Who actually pays for music downloads?

A question about : Who actually pays for music downloads?

I've always been quite curious about this?

I mean with youtubetomp3converter, and various torrent sites you can pretty much get any song or album for free these days.

Does anyone actually pay for them anymore?

Best answers:

• I have always paid for my downloads,I buy them from Itunes,would much prefer to pay for them and know that I havent picked up any nasty viruses on my laptop and anyway isnt it classed as theft????
• I certainly don't pay for music downloads... but that's because I don't think it's worth paying money for a retrograde step in audio quality and a lack of artwork - I buy my music on CD.
  Online, I use Spotify to discover new music. I used to use (and quite liked) Pandora too, although that's a bit of a pain as it only accepts US-based connections now.
  Actually... I have paid for three music downloads: one was to show support for a friend's music, one was because it was $3 in MP3 format or Ј25 on CD (I'll buy the CDs if I ever see them cheaper), and the other was a title no longer being pressed to CD, but available in FLAC format (there's no way I would have paid for that album in MP3 - it needs to be played loud!)
  I do think it's funny that video has gone from VHS to DVD to Blu-Ray, whilst audio has gone from CD to MP3... and ended up with the monstrosity that is Chav Pop - music that is engineered to sound relatively appealing (to chavs) when played on a mobile phone speaker...
• Maybe there's been a huge increase in streaming music through Spotify and Youtube and the like but my Dad was a musician, that's why I buy music.
  Unless there's a killer offer I try to stick to CD so I can rip them myself rather than download, but they get bought in batches whenever there's a sale. That's in contrast to when I was buying music week-in week-out and going to concerts up to twice a year before prices just got ridiculous.
• i get the free ones of amazon usually otherwise i buy them from itunes
• I buy them on itunes, if the price is reasonable.
• Is there a reason you are still buying them?
  Like a moral obligation because some people regard it as 'theft'?
  Or because you genuinely support the artist?
• Etta James has released her retirement album - she has given me great pleasure - I have no qualms about buying it on Itunes knowing a small proportion will reach her
  There is an ambiguity over downloading for free in so far as on the one hand some artists encourage it in the hope of getting more people to see them live whereas on the other if artists cannot make a living from recording and selling their music there will not be any
  Folk here argue whether torrents etc are legal or not but since they are robbing the musician of revenue in most cases then to my moral compass that is theft
• I would hope that the only free downloads people are getting are the legal ones.
• I don't see why I wouldn't pay for downloads, or do people expect musicians (and writers, photographers or anyone else involved with digital media) to live on thin air? I saw a thread on a Kindle forum today where someone asked if they had to pay for books Happy to download promotional freebies if it's something I want but otherwise I really don't have an issue with paying. Oh and I still buy vinyl when possible
  Edit: the last vinyl I bought (Peter Murphy - Ninth) had a voucher for a free mp3 download of the album, which was a nice surprise
• If ive heard the song on the radio or watched a youtube video and i liked it then yes i will buy it as i think the artist deserves to be paid for the album or single(whichever ive downloaded)
• I know that YouTube has got some good high quality stuff, but converting the sound out of a YouTube video will generally get you some pretty crap sound quality, and you're welcome to it. Downloading from music stores online will get you far higher quality (and DRM free these days) tracks. A tiny amount makes its way to the artist.
  I still prefer to buy the CD as I agree it's good sound quality. I also use Spotify and Last.fm, which sometimes sound a bit dodgy.
  I've downloaded plenty of torrents of music that I should be charged for. If I like it, I'll buy it. If not, it goes. If you're just in it for a free ride, you're simply helping rights holders like record companies and film companies persuade governments to start censoring (or trying to) the internet. Which just makes it harder to use these services legitimately.
  Thing that gets me is people that want free music, but are happy to pay for a ringtone?!!
• I buy CDs when I can afford and if I really like an artist because I want to see that they are getting their money. It's their job....I can't expect music from them if they are too poor to continue making it because no one is buying their CDs! Haha
  I listen to a lot of music on youtube though, if it's the odd track I like and not the whole band/artist. I don't want to buy a whole album when it's only one song I like. I have occasionally bought songs on itunes to download, but I don't really like doing that, I like something physical which is why I like CDs.
  I discover new music using last.fm mostly.
  But yes, mainly I pay for music I want.
• Yes, I pay for everything. Why should I take an artist's hard work for free? An mp3 is under a pound these days, and amazon for e.g quite often do cheap deals.
• no way would I pay for music downloads, for one you are paying for a lossy mp3 or aac format, whereas if you buy a CD you get lossless, which I then rip to lossless, meaning I can convert it to any format I like without any loss in quality (say if a device can't play the lossless file)
  in 5-10 years time when nothing uses (ie) mp3 format any more the people who have bought mp3 music will have to pay again to 'upgrade' to the right format or convert it at great sound quality loss.
  I buy all my music in CD format, I would only pay for music downloads if they were in a DRM free lossless format (ie ALAC/FLAC)