Use to buy CDs a lot about a decade ago. Now I just use YouTube and use Shazam app to identify songs I hear on the radio or out in public. It tells you the artists and title and you can listen to the song on the app.
I buy CDs all of the time, mainly hard-to-get, obscure Japanese and European groups. I also buy a lot of $5 classic and classical CDs from B&N, it’s cheaper than buying it on iTunes. I also buy a lot of single songs on iTunes. I haven’t bought any vinyl for 20 years or more, but I have quite a few (and two turntables including a usb one). I’ve never used a streaming service.
When I buy nowadays, I buy tracks, and then burn them to CDs.
Back when I was still occasionally buying CDs, 10-20 years ago, I was usually disappointed by most of the album, even if 3-4 songs on the album had gotten airplay and I liked them all. So my operating assumption is that unless a CD album costs no more than it would cost me to download 4 tracks (and that doesn’t seem to be happening), why should I buy a CD? I’ll buy just the music I want.
I have about 350 CD’s, mostly from the 90s that I rarely listen to anymore. Assuming I paid $10 each, that would pay for 29 years of a subscription service, and I wouldn’t be limited to the crap I bought years ago. Once I realized that, it’s been subscription all the way. I’ll only occasionally buy a CD directly from the artist when they sell them at live shows, but that’s usually a unknown musician who wouldn’t be available on a streaming service anyway.
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While I bought new CDs a few years ago and tracks off iTunes and Amazon relatively recently, I’ve basically taken to just listening to Pandora. I get almost just as much control over the music as I would by shuffling a selection of songs I was interested in listening to except that I might hear stuff I don’t own or even better have never heard before. Without Pandora I would have never discovered my love for a few genres of music, and feel that continuing to listen to it and branching off new stations with new interests is basically what I want to do with my music listening.
I buy tracks, or a whole record but still in mp3 format. One of the uses of streaming services that I like is finding stuff I like enough to buy.