Should I quit buying cd's?

[robogone]

CDs are certainly getting cheaper, and that alone is maybe a good reason for some people to buy them.

[Robmobius]

Fair point... I do despise DRM also. Most of the music I buy I can get in Flac. But I'm pretty happy with 320kb mp3. Great to see many bands selling their own music on their websites. Sod the middle men!

Once good thing here in Ireland. Was that we were vastly over charged for CDs. That drove the digital market. So now not that many people are buying them. Also that those big record shops have had to mark their prices down in order to stay in business.

It's a shame Itunes have the monopoly, not just because of the DRM issue, but they often give out low kb mp3s. That's why I never buy anything from them.

[Compyfox]

Again, I thought iTunes is pushing AAC?

And AAC has a lossless module as well...

[Robmobius]

Again, I thought iTunes is pushing AAC?

And AAC has a lossless module as well...

That's possible, as I've not bought anything from them in quite while. I was very disappointed originally tho'.

At the time bad quality and over priced.

[Tricky-Loops]

I guess I'm the musician with the smallest CD collection (maybe 40?). But I always found them too expensive. 16 to 18 EUR for a new CD (in Germany) is pretty much, IMO.

Sometimes I found some bargains in stores, for example the "Nirvana" album "Nevermind" in the Mediamarkt for 5 EUR - then I bought them immediately.

But I tend to listen to different songs every day, so for me "songs on demand" services like Spotify are the future - because I don't have the money to buy millions of CDs...

OTOH, CDs are great as present! Imagine you send someone some MP3 for birthday - terrible! But a good CD with a nice cover and a booklet, maybe with lyrics & some images - THAT'S a real present!

So, as presets, CDs will never die out!

[Robmobius]

OTOH, CDs are great as present! Imagine you send someone some MP3 for birthday - terrible! But a good CD with a nice cover and a booklet, maybe with lyrics & some images - THAT'S a real present!

So, as presets, CDs will never die out!

CDs will be hear for quite a while.

I'd agree, mp3s would be a dull present indeed. But while not quite the same, you do get the cover art and lyrics digitally which is kinda' cool too. Especially if you buy from a bands website.

But for me, it's a short lived like anyway. I mean, any CD I have just ends up in a dusty box once I rip it (and have read the lyrics, etc.)

I'm such a 'must have now' consumer as well. So I can get pretty much get anything I want music wise with a few mouse clicks. Without the hassles of going to a shop, being overcharged, and them never having the stuff I want (I like obscure music).

[SODDI]

I like buying cheap CDs because I can burn my own .mp3s. And the sound quality is better than .mp3 for serious listening.

But even more, I like shopping the thrift stores for ultra-cheap CDs because the surprise and discovery quotient is so high. For instance, a 2-disc set of the best of Lene Lovich for $2.25. Doubting Thomas' (Skinny Puppy offshoot) first 3 EPs on one CD for the same price. Iggy and the Stooges' "Fun House" for SIXTY CENTS.

Or the themes to Studio Ghibli's major films performed on music boxes (probably a DX-7.) That was easily worth the $2.00 I spent on it.

[Tricky-Loops]

I like buying cheap CDs because I can burn my own .mp3s. And the sound quality is better than .mp3 for serious listening.

But even more, I like shopping the thrift stores for ultra-cheap CDs because the surprise and discovery quotient is so high. For instance, a 2-disc set of the best of Lene Lovich for $2.25. Doubting Thomas' (Skinny Puppy offshoot) first 3 EPs on one CD for the same price. Iggy and the Stooges' "Fun House" for SIXTY CENTS.

Or the themes to Studio Ghibli's major films performed on music boxes (probably a DX-7.) That was easily worth the $2.00 I spent on it.

For $2.25 I would buy every CD...

(But not for 16 EUR or $25! )

[fese]

If the CD was extinct, I'd miss
- holding the covers and inlets in my hand when I listen to a new CD
- switching on my CD player in an instant instead of booting a computer or some devide which takes always too long.
- looking through a friends CD collection to see what he has and what Would interest me. Copying gigabytes of MP3 from one USB disk to another just isn't sexy...
- not being forced to regularly make backups so that in a case of a disk crash I don't lose all my music.

so yeah, I am a CD nostalgic, too. But I guess it depends with what you grew up with. I only have 40-50 LPs because I started listening to music in the late eighties when CD began to take over, so there's not much nostalgia there. And I guess today's kids will miss their mp3s on their phones when in 30 years or so music will be directly streamed to their brain via the latest greatest wireless technology ("when I was young, my iPod could only hold 8 gigabytes of music!" - "wow, daddy, you really must've been poor ... And what's a gigabyte???)

[xtp]

Then again - CDs will probably never die.
Why?
Old people!
They want stuff on home players. Not some portable device.

You are so right.

I am one of those old people.

I built up a large collection of records from the early 70's on, finally sold them off about 5+ years ago and replaced about 2000 of them with cd's.

I cannot get my head around owning something in the cloud or whatever you young folk do, and listening to music on a computer or portable device

like an eye pod ...

and don't mention mp3's

It has to be on an audio system, with an audio amp not some 5.1 home video setup.

The only problem is old people like me are only getting older and one day ...

[Compyfox]

I do remember the times where CDs cost about 2-3 times as much after the jump from DM to EUR. Especially singles. This was about the time the NAPSTER disaster took place and online MP3 stores dropped on the planet.

Until this day, I barely buy any CDs. So I also only have like 30-50 or so, mostly singles. I rather support alternative musicians and get a CD off of CDbaby or something than spending money on big labels where I pay three times as much.

Offliberty sites do help on that behalf. And radio recorders. I think the last time I bought a CD, was a gift for xmas. 2008 IIRC.


Oh wait, that's not true. Still waiting for that "Turrican Anthology" Kickstarter CD, and I actually got free copies of promo CDs by bands that I mixed / help to mix.

Does that count?



Regarding old people to "go extinct" and CD going to vanish. I remember a Youtube video where a dad showed his daugther a LP. And she was totally baffled about what it is.

Or the one article where a boy took the test and exchanged his iPod for a portable tape recorder for about a week or so. To relive the nostalgia and decide if the evolution of music media was good or bad.


I can totally imagine kids in like 2030, Cyperpunk style, connected to a small device that holds like 500GB of music, directly connected to the brain and not consumed through earplugs anymore.

They will probably never know what VCR was, what tape was, neither LPs. And CDs are now very small mediums with a diameter of 4cm or something.



I mean... yesterday while walking around town, I've seen kids abusing their cellphone as boombox (the worst habit ever!), and I actually lost count how many tablet users where on the public city train. All connected through WiFi and headphones plugged in as well.

[ATS]

you will be able to buy a cd player in 20 years, don't worry.

[ATS]

I like buying cheap CDs because I can burn my own .mp3s. And the sound quality is better than .mp3 for serious listening.

But even more, I like shopping the thrift stores for ultra-cheap CDs because the surprise and discovery quotient is so high. For instance, a 2-disc set of the best of Lene Lovich for $2.25. Doubting Thomas' (Skinny Puppy offshoot) first 3 EPs on one CD for the same price. Iggy and the Stooges' "Fun House" for SIXTY CENTS.

Or the themes to Studio Ghibli's major films performed on music boxes (probably a DX-7.) That was easily worth the $2.00 I spent on it.

If you want better sound quality don't turn a cd into an mp3 lol

make a wav or flac

[Jace-BeOS]

i still buy my music on CD if it is available at all. i like having physical media to go back to if i need, or for playing on various devices in my life (my car plays CDs both of regular CD Audio and MP3 CD-R, so that's a fun combo there). While i mostly use my iPhone to listen to stuff, i can tell the difference between a high quality MP3 and a CD, so i still care. i also like the design involved in album art/package design, from artists who care about that kind of thing. My music collection sometimes doubles as a tiny art collection

[Halma]

I guess I'm the musician with the smallest CD collection (maybe 40?).

Nope you are not. I own only 20 CDs +/- 5. And all of them bought for cheap. But I have a vinyl collection with aprox. 2k records. A pita if you move to a new home. I would not bother collecting music via mp3s. Like mentioned before you often get what you pay for: a license to use it.

But CDs should be fine for some of you. They will be supported the next decades for sure. Question is: how durable is that kind of material and how safe are the data on that kind of medium? Vinyl lasts pretty long if treated correctly. But I have already seen some bad looking CDs that won't play anymore and the owner treated them with care.

I would not bother thinking about a "future proof" playing device but about the medium and it's durability itself.

Regards
Sebaszian