The Death of the CD.

[simon moon]

Another physical medium guy here.

I will buy physical media over downloads as long as they are available.

I will switch to hi-res and no-loss downloads if necessary. I will never download MP3's. They are close to unlistenable to me.

[NogbadTheBad]

If they're dead then I appear to have corpses sitting on lots of the surfaces around my house. Indeed another corpse was delivered today

[notallwhowander]

I've only purchased download when there were no other options. Those tracks still don't seem "real" to me.

But sure, the CD thing will end. There is an inevitable market logic to it. Once you've saturated the market, you change the product and start selling the new thing. I mean a couple generations were sold these things, so the market isn't dead.

The vinyl thing has yet to prove itself more than a hipster fad, IMO. Sure there may be an enduring subculture being born, but I don't think these levels will bear out another decade.

While CDs aren't dependent on the cloud, they do need some serious tech to decode. So as long as we still produce the right kind of reading device, there will be some kind of collector's market. Stored and cared for properly, they'll long outlast vinyl.

[Digital_Man]

When I see chrome-bias blank cassette tapes on the shelves, I'll believe it.

I didn't believe it either until another PE member pointed it out to me. According to him it's mainly younger music fans(twenty somethings)who are getting into it. It seems a lot of indie bands are selling them at their tables at shows so apparently it's more about pre recorded music and not so much blank cassettes.

[rapidfirerob]

Still buying CDs, very little room left in the house. The bed is going soon! I have all my cassettes and vinyl still. I'd love to buy more
records, but again, no room.

[Yodelgoat]

Cd's are dying, but it will be a slow death.

[nosebone]

Hoarders!!

[Wisdomview]

This topic has become a bi-annual thread.

Me, I like physical media, books and albums.

[Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof]

Went to Silver Platter in SODO. Bought Wigwam and Nova vinyl records. Did not look at CD's or DVD's. It was a pleasant experience.

Easy Street offered me close to nothing for my CD's....

[klothos]

CDs are irreplaceable for my purposes. I'll never understand the whole vinyl fetish thing.

I never understood why musicians (particularly bass players) want certain vintage instruments which sound like ass no matter how fresh the strings are or what amp its going through. I guess they both are in the "Your mileage may vary" category

[Oreb]

Nah - this nonsense has been around for years, and I still manage to have no problem finding the stuff I want.

'CDs are dead/dying' is a cry that's actually starting to sound a bit forlorn - as if all those suckers who ditched them for computer files are trying to talk themselves into believing they did a clever thing. They didn't.

[PeterG]

Well, I never stopped listening to cassettes and never stopped recording onto cassettes.

[Dana5140]

It's a hassle to download MP3s. I prefer CDs by far. For me, if I download from iTunes, it ends up on my home computer. At work, I have a different computer, and since it is a work computer, I don't have a version of iTunes on it. Thus, to take that piece of music to work, I have to first download it, and then rip it to a CD to take to work. This is several steps too many. So I rarely ever download, and I am a guy with close to 6000 LPs, cassettes and CDs. Now, my bigger problem is, there is nowhere locally for me to get CDs of what I want- Barnes and Noble here does a decent job, but rarer stuff, not really. I have to order (Wayside or Amazon).

But truth is, these days, I just go to youtube and play live concerts all day long at work anyway.

[nosebone]

Streaming is where the future of media is headed.

[NogbadTheBad]

It's a hassle to download MP3s. I prefer CDs by far. For me, if I download from iTunes, it ends up on my home computer. At work, I have a different computer, and since it is a work computer, I don't have a version of iTunes on it. Thus, to take that piece of music to work, I have to first download it, and then rip it to a CD to take to work. This is several steps too many. So I rarely ever download, and I am a guy with close to 6000 LPs, cassettes and CDs. Now, my bigger problem is, there is nowhere locally for me to get CDs of what I want- Barnes and Noble here does a decent job, but rarer stuff, not really. I have to order (Wayside or Amazon).

But truth is, these days, I just go to youtube and play live concerts all day long at work anyway.

I have an ipod for in office listening.

[Jubal]

A one day record show is not a good indicator of the general direction of the future of CDs. Look at where the real money goes- Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc. They still have CDs, but they have reduced what they carry dramtically.
My best guess would be that most major artist new releases will continue to be released on CD for the next 4-5 years. There is still money on new releases on CD.

[davis]

I've always preferred physical media, right up until last weekend when I read that Buzz Osborne keeps his music collection stored on an iPod. So now flexibility is creeping in. Thanks, Buzz. You rock.

[Garden Dreamer]

Physical media for me. I have bought a few MP3's over the years but they sit on my computer, not being listened to. It's just so nebulous to me. I want to hand over my money, have a CD in my hand and pop it into my player. Done. Can't be bothered with downloads.

[ronmac]

I didn't believe it either until another PE member pointed it out to me. According to him it's mainly younger music fans(twenty somethings)who are getting into it. It seems a lot of indie bands are selling them at their tables at shows so apparently it's more about pre recorded music and not so much blank cassettes.

Well, 20-something fads mean nothing to me. But, I still don't get it. It's a helluva lot easier and cheaper to burn CDRs than to deal with a medium that's nearly impossible to find or has such a narrow audience.

[Yves]

I don't practice downloading. I prefer a good CD.

This was once my mantra but now I am fine with downloads. For the stereo equipment I own they sound fine. I'm no audiophile.

I like the convenience of downloads and I was running out of storage space for physical CDs.

[Scott Bails]

It's a hassle to download MP3s. I prefer CDs by far. For me, if I download from iTunes, it ends up on my home computer. At work, I have a different computer, and since it is a work computer, I don't have a version of iTunes on it. Thus, to take that piece of music to work, I have to first download it, and then rip it to a CD to take to work. This is several steps too many. So I rarely ever download, and I am a guy with close to 6000 LPs, cassettes and CDs. Now, my bigger problem is, there is nowhere locally for me to get CDs of what I want- Barnes and Noble here does a decent job, but rarer stuff, not really. I have to order (Wayside or Amazon).

But truth is, these days, I just go to youtube and play live concerts all day long at work anyway.

There are solutions, if you're interested.

One, you ditch iTunes, as it's a dog anyway (talking about if you're using it on a PC). If you want to listen at work, you can rip your CDs or download .mp3s (or whatever format is your favorite) and then put them on a flash drive. Or, you can use a "cloud-based" system. Personally, I LOVE Google music, as you can upload 20,000 songs of any length, make playlists, etc. Now I can listen at work on my computer, or on my phone anywhere there is WiFi (e.g. the gym).

[PeterG]

Streaming is where the future of media is headed.

I fully agree. I have no need for downloading and have no downloads anyway and have never downloaded a single thing. I don't need an mp3 or an ipod or an android phone when I'm away from my turntable, as I then listen to music via an internet radio, streaming services and internet radio stations on my PC at work. The rare occasions I use an mp3 are on long train journeys or long flights and the music on my mp3 is ripped from cds on my home pc.

[Azol]

Okay, MAYBE the CD as a format is dying, but I enjoy every moment of this process - insane amounts of records are being dumped in stores, on Amazon etc almost for free... a couple of yers ago... a full-priced CD record from major label... 15.99... nowadays... complete recordings boxset of 50 CDs, slim packaging... 70 bucks!!! Are you #$@$ing joking?!? I am grabbing that right now!!!

You have an option to transfer the CD content into your iPod/backup storage/whatever -- you can't do the same with LPs easily enough. LPs occupy LOTS of space!

[Stevie B]

I will never download MP3's. They are close to unlistenable to me.

I don't mean to pick on you personally - I have seen comments like this on this forum many times - but I find hyperbole like this hilarious.

I grew up listening to, and falling in love with, music that I heard over tinny AM radio, or on scratched and warped vinyl on my parents' "music centre" which was a chipboard box with a turntable and a pair of 3W speakers, or over the phone when you could dial up to hear the latest chart hits.

Of course as I got older and could afford better sounding gear the pleasure increased, but I sometimes think people obsess over the medium and forget that it's the MUSIC that is important. If every format that exists were wiped out tomorrow and all that was left was MP3, I think I would survive

[Mikhael]

I don't understand why we haven't moved to the next technological advance in audio tech - 24/96 (24-bit, 96KHz sampling rate) playback. Instead we seem to moving BACKWARDS in audio reproduction. With blank DVDs being so cheap, I expected audio to take on that form, but it didn't happen...