Isn't that "Just buy CDs" advice exactly what the music industry is hoping for? It's clear that the RIAA (amongst others) have tolerated MP3s and the sites that the sell them only because to do otherwise would ruin what's left of their credibility. But it seems equally clear that the RIAA has declared that while it might tolerate the selling of MP3s, it certainly isn't going to like it. Hence DRMs, and all of the restrictions that come along with them. The idea has to be that, "We'll give them the technology, sort of, but it'll be so awful that they'll come back to our bread and butter, the CD."

I'm not sure there's a better solution, but it seems awfully convenient that as consumers, we're left thinking that we should turn back to the CD.

I would agree. They're constantly whining about the sale price of singles and how the price should really be $1.99 for the new Kevin Federline single, while the oldies that no one cares about can be $.89. It's pure greed.

Yes, please realize the many ways that you support the RIAA in your daily life. Don't just buy CDs. Buy USED CDs so that the RIAA does not get more money. Do not listen to the radio, because the RIAA is well compensated for that.

Support truly independent music.. there's a ton of it, search it out.

I like instant gratification way too much to buy CDs anymore. If something I know I'll like shows up in iTunes, or I suddenly get a craving for, say, Duran Duran, I'll buy it there. If I hear something I like on my boyfriend's iPod, I'll copy the digital from him and buy it on vinyl. I only ever buy CDs for my dad nowadays. Looking in iTunes it would appear I've bought about 1000 songs (nearly all as part of an album) from iTMS. I've burned all of them to at least one backup CD, which can be ripped by me or any of my friends for DRM-free usage later.

I'm a house/trance fan and it's really hard separating the dreck from the sublime cuts at times.

Amoeba Records used bins: solution to all that ailed me. Double CDs for $5-7.00. Even the misses don't sting. And the selection available boggles.

The recording industry and distribution companies will have to face facts eventually: The price of music is much too high. Who wants to pay 99 cents for a song that you may only end up listening to a couple of times? This is simply more money than most consumers are willing to shell out, especially for a lot of music. I bet if the price were lowered to 25 cents per song, people would be much more willing to try out new music, and they'd buy more than four times the number of songs they're buying now. (And they'd be much less likely to look for free sources, which now include such legal and relatively convenient channels as YouTube and Internet radio stations.) Not that I expect this to happen any time soon -- historically, the record companies' greed and short-sightedness have put them behind the curve on every innovation, and downloading is just the latest one.

Wasn't the point to have iTunes Music Store drive iPod sales.. not the other way around?

I used to pay for Napster to download songs. But transferring them to my husband's computer was next to impossible, and the TRUE reason I'd bought them (to burn onto CDs to listen to in the car) didn't work. At all. It's LESS of a hassle to use kazaa (which, I don't anymore - spyware, y'know) and get things illegally than to download songs legally. That strikes me as rather bizarre.

This honestly doesn't surprise me. I do not download music. What I do, is go to the library and get the CD's there and rip them to my computer. Also, I like to trade CD's with my friends. It always works out nicely :)

Here's what you do. Take one computer to play the mp3s, but have the audio output going from that computer to another computer that will record audio and convert it to mp3s. So even if you play the mp3s with the DRM encoding, the recording computer won't see it and simply hear the audio. It takes a while if you don't know which of your mp3s are encoded, but re-recording it without any DRM should fix the ban.

It may be somewhat stupid/redundant/(insert insult here), but I use Rhapsody to make any purchases, burn them to CD's and then load them from CD's to iTunes to load them on my iPod. That way I've always got a hard copy on CD.

The irony certainly isn't lost on the fact that the same corporate giants *cough**Sony**cough* that would throw your grandmother in jail for ripping her collection of John Denver record albums to MP3's are all sweetness and sunshine when it comes to selling you a $300 player for all that (il)legal music.

Gotta love corporate hypocrisy. Have your cake and eat it too...(or have somebody else's cake and eat it too, and save yours for later when nobody's around).

DO NOT BUY CDs! Your friendly neighborhood library has more than enough selection of anything you'd find in a record store...

Plus as others posted, there is plenty of independent music out there, most times far better than anything the RIAA produces, and without the oily aftertaste of knowing that you gave money to those turds.

Im not 100% on this but I believe that used CD retailers also pay royalties, just a smaller percentage. They are still making money from the music. I dated a girl that worked at a used CD store a few years back, and remember something to this effect.

I use iTunes but I don't own an iPod. I just burn CDs. I find it funny that I buy more music a year from iTunes than people who own iPods.

I would use one of the indie services if they had more movie soundtracks (scores)...or video game soundtracks...or music from Japan...

Another reason not to buy CDs is that they come with their own DRM. Some of it silently installs on your system when you first insert the CD (not just Sony Music CDs) and some if it will simply not allow the CD to be played on some players. Check out the DRM restrictions on Coldplay's X&Y if you want a good laugh.

Second, the idea of using one computer to record mp3s played from another computer is not a good idea at all. MP3 is a lossy format. Ripping an mp3 to another mp3 only compounds the data lost.

I know their legality in the States is questionable, but allofmp3.com really has the right idea. Their price structure is beyond fair, hell I would pay a little more, and the fact that I can choose to download a number of formats (including raw audio) that will work on most media players out there is fantastic. Couple that with the lack of any DRM and it's no wonder they're as popular as they are - second only to iTunes in Europe, countries in which they don't even advertise!

Media industries have fought every manner of publicly sold recordable media. Cassette and video tapes, CD-Rs, you name it. The RIAA and music labels even tried to get used CD stores outlawed in the 90's! There are two ways to get them to lay off:
Research and exercise your right to fair use.
Check out EFF from time to time and vote against public officials who blindly drink the RIAA kool-aid.