Your Music Collection: Digital, Physical or a bit of Both?

[DarkVincent07]

Just something that has crossed my mind lately, I have a relatively vast collection of music that I store on iTunes. I have been building and adding to it for years and years now and only ever owned literally a couple of CDs.

Call me crazy, call me supportive, hell even tell me that I'm wasting my time and money, but lately I've had an urge to build my CD collection up to the standard that my iTunes is at. I love music and I'd happily support my favourite artists (either again or for the first time). And I kind of think it will be cool to have a big collection of CDs hanging around my big collection of movies and games

So my question is to you guys, how do you prefer to have your music? Do you like collecting it all physically for that old school tangible feel (lol) or would you rather the (hopefully most of the time if your HDD doesn't die) convenience of digital storage?

[Lethal_NFS]

It is only physical when I burn them to a cd.

All my music and movies are digital.

[BoyBettaKnow]

I buy quite a lot of records (~10 a month) as the sound quality on vinyl
Is still amazing but since buying Serato I've been buying a lot more digital music 320's or Wav's.

When you can buy a record with 2 songs for £5 or buy an digital EP with 4 WAV's for £3.20 it's hard to say no


BBK. Tapatalking.

[[DT]]

If you want the best possible reproduction of audio, you’ll need CD or xLAC (lossless), and the latter isn’t widely available (and has substantial additional storage needs). That’s from a purely technical perspective, since for me, the difference in a 256K+ digital file using a good quality CODEC isn’t noticeable. I rarely buy music on CD anymore, though our current collection is probably 800+ discs.

For movies, a HQ/HD video stream with 7.1 lossless audio is simple too huge for most bandwidth and requires huge storage needs. When I want to own a movie, I want the +best+ possible experience, and that’s an optical disc, and for me, I can appreciate the difference in video way more than music.

[squirrelbo1]

never bought a cd in my life. my music collection now is pretty much spotify. i have a load of songs that were *cough* acquired *cough* but other than my muse absolution album in flac its not listened to

[John25]

lol haven't Bought a CD in Eons .Tune in Radio App on Iphone & Youtube caters to me needs

[[DT]]

I still buy a decent amount, to support the artists, offset past misdeeds

If you keep an eye out, there’s great deals all the time. I just picked up a couple of new albums from Amazon, were on a Gold Box deal for $1.99 each. Side note: the Amazon MP3 process is pretty slick, you buy, they drop into your Amazon cloud, but if you want them locally, you can download a file that opens the client downloader that also imports into iTunes, etc., does everything end-to-end automatically if you want.

[DreDayDetox]

I have a bit of both. The digital collection I have for free, if you know what I mean

But I have almost 50 physical CD albums. When I like an artist a lot, I'll support. I'll buy it. I still need to finish my Pearl Jam Discography. And yep, I am one for the old school. I love physical media. The look, feel and smell of a CD, game cover and blu-ray is highly superior than some digital file sitting on your computer eating up space.

[Kuro]

Mostly digitally I like to have all my music in one place(my Iphone)lol instead of looking for the CD.

[Ixion]

I just download all of my music (for free), but I'll buy the CD if it's one of my favorite artists. For example, you can bet your ass I'll be buying the next Tool album.

I listen to a lot of music, so I just can't afford to pay for it. But then again, the fact I don't pay for it is one of the main reasons I listen to a lot of music!

[Nitey]

Almost completely digital. I just can't imagine having it any other way now

[[DT]]

I just can't imagine having it any other way now

I think that’s a great point.

When it was just iPODs/MPs, and you had to connect to a PC to load it, and most of the “integration” with other devices was via a phono jack, it made CDs, radio, a good/better/more convenient alternate source.

Now that music can be purchased directly to your device, sync’ed up across your phone(s), tablet(s), computer(s), even TV based media devices, and there’s tons of streaming wireless solutions, lots of interoperability, I’m never in a place where I can’t access my digital files or buy more digital files.

[RaY_210]

Call me old fashioned, but I love owning something physically. That's why I don't want games going download only. I still have most if not all of my music downloaded and in my iPod. But I mostly only have downloaded CDs that I bought

[DarkVincent07]

Thanks for the replies guys! Its really interesting to read all of your music habits

I hope to grow my physical collection to match all the music I've downloaded over the years, obviously its not a massive priority something that will take a long time to 'break even' so to speak, but I think its cool nonetheless, because I'm the same RaY, I love my games, movies and tv shows physically, so I think its time to hold my music in that regard too

[uofmtiger]

I have very little digital only music (mainly eMusic downloads from a long time ago). My fairly large collection is mainly CDs that I have ripped to lossless. However, I now subscribe to MOG, which is 320kbps, and I rarely buy CDs these days unless I just want top notch sound quality (Beatles Mono box is an example). I also have some vinyl (for nostalgia) and some high rez formats (SACDS, DVD-A, and Bluray).

I am still not on board with buying lossy compressed music. I will rent lower quality (think Netflix/Mog), but when I add something to my own collection I go with the best available (think Bluray). Personally, I would rather buy a CD and rip it myself. I will, on occasion, download something from HDTracks since they let you download FLAC and hi rez.


Having the physical boxes is overrated (although Vinyl would be the exception). I have huge storage bins in my closet that houses most of my CD collection these days. It is only for a backup if I have a huge failure and lose everything. I hope that I never have to touch the physical CDs again.

[Tven]

ive recently returned to buying cds to boost my meagre collection, but that in turn gets imported to itunes. so bit of both

[mickice]

Physical, I have maybe 40 CD's including almost every Iron Maiden, Uriah Heep and Regurgitator release.
My problem with digital is the compression, 128 - 250k audio just doesn't cut it, maybe if you are using an ipod with the pack in buds you won't notice. (Don't know how people can stand such a setup.)

When at home I pop in the physical CD and listen to that, out and about I use one of my multiple SONY Walkmans with either ZX600 or V55 SONY headphones.

Music to me is unlike any other medium, I can listen to a CD and love it so much that I simply play it again.

[the_End]

Music - Digital
Movies - Physical (Blu-ray) & Digital (iTunes Digital Copy)

On my iTunes I have 15GB music, 64GB movies & 10GB of TV Shows. I take my iPhone everywhere so it's just easier for my to have all my music digital, I'll end up looking for a bigger HDD most likely next year. Right now I have 500GB and have used up 200GB. It's easier to carry around 1000+ of my favourite songs and switch them up for my car, stereo's, friends places, etc. I just don't like having all these CD's over my place and finding storage for them. Movies is different since I don't own that many at the moment.

[keefy]

It is of course both.

But most of it is digital because it more convenient to download the tracks from wherever they are sold. LAst CD I boght was "By the way" by red hot chilli peppers, I had a 12 disc CD changer in my car but then I boguht a DVD player whcih supported MP3 so I ripped all 12 CD in the changer to 1 DVD.

[Marcsony]

It is of course both.

But most of it is digital because it more convenient to download the tracks from wherever they are sold. LAst CD I boght was "By the way" by red hot chilli peppers, I had a 12 disc CD changer in my car but then I boguht a DVD player whcih supported MP3 so I ripped all 12 CD in the changer to 1 DVD.

Most done digitally now but i do have a thing for collecting old cds from my youth typically old rave and hardcore cds which as a mater of fat the last cd purchased was the one you got as your pic, Epic album one of the best of its day. Is E-vapor-8 your favorite as its in your sig ? If i was to pic id go Brutal-8 the first time i listened to that track made my hairs go up on the back of my neck lol.