Is there any future for CDs?

[Mascodagama]

I have just bought a new audio thingy, to give it the correct technical name. My big rig is now boxed up in the cellar as it did not fit with the design plan. The big speakers survived as they look cool, but I needed a one box solution to include CD player, streaming and amplification (with a basic phono stage being ‘nice to have’) to plug into them. I was able to find something that fit the bill and the budget (Audiolab Omnia), and there were indeed several different options available to choose from.

There would have been about 10 times as many options if CD playback was not a requirement, but it’s good to know that at least a few manufacturers continue to pander to we fetishists of the silver beermat. Long may our audio perversion continue!

[JKL2000]

I recently bought the Trettitre T-CP8 Portable CD player it’s Blu Tooth and is excellent , for some reason I was finding the DVD/CD players weren’t reading some CD’s via my computer . I feel there has been a gap in the market re a decent portable CD player with blu tooth but this is fantastic and very affordable .

I bought one with Blu-Tooth a few years ago and it was terrible, but it was cheap. For one thing, the characters on the LCD screen were WAY smaller than they should and could have been. But the pairing sucked. Also, no backlighting.

This player looks cool, but kind of big.

[starless and bible black]

From SuperDeluxeEdition.com-

CDs continue to outsell vinyl in the UK

The BPI (British Phonographic Industry) has published its annual report on UK music consumption and, as usual, it makes for interesting reading.

As has been reported on SDE before – and occasionally elsewhere – the BPI do have a propensity to talk up the ‘vinyl revival’ and marginalise the ongoing success of CDs and this year isn’t much different.

For those who are not aware, the BPI is not an independent organisation, it’s a trade body made up of “music companies” – primarily record labels – including all three major record companies in the UK (Warner Records, Sony Music and Universal Music). So inevitably, the strategies and goals of the record industry at large are reflected in the reporting.

The headline for physical music this year is “Double-digit percentage rise of vinyl sales as CD decline signficantly slowed“. The statistics that support this are that vinyl sales grew 11.8 percent to 6.1m units in 2023 and CD sales dropped 6.9% to 10.8m units (the lowest annual rate of decline since 2015).

So for all those who love to goad with the question: “who buys CDs anymore?”, the fact remains that CDs are the most popular physical format in the UK and continue to outsell vinyl significantly, something they have done for more than 30 consecutive years. How about we celebrate that?

Also, perhaps CDs wouldn’t be declining at all if there was more of a level playing field. The amount of marketing value that the largely vinyl-only Record Store Day benefits from is enormous. Indulge CDs with a similar initiative and I’m sure sales would rise. National Album Day is the same: purportedly a day to celebrate “the album”, it’s actually designed specifically to sell vinyl. It’s so transparent, and I don’t mean the coloured vinyl.

And there’s still plenty of reissues where the labels concerned don’t bother to issue a CD version. Recent examples include Steely Dan albums, Depeche Mode’s ongoing 12-inch box sets, the Talking Heads Stop Making Sense reissue, the Beastie Boys’ Hello Nasty 4LP set, and the Bonnie Tyler Faster Than The Speed of Night 40th anniversary. Not wanting to state the obvious, but a CD sale can only be registered if a CD edition is actually released and that is controlled by the record labels who benefit from everyone buying into the idea that no one buys CDs anymore and it’s all about vinyl. Earnings and profit will be higher with the vinyl variants (just look at the differential with the recent ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ Beatles reissues which were priced at around £70 on vinyl and £20 on CD).

Of course, the other rapidly developing concept is one of offering multiple vinyl versions of a product to increase sales. There was only one CD single of The Beatles’ ‘Now and Then’ but SIX different vinyl editions. Not only that, Apple and Universal Music held back the announcement of the CD until the last minute, to maximise vinyl sales. Remember what I said about level playing field? Despite this, the one CD single still outsold all the vinyl in the UK put together to help ‘Now and Then’ get to number one in the UK single charts.

It’s almost routine now for run-of-the-mill album releases to have a standard black vinyl, an artist store coloured vinyl exclusive, maybe an Amazon coloured vinyl exclusive and perhaps a deal with Blood Records to come up with a ‘zoetrope’ picture disc later in the campaign. Oh, and you can also buy a CD in a plastic jewel case that that has been mastered to within an inch of its life. The superfan buys FOUR vinyl editions and just one CD. Of course, that’s marketing; that’s how organisations make money. They influence and direct consumers to the products they want them to buy – I get it. But the BPI report these figures as if we are seeing a natural shift in consumer behaviour and act as if they are impartial observers when its members are responsible for stacking the cards in favour of vinyl. Box sets to one side, the humble CD is arguably being subjected to death by neglect, both in presentation and the quality of the audio. Still it endures! This is the unwritten story.

Here’s an example. Even though streaming dominates “music consumption” in the UK, with a massive 87.7 percent of the market, the BPI point out that “physical continued to dominate the top of the Official Albums Chart”. A key statistic is that out of the 44 albums that debuted at number one in 2023, 86 percent of them had “more than half their chart-eligible sales made up of physical sales”. And in 35 weeks physical was behind more than 70 percent of chart eligible sales. Blur’s The Ballad of Darren (89.6 %) and The Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds (89.5%) being great examples. Since CDs outsell vinyl by almost 2:1 in the UK, CDs are a big part of the physical sales that help albums to the higher reaches of the chart.

I’d like to see the UK music industry do more to promote and protect sales of what is still its biggest selling physical format. Apart from a few exceptions, labels show no interest in coming up with special CD products for Record Store Day, or National Album Day, for that matter. There is no ‘CD Day’ and there are no cross-label ventures specifically designed to slow the decline of their biggest selling physical product. With the media annually picking up on the so-called “vinyl boom” it negatively influences stakeholders. Supermarket buyers decide to stop selling CDs, car manufacturers stop supporting the format and the sales decline becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The CD is still an excellent and robust format and can still look good and sound good when it’s given some love by audio engineers, product managers and marketeers within record labels. It’s surely time for the industry to stop being a curious spectator and actively support and celebrate the format that poured so many millions into the coffers in the late 80s and 1990s. With some effort, I’m convinced the “slow decline” of CDs could be turned around by the BPI’s members and within the next fews years CD sales could start to grow again.

[JKL2000]

The idea of buying multiple copies of an LP because they’re different colors seems exhausting. I’d feel like a sucker. But who am I to judge?

[Harbottle]

The idea of buying multiple copies of an LP because they’re different colors seems exhausting. I’d feel like a sucker. But who am I to judge?

I've seen people post their collection of the same album in all the different colours on Facebook and appear proud of it.
I don't get it.
I find I'm buying more CDs these days. If I want the vinyl I just wait a few months and it's usually half price (Steely Dan reissues are very cheap now!).

[Mascodagama]

I've seen people post their collection of the same album in all the different colours on Facebook and appear proud of it.
I don't get it.

There is a kind of fetishization of vinyl as object, rather than music carrier, at play here.

I'm certainly not anti-vinyl and own quite a bit (though I have far more CDs). We can probably all agree that a 12" gatefold has an intrinsic coolness to it in terms of the ability to present art, lyrics, notes etc in the most pleasing way of any music format. But the idea that as a music lover with a limited budget you would choose to buy two copies of the same LP because one is green and one is purple, instead of two different LPs, is alien to me. I suppose the people who buy into this are treating vinyl as a collectable / lifestyle adjunct / style statement and to that extent aren't in the game just for the love of music. Nothing particularly wrong with that, but I suspect it's not where many of us on this forum come from.

I also suspect the appeal of this is mostly to younger buyers for whom vinyl is a consciously retro item. Those of us old enough to remember when vinyl and tape were the only ways of acquiring music, and rather than having a perceived glamour vinyl was just a utilitarian music format with certain benefits and certain drawbacks, will probably never view it in the same way.

[Dana5140]

This is akin to comic book collectors who purchase alternate covers of the same issue because they are collectors.

For me, I will buy vinyl now, but only if it is music I want. I do not care if it is old or new, used or not, as long as it is music that matters. I try to buy used, since it is cheaper, but where I cannot, I will get new.

[gallen1964]

Absolutely this , in 2024 I ‘ m going to be a lot let previous about hunting down vinyl when I can get CD for quarter of the cost

[auxfnx]

I thought the CD was a dead format. At least, it really seemed to be - amongst my peers at least, who in general eschew physical media entirely with the exception of more 'romantic' ones like vinyl or cassette.
I get it. CDs are made from digital sources. So getting it digitally is in fact even more lossless/'close-to-the-source' than getting it from a CD.

But releasing the most recent Rascal Reporters album opened my eyes to how many people still want CD in this day and age, and I've been more open minded about it since.
I still don't really care for CDs personally but love vinyl. I guess I see CDs as making digital files physical, which seems pointless to me when they might as well just 'physically' exist on my hard drive in that case.
I'm being a bit dismissive, of course it's worth having a dedicated storage medium for a piece of music that can then be archived by itself. But just explaining why I personally don't collect them.
Also, if an album is not going to be made physical in any other format, CD is an affordable enough way to actually give the music a real footprint in the world.

Vinyl being analog at least sets it apart from listening digitally, and separates it more from the 'digital' version of an album than a CD is. But more than anything it is a medium through which I discover and explore music, via record fairs and such.
It was through digging for records that I first discovered prog and jazz fusion, and many other styles of music. So it's part of a bigger picture for me personally. Second hand vinyl is where it's at.
The same can be said for second hand CD sales and the like, but that wasn't my journey and we are all slaves to the neural pathways we evolve over our lives eh?

[IncogNeato]

But releasing the most recent Rascal Reporters album opened my eyes to how many people still want CD in this day and age,

Niche genres will always have blocks of fans who want CDs. Just like when vinyl was "dead" there were still blocks of fans who wanted it and could often find it.

Vinyl might be analog in that a needle as to actually touch it to play it, but much (if not nearly all) of it these days has digitally sourced audio. All these catalog reissues are being made from digitized masters. Unless you're recording to tape, that is.

[JJ88]

I think there's a place for record and CD. But I am pretty disgusted in the major label greed going on with the former. See this article which outlines this.

https://www.stamperdiscs.com/making-...-plating-bath/

Vinyl being analog at least sets it apart from listening digitally

But what about when the source itself isn't analog and yet is still pressed on record? The MoFi scandal was revealing on this. I think some self-styled audiophiles were really caught with their pants down there.

I remember someone criticising CDs for being 'functional'. In as much as they (generally) work without issues, I guess that's true.

The 'CD era' had its own drawbacks, though; truly appalling mastering started becoming commonplace and what you could call 'CD bloat' on albums.

[auxfnx]

Yeah for sure most vinyl masters these days are done digitally but they still need to be adjusted for the vinyl medium so that they play back correctly, don't cause the needle to jump or skip etc. In essence there are physical limitations to the sounds you can put onto a vinyl if you want the needle to be able to play it correctly, so they will inevitably have a different sound to the version that is available digitally or on CD where there is really no limitation to how it can sound. Even if the vinyl cutting engineer is presented with the exact same digital master used for CD+web, it will need to be adjusted a certain amount by the engineer to ensure it works with the vinyl format. This can include things that contribute to what people might see as a 'vinyl sound', like more midrange focus, less sharp highs or super deep lows, sibilance reduction (via de-essing), etc.

The point I meant was more that the digital master is 100% the same as the CD one in terms of sound, but the process of putting the music onto vinyl will change the sound even if, for the most part, it's the same master. So as you generally get a digital copy with online purchases of physical albums nowadays, buying the vinyl gives you two listening experiences that are a little more distinct - digital and vinyl, vs digital and CD which will be identical. Not saying anything about better or worse though to be clear, I think in fact there's no debate: vinyl is inherently a lower fidelity format.

[Man In The Mountain]

A couple years ago when I bought a new iPhone (iPhone12) I went to put some new CDs into it, only to find out the upgraded iTunes on Mac completely changed its menu and I could not figure out how to rip CDs and get them on my new phone! No lie, it took two or three days with several tech guys on the phone for hours from Apple and AT&T, who also could not figure it out. While I was totally stressed out over my new phone, the Apple tech guy said the most insulting thing... "Dude, I'm in my 50's and I got rid of ALL my CDs years ago, I stream music (Spotify I guess), and I literately listen to thousands of more titles than ever!" Maybe he thought he was trying to enlighten me, but I felt insulted because he was calling me old or stupid. Honestly, I thought he was a douche for getting rid of all his CDs. They eventually figured it out, but it is quite a complicated workaround to rip and place CDs on my phone. I imagine sooner than later the option will go away.

Put me on the list also for not caring what color a slab of vinyl is. If you're paying a premium for a color, or collecting each color available, I got news for you... physical vinyl is not going to go up in value when this fad comes to a swift end. But to each their own! I just don't watch vinyl spin once I put it on the platter. Black is fine.

[auxfnx]

Put me on the list also for not caring what color a slab of vinyl is. If you're paying a premium for a color, or collecting each color available, I got news for you... physical vinyl is not going to go up in value when this fad comes to a swift end. But to each their own! I just don't watch vinyl spin once I put it on the platter. Black is fine.

here here! colour variants are not anything i'm interested in and i'm always more glad to go for a black edition should it be available, and it will often be a few quid cheaper as well as having an advantage in terms of sound quality.
can't wait for the boom to die out and I can get second hand records on the cheap again lol

I think it is silly to get rid of any physical media in lieu of streaming. I don't know if streaming in this form will be around forever and even now it's spotty in terms of what releases are available.
There are a huge amount of releases I love that aren't on streaming services at all. And albums that I do have saved in my library sometimes disappear due to them being removed.
Local storage is the way to go, and if you are a bit more tech savvy you can set up local streaming, eg. I use software called Subsonic to stream the files I have on my computer to my phone when I'm out and about, so I can listen to anything from my digital library whenever I like.

[flytomars]

Colored vinyl is a straw man argument, I don't think there are people in this thread that collect different colors of the same album so why waste so many words on this esoteric phenomenon?
The topic is the future of CDs, and my 2 cents on the subject is that there is no future- on the other hand I usually miss popular trends by a mile so I am probably wrong.
But for me- CD is a really redundant format (almost as cassettes)- if you are a fetishist and desire a physical copy (not that there is anything wrong with that) - then vinyl is much more appealing in this prospect. If you only want to listen to the music- then streaming gives you the same quality (and even higher) without the mishaps of a physical format- so really, personally I don't understand the appeal. On the other hand- since when is logic or reason relevant in this hobby...

[timmy]

What keeps me from buying vinyl is the quality. 85% of the vinyl my friend purchases is warped. Most of the sources used are digital, too.

Me? I would prefer to purchase Mofi pressings. However, at $125 a pop for two records at 45 rpm I would be paying a premium gym membership fee for exercise changing the records. Then you have to consider the cleaning and maintenance of the records.

I do love the sound of vinyl. I have fond memories of purchasing and listening to many great classic records in the late 70s and early-mid 80s before I went digital.

[Steve983]

I am very selective about what vinyl I buy these days. I just pick special releases that are unique in some way. I've given up buying it for its own sake, too many bad sounding ones and yes warped or over crackly pressings out there. CD is still the main medium for me.

[Rarebird]

A couple years ago when I bought a new iPhone (iPhone12) I went to put some new CDs into it, only to find out the upgraded iTunes on Mac completely changed its menu and I could not figure out how to rip CDs and get them on my new phone! No lie, it took two or three days with several tech guys on the phone for hours from Apple and AT&T, who also could not figure it out. While I was totally stressed out over my new phone, the Apple tech guy said the most insulting thing... "Dude, I'm in my 50's and I got rid of ALL my CDs years ago, I stream music (Spotify I guess), and I literately listen to thousands of more titles than ever!" Maybe he thought he was trying to enlighten me, but I felt insulted because he was calling me old or stupid. Honestly, I thought he was a douche for getting rid of all his CDs. They eventually figured it out, but it is quite a complicated workaround to rip and place CDs on my phone. I imagine sooner than later the option will go away.

Put me on the list also for not caring what color a slab of vinyl is. If you're paying a premium for a color, or collecting each color available, I got news for you... physical vinyl is not going to go up in value when this fad comes to a swift end. But to each their own! I just don't watch vinyl spin once I put it on the platter. Black is fine.

Last year I had the opportunity to take my pick from the CD-collection from people whose cat I take of when they are on vacation, because they switched to Spotify.
I don't really care for vinyl and especially not the colour. Though I have to admit I'm still a bit angry at myself, because I didn't buy Synergy - Cords on transparant vinyl, when it was first released. I still have a picture disc from Marillion - Grendel. But that is the only non-black vinyl I own.

[SWT]

CDs continue to outsell vinyl in the UK - apparently!!

https://superdeluxeedition.com/comme...uJL1_BjAZ684cI

[JJ88]

^It's the US which is the outlier in that regard, as far as I'm aware.

[moecurlythanu]

physical vinyl is not going to go up in value when this fad comes to a swift end.

This is the sort of thing that people who are not fans of vinyl have been saying for 8 to 10 years now. So my question is, how long is a "swift end?" Can we set a date after which it is no longer reasonable to view the vinyl resurgence as a "fad?" (We're probably already past that point, but...I'd like to get it nailed down for future reference and comparison.) Also, what length of time constitutes a settled and viable format, and not merely a fad? 10 years? 50 years? 400 years? Asking for a friend. Oh, and HIPSTERS! Just wanted to get that out there so that none of the Grumpy Old Man cliches are sitting on the sidelines.

As Mr. Buckley would say,...Carry On.

[Jerjo]

The prices of new AND used vinyl are frightening. For a few months last summer/fall I had a working TT and I was shopping for vinyl. I quickly found that the market has driven the prices to insane levels. CDs, for the most part, have been the same prices I've seen in the last five years. I'll keep by CDs and Bandcamp downloads. If I get a working TT again, it will be to play my existing collection. I won't be actively seeking out new vinyl. I'd rather spend my money on CDs...and guitar stuff.

[IncogNeato]

CDs for life.

I like picking up old, second-hand vinyl of music important to me. But I will not buy new vinyl. If I hear a new band that's good and all there is to pick is digital or vinyl, I'm going digital. Though, to be honest, if the stuff isn't available on CD for me to grab (or have hope of grabbing one day), it'll end up forgotten by me.

[moecurlythanu]

For new releases where there's choices, I'll always go for a CD. If it's new and vinyl only, I may buy it, or I may hold out in the hope of a CD release. If it's digital download only, I'm out, with rare exceptions. If it's rare vintage vinyl, I'll be very interested. So my reaction to the format varies somewhat depending on circumstance.

[JKL2000]

^ Good points you raise. (Yoda I am not.) I had actually never even considered the vinyl fad ending. I would think that would only happen if a new physical medium came along and was somehow more attractive, or streaming made some big leap (the sound quality increased beyond that of vinyl, or it became free and ad-free, or something). I don't think the vinyl-hounds are going to suddenly lose interest (despite this fusilade of ours). I suppose if whatever it is that causes the delays in producing vinyl records got a lot worse, that could have an effect too. If I had gotten into the 2nd vinyl craze, THAT would have made me quit it - albums that are in the can, but waiting extra MONTHS to be released because of production issues! That's too much.

BTW, in my post a while back that started this discussion of buying all the vinyl colors of an album, I wasn't only picking on vinyl buyers. Because on Facebook I've seen proud owners displaying their collections all ALL the formats one particular album is available in (except the digital files of course): multiple colors of vinyl AND the CD (the CD is sometimes in multiple formats, too).

This is a different kind of collector. They most likely DO care about the music, and they want to "embrace" the release in a way. To own it in all its variations - there will be no FOMO! And maybe they really want to support the artist. This seems pretty extreme, IMO. I'm more of a one-format-per-album man. But then I will fondle the hell out of that format!