Green

I've never used iTunes, and I'm not entirely sure what it is, but tell me if I'm near the mark here.

It originated on the mac (it's an Apple product), and it basically allows you to play music on your comp/iPod/laptop/whatever (like WMP/Winamp/Foobar/etc).

Do people use iTunes to download music? If so, how much do you pay? I'm curious to know this, because I wonder how many people actually use it for that function.

It's always struck me as a waste of money when music can be downloaded for free (and, of course, illegally). I'm not saying I do this, of course, I'm just throwing it out there

So... what do people think about paying money for downloading music (versus buying CDs, for example, and based on whether it's really worth the money). After all... if you buy a CD, then at least you have that piece of art (or crap, depending on whether you liked it), which is worth something. In my mind, at least. And does anyone throw caution to the wind and just get it wherever they can? I'm guessing you can't really discuss that sort of thing on this board, though.

PS - don't get me started on the high prices of CDs in the UK. Grr.

Adasunshine

I, personally, would rather buy a CD!

I do download music and I'm quite sure it works out cheaper but I can't get out of the habit of buying CD's and am not sure I want to!!!

iTunes is a good media player but it doesn't transfer to anything but the Apple iPod range and vice versa (see what they did there) and I think you can only buy tunes from the iTunes shop so it's all very restricted and very Apple orientated which is absolutely no use if you have say a Sony or Phillips MP3 player.

Personally, I deleted iTunes from my hard-drive and just carried on using Windows Media for all my *ahem* legally downloaded tunes, it does the job nicely!!!

There's my 2 cents and that's without me ranting about the price of CD's in the UK either.

xx

kyektulu

Aes

I'd rather have mp3s instead of CDs, not because they're cheaper, but because I just don't like the clutter. If you're scared of a hard drive crash, you can just back up nearly hundreds of mp3 albums onto a single dvd.

Green

So you'd rather pay for mp3s than for CDs?

Is that what you do now, or do you just "acquire" them?

PS - hundreds on one DVD? More like tens, isn't it?

Aes

Yes, I'd rather pay for mp3s than CDs. I don't need a jewel case and disc with only about 13 songs on it taking up space when I can just put them on a hard drive, mp3 player, and archive them onto a DVD for safeguarding.

And it's definitely hundreds, not tens...at least, if you're using DVD-9s.

Winters_Sorrow

I think individual songs on iTunes cost about £0.79 or something so financially speaking it's not bad. Personally I prefer mp3 files as well. I'm just not very good at keeping CD cases in good repair anyway (plus they take up a lot of space) and this way I can create my own albums and covers to my tastes.

If I liked a band enough, I usually buy the album though, if only to see if their other songs are any good

p.s. and I have an mp3 player instead of a CD player, so it makes more sense for me to use mp3 files

direghost

I can't stand I-tunes. I use Winamp to play my music. I rarely buy cd's, trusting my old friend K-light to check out new bands.

mikeo

Quite like iTunes as a music player, but I'd never use the site to buy music. Firstly, the selection isn't so hot, secondly, from what I've heard, their music has some DRM stuff integrated into it, and I object to such nonsense.

I like having proper CD media, and buy as many CDs (if not more) than I used to buy before Napster first appeared.

Ahdkaw

I remember when Apple were the good guys.

kaneda

itunes...is...evil...

thats all i have to say about itunes

Like i said in the thread about buying books, its about supporting the artist. I don't mind people downloading music from illegal websites, as long as theyre not downloading complete albums. If you like more than 3 tracks from an album, go out and buy the album, go out and support the artist to encourage them that their talent isn't going to waste. The only time I think its ok to download a complete album is when the album isn't being pressed (and then I blame the label for being tight and not doing a repress)

As for buying mp3s, personally, i don't like it. I do like to own things. But i do buy MP3s, and guess why.. because its about supporting the artist.

I have no time whatsoever for people who have gigs worth of downloaded music from p2p sites and own less than a 100 CDs.

[/rant]

Green

Well, at the risk of bringing the law down on my head... I have about 10 gig of music. But I also own about 250 CDs. Do you hate me?

Seriously though, I've spent far too much money on music that I don't even listen to any more (about 50% of my student loan ). There comes a breaking point.

I do support a good few bands, though. I'd buy their albums just so that there's a next one.

kaneda

Well Green, I'm the same, I own about 350 cds, and have about 10gig of music on my computer as well (but also about 3 gigs of bought mp3s). Feel a bit of a hypocrite, but considering that i buy at least 3 albums a week, i think its ok. As i said, its the people who really only download and never buy that really really annoy me.

:edit: but i also feel I should mention that I download mostly dance music, and (especially with dnb) they haven't taken advantage of the fact that ppl will buy MP3's yet, and continue to release things on vinyl (and i don't buy vinyl).

Adasunshine

I've spent a LOT of money on CD's, therefore, I feel it's ok that I download the odd song and that's normally all it is, the odd song. I'm past the days of buying an album purely for one song (although I'd probably still be doing it if I didn't have a PC!!!). I suppose that's hypocritical but I don't care, after giving away a LOAD of CD's, I still have a 504 strong collection so I've done my bit and am still doing my bit for the rich-beyond-normal-means artists and music industry fatcats!

xx

GrownUp

Does that happen? Don't people who download the most also buy the most CDs? Like the way the old music-lovers used to tape things off the radio?