I was born in 1982 I wasn't old enough to buy music. Yes in the 80s there was vinyl, cassette, and I remember these little round vinyl albums I had seen my older cousin with a couple in the late 80s.

I had several 8 tracks. My brother enrolled me in Columbia Music Club for my high school graduation gift in '82.

Mostly cassettes, but a few vinyl recordings as well.

I remember listening to my Walkman all day in 1989. I remember I had the Batman Soundtrack, Paula Abduls "Forever your girl" and The Teenwitch soundtrack at the time on tape
cassette. I loved it. I would listen to them all day in the corner of my room and just sit there.

Vinyl LP's until '87 when I got my first CD player. For my Walkman I would record onto blank cassettes from my LP's/Cd's.
"Hogs have futures, I don't."
Dr. Johnny Fever

Wow, thanks for the replies, I didn't realise cassettes were so dominant !
Have you played Atari today?

Vinyl 45's.

CDs. I got my first CD Player in 1985 and the first CD that came with it was WHAM! "Make it big" it was a gift someone had gotten me. I remember it well because I played them all the time. It was state of the art at the time and it sounded state of the art. It even sounded IMO better then music plays today. But thats just me You can tell its all based on the success of things. It wasn't such a huge success CD players back then. So it wasn't something everyone had, just my rich friends really.
I remember cassettes back then. I bought my first one in 1989 along with my first tape cassette player. It was "Ghostbusters 2" soundtack. I remember it well because a trend called gossiping took off in my town where I live (small town) It was a small town. We use to use the tape cassette for own little jobs back then in our community it was a lot of fun. We were able to back then based on the system of air that talk shows had provided along with the "kayla rights"
I bought my first vinyl in 1992 with my boyfriend I moved in with. I bought it at a high priced boutique. It came with a product I bought. It was Right said fred "I'm too sexy" LOL I laugh at how cheesy that song is now. I back then I thought it was so cool and use to give the silliest looks with it that most people would think are so dorky and lame and oh I laugh so hard at myself because I was one of those that smiled all the time and those were dirty looks and even then I would smile with my curvy body giving them all the time. Most people still get offended when I give them.

Cassette's mainly and thanks to the Genius who invented the WALKMAN

cassette and CD and as someone reply. I would used blank cassettes to record songs from the radio. I never bought any of these because I like one or two songs. I had to like / love all of them or the majority. Just recently I got rid of them. And open a Pandora account.

I mostly bought cassettes for my son.

I turned 13 in 1980 and the main format I bought was the cassette. Mainly because it was the most portable and I could also purchase blank cassettes to create mixed tapes like recording a few songs from radio stations and if there were only one or two songs on an album I liked. Mostly used for my Walkman, jam box and home stereo. My stereo had a turntable, dual cassette deck and an 8-track player. Though, I didn't buy any 8-track cartridges, I just borrowed some.
I'm trying to remember if I bought any vinyl records in the early '80s. I need to check what year an album I bought before I can say it. Didn't buy any of them through the rest of the '80s, well, maybe the late '80s/early '90s and those were 12 inch singles. Again, I need to check the date they were released.
I didn't get CD's until either the late '80s or early '90s.
I'll come back to edit my post regarding vinyl and CDs.
Edited to update re: vinyl and CDs:
Okay, memory is a bit fuzzy on vinyl because I thought an album when it was released. Seems that I bought the album when my brother bought the 7 inch single "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" by Billy Joel which was in 1980 and I had bought the self-titled Ace Frehley solo album (1978) and the three 12 inch singles were in 1990. They were: "Tic Tac Toe" by Kyper, "Jerk Out" by Morris Day and "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer. Lol, I bought music from so many genres.
Can't find my old CDs but I did get the Madonna "Like a Prayer" CD in '89 and Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation 1814" CD also in '89.