I think it has been proven that vinyl sounds better. Or at-least the people who collect vinyl records stand very strongly with that statement. (I wonder though how vinyl bags would sound in comparison )
Unethical? Yes. Of course! Any money you make from the sale of a CD that you had created to some other storage form is you taking unfair advantage of the musician and the record company. This is a violation of the “license” that you agreed to upon purchase of the CD. You purchased a right to listen to the music, not really an “object” that you can sell later, all the while keeping the music contained therein.
Actually, that’s basically 180 degrees backwards. When you purchase a CD, a physical object that you can resell (or not) is exactly what you are buying. You are not purchasing a license. You are purchasing ownership of the CD and the right to use your own property. You are enjoying the contents under the distribution rights both you and the original seller have by the legal principle of the First-Sale Doctrine.
You are not, however, purchasing reproduction rights - including the rights to make a digital copy. That is the legal restriction under which making a copy of a CD before selling it on is illegal, whether ethical or not.
If you are worried about the ethics, send to each artist the money you make selling their CD. If they are deceased, donate the money to some sort of musical cause- a youth scholarship at a week somewhere, a Kickstarter campaign to get a new CD funded, or whatever.
Just to remind people that if you resell a cd we can only presume that you bought it in the first place and the artist received the expected amount. So if you resell it the artist isn’t expecting an additional cut. Just like I didn’t send Honda an extra check for selling an old car.
The artist has been paid for the content and now it’s just paper and plastic with a few tunes for someone else to enjoy.
Tommy,
I hope you do make another CD sometime.
If and when you do, please come to Michigan to perform this material.
I’ll happily buy a concert ticket, a CD and a few pints
I haven’t followed the whole of this thread but one thing to bear in mind is that this situation probably happen in the future because those who are happy to just have a file of the music won’t buy the cd, just a download for less money
people offloading cds right are fed up of having 100s of cds littering the place and don’t need anything tangible to keep
perhaps it’s similar to when during the transition from vinyl to cd loads of people sold off their lps (only to regret this at a later stage)