This is actually quite interesting. I think it might support Steven Fry's idea that when people are able to pay for music, they will.

And of course, when there's a fixed price for the music, people will either pay it or decide against it.

With the optional donation, people will probably pay more if they like the band and enjoy the music, which with fixed price records is not possible.

I remember back in the day when I would purchse three or four CDs a week. That was before the days of internet. Life was much simpler before the high technology. Today's world is as simple as clicking a mouse. You don't have to travel to get the latest album. Most of my music is out of print and if I do find a certain album it's going to cost more than it's worth. I would prefer a CD copy but it's not always available. However, everything isn't available in mp3 format and iTunes offer some partial albums as appossed to full albums-who want's to buy half an album anyways. I'll purchase a CD or two a month but most of my music collecting is done through iTunes purchases. And I'll inport the music that isn't available on iTunes. Times are changing whatever we like it or not.

I tend to download a lot of my music, as not much of it is available in stores here. Not to mention there are not that many stores who sell CD's any more. The online digital world is becoming bigger by the minute. My main reason for not paying for the downloads is that if I have to pay to download a song, why not give me the exact quality of the rip, not just some bogged down version to save space at the extraction site. Itunes gives out crappy quality tracks, and FLAC and Wave websites do not offer a great selection of titles as of yet.

However, I do support my artists by going to concerts and buying merchandise directly off their website. I also buy CD's when I get the chance off their website if its available, but as usual some bands are just so hard to get. Another issue is that CD's will once become obsolete, and I am not as ease with that, hence me preferring digital. I just wish there was a website (trusted and legit one) out there that offered high quality digital downloads of a vast collection of artists at a fair price. When that comes around, I will gladly repurchase all my downloads.

as long as mediafire is not shut down, i'd happily download

The only money I have spent on music in the last 4-5 years has been $2-3(at a time) on name your own price albums off of Bandcamp. I simply cannot afford to pay for a full priced album with the small amount of money I have left after paying bills. And if I'm going to spend money on records I like to know that my money is going(mostly) to the people who actually made the music.

well i do both

most of the time if i DL for free its just one or 2 songs just so i can get a feel for the artist ya know

i do buy cd's still just becasue i grew up on cd's and i love them ..BUT i only buy cd's of bands i REALLLLYYY LOVE

if its just some lower grade bands i DL that two



hey what do u want from me i dont make alot of money ...****

^^if you want to get a feel of an act, you might as well watch a youtube

infinitely more variety and more tracks available

I do enjoy picking up magazines, reading about artists I have never heard of and then listening to them on Youtube. I have discovered so many great artists this way, its incredible.

I don't have enough money to go and buy the 20+ albums I listen to per week. I do have Spotify, but I am not quite sure if that counts as "buying" music. More that you are paying to listen to it, I suppose.

If I truly LOVE an album, I will always try and buy it, but I am not going to spend £10 on an album that I will listen to once.

^^you can cite me as a total wastrel when it comes to purchasing music

i used to spend about 500 quid on albums every month