Are people becoming less interested in compact discs today?

[brentspeak]

I was a kid of the 1980's, and think that compact discs are great (also think that vinyl is great, too). But all the CD store closings around the nation are telling me that the majority of kids today only care about their iPods.

Why aren't high school/college-aged people walking up to store counters with five CDs to purchase -- even when CDs are heavily discounted?

[slj0101]

1. $9.99 from iTunes as opposed to $15-20 someplace else.

I haven't bought a new compact disc in nearly two years. Still, I miss the days of vinyl, when you could study the notes and cover art as you listened.

[Auggie]

5. Totally!

[LeftyMom]

2. bittorrent

The selection rocks and you can't beat the price. :)

[LSK]

4. shhhh

;)

[LSK]

3. are you familiar with how iPods work?

An iPod can store 100s of CDs of songs. Why would anyone buy CDs anymore if they can buy the music online and store it all in one place (iPod).

[brentspeak]

6. iPods: headphones only, and the sound quality is poor

Compact discs: You can play through a speaker system, and CD sound quality is tons better than mp3s.

[LeftyMom]

7. Headphones only?

They have docking stereos. I have one (the JBL Radial) and the sound is as good as any home stereo I've ever used. With good headphones the sound is pretty darn good too, though the ones that come in the box are worse than useless and uncomfortable to boot.

[brentspeak]

9. I didn't know about the docking stereos.

That stinks. I was hoping that iPods would quickly become obsolete so that CDs would reclaim their rightful place.

[LeftyMom]

11. Nah, CDs are difficult to store and take up space

As sound files get less lossy and higher quality, there will be less and less reason to bother with them.

[brentspeak]

17. For me, listening to mp3s as opposed to CDs is like reading a novel on your computer screen

Not nearly as satisfying, clunky, and hurts your eyes (or ears, in this case).

[grace0418]

42. I disagree. Now that I've converted all my cds to mp3 I can listen to anything

in my record collection any time I want, anywhere I want (with headphones or plugged into my car stereo or into a dock at home).

What *I* found unsatisfying and clunky was having to make sure I had enough cds with me when I left the house. It always seemed I'd be in the mood for the very cd I *didn't* bring that day. Now, I don't have to carry a million cds with me, I don't have to try finding/changing the cd I want at a stoplight, and I don't have to worry about a favorite cd getting scratched or lost in the car. I can listen to anything I want, I can make huge playlists for all my moods, and I can shuffle through them easily without fumbling around. It's really made me much more excited about music than I've been in years.

As far as sound quality goes, I'm not sure I understand. I always heard from audiophiles that *all* digital music sucks, including cds. But since carrying a turntable in your car or backpack is a bit impractical, digital music isn't going anywhere. If you really want the same quality as a cd, you can make sound files at that quality level. They take up more room than standard mp3s but if it really bothers you that is an option.

Plus, you can keep all your cds for backup and use at home. Mine are all in binders, safely tucked away should I need them.

[Left Is Write]

14. I don't have an iPod (I have an iriver)...

Mr. LIW bought me a headset that's awesome. The earbuds sort of mold themselves to fit your ear and the sound quality is fantastic.

[alarimer]

31. I have an Ipod shuffle and I think the sound is great

Even with headphones. It varies with the headphone quality, of course. Of course I am no audiophile. I listen to music on my computer, which only has a pair of "Okay" JBL speakers, no subwoofer or anything else.

I no longer buy cds because they are 13-14 dollars minimum and I can download the same thing for 9.99. Or often I can download it from Emusic for .25 a song (about 3-4 dollars for a whole cd). Cheap and legal.

[NightWatcher]

28. I wired my system off of one of the JBL mini stereos and my house

sounds great and clear with the ipod at the heart of it all. Plus you can always burn a "backup" cd.

[LSK]

8. no, you can plug anything into an ipod

[huskerlaw]

33. You can plug an iPod into a speaker system

:eyes:

[SteppingRazor]

10. I was a kid in the 80s as well, and my CDs are gathering dust

my iPod is all I need.

And then, of course, there's bittorrent, where you can get the stuff for free, and often before it even comes out officially — if you're a bit unscrupulous, of course. :evilgrin:

[LeftyMom]

12. Only bad people do that, you know.

;)

[SteppingRazor]

13. So I hear

;)

[brentspeak]

15. Yeah, but things like bittorrent guarantee that quality pop music will no longer be made

Rock and pop music has been in decline for several years now, but there's no chance of a turnaround if there's no money to be made for otherwise talented people; they'll just pursue other careers.

[SteppingRazor]

18. One could offer a contrary position there, though...

indeed, one could posit that only quality music will be made, since anyone in the business will be in it for artistic, not economic, reasons.

Of course, there's two problems with that:
1) There is such a thing as bad art
2) That view is hopelessly naive

However, I think we're in a bit of a Wild West phase when it comes to Internet music access in this day and age. As the technology progresses, and as long as it is to the advantage of business and the Estalishment to halt free online trading, we'll see less and less of it — or at the very least, harsher and harsher penalties for it. I'm not saying that's right, but it will come.


However, I do think we are seeing the end of album-oriented rock. Concept albums such as The Wall and Sgt. Pepper are swiftly becoming a thing of the past. In the future, music will be more about the single, not the album — indeed, that's already the case to some extent.

[Sock Puppet]

19. yes.

:thumbsup:

Well said.

[LeftyMom]

20. CDs never made money for most artists anyhow, the cash is in merch and touring

[Sock Puppet]

21. Assuming that what you say is correct, and it isn't entirely accurate...

You also need a new CD to tour behind. You need airplay to generate interest in your tour.

[LeftyMom]

22. true, but mp3s have the same function as radio then

Free advertising at somewhat reduced sound quality.

[Sock Puppet]

29. I disagree.

Radio gets you repeated plays to a passive audience. IHow do you make that impact with mp3s? How do you get people to hear your music when they aren't already looking for it?

[taterguy]

23. The Rolling Stones beg to differ

They're one of the most successful touring acts in the world right now. They haven't released an album that people really cared about since Some Girls in 1978.

I'm sure there are plenty of other examples of bands that make a ton of loot on the road with minimal airplay and record sales.

[Sock Puppet]

30. But they already established themselves with airplay and record sales.

So that's not really a good argument.

[brentspeak]

38. Well, "Tattoo You" in 1981 went 4x platinum

and every release of theirs since then has gone at least 1x platinum. And songs from all those albums have received substantial airplay. In any case, like sock puppet pointed out before me, the Rolling Stones, being who they are, aren't a good example to illustrate your argument. If Mick Jagger was a young person today, attending the London School of Economics, he'd just stay to become a lawyer.

[slj0101]

27. And that justifies it how?

[grace0418]

48. I can see why you would say that, because certainly most of the crap on the

radio is just that CRAP. But I think digital music has allowed a new kind of underground to form, with people who never would've gotten a record contract in the past. I've heard some really amazing and interesting stuff that I don't think would be accessible to me without digital music.

The Shins first album was largely recorded in a home "studio" using software that certainly wasn't available to most musicians years ago. You may like or not like that album (I rather enjoy it), but that's pretty cool as far as I'm concerned.

[weezy2736]

16. I, for one, will never own enough CD's

There's something about physicly holding the music that makes it more "real" to me. Plus, I've already lost 3 MP3 players.

[ronnykmarshall]

53. I agree 1000%

I want the physical CD and want to see the art work. I've messed up and wiped my Ipod before and also lost music on my PC when the hard drive crashed.

Converting CD's on MP3 files are great for portable devices like Ipods or listening to them on your computer. But I like having CD's.

I hate this direction music is going.

[realisticphish]

24. here's why

i have a very eclectic musical taste. I'm walking to class listening to Ministry, when suddenly I get in the mood for Phish. Do I dig around in my bookbag for a cd? Nope, I hit menu and select "Phish." It's just a more portable system, which is what most of us college-aged kids are looking for.

I still buy CD's on occasion, but they're so damn overpriced for a poor college student:shrug:

[bikebloke]

25. I prefer to keep my music on CD's.

As back-up. If something happens to my iPod or Mac, then I can always reload the new machines. Though my frequency of buying CD's is rather low. Sometimes I'll go a year or tow before buying another, and that's after mulling over the purchase for a month or two (habit from poorer times).

There are a few recent CD's I found after they fell off the back of a truck ;)(Torrent & Bros Moving & Storage), but they're not sold in this country, nor on iTunes.

[The2ndWheel]

26. I'm sure at some point the iPod will go the way of the CD

When our brains are finally hooked up to the internet, we won't have to do anything. Eventually when ATVerCom&Tzoncast owns the internet, the songs will literally be in our heads.

[Rabrrrrrr]

32. No, they're just less interested in music that would be good enough for a CD

[MAGICBULLET]

34. I still listen to cassettes and vinyl

I don't know what is wrong with me, if anything. I just can't get away fromt the era of the continuous mixed tape where each song blends together leaving no space between tracks. Cassettes never skip on me while I'm driving either, I guess an Ipod could avoid skips also, but the cassette had something special, each mix could be personalized. Vinyl will always be my favorite, by far, not only because of the sound quality of a nice record, but also the packaging, the album cover art that is such a big part of knowing the band you're hearing. Also, most of the artists I tend to look for are so obscure and can't even be found on mp3 format. There are too many funk 45s that nobody knows about.

[Deep13]

35. Actually, I'm just less interested in music than previously.

I suspect one culprit in retail store closings is the big on-line vendors.

I use an I-pod for listening to Stephanie Miller and audio books and music sometimes. I didn't have a CD player until 1992. Before that I was strictly phonograph records and records recorded onto cassette for automobile use. I still have a lot of cassettes and have a cassette player in my car, but no CD player. These days, the phonograph turn-table is just collecting dust.

[Pierre.Suave]

36. I still buy CDs

but I am in the minority. I buy them mainly because the audio quality is better than downloaded, compressed music.

I do buy music from the iTunes online store as well, but not music I care about having in as high a quality as I can.

Then, I put the CDs on my iPod, along side the downloaded ones.

[leftofthedial]

37. it's a single-song download world

at the moment

[MissMillie]

39. Backing up.... any suggestions?

I recently purchased my first full CDs from iTunes. I got a message that reminded me to back-up my music.

What method do you folks use? Zip-drive?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

40. You could just back it up to a blank CD.

70 minutes or 700 MB (data) is the standard nowadays, I believe, per blank CD.

[MissMillie]

47. yeah, I guess

I was thinking that for 1000 songs (which is where I am right now) it might take an awfully long time to back that up onto CD. I have a lot of just solo songs, so I would have to find a good way to organize the backup CDs... maybe by artist.

[grace0418]

62. You can actually do backup right through iTunes. It will organize it exactly

how you have it organized in iTunes, and will remember your playlists as well. It will even tell you how many cds you will need to complete the backup. It's pretty cool. After I converted our entire record collection, I had almost 40GB of music to back up. So having iTunes do the work really helped.

I think I'm going to do a second set of dvds where I just burn the contents of my hard drive, though. Just to be on the safe side.

[grace0418]

45. I keep my entire collection of mp3s (both the stuff I've downloaded from iTunes

and the cds I converted) on an external hard drive. Then I backed up that entire hard drive to dvd. If you don't have a dvd burner on your computer, just use cds. It works the same, you just need more. I suggest you keep your backup somewhere separate from your computer. Don't use zip-drives, they are unreliable and don't hold very much.

[Maestro]

41. I prefer CD as do some others here

because if your computer goes haywire and you haven't backed up all your music you are SOL. I still download quite a lot for my iPod, but most is imported from CD.

[Initech]

43. I'm still pissed that Tower went out of business.

While it does serve them right for charging $18 - $25 for a CD when Best Buy charges between $10 - $14, it sucks that record stores are closing because of online services like iTunes and Rhapsody. I guess I'm weird in that I still prefer to buy my new music in CD form.

[ronnykmarshall]

55. Tell me about it!

I live just a few blocks from the famous Tower Records on the Sunset Strip. It was the BEST place to get music. Amoeba is a great store and I hope they survive.

[Initech]

61. I could spend hours browsing at Amoeba. I love that store.

[Dukkha]

44. kids would rather steal from artists

than pay for what they have earned

[grace0418]

46. I don't steal music but I don't buy cds either.

I purchase music from iTunes. If it's not available, I will buy the cd, but that's not my first choice.

[Kutjara]

49. That's what the RIAA want ou to think.

In reality, the artists have been robbed by record companies for decades. Except for the relatively few "big stars" who get rich, most recording artists can barely make a living from their music. From the purchase price of a CD, only about 50¢ goes to the artist; the rest is absorbed by corporate "overheads." Investigations of those overheads over the years has shown gross overcharging for production, promotion and distribution - and that's before profit margins are factored in. Add the cut that the labels get from concerts and merchandising (often the only opportunities many smaller artists have of making any real money) and it's obvious who the real thieves are.

The corporations are the ones being ripped-off by music "piracy," and that's a very good thing. They have resisted every opportunity to change voluntarily, so they're going to have to be forced to change. In the short term, some artists will lose out but, in the longer term, a new, more equitable music distribution model will benefit everyone (with the possible exception of the cokeheads in the record co's boardrooms).

[Dukkha]

57. I agree RIAA price fixing caused it

but artists are the ones who ultimately suffer, and retailers like Tower, Suncoast, and a long lost gem Peaches. Have you noticed in recent years concert tickets have skyrocketed in price? That's where they're trying to recoup loses.

Whats worse is a whole generation is cheating themselves out of quality high fidelity audio and won't even know how good music should sound. I grew up on vinyl and accepted the shortcomings of RedBook Audio CDs. We have a fantastic new medium that has been all but ignored by distributors, the Suer Audio CD or SACD. It utilized the superior DSD encoding over PCM and is recorded at 24bit 96kHz sampling frequencies. What you hear is pristine audio as good as vinyl but with digital sonic clarity, and in some cases 5.1 Surround sound! Sadly only the die hard audiophiles experience this wile the masses are content with squashed compressed thin sounding mp3. It was oly until recent that Neil Young started digitizing his catalog, refusing to accept digital until now.

incidently i'm listening to my iPod as I type this. It's frustrating though as I have spent a large sum of money equipping my studio with analog tube dynamic processors and preamps and utilize high resolution digital hardware but most won't benefit from it when they buy my songs on iTunes. I do get sales from CDBaby though and I'm thrilled when I do sell. Interesting note according to their reports, and they distribute to everyone online, mp3 sales only account for 15% of total sales, the rest is still CDs! So if people like you enough they'll still buy but too many others will take it from Limewire and Bit torrent out of convenience. I use those services too. Lots of great bootlegs and out of print titles can be had that way.I'm also going at it alone as no one is signing new artists now due to lack of profits and that insidious American Idol dumbing down the nation.

[brentspeak]

60. I agree, SACD is a great format.

Now all of the sudden, there's talk of pulling it already. HDCD is excellent, too (a lot of Neil Young's late 70's stuff was reissued on HDCD).

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

52. Some links:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#Piracy

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#Theft

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#IntellectualProperty

[Jimbo S]

50. Another fad passing me by.

*sigh*

I didn't start buying CD's until 8 years ago, now they're fading fast.

Still prefer vinyl.

[hippywife]

51. I still buy them when I can afford them

because I don't want an IPOD. I want the whole package with lyrics, liner notes, graphics. I also tend to buy direct from the artist (mostly indies) so I know who is getting the lion's share of the money.

[Deja Q]

54. One small slip and they lose their music files...

Digital has its benefits (no corporeal media to put it on), but DRM and the net quality of the recording (128kbps in apple's format is better than a 128k mp3, but for the price per song, we should be demanding 384kbps...)

[grace0418]

56. Not if you back up your files.

Which I do. Two sets.

[ronnykmarshall]

58. Well, I'll just tape everything!

[B3Nut]

59. Quantity over quality

It's the American Way, dontcha know. ;) All joking aside, I prefer to buy a CD and then rip it in a high-quality format (WMA Lossless usually, I use Windows Media Center as a jukebox for my hi-fi system), 128Kbps just doesn't do it for me whether it's mp3 or AAC. I still have yet to buy a portable digital player (but not an iPod, I actually prefer the Zune of all the ones I've looked at/played with...auto-convert from WMA Lossless and built-in FM radio).

I also still listen to vinyl...nothing like a good clean pressing on a properly-set-up turntable.

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

[guitar man]

63. Unfortunately, it seems so

I still buy CDs because I can't stand to listen to MP3s for very long. I know the storage and conveniance of lossy formats is very desirable to some people, but still, when you take a 4 minute song which takes up 40 MB on the CD and throw out information until it's down to about 4 mb, how good can it really sound?

I was hoping by now that high definition digital audio formats would be the norm. It's a dismal thought that I have invested what I have in 24-bit high resoultion recording equipment for my studio and at the end of the day, somebody is going to compress it into a small turd.

Hopefully, someone will come along with a high-def compact file format.