of buying a CD, and I am also like Spec that even if I have burned copy of CD I donot feel I own til I buy the real thing.

I'll 4th what y'all said.

Rex wrote:

I'll 4th what y'all said.

Then I guess I'm 5th-ing it.

itunes rules!!! what a racket they have. no overhead. no product. just pure profit!!! the money machine. the record companies are just jealous that someone has stolen their thunder.

ultmetal wrote:

For Christmas someone gave me a $10 gift certificate for Itunes. It's been sitting in front of my computer for the past couple weeks. I decided to grab the new King's X, as I have yet to get to the store to buy the CD version.

It kills me to PAY for MP3s, when I can buy the CD and just make my own to put on my iPod, even if it's not even my money I'm spending.

Now I have the new King's X on my iPod, yet I still feel the need to go out and buy the actual CD from the store. Perhaps it's my age and growing up in the age or records and CDs, but I don't even feel I actually own this album until I purchase the CD.

This idea of purchasing cards at the music store to download the album sounds incredibly stupid to me. A stocker at Best Buy told me the store would be carrying less and less CDs to make room for the new "digital download cards". How friggin' stupid! Purchasing MP3s is dumb. Why would you not purchase the CD, which you own and can always resell or trade? With MP3s, you neither own them or can you resell them or trade them. You are basically renting the music and you own nothing. While people obviously trade MP3s and send them to friends and such, it's actually illegal.

And my cranky old man rant is done

if it bothered you that much, you could have simply re-gifted the certificate. went online & bought the actual disc from somewhere. just because you were given the gift doesn't mean you're obligated to use it. you should see all the crummy gifts i have tossed in a box outside in the garage.

Well, all of us old farts are going to have to start liking this stuff...because the physical format train is leaving the station.

For the first time, the biggest seller of 2008 was a download.

I don't like iTunes either, but there are better alternatives out there (Amazon mp3 for one, which has a variable pricing model). The best music deal out there is emusic, love their selection and many items can't be found in physical versions any longer.

I recently purchased the new Ty Tabor download directly from Molken Music and it's the best "digital package" I've seen to date - audio files, front cover art, back cover art, cd art, lyrics, etc. Basically everything seen on the physical CD version.

Sadly, detuned I have to agree that at some point it is possible that the physical CD will go the way of the 8 track but I am going to hold out as long as I can.

I hate the download trend. I'm with the rest of you, I don't feel like I own an album unless I have something tangible.

Plus, if all I own is a download, what happens if my disc crashes, PC dies, virus corrupts the data, etc, etc?

With a CD, I can always rip another mp3 off of it. With a digital download, I'm screwed.

tohostudios wrote:

Plus, if all I own is a download, what happens if my disc crashes, PC dies, virus corrupts the data, etc, etc?

With a CD, I can always rip another mp3 off of it. With a digital download, I'm screwed.

I always burn a CDR of any downloads I purchase, that way I have a physical backup in case of data loss. I also have a separate external hard drive that I use for backups.

Emusic has a built-in recovery feature that allows you to re-download any tracks you've already purchased in case your hard drive crashes, etc.

tohostudios wrote:

Plus, if all I own is a download, what happens if my disc crashes, PC dies, virus corrupts the data, etc, etc?

With a CD, I can always rip another mp3 off of it. With a digital download, I'm screwed.

this is why i purchase cds.

tohostudios wrote:

Plus, if all I own is a download, what happens if my disc crashes, PC dies, virus corrupts the data, etc, etc?

With a CD, I can always rip another mp3 off of it. With a digital download, I'm screwed.

The easy answer to that is to make back up copies of your files.

I only ever use iTunes to purchase single tracks as opposed to entire albums. Like apparently most here, I wouldn't feel like I owned the album without the physical product to back it up.

Rex wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

Plus, if all I own is a download, what happens if my disc crashes, PC dies, virus corrupts the data, etc, etc?

With a CD, I can always rip another mp3 off of it. With a digital download, I'm screwed.

The easy answer to that is to make back up copies of your files.

Which is extra work.

When I buy the CD, I automatically have a "backup" copy.

I refuse to buy a download as long as a CD is available.

I wuz jus sayin.......

I have my MP3's backed up on DVD-R's...50-75 album capacity.

Anyway, these days (if you choose to buy an iPod), having a hardcopy of every single CD serves only to remind you that you have a hardcopy. I still want hardcopies of select bands...but for space reasons, iTunes works fine for me for a lot of stuff...plus I get promo's a lot...

I like being able to call up random albums at my whims...go from Sarah McLachlan to Enslaved on the same day without having to fish them out of the collection when I get home...

I won a $10 gift card from iTunes not long ago and bought the new Pyramaze album from iTunes DRM free high quality files. I love the album, but I still feel like I don't legitimately own it yet. lol

You own the work...just not the plastic & paper...

Would have been nice for it to have come with a digital booklet or something though. That should at least be a requirement.

I have yet to go the itunes/download route myself as well. I just don't think I could bring myself to do it. Sure, I'd use a free gift card I guess, but like others here, I'd still want the physical item.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

You own the work...just not the plastic & paper...

I better get some paper and plastic with my new Line of Fire album!

I have been increasing my download collection the last couple years and it is very cool to have the tunes in mp3 form but it isn't even close to having a real deal disk. The real package is where the value is, a download holds no value at all after you buy it. Some people may like to have the music to trade to their friends but this as mentioned above is not legal but that is the only value they hold after they are downloaded.

I do back up my downloads to disk, glad I did ,my hard drive crashed with 120 gigs of tunes on it 2 months ago. It takes about 3 weeks to reload all that crap.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

You own the work...just not the plastic & paper...

No he doesn't. He owns nothing. He paid for the rights to put the songs on his Ipod and make one backup copy. He doesn't "own" anything.

If I own something I can trade it, sell it, give it away, whatever. With MP3s, you cannot do any of those things legally.

If I own an original painting, it's mine. I can do with it as I like. If I want to sell it, that's my choice. With an MP3, you are not allowed to sell it.

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No he doesn't. He owns nothing. He paid for the rights to put the songs on his Ipod and make one backup copy. He doesn't "own" anything.

He owns a copy of the end result of a musician's labor. He owns a copy of thier art. He just doesn't own a piece of plastic with a copy of the art on it.

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If I own something I can trade it, sell it, give it away, whatever.

It's called "Intellectual Property". You can't touch it or see it, but it's there. If you can hear it, it's real. That's the difference between aural art and visible art.

If you don't "own" music in an MP3 format, why is it considered stealing if someone downloads it without paying for it? How can you steal what cannot be owned?