exactly!!

SO it's not all negative is my point.

umm
 

Usually both.

Either works for me.

BUT, (and this is a big but) I am a huge supporter
of the music industry. If you are going to downlaod your music I think that you should
pay for it. Itunes is way cheaper then going to HMV. Why can't you dish out $10.00 for
an album or $0.99 for a song. I mean come on.. Are you that cheap??

Ghehe, are you that deaf? :D
There's no way I'm going to pay for compressed audio ;).

I'm so torn on this issue. I watched the movie "I Need That Record" the other night about failing indie record stores and it made me even more torn. It seems like no matter how you buy your music, someone is getting screwed. I had been buying my music from iTunes but then my computer crashed and I had major problems saving my music after that. So I got really mad and vowed never to buy from iTunes again. I try to buy albums when I can but it gets expensive so I tend to download individual songs YouTube. I know it's wrong but I'm addicted to music and addicts will do anything to get the thing they crave. I have one little indie record store in my area, but they're on the other side of town tend to be expensive so when I do buy an album I buy it from Barnes and Noble. I know, I'm horrible to support the big box stores. So, that's where I'm at on the issue.

I actually was really nervous and felt guilty when I began downloading (actually deleted everything I downloaded three times(thankfully not much)), but I eventually got used to it.

I made a compromise with myself some time ago. I have... problems.. with when an album costs more than €15, because you just know that Most of the costs are just the record company seriously skimming off the top, and I don't like to encourage that sort of behaviour. However, due to the sheer volume of music I listen to, and the fact that it can take a while to find a popular album for less than 15 euro, I do the following:

1) Download the album illegally. Yeah, ok, not the nicest thing to do, but given that I have a choice otherwise between not listening to the band at all or buying an album I can't afford, surely it's better for the artist to get listening time of some sort?

2) I assess the album, deciding how much it is worth to me. If I don't like it, it tends to get deleted. If I think it's meh, I'll put it on my "alright albums" list, if I really like it, it goes on the "albums to get" list.

3) The next time I have money and I'm near a good record store, I go in search of the albums that I downloaded and liked. If I see them for a reasonable price (below 15 for a really good one, a fiver or so for an alright one) I will buy them, because the artists deserve the money, and also because I like having the physical album and the album art.

This way, a lot of bands that wouldn't normally get exposure get listened to, and I might go to gigs by them and pay for tickets that way if I think they're worth it, and those bands that actually release really good music get paid when I have the money to do so. For me, it's the only cost-effective way to listen to a lot of music - if I were to buy every album I listen to I a) wouldn't have no money to eat and b) would end up with a lot of crap that I'd never listen to again.

If you want to support the record company, buy the record.
If you want to support the band, go to gigs.
It's that simple.

And, as far as I'm concerned: If you want sound quality and awesome artwork, get your hands of downloads and buy the vinyl :D.

Actually it's not that simple in Ireland anymore. For the larger venues, a particular company (MCD) pretty much has a monopoly on gigs and their organisation. As a result, gig prices have skyrocketed here as they've started skimming off the top. For the more mainstream bands, there's no way to give all the money straight to them anymore. That, and Dublin, popular as it is to some extent, is not the first place that more obscure bands tend to travel to :P

Same here. Organisation is called Mojo.