I much prefer buying CD's - never really downloaded music on subscription. One big off factor for downloads to me is it's in MP3 format, which means you've lost sound quality already.
It's ironic, really - CD's overtool tapes for the improved quality, but now we're back down to lesser quality recordings.
i'm all for downloads since i save a lot of money from it plus i get to download several versions of a particular song i love. it also comes in handy when you want to categorize a type of songs you really like which are performed by different artists. it also is convenient for me since i use my ipaq as a radio. lol.
I think it is important how the mp3 is recorded. If while creating .mp3 we increase the bit rate then the loss may be negligible. Though I believe that does not mean it can really replace an original CD sound.
Anyone know if research is going on to increase the MP3 quality of downloads? It would make sense that we would start to see improvement given the popularity of the idea of downloading.
As I said the best part of mp3 files are the user has the flexibility to change the bit rate. So one can easily create near flawless music but the size of the file will be higher. I have seen mp3 files of 10plus MB sizes for a 4min. music file. That file can be saved as at 1 MB and even lesser size also.
Im preferred to download songs its easier, and its much cheaper than buying CD's, but sometimes i buy the CD's that i like to have at least original tracks.
I have not tried fully downlaoding a song since I'm not sure if it is legal or illegal. Moreover, I have no idea if it's safe for my PC. So I think buying CD's is a better thing to do.
Downloading songs is cheaper and you get to choose which songs you like. So this means you only pay for what you want and you don't have to buy the whole album.