Apparently, people in Japan still like to buy CDs...

[Uchu]

Japan's 'slow' adoption of digital is more to do with record labels trying to prevent it. Similar to how game renting is 'illegal'. It is not the people standing against 'evil' downloads. Oh, and Tsutaya... rent a CD, copy it, return it, done, for less than half the price of a download. Oh, and the second hand market in Japan is so much better different than in the west. Offering even more choice for music, again sometimes much cheaper than a download of the same album.


The digital scene in Japan is interesting to read about, but also annoying as I would like access to more digital content but alas, no (at least not without jumping through a few hoops). But then I have many different options I wouldn't have had back in the west. I don't think its fair to paint Japan as being slower (or faster) to adopt new tech than other countries as it really depends on what technology you're talking about. Too much generalising going on. But i do recommend reading about the history of it, and while you're at it check out video game rentals in Japan too.


As for me, I like digital for some things, but love having physical copies for others. As we're talking about music, i get digital for normal music, but like to collect game soundtracks in physical form.

[Mirage]

Another issue I have with downloading is censorship. There is no real way to verify that someone if someone is of legal age online to download songs that contain profanities. Music is very weakly censored, in my opinion; how many times do you go into a record store, and you see a little black and white sticker that reads "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content"? Even then, I still don't think they stop you from getting an album with that label on it.

I recently learned in one of my college classes that back in the day, artists were more discreet about cursing in music, as well as singing about sex, drugs, and alcohol; it was not what you did, it was how you did it. They were more discreet about it. Today however, with all of the indiscretion of sex, drugs, alcohol, and profanity so weakly censored, it's very easy for a child to obtain.

So you're saying it is incredibly easy for them to buy such music in regular stores, yet still use lack of control as an argument against online purchases. Also, there is no legal age for listening to profane lyrics.

Also, you need a credit or debit card to buy things online, and these aren't handed out to minors without their parents' consent, so please explain to me how there is less control.

[SuperMillionaire]

No, they are very much able to get it. Music is very poorly censored.

And in Germany, they like CDs too.

[Mirage]

Yeah so why did you bring that up in relation to online purchases?

[Spuuky]

Censorship is awful.

[SuperMillionaire]

Because it would be easier to check for someone's I.D. in person, in the store, rather than on the internet.

[Mirage]

But nobody does, so that's a moot point. On the internet, you wouldn't even be able to buy something if you weren't given a credit card by your parents. This means parents have control over what sort of stuff their kids can buy, and what they buy with it is their choice and responsibility.

Of course, you could use the credit card of an adult friend you have, but how is that any different from having that friend buy the CD in stores for you?

[SuperMillionaire]

True, but still, there is no possible way of asking for ID online.

[noxious.sunshine]

Here we go again with the censorship argument.

If you don't like it, don't listen. Plain and simple.

[Shiny]

We put too much trust in digital technology. Also external drives are known to often fail and your back up can fail as well so it's good to have another tangible backup. CD's, dvd's, and tapes are great for archiving. Quite often cd's will have information that will not otherwise be presented in the digital download such as the cover art, lyrics, information about the songs such as samples used, etc. I like to have them sometimes for that reason. I have only bought about four cd's recently because I enjoyed the whole album and the art in the booklet. If I only liked a few songs digital download for those songs makes more sense.

[Spuuky]

No, we put way too much importance on having things be recoverable. Who cares if a drive storing music fails, unless it is an original composition that is somehow only in your possession it is trivial to re-acquire. Almost anything is trivial to re-acquire.

And you don't even need most things you would be backing up anyway. If my hard drive fails tomorrow, I will lose a lot, and none of it will really matter, and I'll get new versions of the things that do.

[Mirage]

CDs often fail after a decade or two too. They are in no way a secure way to store data, even if you keep them in their covers all the time.