Only downloading music?!

I'm reading about people only downloading music these days instead of buying it.

I don't think I'm ever going to understand the mentality of people who solely download music without paying a penny for it, or people who solely pay to download music instead of getting a CD.

The saving is marginal, and unless you've got to sell an extra Big Issue to get a CD instead of a download, I think you're being ridiculous.

If you're looking to buy single tracks, then I guess that's fair enough because buying single CDs has always been an utterly ridiculous concept - you had to pay for a CD that only had one track that you really wanted to hear on it unless you were a collector.

But albums are a totally different kettle of fish. Albums have cover art, sleeve notes, printed lyrics and more importantly, they have art work that has been produced to suit the music.

Having that cover-art with a properly printed CD is something that downloads will not be able to top.

More importantly, unless you're short-sighted, you're going to want to back up all this music you're downloading, or you'll lose it and have to remember what you've downloaded, from where and find out how to download it again.

If you buy the CD, you always have it sat in your record collection ready for transferring into MP3 format at any format you choose, instead of having to take whatever bit-rate the music industry is offering you, and only in MP3.

For single tracks, buying downloads is cool with me.

For buying albums, stop being a cheapskate. Make sure you'll enjoy it by listening to it first, and then go and buy the sodding CD.