I downloaded my 1st MP3 album purchase

[Shut Up Legs]

Although I suppose the term 'album' here is just a historical relic.

I've always preferred to buy CDs, because as I mentioned on another thread earlier this year, CDs have many advantages, such as being a reliable backup medium. This time, though, I wanted to buy an album (damn, I've used that antiquated term again!) that wasn't available on CD: I've noticed an increasing trend towards this in recent years. The CD as a method for music artists to deliver their product isn't dead yet, but it seems to be heading that way.

Anyway, I bought and downloaded the album (Odonata, by Amethystium) in MP3 320kb/s format (i.e. high quality), and the download also includes a JPG file with its cover art, which is handy, because one of the first things I'll be doing is writing the album to a CD, complete with a printed cover.

At least, with this method, I don't have to wait weeks for the CD to be snail-mailed to me (I'm still waiting for one I ordered 1.5 months ago, and it's frustrating! ). I can get it almost immediately, and I'm playing it right now. It was also a lot cheaper than buying a CD, and the only drawback is that I need to write and label the CD myself, but I can live with that.

Regards,

--- Victor.

 

[Bimble]

MP3? What's one of those ...

It's all streamed in our house. We worked it out that for the £10 per month we pay for the streaming service we could only get 10 or so new albums per year, maybe a few more if we bought second-hand; the subscription, on the other hand, means we have access to much, much more music and can sample albums from artists we don't know, play our favourite tracks over and over and over, set our track lists to a selection of only the "good" tracks from albums we love, and with our SONOS do it all differently in different rooms.

It's not everyone's cup of tea though and I can see the value of having a CD or MP3 handy, especially when you're out of reach of WiFi.

I've just streamed the ablum and it's quite relaxing - sort of an electronic Clannad meets Himalayan pan piper?

 

[swee'pea99]

I'm at the opposite end - sitting here listening to the album of Woodstock, just brought home from a friend who's bailing out of vinyl. It's crackly as hell - looking forward to cleaning it tomorrow. But in the meantime, Elliot from Harvard, the hitchhikers you picked up need the pills from your car....number nine, number nine, number nine...Richie Haven - Sometimes I feel like a motherless child...

 

[Fnaar]

Miss Goodbody is into vinyl. At least I think so. She's asked the Vicar to bring his 12 incher over tonight.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I just visited 6 stores in my local (and fairly large) shopping centre, looking for empty CD cases, because I have no spare ones at home. After visiting 2 supermarkets, 2 department stores, a newsagency and a HiFi store, all of which sell CDs and DVDs, I found that none of them sell empty cases.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I contacted a chain of stores selling office supplies, which has a store near where I live, and they sell empty CD cases. Problem solved!

 

[Cycleops]

I use iTunes with an Apple iPad. Works very well. You can also import your existing CDs into your iTunes library. Buying on Amazon might be a bit cheaper though.

 

[the_mikey]

I'm not really on board with streaming services, I've tried them but find them disappointing on two fronts, they're great if you want to listen to Taylor Swift, not so great if you're wanting something less current, classic or geographically disparate, but also there are lots of places in the UK where mobile data isn't a thing, let alone fast mobile data, so it's much more satisfying to listen to something you've downloaded and stored on a memory card.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I've used Qobuz to buy the Bear Family box set of Roy Orbison's Sun stuff. The physical product retails at over £100, they had it for £7.99.

There's a couple of other big sets for the same money so I may yet get those.

Apart from that I like tangible stuff.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I use iTunes with an Apple iPad. Works very well. You can also import your existing CDs into your iTunes library. Buying on Amazon might be a bit cheaper though.

I imported a lot of CDs, but only used iTunes for a while. Eventually, I got fed up with the fact that Apple forces you to use proprietary software just to do the import, and switched to Winamp. Then later (about a year ago), I switched to Linux, and switched the entire collection over to Amarok. For a portable music player, I use the iBasso DX-50 (a South Korean brand): it's handy, because 'importing' is little more than copying the music files onto its memory card, then using its touch screen interface to select the music and add it to the internal collection, so no proprietary software there, either.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I'm not really on board with streaming services, I've tried them but find them disappointing on two fronts, they're great if you want to listen to Taylor Swift, not so great if you're wanting something less current, classic or geographically disparate, but also there are lots of places in the UK where mobile data isn't a thing, let alone fast mobile data, so it's much more satisfying to listen to something you've downloaded and stored on a memory card.

I would most likely not have found this particular album on a streaming service: it's not exactly a mainstream artist. I actually bought it at bandcamp.com.

 

[the_mikey]

I would most likely have found this particular album on a streaming service: it's not exactly a mainstream artist. I actually bought it at bandcamp.com.

I use bandcamp too, very good service there.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

Oops, sorry: in my previous post, I just substituted "not have" for "have", i.e. I doubt I would have found that album on any streaming service.

 

[Drago]

320k/b is high quality? Tolerable in the car would be more like it.

 

[FishFright]

320k/b is high quality? Tolerable in the car would be more like it.

Lossless is well worth the extra file size if its available