How do you function?

Nobody buys CDs anymore. No one wants to pay $15 plus tax for an album just so they can listen to one hit single. Everyone is much happier paying $1 for each song they actually want. 13 years ago some people were claiming if consumers started paying less for music it would destroy the industry. Well here we are over a decade later and the music industry is still alive and kicking.

Now people are claiming low priced digital games will destroy the gaming industry. I don't believe that for a second.

@Gamesake Well, actually, music sales aren't quite as prosperous with the advent of digital distribution, and CDs still take the lead in sales but don't sell nearly as much.

Here's the catch, if you wanna buy an album from a slightly lesser-known artist (say, not quite major label), stay away from stores and go directly to the label website. Buy from there.

Here's a plea from Benn Jordan (The Flashbulb). It's old but still relevant. http://www.alphabasic.com/Please_read.html

I buy CD's still, but difference is I usually spend $15 for all the songs and not just 1.

^What albums are you listening to that have no filler songs? Some crazy quality control there to be honest unless you're waiting years in between. Even my favorite album of all time (Electric Ladyland) has at least one filler track.

Streaming / YouTube

Hardly ideal but it gets the job done.
_{No shortage of uncredited electronic music.}

Little of this, little of that. Depends on what band it is, usually.

I don't buy much music (I've never bought a song that didn't come from Linkin Park it Fort Minor) but If I just want one or two songs I use iTunes. I buy a CD if LP releasing an album that's clean since I can transfer the music from the cd to all of devices and I like my physical Stuff. So CD mostly if its an album that won't be too hard to get as a CD. Otherwise I just buy from iTunes.

I prefer cds, just picked up Kacey Musgraves and Justin Timberlake's new releases today. The only time I buy digital is when amazon has those crazy awesome mp3 sales.

I either download it on my phone or listen to it online. CD's are too much of a hassle..

Generally, the only times I listen to music is when it's in a video game I'm playing or in a movie I'm watching.
Other than that, it's probably christmas music being played from an (Specificly, my sister's) iPod.

Same here. I buy tons of CDs and I can always appreciate albums as an entire experience. And "filler" songs are not necessarily a bad thing. A great band or musician can produce an album with equally great filler songs. Many of my favorite songs of all time have never had any radio play. And I'm not even talking about obscure indie bands or anything. Sometimes I wish I were a DJ on the radio so I could play all of the overlooked and underrated tracks. That's one reason that satellite radio is so good; you get to here a lot of rare tracks and b-sides.

By filler tracks, I meant actual filler tracks. Not B-Sides or even general non-single songs.

I'd argue these would qualify as only filler, and saying otherwise is really sketchy/pretentious in my opinion

@rayword
Ah okay, I see what you are talking about now. Still, I wouldn't say a majority of albums have that type of filler song or segue. And even for albums that do, that's still only like 1 or maybe 2 songs out of 10-15. There are plenty of albums I own where I can honestly say that every track is enjoyable. And I'm not a pretentious music hipster or anything of the sort.

A mix. I tend to buy individual songs on iTunes, but I get a lot of my music through free (legal) downloads I find through blogs, along with free samplers (I'm working though NPR's massive SXSW one atm), and I also request albums (in the form of CDs) through my library system for a bunch of albums.

Digital downloads. I've never bought a CD in my life and I have so much music on my IPod now that I don't listen to much music on Youtube anymore. I've also never used a streaming service.

I used to buy music through iTunes but then my computer crashed so I don't do that anymore.

I get lots of free CDs from the radio stations I work for. But lately, haven't seen much new music.

I download my music and use a combination of Xbox music and Google music.

I usually just listen to it via online streaming, or buy CDs.

I generally don't listen to music. Nor do I really download or buy it.