Downloading illegally or buying CDs in a shop?

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i like to work for what i buy and not simply download a whole cd off limewire or kazaa. plus, cds are way more appealing than a cd burned on your computer.

I usually buy CDs, however my brother downloads a lot of J-rock (Japanese rock for those who don't know), so I end up with a copy or two... accidentally on purpose...

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I have HFA, ADHD, OCD & Tourette syndrome. I love animals, especially my bunnies and hamster. I skate in a roller derby team (but I'll try not to bite )

since i'm a poor university student i rarely have the money to buy music. I do go to CD stores and buy CD's, but i've downloaded most of my music. Whenever i have extra money though, i go out and buy music or movies. i always say that if i were to win the lottery i'd spend it on music, movies, and cars.

so for now i'm downloading most of it, but when i have the money i'll be buying it. i like owning CD's, and i always find something i forgot i wanted when i go to the music store. i'm not very impulsive, but when i'm in a music store i always end up with around $200 worth of CD's before i say to myself "holy crap, i can't afford all this" and then have to go through the difficult process of choosing which ones to put back.

Yes, I buy all my stuff. Legally.

When I was in uni I used to put some money away each week to buy DVDs and CDs.

Now I've ended with a pile of CDs which are in MP3 format on my PC and iPod anyway. Pretty much a waste of space.

When I have my own flat I plan on getting a nice set up anyway, so I will dig out the CDs then because admittedly I do notice the difference between MP3 and CD, especially when it comes to bass.

But recently, if I feel like I need to buy an album and support the artist, I will buy the vinyl version. Big art, looks cool and vinyl sounds lovely

Most other stuff I will download. I will never buy MP3 unless it is unavailable on other formats.

NONE OF THE ABOVE.

I boycott the RIAA and all the things that people get sued for using. RIAA can go to hell.

As a musician I personally will not download, as it is essentially theft from fellow artists - artists whose work I like.
I also like the CD, CD art and liner notes as a physical, tangible collected item.
I don't preach to my friends, all of whom download.
I don't care if big distribution companies or big record labels get hurt by downloading. They often f**k over artists with lousy contracts and other sheisty corporate behavior. And musicians will find other ways to get their stuff out there and still make a living, cutting out these middlemen.
So the moral issues are not so clear-cut to me, except I hate to see that small percentage of the CD sale price not reach the actual artists.
I'm poor so my CD collection grows at a glacial pace.

I pay musicians when they are making music and then buy the music from THEM.
If they want the money then they will sell their music.
Many or most musicians make their own tapes and CD's.

If cover art was any good then I would buy it on a poster.

If RIAA still sold songs for a dollar on vinyl then I'd still be buying them that way.
Internet music is just too F****d Up with VIRUSES and RIAA boo-$#!+.

Before 2000, before iPods, we had awesome LOUD music collecting boxes like this!
And small quiet ones with headphones too. It's totally legal to use them to get free songs.

I download a lot of music, for two reasons.
1) I never have the money to.
2) Half the music is from Japan.

I only download singles or random tracks. Never whole albums. If I had the money to, I would buy a whole album. In fact, I did just that recently. I bought a whole Miyavi album. With albums, there's a different novelty than there is with downloading single tracks, though. I dunno why...I just like having the disc, and the box and everything. But, my Miyavi CD DID have a few pictures of Miyavi I had never seen before.

Even if I mostly download music, I don't think I'd pass off the chance to buy a CD.

I do purchase alot of music (I hate purchasing downloads) on CD and Vinyl (and if it's unavailable on either format - cassette)

Usually my reasons for downloading via Limewire are one of these seven:

1. The album/song is out of print or the record label went out of business, making the album commercially unavailable

2. The album/song is unavailable in my area (for example, the Japanese release of Favourite Worst Nightmare by Arctic Monkeys contains two songs not on any other version. Their label later put out a 7'' containing the two songs, but only in the UK)

3. It's something that was available for a brief period (the 8-track release of Animals by Pink Floyd contains an exclusive guitar solo by touring guitarist Snowy White to link the two parts of "Pigs on the Wing")

4. When a band decided to pull a fast one and release two different versions of their single with different B-sides (Radiohead released two CD singles for their double A-side "High and Dry/Planet Telex" one features "Killer Cars" - one of the band's best songs of all time - as a b-side and the other features "Maquiladora" which is OK but totally not worth me paying for another import single, thus I have to download it).

5. When a band re-releases their most recent album with a brand new song or two (and call it a "deluxe edition" or something) to make fans buy the album again (several hip-hop and pop groups do this, but this has only happened to a band I like once, when British rock band Bloc Party added the non-album single "Flux" to future pressings of A Weekend in the City. This was a good thing, because at the time, the single was commercially unavailable in the US and was the only way to get it here. The bad thing was that fans needed to buy the album again to get it. At this point, an artist is just begging, "please, illegally download this song")

6. It's an unreleased rarity (several early Pink Floyd songs - like the unreleased Syd Barrett-era single "Vegetable Man" - are in this area. Members of the band have no problem with these unreleased songs floating around and are actually surprised anybody likes them in the first place)

7. The record was plain and simple never released in the United States (most of the discography of the fantastic Welsh folk band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. In fact, most Welsh language music has a very hard time getting to the US. Usually I buy these as imports for extremely high prices (like $50. It's worth it), but on a rare occasion I can't I resort to downloading)

However, I get 99% most of my downloaded music (note: downloaded. Music that I downloaded from the internet in any way makes up only about 5% of my total music library, the rest I purchased from a store) legally off various blogs and websites (if you know where to look. Places like indie record label websites, music blogs, websites for radio stations, Pitchfork Media and sometimes the band's website have free, legal mp3s. And if you're a fan of Phish and the Grateful Dead, both of whom not only allowed, but encouraged fans to tape their concerts, you have websites like Internet Archive). Most of the time, the artist or label (usually an indie label. Majors are ruled by the iron hand of the RIAA, who will sue them for doing this) themselves mails a song (usually the first single) to blogs and websites to post so fans can get a taste of their new music so they are more likely to buy their new album (it works).