I'm interested to find out how the majority of peeps on here get their sounds. P2P file sharing sites like Limewire or Bitcomet, Itunes store, emusic, Spotify or do some folks still go out and buy CDs, or in Geezer's case vinyl?

Personally I haven't downloaded much music over the internet but I am being pushed by a music mad 11 year old daughter. I used to occaisionally use Morpheus when it first came out but haven't used it for years.

Be grateful for all advice and for details of the benefits and drawbacks with whichever you use.

Thanks

Have to admit I haven't bought cds for a couple of years.

I use BitTorrent and mostly Isohunt to download from. Easy and quick and there's always good soundquality. Though I usually buy cds from my favourite bands like Tool and Big Bang to keep them alive and feel it's nice to have the real thing from them. And I never download Pink Floyd, I've got all their works on cd.

I very rarely buy CDs. I think I've bought maybe 1 CD in the past few years. I regularly use Spotify, but I do use Napster from time to time, even though Napster is around £10 a month.

I like giving my money away....thus iTunes.

Still buy old vinyl.

Still buy Cd's on a whim.

Occasionally use Soulseek. Only music is shared, and much less likely to get viruses through corrupt files

I like giving my money away....thus iTunes.

Me too.

Have to say when you go away on holiday nowadays and take your ipod with hundreds/thousands of your favourite tunes on - it is pretty incredible really.

Although for my favourite artists, I still do go out and buy the CD - especially if it's a limited edition.

The flip side of this great technology of today is what kids are missing out on though. Buying a vinyl LP back in the '70's & early '80's was a big deal. It was as much about the cover and all the inserts as it was about the music.

I really miss that.

I rarely buy a CD nowadays....I never seem to like all the songs for some reason.

I rarely buy a CD nowadays....I never seem to like all the songs for some reason.

Exactly! That's what's great about buying iTunes - if all you want is one track, that's all you have to buy. Apart from that, living in France means I can't always find in the shops the CDs I want.

i usually, Ahem, find them on the net first. if i really like it i will go and buy it.

Rapishare premium account, well worth the money.

forumw.org

warez-bb.org

All the music, movies, games, anything you need, super fast download speeds.

I buy CDs/listen to Spotify/ occasionally Itunes. I used to use e-music but the selection is limited.

If I had an 11 year I'd install Spotify on her/his computer first.

It varies a lot. I buy a lot of 7" singles in Charity shops, mostly, because I have a couple of jukeboxes to feed. Also buy classic albums on vinyl in the same shops if I see them.

Friends and family will quite often give me CDs, either an artist or a compilation, and, if I like it I will try to find more, either on CD or the internet.

I signed up for WE7.com, allegedly legally free downloads. There is a shedload of stuff on there, the drawback is that each track has a 10second advert at the start. I use Audacity to remove that.

Used to use Morpheus, but haven't looked at it for months - I think it got bolloxed by viruses some time ago.

I VERY recently succumbed to the world of iPod, so have been looking at iTunes - don't like it at all, it f**ks up the order of stuff and I am too old to understand how to make it do what I want. Got a 160Gb iPod classic, all my digital music, 10 complete days worth of audiobooks and still haven't made a dent in the total storage on it.

Somebody else has also recommended Soulseek to me - so I'm going to give that a go.

Kev

I use Spotify to decide whether an album is worth buying and then get the CD. I still like the feeling of just going through shelf after shelf of CDs to see what the store has at that moment. Buying online is easy, but I like the feeling of surprise when I find some CD really cheap. It's the sort of like finding a little buried treasure, which is something you won't get with buying online or with downloading. Sure, it's easy and quick when you can just have it on your computer by just clicking a few buttons, but how many of you have fond memories of your first iTunes download? Do you even remember what it was? I bet most of you can remember what was the first CD, vinyl, cassette or 8-track that you bought. I like my iPod...it's such an improvement on my MD and CD players that I had in the past, but I think there's a certain charm to having the actual album in your hand and putting the CD into the player or placing the needle on the vinyl. Oh, and I used to just love compiling mix-tapes on my old cassette deck. It took some serious planning to make a good mix-tape. Although the basic idea is still there when you compile a playlist, but it's just not the same.

My first vinyl was a 78 - One Night With You - Elvis Presley

Don't remember what my first E.P.was. (youngsters consult an Old People's dictionary)

My first L.P. was Donovan What's Been Did and What's Been Hid. (I still have it)

Can't remember what my first cassette was - but probably Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen

My first C.D. was Desire - Bob Dylan

My first iTune download was Antony and the Johnsons.

You're right, Maksimov about the compilations - there's not the same effort goes into it, so it's not as satisfying. Oh dear, that sounds a bit sad!

First album on vinyl - Rod Stewart "Never A Dull Moment"

First single on vinyl - Thunderclap Newman "Something In The Air"

First EP - not sure, probably a Trojan Explosion 6 track compilation

First album on CD - not sure, but I think it was AC/DC "The Razor's Edge"

First iTunes download - Martha Reeves & The Vandellas "Forget Me Not" (I've only downloaded single tracks so far - this one wasn't on any of my Martha albums)

My first vinyl was a 78 - One Night With You - Elvis Presley

Don't remember what my first E.P.was. (youngsters consult an Old People's dictionary)

My first L.P. was Donovan What's Been Did and What's Been Hid. (I still have it)

Can't remember what my first cassette was - but probably Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen

My first C.D. was Desire - Bob Dylan

My first iTune download was Antony and the Johnsons.

You're right, Maksimov about the compilations - there's not the same effort goes into it, so it's not as satisfying. Oh dear, that sounds a bit sad!

what was your first phone, Alexander Graham Bells other telephone for the first ever phone conversation?

You're right, Maksimov about the compilations - there's not the same effort goes into it, so it's not as satisfying. Oh dear, that sounds a bit sad!

I remember we used to make all these mix-tapes and then even make our own cover art for the tapes. Simply just writing the song titles wasn't enough and sometimes it took more time to do the "artwork" for the cassette sleeve than it took to copy the album onto the cassette. This was more a rule than an exception when my friends I were in the middle of our big punk phase(I still listen to punk, but for a while during the teen years it was pretty much all we listened to) as we were heavily into this DIY thing associated with punk and the albums were so short that you pretty much always spent more time on scribbling, doodling and placing random stickers on the cassette sleeve than it took to copy the album. The extra effort made your cassette copy even more special.

what was your first phone, Alexander Graham Bells other telephone for the first ever phone conversation? :D

He only invented the telephone so that he could talk to me when his wife wasn't around!

i usually, Ahem, find them on the net first. if i really like it i will go and buy it.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I do. The problem I usually have though, is the stuff I like enough to pay for is very hard to get hold of on CD. I had to buy Girl Talk's album straight from the record label, from America and it never even arrived. :D I finally managed to get hold of a copy of Example's 'We Didn't Invent the Remix' and I have to hope that it actually arrives.

Anyway, I generally use µTorrent and isohunt or sometimes I manage to get hold of it on a private tracker. I also quite often use blogs to get my music, generally through Hype Machine or something... and if I can't find it on there, I'll be on shareminer, or maybe even a direct search through google.

I pay for the stuff I really like, but more importantly I go to the gigs of artists I like (when I can afford to), that way the record label doesn't take a massive cut of my money.

My first single I bought was Bas Luhrman's (Everybody's free) to Wear Sunscreen, the first album was The Simpson's album (I was young ) and I haven't bought any vinyl as I don't have a player.... I wouldn't mind some decks, but then I'd have to start paying for all my music... which would be a pain. :P

Spotify mostly, if I have to get a cd for the car etc, I use Limewire, quick and simple.

Thanks guys appreciate all the info.

I am leaning towards Tim's recommendation about installing Spotify on my daughter's laptop. Any drawbacks to Spotify I should be aware of?

Nibs comments about buying vinyl as a youngster was spot on. Buying an album was often a big event, ( I particularly remember the wait and anticipation for Stevie Wonder's Songs In The Key Of Life to be released), and trawling round record shops searching for obscure albums and singles.

The only bad thing about Spotify is the commercial that pops up from time to time - unless you have premium!

And as far as I know, it works as a stream/torrent, so it can lag up your other PC/Console's connection while doing stuff on them (when running spotify on another PC at the same time). Have only experienced this while playing FIFA 10 online on the xbox tho.

Anyway, Spotify is the best program out there if you want to be legal and have access to lots of music!

Like Andy said, the commercials that interrupt the music is the one big bad thing about the free version of Spotify, so if you think you can live with the interruptions, then I don't see a reason why you shouldn't use it. It is totally legal after all and they've got a pretty good ever growing database of music. There are some artists and record labels that are still missing because they haven't made a deal with Spotify, but it's much better than when I started using it. Even back then I really liked the interface and that hasn't changed as they've only made it more easy to search for music. It doesn't have the social aspect of Last FM or the excellent music recommendations of Pandora, but I think it's still the best of its kind.

If you need an invite Just let me know.

I managed a couple of days with the ads before going premium. The premium service also offers a higher bit rate plus I can use it on my mobile. I connect my phone to my network at home download playlists and then use these offline, brilliant.

I like giving my money away....thus iTunes.

Erugh, you too?

I used to use Limewire - then I got my Macbook and didn't want anything like Limewire on my laptop - so I use iTunes. Still buy CDs though.