I know myself personally I buy music, with that said heres my whole (short) reasoning. Years ago I got sick of buying music and ending up liking only the one song on it, $16 for a CD and liking only the one song you heard in the first place kinda sucks. I started downloading songs, but I felt bad, so instead of being cheap I downloaded the whole soundtrack. If I still only liked the one song or even 2-3 I deleted THE WHOLE SOUNDTRACK if I wasn't going to buy it. But if I liked it I kept the downloaded OST (unless it was bad quality) and bought the actual soundtrack. Thus making sure people get paid.

So the question is (and I am sure people won't be totally honest):

1. Do you buy the soundtrack once you hear something? As in right now you are "sampling" something?

2. How do feel about game music?

Games don't usually have OST. Companies don't like when people rip the music but then again they don't bother selling the music even though they could get money. 75% of my music is game music. I would hands down buy game soundtracks for what I have if companies would release them.

I used to buy CDs all of the time and still occasionally do if the majority of songs are to my liking. As far as Game OSTs go they are a hard to find product in U.S. stores. In fact out of all of the Final Fantasy Soundtracks I have only two have actually been purchased from a store (like FYE), and they weren't even the full OST only certain selections. With that said I think American fans of videogame music are missing out since you can really only find full OST albums online, which usually requires a credit or debit card. I still download mp3s and don't really feel too bad about it especially if its just the one song or if I already own the CD but its too badly scratched up for my computer to read. There was a really interesting debate in the forums a while back involving Sarah and some other member about Square-Enix related music being posted in GH, and she made some really good points in it. So all-in-all I guess it's really up to the individual to decide whether downloading music is okay without actually buying the cd. As for downloading game music, there is really no other option besides having it special ordered, and again almost always requires a credit card, which I think most people don't see worth having just to buy videogame OSTs.

I spend several hundreds of dollars a year on music, and considering I'm in college, that's a lot of money. There are certain artists I steadfastly support and I legally buy every bit of music they release. A lot of artists in general, though, are unreliable. It sucks to take a chance on someone and not like them. It just happened to me a few months ago. I bought two albums by the same artist (I heard they were vastly different) on the recommendation of a friend who actually knows him, and I really didn't like the sound. It was a waste of thirty bucks, but I still did it legally.

I primarily seek stuff that's out of print or not available for purchase. If I can buy it, it has a very low priority.

That's what I did with Depeche Mode. I am quite an addict to Depeche Mode music and when I heard that a Dave Gahan solo album was out I went and bought it, figuring that it would be just a good quality as DM since it's "Dave Gahan". But sadly his solo work was not nearly as emotional or engaging as Depeche Mode's. I only spent $5 on it if I remember correctly, so I didn't feel ripped off. It was a learning experience to say the least. I am still interested in collecting the rest of the Roxette CDs that are out there that I have yet to acquire.

Depending on if I really want the CD, I'll buy it, but I'm a poor college bum...so I rarely ever buy a CD.

I believe that if you like the band enough, you should buy a cd to help support them.

I'll still download mp3s of my favorite songs and bands, but if I find the cd, I'll buy it anyway.

If I had the money I'd buy them. I hate being a pirate, but I have no money to spend on a few CD's every few months and I want the music, ya know? I wish I could make the companies see that. I know its hard on the artists who make millions...

Even if I have the music on my comp, I'll still go out and buy it if I like it.

Only music that I don't buy, is gamerips that are better than the original OST. Otherwise I just buy the CD. If I download it first, I usually get the CD sooner or later afterwards.

i have around 400 cds

I don't buy music, never really did. I've considered buying some stuff and then spreading them on the internet lossless (which is actually worse than not buying it at all, I suppose), but I never do. If I would buy music, it would be game music. And whenever I consider buying some, I think "Why buy game music, when I can buy an actual game?", and I buy a new game. So why don't I pirate games? Because I just wanna collect games for some reason.

Not buying game music shouldn't effect much. There will always be games, and there will always have to be music made for them. I basically already own the music when I own the games. Some even give you a sound test (like Tales of Symphonia, which has one of my favorite soundtracks ever), and ripping music for personal use isn't illegal (I think), so why buy an OST? That's basically my excuse. I love game music, though

1. No.

2. I love it. 95% of all my music is game music.

I buy music, I never pirate it.

As far game music goes, I don't buy OSTs, but I listen to gamerips from games I already own quite a bit. Hey, the artists got the money from when I bought the game, I don't need to give them more. I might buy OSTs if companies actually bothered to sell them in the USA.

Oh well... I don`t, I would really like to buy, but in my country there is no such place which sells them and I can`t always use eBay and stuff like that...

i buy music , but only the albums i really like

I bought Blazing Star for about 40, considering its fairly rare. I had already downloaded the mp3s from someone but wanted the inlay cover art, song notes, etc. I think I got it from someone named "Chudah" who was getting hitched and wanted to sell most of her OSTs.

Glad I didn't buy Mario Galaxy..only liked maybe 4 songs, but eh..to each his own.