I would rather own a
CD of an
artist who I feel deserves my
money than just have their
albums saved on my
HD. I can take a CD with me and drop it into a
stereo in a
car or with me to
work, or out for others to hear. I don't have to
rip,
encode it or
download it. Its there. Its
on demand and its still the
format that nearly everyone is using for
music.
Even though there's so much
hype over
Napster, mp3s are still a
novelty in the sense that they can't be taken from home because the
average person doesn't own a
portable mp3 player and would probably not want to spend the
time learning how to
convert and then
burn audio CDs from
mp3. Plus, mp3s sound
inferior.
Having a CD is something
tangible in the sense that it can be
replaced. If you
lose your CDs to
theft,
fire or an
act of God (if you're covered for that..), they can be
replaced. If your HD crashes or you step on the case to some Mp3 CD, you're basically
screwed and you need to replace
650mb of music again.
I like mp3s because they are an
incredible way to spread sound around. Its good to hear what's out there and really
establish what you like to hear, instead of sitting at
HMV for 5 minutes, skipping through shit and deciding whether or not you should
buy it or not.
Mp3s make it possible to
preview rare and
imported material before you order it and having the album on mp3 makes it a little more bearable when the guy at the
record store gives you a
blank stare when you ask him if he has it in
stock. After you ask him to
order it, you can still go
home and
listen to the album on your box.