Just curious if anyone has any specific preference between these two for purchasing music downloads....or if there are any other notable competitors out there. Yeah, I do still pay for most of my music, so there's that. I'm pretty amazed at how often Amazon has the cheaper deal going...I just got Bryan Ferry's latest for $6. Anyway. Thoughts?

I use iTunes for podcasts. I never pay for music. I should, but I'm hooked on theft. I like Amazon for other things.

I recently started paying for music for the first time in ten years, and I went with Amazon. I had a few songs I bought off iTunes that I couldn't share with anyone because of the copyright protection. Fuck that.

Mostly itunes, but if I see a song for $1.29 on there, I'll go to Amazon to see if it's 99 cents. It usually is.

Amazon usually has much better prices.

$5 albums, DRM free Amazon all the way.


iTunes for podcasts though

When I got the new Decemberists album, $9.99 on iTunes, $7.99 on Amazon, kind of a no-brainer.

Yep. Absolutely. That shit bugs me to no end. Amazon over itunes easy.
The best is still the labels that press LPs and include the free download link with the record.

As soon as Apple and Amazon realize that shitty psychoacoustics suck, I may buy some music from 'em.

why would you purchase an MP3?

Because it's better than being a slave to piles of stuff.

They're also free for the most part though. If I want to support an artist, I'm gonna buy the real product. If I want mp3's I'll just grab em off line or rip em from the cd.

Agree with SOE, there is never a need to purchase an MP3. If you're paying for music, you at least want the CD or vinyl, something physical to look at and with decent sound quality. If you only want the MP3 file you might as well get it for free.

Plus, although CD's are meant to be dead, I still enjoy getting them cheap as fuck on Amazon, there is a used seller called Zoverstocks over here that undercuts everyone and most of the discs are brand new quality, so you can get some great shit for anything from £0.01 onwards, with £1 postage. I've got so many albums for £1.27 or something ridiculous, cases in perfect condition, don't even have space for them all. It's a great alternative if the vinyl is unavailable or too pricy. Especially great for old dance mixes that aren't available anymore, even electronically.

I still like to have the physical CD, versus a download unless I'm *cough* listening to it.

I've bought a boatload of great used CD's on Amazon lately, all at an average price of around $3.00 - $4.00 out the door.

That doesn't answer the point of why you'd actually pay for MP3's though, even if it does give a reason why they're a preferable format (though I'd rather have to build another shelf and actually have the item, then pay almost the same price for something that is of lower quality and doesn't offer the pleasure of physical ownership).

CD's are a dying breed sadly. Do you really think the 17 year old kids coming up today are buying CDs?

Man, I miss the days of going to a..you know...actual record store.

I have a pretty debilitation vinyl affliction.

I have comes to terms with it, and am pretty okay with it.

To be honest, I'm still sort of in between formats. For some stuff that I know I want to add to my collection, often by artists who've proven themselves and whom I'm a "fan" of, I want the physical disc, and artwork. Other stuff I'm less convinced about but want to try out, knowing little about them. In those cases, I may well be happy to just do a cheapie download. I'm not savvy enough to hunt for stuff online for free, and I'm a bit conflicted doing so--though I have my fair share of freebies I've found on this board. To be honest, I do most of my listening on my iPod, on the go, amid traffic and train noise--even those CDs I buy immediately get ripped to iTunes. I know other formats are, technically, better, but I'm rarely in an environment to notice.

That said, the thought has crossed my mind to possibly invest in a turntable and vinyl copies of those albums that I want to have the "full" experience with. I haven't pulled the trigger, and I'd need to buy stuff I already own, but it's a thought. But for now, spending a few bucks for a download doesn't seem that big a deal.

Between the two, I would go with iTunes. Their aac-encoded m4a files sound a lot better than mp3, and they abandoned copy protection a few years ago so that's no longer a problem.

I don't know why, but lately I'm really noticing how bad most mp3 files sound, especially compared with m4a rips. Even with mp3 rips done at higher bit rates like V0 and 192 I can hear the tell-tale 'lossy' artifacts.

some interesting audio geek talk on aac(mp4) vs. mp3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding

They didn't totally abandon DRM-- it's still possible for you to dump an iTunes supplied file and find personal information encoded in the metadata, and watermarks imbedded in the file. </geek>