Death of CDs

[Amplituden]

I still buy CDs, but not as much as I did.
I like actually having the physical things and feeling like I have contributed a little bit of money to an artist that I like.
I buy vinyl if it comes with a download too.
I usually check things out via downloading, but if I like it I buy it more or less.

[dave from knoxville]

I love stacks of CDs almost as much as I love stacks of vinyl. I don't want anything to do with downloads.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

I love stacks of CDs almost as much as I love stacks of vinyl. I don't want anything to do with downloads.

is that why you sent me a stack instead of one of these?






PS i prefer the CDs

[jbissell]

I still buy CDs, but not as much as I did.
I like actually having the physical things and feeling like I have contributed a little bit of money to an artist that I like.

Yeah, I mostly only buy CDs at shows these days.  Sure, it usually costs a little more but that's ok.

[Gilly]

I subscribe to Rhapsody and then buy vinyl of the stuff that I'm going to listen to a lot- usually around 4-5 albums a year give or take a couple... Also stuff I pick up at shows and used record stores. I haven't bought new records in about 5-6 months since I lost my job but I'm itching to get a couple paychecks from my new gig so I can get back on my feet and then go to a record show. There's nothing quite like spinning newly bought records even if you've heard the album a million times.

[AaronC]

I prefer downloads. I realized a few years ago that a physical copy is not as important to me since I didn't read the lyrics or liner notes like I did when I was a teenager.  I do buy vinyl of my absolute favorite records though.  I have a Numark usb turntable for that. 

[paul]

i will never stop buying cds or records because my life doesn't mean anything outside of record collecting and dj'ing noncommercial radio that nobody listens to.

[scsiduck]

As a fan of music from classical music times, I've ended up with a bunch of these in the last few months - they seem to support toddlers and being sat on much better.

[wwwes]

CDs, like movies in the theater, are kept at an artificially high price even though it has been all but proven that the price is above what people are willing to pay. If a CD's maximum price was $11.99, I would buy more of them. If movies were about half the price, I would attend more of them. The reasoning behind a refusal to set up tiered lower price points when you're clearly way too far on the supply/demand curve is beyond me.

And forgive the tangent, but the theater thing bugs the hell out of me. Why would theater owners charge the same price for old and new movies when it means that at any given moment, at least three of your movies only have two people in the theater??

[Forrest]

And forgive the tangent, but the theater thing bugs the hell out of me. Why would theater owners charge the same price for old and new movies when it means that at any given moment, at least three of your movies only have two people in the theater??

The last couple of movies I have gone to in New York have been $12.75 a ticket. I would rather drop another $7.25 to just buy the DVD and watch the movie in peace on my own time. I've heard for a while that same-day DVD releses have been considered by the major distributors. Does anyone know if this is ever going to happen? I say bring it in 2009.

[Fido]

i will never stop buying cds or records because my life doesn't mean anything outside of record collecting and dj'ing noncommercial radio that nobody listens to.

I loved reading that. But I think of CDs as a format that is a status quo placeholder. Personally, I haven't reached the point of romanticizing the CD in the way I sorta romanticize vinyl, and I don't know if that day will ever arrive. Most of the time, I think, let's just bury the damn things (unless they can be recycled). The one thing I can say in their defense is they are durable and tangible -- I have every CD I've ever bought and haven't resold, whereas I've had difficulty preventing MP3 files from just evaporating, somehow. I have to back them up like crazy, and even then, some seem to disappear, but that's probably due to my incompetence as an IT administrator of my own stuff.