Download tunes instead of purchasing them as a CD

Download tunes instead of purchasing them as a CD at the store

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

While I know that saying this could be the death knell for the high street record stores but it is better to download tunes instead of purchasing them at the store.

The average price of a CD is about $15, and about the same in British Pounds, whereas the download is only about $10 or even less, depending.

Each month, more than 45 tons of CDs become obsolete – outdated or unwanted – and end up in landfills. Many, it has to be said, are data CDs but a great many are audio CDs that people have ripped to MP3 and then put onto their MP3 players, and the computer hard drive.

The manufacture of the CDs, their cases, etc.; consider all that energy used and wasted. The oil for the CDs, the silver with which they are coated, and then the energy used in producing them. Then the energy used in transporting them, and so forth. Downloading – though not “carbon” neutral – nevertheless has a much smaller environmental footprint as does the same album on CD.

And, if you still want a CD then you do have the choice to burn your own audio CD with software, free software, that can be had for the simple download as well. That is what I tend to do with my compilations that I acquire from the Net.

© 2011