Number of plays and exposure to humidity more than age. It takes a lot of plays to damage a record if you keep it clean.

I still have records that have yet to be released on CD.

CD's and MP3s
But since CDs aren't ideal for portable listening anymore, mostly mp3

No One Answered My ****ing Question.

Casettes are amazing. Analog is always a plus, you get 120+ minutes on one little tape, you get all the cool stuff, little screws, plastic case, magnetized tape, and an inlay. Awesome. It's the perfect medium for the underground who want to stay underground because most people will never take the time to rip from a casette. And the tape trading community is much nicer than any online sharing. The internet is so anonymous and effortless that you never really become part of anything no matter how much you download, with this, you can join the ranks of true occult elite.

What, no 8-track option??? ( I guess that would be "other"...)

In all seriousness though, MP3 is the way to go to have your music portable and easily accessible. I've also gotten into the habit of buying the CD's, or burning what I download to CD as back up, ever since my husband re-formatted our old computer and deleted all my music. I think I cried.

I've never even heard a vinyl, but I really want to, just to see if its as good as people say...

It's not. the only difference is that there is a slight fuzz to the sound, but that's just the needle dragging over the record itself. Anyone who thinks that "warmth" makes it sound better should start arguing that cds are better than mp3s because cds skip sometimes. It's just stupid. Anyway, sound fidelity isn't important, it's about the medium itself. Yeah.

That most certainly is not the only difference... Look up 'Loudness Wars' on wiki.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm trying to decide what format I should start collecting music in. I prefer to stay in one format but oh well.