Poll of the Day > What is your preferred format for buying music?

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is not necessarily the same thing as the format you normally use for listening.
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YouTube and Spotify
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iTunes, YouTube, and Spotify.

TCs mum
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other: spotify
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CDs, which I usually import into iTunes. I like having tangible product. For the very limited stuff I've bought new on Amazon, I've had the digital download at the same time so I sometimes haven't opened the CD.
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I very rarely buy music stuff on the Groupees website. Most of the time, they offer MP3, but I've seen the occasional OGG or FLAC.
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I'm not much of a music guy so I haven't bought music in a loooooong time. Probably the last time I bought it was through CDs when I was in High School.

If I do listen to music though, I just do it through Youtube really. Or I listen to whatever there is on the radio.
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MP3 was back in the days. but now I only listen music on youtube.
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CDs

https://imgur.com/w6RfaJo
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I prefer to burn a physical dollar.
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MP3. I buy CD's now and then but mostly just use MP3's these days.
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Vinyl.

I'll just stream anything I normally listen to and buy vinyl for the stuff that I really like. I'm not buying a digital song, sorry, that's a crazy notion in this day and age where 99% of music is available via Spotify or Amazon Music. For those realllllly indie artists that have like 5,000 sales per album, yeah, I will buy those digitally because they aren't on a streaming service, nor do they print vinyl.

Other: YouTube
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I haven't purchased music in years. But if I did it'd be MP3s, since that is what I convert all my music to anyway.
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CDs. Pretty much the only format Ive bought since 1987. Before that I bought cassette tapes.

The only time I buy music, I buy it in either CD or vinyl.
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ill buy CDs, cassettes, vinyl and digital from time to time.

my favorite is vinyl. just because you generally get large album artwork, a large lyric sheet and is generally a cooler package.

As a YouTube Red and Amazon Music Unlimited subscriber, I dont really buy music as such.
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I still buy CDs.
Nothing wrong with CDs since they're the best and right format anyway

dts
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Usually Ill buy the CD, then import to iTunes.

However, Im not as obsessive of owning a physical product with music like I am with movies / shows. I absolutely refuse to buy movies or shows digitally while a physical version exists, but music isnt as important to me.
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I keep thinking that the CD format should have been retired long ago, but the music industry can't seem to get its act together. All attempts at a replacement format have been feeble--not from a technical point of view, but in terms of marketing and available content.

I've been a fan of the DVD-Audio format, and would have liked to see it become the new standard, but it still hasn't gained traction after 15+ years of existence. Most importantly, it supports lossless 5.1 surround, which is much better than regular stereo. The higher resolution is nice too, and should result in DVD-A albums sounding slightly better than their CD counterparts. The main benefit, however, is the lossless 5.1 surround. I also like the fact that it is specifically an audio format and doesn't require players to have a screen. At one time, there were DVD-A players in some cars, but I'm not sure if any new cars still have them.

I haven't had any experience with SACD, but at least conceptually, I prefer PCM over DSD. In practical terms, I don't know if it makes any difference though.

I also haven't had any experience with HFPA Blu-ray. In terms of sound quality, it should be just as good as DVD-A. The only nit is that it isn't specifically an audio format--it's just a marketing initiative for regular Blu-rays that happen to feature a music album rather than video.

I definitely prefer to have a tangible product over buying digitally. However, for indie stuff that only gets released through places like Band Camp, I'll get the FLAC version.

MP3 and AAC (iTunes) are both lossy and are therefore unacceptable to me. There is a time and place to use lossy codecs, but not as a paid distribution format. I do not support this business concept at all.

With all that being said, I still primarily buy CDs, except in the rare case when something has a DVD-A version or if it's some indie music that doesn't have a physical release.
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I dont care for lossy either. Im not sure why DVD-A and SACD never caught on. Maybe enough people just didnt buy players. Or the auto industry didnt get into it. Maybe if so many people are content with compressed audio, theres no need for something better than a CD... it would be too niche and unprofitable.

It is quite surprising how long the CD has lasted, but then again I figured vinyl would be long dead by now.

I rarely buy music but when I do it's usually a cd.

BUYING music!?

Cds for idol and game soundtracks.

I don't buy any other type of music and just go the Youtube route for everything else.
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