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I purged my MP3s I had downloaded peer-to-peer because of poor quality and bad metadata. I've went back to buying CDs. I would love to have lossless downloads become the new business model, in FLAC.
Of course, not vinyl—that will survive an EMP. Not even CDs, although some have reached their half-life and are decaying. But my DAT cassettes were all transferred to HD, with optical backups. Now working on ¼" studio tapes, which are also decaying at an alarming rate. Digitizing is the only rescue. On the whole, though, the formats most deserving to be tossed out are MP3, WMA, and lossy AAC. Older analog formats may become irretrievable. Lossy digital is simply irredeemable.
Yes. Got rid of my LPs when I moved house 15 years ago. Don't regret it, except for the odd title that has never reached CD or SACD. I was glad to never to hear a click, plop, wow or end-of-side compression or distortion, but then I listen to wide-ranging classical music.
I'm glad I had good enough equipment and self confidence to realize I need not make a sideways or even backwards move soundwise to a format with hyped sound capabilities: CD. So I still have my 2000+ LPs. I also will not replace the CDs & SACDs I've acquired over the years. Not many people have the money to do that and end up with the same varied and deep collection. Besides, as I get older, those formats just sound better and better!
Cassettes and reel-to-reel. I never liked cassettes and used them mainly for the car; with reel-to-reel, the idea was to preserve vinyl by recording and then archiving new discs—lots of fun, but never really practical. Master tapes? Interesting, but beyond my budget. Never ever ever considered unloading the vinyl. Actually, that's not really true, I did look crossways at a few embarrassing Aerosmith and Al Stewart LPs (et al) and eventually consigned them to distant shelf.
You mean throwing out my wire recording of Benny Goodman in Berlin? Or my reel-to-reel recording of Solti's Rite of Spring? For what CD, SACD, DVD-A, downloads? Look at what we're doing. We just don't get it and every new format is worse sounding, but more convenient. How about a new format that's not for the lazy, but the music lover? Oh, we do: records.
Still have 300 cassettes I never play, all my 800 LPs that I do, all my 750 CDs (and I still buy some), and all of my downloads that I travel with and listen to at home. There is a lot of music that doesn't make the jump to the next format that I still like to listen to. With a lot of the current music being hip-hop or worse, there is no reason not to listen to the songs that have lyrics with some thought to them or actual instrumental virtuosity. "Busta a cap in your a@#" doesn't do it for me.