Is there any future for CDs?

[Jerjo]

Maybe I'm missing something here but Bandcamp & "The Cloud" are really the same thing. Someone else's storage drives that you can access via the internet. If they have a catastrophic failure or simply shut down the service... there goes your stuff unless you have a copy yourself.

When you buy a digital release from Bandcamp you get an email with a link to download the album in whatever digital format you wish (FLAC, MP3. WAV etc). Yeah, you can stream your purchase but if BC goes tits up, which is a good probability given the way things are going, it is wise to download all of your purchases.

[Vic2012]

I think there will always be a use for CDs. We still have vinyl, cassette, why not CDs?

[reynard]

When you buy a digital release from Bandcamp you get an email with a link to download the album in whatever digital format you wish (FLAC, MP3. WAV etc). Yeah, you can stream your purchase but if BC goes tits up, which is a good probability given the way things are going, it is wise to download all of your purchases.

Yes I fully understand that. I'm happy when I get a cd from BC because I just d/l the FLAC and don't have to rip the disc when it arrives. Yes, I'm lazy. The poster I quoted was using BC as their backup, stating it was more reliable then 'the cloud', that's the point I was trying to make light of... for all I know BC doesn't even have their own servers & might very well lease them from Amazon, Google etc.

[boilk]

Maybe I'm missing something here but Bandcamp & "The Cloud" are really the same thing. Someone else's storage drives that you can access via the internet. If they have a catastrophic failure or simply shut down the service... there goes your stuff unless you have a copy yourself.

I rarely buy d/l's of media, still buy cds, dvds, etc and rip them to my pc when I get them for ease of access. Separate SSD's for audio & video with external HDD's as my first back-up and of course the physical discs are my real backups.

Regarding all this advertising hullabaloo, if you'd ever read a newspaper or magazine you'd realize that 40-50% of the pages are nothing but ads. This is nothing new peeps, it's just that the media has changed. Mind, you got those print ads whether or not you were a paid subscriber or not so at least now with many services you have the option of paying a higher tier to have them removed so honestly, that's a plus in my book. Regardless I'm well enough versed in ignoring, avoiding & occluding that it's a non issue.

Well, I've had a friend lose everything from an album he was recording, and it was stored on the cloud. Not an isolated case. Bandcamp has never lost music, or gone down, to my knowledge. There are similarities, but I view bandcamp as less of a storage medium per se, and more of a place where music is uploaded so one can purchase it. I see it as less likely to crash and at least, almost everybody that I know, uses it to buy files, not to stream from. True though, as some have said, it's not impossible that it could go out of business.


As to magazines...well, that depends very much on the magazine. Yes, the high end ones are loaded with advertising, I've no doubt. But all the magazines I read are on horror/sf/fantasy movies, and they often have few to sometimes no ads, so that certainly doesn't apply there.

Also, big points from me, for using the word occluding! One of my faves, for some odd reason, lol.

Neil

[alucard]

For the last couple of years I used streaming with my Deezer account and Bandcamp (mainly while travelling) and when I find something interesting I try to buy the CD or sometimes the vinyl....the other day I got hooked by the Italian singer Fiorella Mannoia in a film by Nanni Moretti....I found 90% of her recordings on streaming and then I found a nice 5CD Clamshell boxset of her first records on Discogs...in general it has become more difficult to find "regular" CDs...I saw Suzanne Vega last year and I found out that she re-recorded her own songs because A&M does not distribute her records anymore but still owns the rights...another CD related thing I do quite often: there is a Japanese second hand book shop in Paris 'Book Off'...and they have a huge unclassified 1Euro trash bin where you can find classic often still wrapped CDs

[Digital_Man]

I think there will always be a use for CDs. We still have vinyl, cassette, why not CDs?

Apparently cassettes have made a little bit of a comeback. Things won't necessarily disappear they will just become more niche. I don't see cds making a big comeback like vinyl but I don't think they will disappear entirely anytime soon either.

For a second there though I thought you were going to say we could use cds as beer coasters or mini frisbees or something.

[dropforge]

I don't see cds making a big comeback like vinyl but I don't think they will disappear entirely anytime soon either.

CDs haven't left, hence no big comeback.

[Digital_Man]

CDs haven't left, hence no big comeback.

Technically vinyl never left either yet there's all this talk about how it has come back in the past ten years or so.

[wilcox660]

CDs are cuddly!

[JKL2000]

There's also the sheer joy of holding physical product in your hands

Hey, this is still a family site!

[JKL2000]

Well, I've had a friend lose everything from an album he was recording, and it was stored on the cloud. Not an isolated case. Bandcamp has never lost music, or gone down, to my knowledge. There are similarities, but I view bandcamp as less of a storage medium per se, and more of a place where music is uploaded so one can purchase it. I see it as less likely to crash and at least, almost everybody that I know, uses it to buy files, not to stream from. True though, as some have said, it's not impossible that it could go out of business.


As to magazines...well, that depends very much on the magazine. Yes, the high end ones are loaded with advertising, I've no doubt. But all the magazines I read are on horror/sf/fantasy movies, and they often have few to sometimes no ads, so that certainly doesn't apply there.

Also, big points from me, for using the word occluding! One of my faves, for some odd reason, lol.

Neil

I stream music from Bandcamp all the time. Their app is certainly not ideal, but it's usable. I wish they would put more money into developing it. I have lots of purchases there that I haven't downloaded, which isn't wise, because they could definitely go away. They'd have a lot of pissed-off customers, but if the parent company was filing for bankruptcy, too bad... I also wish the website made it easier to download your entire collection. Maybe they'd develop that as their final act, out of pity for the customers. It sucks that the company is no longer the cool start-up that it once was. Sucks for the employees most. Been there...

[Man In The Mountain]

I just bought a used CD of Dire Straits Brother In Arms, the original 1985 pressing, which was among the very first albums available on Compact Disc. It's notable that it plays as flawlessly as the day it was new. I paid $4.09 for it, plus shipping.

Am I supposed to put a safety copy of it on the cloud? I don't get it.

[Dave (in MA)]

A record label included this in their e-mail to customers over the weekend:

The physical CD has been delayed due to capacity problems at the manufacturing plant which we believe are because of the upsurge in demand for CDs at the moment. This appears to be affecting a number of record labels at the moment.

[boilk]

I stream music from Bandcamp all the time. Their app is certainly not ideal, but it's usable. I wish they would put more money into developing it. I have lots of purchases there that I haven't downloaded, which isn't wise, because they could definitely go away. They'd have a lot of pissed-off customers, but if the parent company was filing for bankruptcy, too bad... I also wish the website made it easier to download your entire collection. Maybe they'd develop that as their final act, out of pity for the customers. It sucks that the company is no longer the cool start-up that it once was. Sucks for the employees most. Been there...

Well, that's cool that you use it for streaming. And it's pretty easy to quickly download all that stuff that you've bought without needing to pay much attention to organizing them right away. Do it, Dr. Z!

Also, a little concerning about the parent company bankruptcy thing. I have no idea where I'd even obtain all the new music that I get, if it were to go under. I sure as hell can't afford to buy over 40 CDs (my 2023 take) a year, given the shitty Canadian dollar value. And I hate itunes and Amazon music (last time that I tried, you can't even download physical files in Canada with AM).

Neil

[Rarebird]

Well, that's cool that you use it for streaming. And it's pretty easy to quickly download all that stuff that you've bought without needing to pay much attention to organizing them right away. Do it, Dr. Z!

Also, a little concerning about the parent company bankruptcy thing. I have no idea where I'd even obtain all the new music that I get, if it were to go under. I sure as hell can't afford to buy over 40 CDs (my 2023 take) a year, given the shitty Canadian dollar value. And I hate itunes and Amazon music (last time that I tried, you can't even download physical files in Canada with AM).

Neil

40 CDs in a year? I'm not sure, but that was what I mostly brought home when I went on vacation. In a year I added probably something like 100 CDs. But well, I often bought CDs that were cheap.

[Mr.Krautman]

I just bought a used CD of Dire Straits Brother In Arms, the original 1985 pressing, which was among the very first albums available on Compact Disc. It's notable that it plays as flawlessly as the day it was new. I paid $4.09 for it, plus shipping.

Am I supposed to put a safety copy of it on the cloud? I don't get it.

The "cloud" server will be down or disappear long before your 1985 CD dies (IF he ever dies).

[boilk]

40 CDs in a year? I'm not sure, but that was what I mostly brought home when I went on vacation. In a year I added probably something like 100 CDs. But well, I often bought CDs that were cheap.

So I'm still small-time, haha. Good to know. Mind you, this is only NEW music. I really can't find the time to listen and indulge much, if any, older stuff any more. The odd exception here and there, but that's about. And if you're wondering, it would cost me, on average, more than $30 for most CDs these days. No can do.

Neil

[Rarebird]

So I'm still small-time, haha. Good to know. Mind you, this is only NEW music. I really can't find the time to listen and indulge much, if any, older stuff any more. The odd exception here and there, but that's about. And if you're wondering, it would cost me, on average, more than $30 for most CDs these days. No can do.

Neil

Well, It's not only new stuff, but also stuff I never bought, stuff that I've missed, sometimes if I have discovered something, that was around for some time. So I often buy CD's that are around 10 euro.

[JJ88]

I just bought a used CD of Dire Straits Brother In Arms, the original 1985 pressing, which was among the very first albums available on Compact Disc. It's notable that it plays as flawlessly as the day it was new. I paid $4.09 for it, plus shipping.

Am I supposed to put a safety copy of it on the cloud? I don't get it.

Well, this is the thing. It's a fair bet that a used CD kept in good condition (and not one of those bronzed 'PDO UK' discs) will play as well now as it ever did. One of the few physical formats you can say that about, really. I've seen more reports of DVDs and Blu-rays having issues than CDs.

With records, there can be things like sibilance, inner groove distortion etc. which you won't necessarily see when looking at the vinyl itself.

[JJ88]

On the other hand, there is another issue that I think might imperil the future of CD if industry culture doesn't change. Admittedly I haven't had a lot of money to buy music over the last couple of years, and so my purchases have been limited, but I have to say that virtually every new album I've bought on CD over the last two years have sounded appalling.

I very much agree with this. I can't really comment on many recent releases, but I believe it. Really crap mastering is (sadly) not a particularly new trend. I was glad to see the Parlogram Auctions guy (if you're into The Beatles, worth looking at his videos) call out the way labels get away with serving up lousy mastering on the CD format. He goes more for records himself, but he said something like, why is it that the cheapest format has to have the crappiest sound? And there is no reason for this, as far as I can see.

[r2daft2]

I'm a big fan of CDs and have been collecting them since 1982.
I bought one of the first available CD players which were silly expensive at the time. However, I had a relative who worked for Phillips and they were so keen to get the new format out there that their staff were able to buy them at a considerable discount. The earliest players actually came with an included demo disc which contained about 10/12 tracks of material selected to suit all tastes: pop/rock/jazz/classical (the classical audience being a particular target I think). There were actually 2 different samplers - both included a Dire Straits track (one had Wild West End and the other Private Investigations) and these were used as demo discs in the hi-fi and electrical goods shops were the players were being sold.
The first 4 Dire Straits CDs manufactured by Phonogram were amongst the first rock albums manufactured and I still have all of them as bought in 1982 (unfortunately the date of manufacture does not appear in the booklets). Brothers in Arms didn't come out until 1985 but it became famous for being released on CD at the same time as vinyl (and cassette?) and for being the first huge seller in the CD format.
Sorry to correct Man in the Mountain but there were a LOT of other CDs available before BiA but he is correct that Dire Straits were there right from the beginning.

[JJ88]

There's some confusion (at least on my part) over what the first pop/rock CD was. I guess we're talking 1981/2. I've seen it claimed for The Bee Gees' Living Eyes, ABBA's The Visitors and Billy Joel's 52nd Street. Possibly even that first Dire Straits album as well.

[r2daft2]

I'm struggling to remember what other CDs were available at the time that I got my player. Some of my other earliest purchases were Asia's debut, Santana's Zebop and Shango, Pat Metheny's 80/81 and As Falls Wichita.... I recall prices seemed to start at about £10 to £12 per disc.
The selection available then was pretty poor because some record companies had yet to commit to the medium.

[r2daft2]

Meanwhile, 40 years later, I'm still committed to CDs - although SACD, DVDA and BluRays do provide the 5.1 options I enjoy.

However, there are a few times I will opt for mp3s:

I have a few single tracks such as the Genesis remake of Carpet Crawlers (where I couldn't justify buying the compilation it appears on) and a few box sets such as Zappa's Halloween '73 and ZINY40 where I didn't want to pay silly money for dumb packaging that would only waste space on the shelves.

[Plasmatopia]

If your email is all sitting on a server like gmail, that's fine, but if you store it locally via your Outlook, Thunderbird or other client, it will also be lost if your computer fails.

I use Thunderbird to view Gmail - so what is on my computer is just a mirror of what's on the site.

I'm a CD person. I have a handful of download-only albums, but it's never going to be more than a small minority of the albums I own.