and don't know if I'd ever pay for a download (esp not on Itunes)

The way forward is bands giving out their music for free and having a paypal donations thing. Maybe.

How did they select the sample? What are the respondants basing this idea on? I would imagine a lot of it is just guesswork. I'd rather hear what a music industry insider predicts than a load of kids who probably buy 2 albums a year from sainsburys and download a song a month from the itunes store. I for one will always want the majority of my music stored on a physical format. Also if this is the case with music why not books?

It makes it alot easier and cheaper to buy music. In fact, in alot of cases, it's cheaper than downloads.

and after moving house, my CDs remain boxed up, as there's just no point unpacking them.

They've always just been a means to get the music to the consumer. There're better ways to do that, now.

I will never pay for a digital track. I want to hold it in my hands.

and there's always room for more!

Fuck downloading.

so much more than any i've downloaded.

On here at least, the physical form is way more pleasing to have, pile up in ridiculously high piles and continually knock over when drunk thus annoying people by creating a mess in your room and potentially uncovering a Wildhearts single you'd forgotten you even owned and then sitting listening to CDs from the piles all night rather than sleeping. This might have happened to me recently.

I'm glad someone else brought up the 'what if your computer fucks up?' thing. If I bought all the CDs I'd bought this year as downloads and my PC fucked up I think my heart would stop.

i still buy about 5 cds a month, sometimes more.
i like having something to show for my money, that if i delete from my pc or mp3 player on accident i can get it back at no extra cost
i reckon cds will prob die out soon, but i don't want them to as i want to be able to play my grandkids my cds in the future and get them into the bands i like (lame i know, but true)
i don't want to have to store mp3's in my car or plug my mp3 player in all the time as its annoying and wastes battery.
so yeah i like cds... but my mp3 player is handy as i have like 6000 songs to listen to when i'm on the bus or train or in a boring lesson. but i still like having a cd collection.
since mp3's have been introduced i definately have ALOT more cds than i used to.

NEVER !

but i still buy as many cds as i can humanly afford, and have never bought a download

I have all of my music in digital form on my computer, because I find it's a more convenient way of storing and accessing it all.
However, I infinitely prefer either going to a shop, or even just ordering off the net, to get the physical object, than some intangible digital file. There's an innate value in a physical object that isn't there with files.

The biggest thing, for me, that puts me off the whole legal download business is - Stuff gets DRM'ed to hell and back. I know it's technically very naughty, but when I buy something like that, I want to be able to decide what I do with it, how I choose to listen to it, etc.
I certainly don't want Apple, Microsoft, et al, telling me that I have to buy their player to listen to what I've bought. The way it's going, that's a distinct possibility.
My friends and I also regularly lend each other our new CDs. I don't want Apple telling me that I'm not allowed to do that anymore. As an example, I got into The Smiths after borrowing their Best Of off a friend. Under a DRM system, I wouldn't have been able to do that, I would've had to have bought it out of trust (sometimes others can be right, not all the time).
DRM, and it's associated flaws, are easily my biggest problem with the digital music age.

but unless I REALLY like something, if I can get it for free I will. I still buy about an album a week on average but rarely ones that are recently released

If it were a choice of CD or mp3 at a similar price, CD would win out every time - even though I don't have a stereo other than my pc

But I'm yet to see a band live who are selling downloads on their merch table. I love finding new bands, buying a cd and listening to it when I get home.

I don't agree with the idea that including cds the bigger picture is that mass produced physical music production will stop or be cut back (hence the mooting of shops shutting and polution cuts). Plenty of internet users may think so, but a fairly large whack of music buyers I know still don't use the internet except for email and ebay and would never trust their credit cards online.

re-ordering my CDs and listening to them through mega-headphones, I think I'd be devastated if they were to die off. They're not quite as 'loveable' as vinyl, but they're convenient and still have wonderful artwork and packaging and booklets and lovely sound quality etc etc.

my 800+ cd's are ripped into a loseless format and played on my most excellent Squeezebox.

though I like my CD's on my hard drive I refuse to buy online music for the following reasons:

1) booklet artwork ect...
2) cd's make a pretty good backup solution although a bit bulky.
3) i want as much data as possible not an algorithmic approximation of the data.
4) i want the track order presented as the artist intended

And it goes to downloading albums what the hell is going to happen to our record labels and bands? People will never be able to be made pay for a download. Id rather see CDs survive for the sake of Minor labels and upcoming bands.

next question.

No thanks to stupid downloads and NO Coverart, one ought to have a choice...SOme like Download with no coverart others dont...So CDs ought to survive, no matter what. A download is just a file, and I would't pay for it (a file with no coverart, booklet, sorry no thanks!), besides needing to burn it on CD to be audible, besides downloads not sounding so good as the real thing (compression, folks) , yes quality too...I'm just shockingly seeing CD singles disapearing off the shelves in OZ now, allarming, and need to order import ones to get them...This is not right sorry! Sure would support any petitions against the dissapearing of CD's and singles! Its not hard to create mp3's from CDs and SIngles anyway, so no it makes no sense...Vinyl hasnt really died out either!

as I generally download music from... wherever... and if I like it - I buy it on CD, and if I don't like it I don't buy it.

I like to support the artists I like, and no harm done to the ones I don't as I wouldn't have bought it anyway.

I only use CDs in the car, I used to have an MP3 stereo in the car, but navigation of the discs was crap.

I quite like the American Napster model where you can listen to ANY track up to three times, after which you must buy it to listen to it again. It's a very good idea for digital music.

...artists with the know-how should sell their music directly to the consumer by their websites be it in CD or digital form. This way, they get all the money back.

Smart!

i think the majority of people who use this site are more into music than than the average person, and appreciate the artwork, sound quality and general product more than the casual music fans who just want to listen to one or two tracks from an album, which is the demographic in which CD sales will decline (or die, depending on how doom and gloom you want to be).
its also bizarre that media/industry types are so keen to kill off the CD, as if we have to run into the distant future of music faster than sonic the hedgehog through a level. can we not approach it a little more slowly, and with a little less extreme lanuage?

but due to the compilation market, which, bar rough trade's counter culture, is a good thing

...and what about record shops? Most town centres are overrun with virgins, hmvs etc., all ready... I highly doubt I'd ever be able to stroll into my local indie record shop and have a good chat about what barcodes I should spend my weeks wages on..?

for the audio quality alone. sounds rubbish!

I love my cds. i would probably stop listening to (new) music if my only choice was to buy releases at crappy 128kps mp3s from apple/napster/whatever.

and I like physical media. what if some virus ate all your hard drives..you'd have no record collection left it was just mp3s...or what if,and this is really sinister, some record company released a virus so you'd have to buy all your downloads again!?

quoting "If anything the death of physical formats will be good for bands and smaller labels. Distribution of a files is a lot easier and cheaper than distribution of cds or vinyl" <- to my best knowledge smaller laber actually prefer physical formats, especially, vinyls..

I think that there is a lot more to a record than just the songs, its nice to have the packaging, the cd booklet, maybe a free tatoo in Take Thats case. I don't want to fucking own invisible music, fuck downloads...It just means the labels can release more shit. x

i dont trust ipods cos they break easily and my computers shit and on its last legs so without the physical cd i would lose all my music sooner or later. i have over 800 cds and treasure them all. fuck downloading fuck your ipods although i do have one (saves me taking shit loads of cds everywhere i go!) plus i love going into second hand cd stores, hmv etc and looking for cds. i also love artwork and u dont get that with downloads.