Personally I get the list of tracks on an album when it comes out, and I do listen to every song (usually on youtube) and then pick and choose which to download and which not to. I rarely download more than 50% of the songs. I just don't see the point in having a load of tracks that I will never listen to/not enjoy.

I've never really understood why people ask generic all encompassing questions like this.

Obviously I listen to what format the artist decides to put it out as, I have no control over that. If a band I like puts out a bunch of singles or EPs then obviously I have to listen to them in that format or go without.

As a mod, you should crack down on them - lock 'em up! :jailed: The threads that is, not the users. ;)

Albums for me, but that's more due to the storage and that fact that I like them more as I have the time to hear and experience.

I don't dis the single, though. My New Wave and Punk years had a lot of 45's being in my collection, some remaining with me now for either having interesting B Sides or just for being stand alone Indie happenings.

If this were The Pre-Pepper 60's, I would mainly choose the single for both economic and collecting reasons as many bands had some very interesting stand alone singles that were cheap to collect at the time and also had some very disappointing albums that due to pressure or outside influence had very weak tracks or quickly recorded covers that did not show the band at their best.

I have a feeling that due to the huge amount of music being generated and presented on the Internet, it's kind of understandable to see people into separate tracks, especially those who are just new in getting into music. There is a lot to discover on the web ("a click of the mouse" is seriously showing my age!) and maybe it's a way to find out if one wants to go for the whole round.

Sometimes the single (or maybe now I should say "Downloaded song") is a fine way to pinpoint a time, a place, and sound.

i go with albums, then eventually i keep the songs i really liked

I prefer albums because often times my favorite songs on the album are not the singles.

Depends on how much I like the particular artist. I have a much greater appreciation for albums. I usually only buy singles if I only like the one song from a particular album. But even then I usually give the rest of the album a shot and more often than not I end up enjoying the rest of the album. So yeah overall I like albums much better.

I'm not sure about the pricing of digital music, but with old-fashioned physical copies, singles are poor value and waste space. Even though I believe that singles are almost always better listening material than non-singles.

I don't think I've brought a single in about 15 years.

I buy the album, unless I have heard all of it alredy and I KNOW that I only want one song.