Music vs. Cover Art & Booklet

I prefer CDs because I like the physical product, but I think CDs will be an obsolete media very soon.

I think that in order to vote in this poll, you could ask yourself: I I was forced to chose between the music and the artwork/booklet, which would I keep? Of course most people would chose the music in that case. IMO it's ironic then that many of those people still reject downloads, even if they're at a lower price than the CD.

Or put it this way: Given the choice between three albums as MP3 and one CD with booklet and artwork for the same price ... I chose downloads, because they contain the most important part of the albums.

CD's all the way , I ll never pay for a file.

crimson87 wrote: CD's all the way , I ll never pay for a file.

CDs contain files. Files contain music. The music is what the whole album is actually about.

Cover art was invented in the 50s/60s to promote the music ... for some albums the cover art and the music form a coherent work of art, but the music always works on its own as well.

^ nice! But what do you need the CDs for? I mean compared to MP3s. I have about 1000 CDs, but I never take them out of the cabinet. When I want to listen to one, I just browse for it in Winamp. The cover art is in there too ... what more do I need to listen to - and enjoy - the music?

I know how you feel ... I've been collecting CDs for all my life. But be honest: Who will be impressed by your CD collection? The more you have, the weirder you'll seem to other people who aren't into music that much. Let's face it, the only one who benefits from that collection is you ... you can sit in front of it and be impressed. Well, it's not working for me anymore ... I'll probably keep the collection, now that I have it ... but when it comes to expanding it, I'll definitely save both space and money and go for downloads.

I think that once you accept that the musical content of CDs and MP3s is the same, the decision is relatively easy.

Mr ProgFreak wrote: ^ nice! But what do you need the CDs for? I mean compared to MP3s. I have about 1000 CDs, but I never take them out of the cabinet. When I want to listen to one, I just browse for it in Winamp. The cover art is in there too ... what more do I need to listen to - and enjoy - the music? I use the cds for listening. I do rip all my music to my computer and put them on Ipod, but most of the time I listen to music at home I take the cd from my shelf and put it into the player. I love stepping in front of my collection, looking at all those wonderful albums and trying to decide what to put on next or just casually taking out of an album or other and flipping through the booklet. The only exception to this rule is when we're cooking in the kitchen, then we take my Ipod and connect it to the speakers we set up in the kitchen so we don't need to blast the living room stereo at full volume. I know how you feel ... I've been collecting CDs for all my life. But be honest: Who will be impressed by your CD collection? The more you have, the weirder you'll seem to other people who aren't into music that much. Let's face it, the only one who benefits from that collection is you ... you can sit in front of it and be impressed. Well, it's not working for me anymore ... I'll probably keep the collection, now that I have it ... but when it comes to expanding it, I'll definitely save both space and money and go for downloads. I've apparently managed to choose my friends well since pretty much everyone that sees our collection is amazed by it  But that in no way is the reason why we keep it up. The only ones who really benefit from our cd collection and enjoy looking at it is me and my girlfriend, and that's all we need. It works for us. And the occasional friend who sees some interesting albums and borrows them.  I think that once you accept that the musical content of CDs and MP3s is the same, the decision is relatively easy. I do accept that the content is pretty much the same (cds win the battle for sound quality no doubt but that's not a big deal for me) but still I'm all for cds. It's most of all a feel thing and the silly need to own objects that one can handle and look at, not necessarily anything rational. I enjoy it, we enjoy it, thus we buy cds.

And with Giant for a Day, you got a mask! 

Not to mention that there are probably a lot of albums which simply can not be downloaded, just because they are not popular enough.

Mr ProgFreak wrote: BaldFriede wrote: For some albums the booklet is absolutely necessary. Take for example Nik Turner's "Xitintoday"; without the booklet you would be truly lost. And the booklet is a real joy to behold too. I definitely would not want that album without booklet, although it is in my top three favourite albums of all time. So you couldn't listen to the album without the "directions" from the booklet? I'd like to try ... and I would, if the album wasn't so obscure (as in: out of print). In this day and age I would make up for the missing booklet by going to the various pages on the internet ... wikipedia, progarchives, progfreak ...

That's not the point; you could listen to it without the direction, and it would still be great music. But to fully understand it you need the information from the booklet. And, as already stated, the booklet is an absolute gem.

Its kind of a stupid poll MIke. Who on earth buys a CD just for the cover/ booklet?