I still buy tons of CDs, but mostly independent releases, and almost nothing from major labels other than archive stuff. Most new music on major labels is garbage from cretins whose only talent is for marketing and self-promotion (just look at yesterday’s Grammy nominees, only about four people worth listening to in the bunch). Downloading is for people who are too dumb, young or tonedeaf to care about sound quality. Maybe if they’d ever heard anything worth listening to, they’d start demanding to hear it clearly. /rant
Young people constantly using earbuds won't hear clearly for much longer anyway. They will soon need their music in "sign language" format
You want to get something REALLY worth listening to? Get Suzy Bogguss’ recent “American Folk Songbook.” What an amazing piece of work. Such talent.
Fortunately, I'm pretty flexible as to what I like.
Yep, I buy directly from the artists or from their independent labels (often enough the artists’ own.) I see no references on the printed materials that come with the CDs to the 4 majors. Let them starve. It’s also better music than the overproduced mainstream on the radio. Roots, Americana. These artists deserve our support.