# Your music acquisition habits **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 12, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-acquisition-habits/602693 "2011-11-12T15:56:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-acquisition-habits/602693/1 "2011-11-12T15:56:42Z")
I may be duplicating some earlier poll, but a search didn’t come up with one. So, I’d like to know more about how you get your music. One choice is that you get your music through “other means” – I meant that as a tongue in cheek reference to piracy, but you can also take that to mean “Boyo Jim you idiot, you forgot about \_\_\_”, and let me know what you’re filling in the blank with, if you can do so without incriminating yourself. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-acquisition-habits/602693/2 "2011-11-12T16:14:03Z")
Pre-digital music age I had an extensive and mountainous collection of CDs (many of which were replacements for cassettes), and the bulk of my digital music collection is comprised of those ripped CDs. Once I had a Mac, an iPod, and iTunes the purchasing of CDs, after a bit of resistance, stopped altogether fairly quickly and I at first bought a lot of whole albums online but once I had filled out my collection with music I had wanted but for whatever reason could not previously acquire on CD or cassette (either it was unavailable or I didn’t have the money), I’ve cherry-picked songs individually for the last section of my music-buying period, which has for the most part ended. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-acquisition-habits/602693/3 "2011-11-12T16:20:49Z")
If you’re asking about “other means”, you probably shouldn’t have made this a public poll. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-acquisition-habits/602693/4 "2011-11-12T16:23:56Z")
You can answer that ‘yes’ to the question without incriminating yourself. If you explain in your post that you pirate music, making it a private poll won’t make any difference. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-acquisition-habits/602693/5 "2011-11-12T17:02:50Z")
Well, I buy all of my music online, but some of it is on CDs bought from Amazon. For a lot of classical music, the CD is often the same price or even less expensive that the digital download. For pop music, I always buy the digital download, usually during Amazon’s $5 downloads or their daily specials. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-acquisition-habits/602693/6 "2011-11-12T17:09:09Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > … Amazon’s $5 downloads… Sounds interesting… what are these? ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-acquisition-habits/602693/7 "2011-11-12T17:14:15Z")
[$5 downloads](http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=s9_hps_bw_feat?ie=UTF8&docId=1000371251&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=1YEFEVW33R6DMM6YGF9C&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1327552242&pf_rd_i=163856011) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-acquisition-habits/602693/8 "2011-11-12T17:24:50Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Well, I buy all of my music online Yeah, I interpreted “buying online” to refer to how I receive the music (digitally through the internet vs. physically through the mail) rather than how I place the order. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-acquisition-habits/602693/9 "2011-11-12T17:27:46Z")
I almost always buy used CDs, then rip them to my computer. On those rare occasions when I download an album on-line, I always burn it to CD and stick it in my collection. It just feels “safer” somehow. I don’t feel like I own it unless I have a physical copy. I should add that Amazon sometimes has “Free mp3 song of the day” in their mp3 store. I frequently download those, if I have any interest in the song or artist, but this is hardly the bulk of my collection. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-acquisition-habits/602693/10 "2011-11-12T17:36:00Z")
Since Pandora came out, I rarely buy music anymore. I much prefer having it choose what I listen to than having to laboriously go through my collection and choose which exact artist/song to play. I’m not much of a music person; I pretty much just want something in the background to listen to while socializing, and Pandora is great for that. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-acquisition-habits/602693/11 "2011-11-12T17:39:09Z")
The option “I but most or all of my music online” is poorly worded. I buy a lot of music, in the form of CDs, from [amazon.com](http://amazon.com), so I’m buying my music online. I suspect that what you meant with this option tho is “I buy my music in download form rather than any hardcopy”. To clarify: I only buy CDs. I do not buy downloads of music. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-acquisition-habits/602693/12 "2011-11-12T17:57:43Z")
I buy most of my music by the song on I-tunes. But, I will also buy the CD if I like all or even most of the songs on it. It’s nice when I figure out that I like the whole CD before I’ve spent too much on individual purchases, but it doesn’t always work out that way. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-acquisition-habits/602693/13 "2011-11-12T18:50:55Z")
If you’re interested in _why_ people buy by the song or by the album, for me, the biggest (though not the only) reason is this: Throughout my life, I have found many, many songs that I love, or at least like quite a bit, that I never would have heard if I had not bought the album they appear on. If I like a song well enough to purchase it, I’m going to want to see if there’s “more where that came from.” ---
**Author:** ![Trick\_Rider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Trick\_Rider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trick_Rider)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-music-acquisition-habits/602693/14 "2011-11-12T20:25:10Z")
I buy a majority of my music on physical formats, but I also (legally) download a fairly significant amount. I also chose “other means” because you forgot cassettes. 😃