Why I still buy CDs...

So here’s the thing: I dislike people who file share or torrent. Not personally, but in a sort of detached, ethical way. What is the point of ripping off the artists you like by not paying for their music? If you just want to listen to it, Spotify or Grooveshark it. If you like it and want it on your iPod or whatever, buy it, because it’s worth it, right?

Don't get me wrong, there's been many a time where I've been very tempted to break my pretentious little vow and hit LimeWire. When you haven't been paid or have to pay bills in a week it really doesn't go well with stocking up on new CDs, especially at the travesty of a price HMV will charge you for one.

But in my humble opinion, by downloading you miss out on something. Even iTunes or other legal downloads seem to lack a certain something. I think there's a real magic about CDs.

Take this little case. Saturday morning, walking home after a night out and I dive inside a record store on Inverness Street to get out of the cold. By record store I really mean that, it's a small little independent shop full of vinyl and second hand CDs that is more of a basement cavern than a shop. It is b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l, full of music geek gold. Downstairs I find an original copy of the first CD issues of Lou Reed’s 'Transformer' album, a physical copy of the first Foo Fighters single ('This is a Call' if you're interested). It's all mostly cheap, even 'collectors' item like these, and the range and depth of the stock is staggering. And then, in a little corner sandwiched between 'metal' and 'glam' I find this...

What is it? It is a 1993 original copy of Nirvanas 'Heart Shaped Box' single, including on the b-side the pretty fucking rare song 'Marigold' which is, as far as I know, recorded by the band nowhere else (the Foos now play it live). Even more exciting it still has (on the back side) the 'Promo copy only, not for sale' sticker. Somewhere, just before the singles release, some eager beaver of a music hack got sent this to review and was probably very excited...

So I bought it, up loaded it to my iTunes and didn't even care that I already had two of the songs on it. It’s a cool thing to have, one of my favourite songs, in a pretty rare format with a nice little back story to it.

So regardless of whether or not you like Nirvana or whatever, surely you can't deny that that's a lot cooler than just torrenting it. Right?

xx