But it's also illegal, so...

Matter of preference and priorisation. The quality of the recording is mainly just a bonus. I like to listen to the music itself: the composition, lyrics, sound design, etc. If I'd stick to only listening to music with high quality equipment, I would have missed lots of great music that's poor in production wise, but total greatness in musical aspect.

I am a new member here, and a pretty new Virus owner (TI2 desktop). I am an older guy and have a sizable vinyl collection that I accumulated in the 70's and early 80's.

These days I buy CDs primarily, and mostly from Amazon or directly from an artist's web page if not available. I just received Sylvan's recent double CD Sceneries in the mail from Germany. It is available only as an MP3 download from Amazon, and I found out from the band (via Facebook) that they ship internationally from their web store, so that is where I went.

I also download and listen to music by people with common interests that just put their stuff up for free. There is a lot of that happening in the modular synth world, and not just on Soundcloud.

Finally, I listen to internet radio stations such as SomaFM (Space Station Soma, Drone Zone, and Groove Salad primarily, though also Xmas in Frisco during the holidays and some others). I support SomaFM with an annual donation much like many folks support NPR.