It is no secret that digital means of music marketing and distribution are taking over the record industry. Many people don’t even own CD players anymore, just an MP3 player and perhaps a few online subscriptions to sites offering downloads. Most artists, however, still let their fans enjoy the best of both worlds by releasing their music both digitally and on CD. Release dates are usually staggered with the digital album made available first, the way Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have done.

March 24th marks the official in-store release of Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope, the latest release from indie rock artist Michael Zapruder. This official “ribbon-cutting” will put the disc in the stereos and ears of a whole new group of listeners who haven’t already bought the album online. This method has done Zapruder well, keeping the press interested and giving the fans something to look forward to. A quick Google search brings back album reviews as recent as a few days ago, as well as many results for his popular video Ads for Feelings. Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope has been available online since October of 2008, but this second release makes it fresh and exciting all over again.

One effect of the digital music trend is that CDs have become specialty items to many consumers of music, much like picking up the vinyl record. Releasing new albums on vinyl is popular right now as well, for those fans who cherish the real deal. Ben Kweller has been encouraging fans to go this route by offering a CD copy of his newest album Changing Horses with every purchase of the vinyl: the hands-on fan’s dream!

All this business made OurStage curious: how many of you are still buying the disc? Who’s hanging out high fidelity style and taking home the vinyl? We took a poll, and the results might surprise you. A group of listeners between 18 and 40 years old were presented with this scenario:

A band you really like just put out a new album. It’s available on CD and vinyl, as well as online. You-

A) buy the CD.
B) buy the vinyl.
C) download the album from iTunes, Amazon, etc.
D) wait until a friend buys it one way or another and take theirs.
E) some combination of the above. (A + C, A + B, etc.)

Surprisingly, compact discs turned out to be the most popular way to buy music among those we polled, with 32% of the vote. Downloading an album came in second with 27%, and 18% still pick up the vinyl- the same amount of people who get their music through some combination of these means. Only 5% said that they usually wait for a friend to get the album first.

How do you like your music?

Check out Michael Zapruder April 23rd at Café Du Nord in San Francisco.