I hate buying CDs. Three years ago I tried unplugging my CD player and have been listening to MP3s exclusively ever since. I’ve already downloaded and listened to several of the albums below and liked them enough to own. When the albums arrive I will take each CD out of the jewel case exactly once, rip the songs to MP3, eject the CD from the computer, place them back into their jewel cases and throw them into a box with the the 500 or so other CDs which have never been unpacked since we moved.
CDs are obsolete, they don’t hold enough data (early eighties data compression), they don’t contain any meta-data about the music and they take up far too much space. Additionally I hate knowing that my purchases are going to help the RIAA continue to exploit artists and further erode my fair-use rights by lobbying Congress with half-truths. If there was any way to bypass the recording industry and send money directly to the artists, I would. I’m buying these CDs for convenience and because I know I should, but it feels like an obligation and is completely devoid of pleasure.
Anyway, I’m buying these:
- Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
- Craig Armstrong: As If to Nothing, The Space Between Us
- Moby: 18
- Tom Waits: Alice, Blood Money
