so who's buying digital releases?

[djshiva]

i asked because i am looking into starting a netlabel soonish, and i was curious about the interest for digital downloads of hard techno.

i personally have been unable to afford vinyl in quite some time, and have been buying a lot of digital tunes.

i find that it cuts out the filler tracks (i buy only the tunes on the eps that i like), and i can get a shit ton more music with 50 bucks than i could before (especially taking shipping out of the equation).

i still want to buy a few tunes here and there on vinyl, but the prices versus the money coming in just cannot justify too much money outlay for vinyl anymore (sad as i find that).

perhaps if the economy for those of us in the US who are not rich corporations actually got better this might change, but for the foreseeable future, i am enjoying sitting in my underwear buying tunes and having them in a few minutes.

[Clit Commander]

There are tracks that are worth the $2 download, there are tracks that are worth $12 to have on vinyl. So, yes.

I think is also in part to low funds and poor selection at the shop over here. Every time I go to Berlin for a long weekend, the 22+ record stores has me like a kid at a candy store.

[Jay Pace]

i still want to buy a few tunes here and there on vinyl, but the prices versus the money coming in just cannot justify too much money outlay for vinyl anymore (sad as i find that).

Couldn't agree more.

[DJ Becka]

I buy both.....but to be honest, I am finding less and less reasons for buying vinyl anymore except for the novelty of having stuff on vinyl - the costs add up and I'm not miss moneybanks over here that I can drop hundreds of dollars on vinyl. On the other hand, I still like having a physical product in my hand, which you cant get with digital. I also like the whole social aspect of going to a record shop, bullshitting with the owner and people in the store, trading ideas about music, recommending new tracks for each other to check out, etc etc - and it is a shame this is being replaced by the digital era where people dont even need to leave their house to go buy music. Sure, it's convenient, but so many things - not just the vinyl market - are being replaced by computers and the internet, making people lazy and lose interest in having any social contact with the outside world. (a whole other discussion, but anywhoooooo....) I like the fact that with digital you are free to choose the tracks you want, rather than be forced to buy an entire vinyl ep for one track, so I'm not condemning it. I switched to Serato too, so for things I can get digitally, I do.

[t-dj]

1 time only shopping at bleep.com for some super-rare Peacefrog and Warp stuff which was not anywhere available for a reasonable price, then subsequently also cut 2 of the downloaded tracks to dubplates.
I plan to start a mp3 shop for my vinyl label later this year but I'm definetly not in a hurry. Personally I am not comfortable with having "releases" sitting on a harddrive only, mp3 audio especially. I reject any DRM attached "un-music" altogether.

[francois]

still like having a physical product in my hand, which you cant get with digital. I also like the whole social aspect of going to a record shop, bullshitting with the owner and people in the store, trading ideas about music, recommending new tracks for each other to check out, etc etc -

Thats the who point-vinyl has a tengible element to it, a smell and feel and tactile nature-It also looks great having a large wall-to-wall vinyl collection, granted perhaps 50% may be duff, but you had a reason to buy it in the first place. When was the last time someon invited you up to see their mp3 collection? ;-)

[Ritzi Lee]

For the people who still buy vinyl:
Enjoy it as long as you can,
because in the near future this will disappear.

[djshiva]

Thats the who point-vinyl has a tengible element to it, a smell and feel and tactile nature-It also looks great having a large wall-to-wall vinyl collection, granted perhaps 50% may be duff, but you had a reason to buy it in the first place. When was the last time someon invited you up to see their mp3 collection? ;-)

true enough. but after moving a rather large vinyl collection over 10 times in the last 10 years, i can honestly say i am less enamored of the "tangibility" of vinyl than ever before...

[MorePunkThanFunk]

as a label we do both vinyl and mp3 but tbh mp3 is hardly a money spinner in techno yet, we sell a fair amount of mp3's but not enough to realistically be an mp3 only label. admitadly there's no over head's with mp3's but is it worth relasing tracks if you only gonna sell a few.