You can DL the album artwork and burn a physical copy if you choose to do so ...

Indeed.

The biggest issue is that I'm so picky, so I don't buy CD's much.

I used to buy 7-8 cd's per week in my youth and have amassed a 12,000+ original CD collection, due to having no more room store cd's and the fact i now have a mortgage,car,bills and the usual things that being alive involves having to pay for i tend to download music now, far more convenient for storage and my wallet.

I buy actual CDs. Downloading is illegal unless you pay for the downloads, and then you could just buy the CD, right? You'll need a CD disc to play the music in your car anyway.

Gosh I think some members here might be doing illegal things ;)

You don't need one of these CD discs to play music in your car you can play mp3s no problem. I don't even have a CD player in my car. I love the convenience that comes with mp3s so that's what makes mp3s my format of choice these days. I still buy CDs regularly and vinyl occasionally but the bulk of my music collection is now mp3s. However I've now started to stream quite regularly so this could have an impact on my listening preferences, which leads me to the next point...

Since this thread was originally started over 7 years ago you probably could say that the question is a little bit dated. A lot of members here seem to use Spotify and other streaming services these days. You could argue now which is better - downloading, streaming or buying CDs?

Downloading is more convient without having to manual label the album and/or tracks such as for itunes. However, you get more satisfaction of owning the CD as opposed to downloading. One more consideration of iTunes-I recently lost some tracks and albums from iTunes as the label companies has pulled these such items for some reason and is no longer available-so iTunes isn't alloiwed to carry these items in its' iTunes store-even in the cloud. Best bet if you download make a hard copy. After this practice I try to get an actual copy of the CD.

Doing Both thats better /thread

I never buy cd's to be honest. I only download from sharing sites for free. Mostly because I live in a remote place and cant buy online from sites like Amazon for example. No real-life music stores around here either.

I HATE physical media...

However, I do Love the fact of "owning" a digital MP3 that only exists in 1's and 0's emulated by pulse of electricity passing through Circuits..

That being said, local pawn shops wont even buy CD's anymore, The local mom and pop music store of trading is being killed by blah blah anti walmart blah blah blah etc.

Its the way of the future, And unfortunately the modern day equivalent to the nostalgic <keep in mind i'm born in 86> 1970's stoner "dazed and confused" style sitting in front of the stereo on acid while using DJ style huge headphones is dead.

And to compare we are given our own burnt cd's etc. No longer do you have to wait for that song to come on the radio to copy it with a tape that you used tape to cover that one little plug hole.

Its got its ups and downs, Personally i prefer Mp3's and a perosnal music server computer hooked up to some massive gehhto blasters pumping out screaming power metal.

And the clutter.....

OMG THE CLUTTER.... I had a bookshelf full of DVD's for example top to bottom 8 foot tall about 4 ft across Bookshelf... And you know what? Throw away all those dvd cases throw the bitches in binder dvd holders and you condensed what would take up 8ft of space into 4 inches..

I moved and to move my entire DVD collection took 5 mcd's fry boxes of just DVD's... Christ.. And at some point it will wind up in a landfill... if not until your dead, it will wind up there one day. Causing more pollution waste etc. etc. turn south Africa into a land of computer waste and battery acid lakes blah blah blah.

If i were the person to "steal" music on the net, I must say at least thanks to those of you who buy music. If i had the money i'd buy every single song that i have in my mp3 collection. Thanks to you legit buyers that keep the evil capitalistic whatever alive.

Sir... the peasants they are.. revolting... What else is new?

Funny thing... My car stero that I installed, Only has an SD slot, and an audio jack <plus radio which isn't even hooked up>.

I have a huge SD card i load my ENTIRE music collection onto, and pop it in... 16 Gigs of music in the size of your thumbnail..