Those articles are either out of date or as misinformed as you are:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1711?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

I tend to listen to tracks on YouTube first. My rule of thumb is; If I like at least three songs from an album, I'll likely order the album online (or go out and buy it).

I generally don't like the tracks to be in Mp3 format once I put them on my iTunes, so I change them to AAC if they're not that already. Or MP4, which I don't mind too much.

As a whole, I enjoy the cases, album artwork, CD, logos, lyric/picture booklets and the general feeling of actually owning the physical thing, not just digitally.

sorry, only appreciate "lossless" (although there is no truly lossless format, but mp3 is probably the worst) media.

Wut? Rights-wise, a CD is no different from digital downloads, except you can resell it. You do not own the music on the CD, the rightsholder does.

Did you forget that it was once nominally illegal to rip your own CDs, or are you too young to remember? Blah blah stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any meant, electronic, mechanical and whatnot, without the prior permission. If the digital download music is DRM-free (and it is), what they can stop you from doing is no different than with CDs.

Now, let the above never stop anyone from hating Apple (it certainly doesn't stop me), but seriously, wtf dude.

My friend showed me his lossless, remastered (2009?) Beatles collection and it sounds pretty damn sweet. Um, mono over stereo as well. All that hard panning is a little too extreme for me.

the album where stereo is better for me is Sgt.Pepper. But i'm in the minority.

YouTube? I don't even... You'd be much better off using the likes of Grooveshark. Easier to use and much better all around for that kind of use. It's very handy, as far as I'm concerned, but I wouldn't ever "buy" anything from there.

I'm buying almost all my digital music from http://bandcamp.com

Three main reasons:
1) Best artists I discovered are selling from there (VikingGuitar FTW !)
2) Files are DRM-free
3) Different audio format, especially Ogg FLAC

For me the low quality on YT is actually a reason why I prefer it for checking out some music before buying it (as is the fact that it usually requires some effort to find all songs from an album there). When I finally get the CD I at least feel some change that makes me feel like I'm being rewarded for the purchase. :P

In Poland we have flat rates, you know.

man, there are not nearly as many people doing the mp3 downloading thing as i thought. I love it to death, i can buy only the songs i like and i can listen to them whenever i feel like it, i don't have to wait around for a good song to come on like on the radio.


internet radio was a good idea too, but honestly, like i said, i just don't have enough control over what i get to listen too.

When I buy from iTunes, onto a cd it goes. Then I don't have to worry about what happens. :-)

I prefer CDs when possible. But otherwise I buy my files at cdbaby.com or from Google Play. Ideally I only buy ones that are both DRM free and full CD quality.

I'm sure there are other shops out there, but those are the ones that I've used recently. I absolutely refuse to buy anything from the ITMS.
It was never illegal to rip a CD in the US. It was and is illegal to rip DVDS provided they use CSS on them, but it was never illegal to rip a CD. It always fell into the fair use category as long as you kept the files and the disc in the same place.

Now, I do know that in other parts of the world that is not the case. I'm not sure if they ever legalized CD ripping in the UK.
Not to side track, but did they compress that all to hell like they often do with remasters?

Hmmm, it happens sometimes, but I think the 2009 Beatles remasters were really well done. The remaster of Nevermind by Nirvana, on the other hand, was some of the worst over-compressed garbage I've ever heard. I think it's just the luck of the draw with these things.