TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Music Discussion
-- Is it time to give up on cds?
Pages (2): [1] 2 »

Is it time to give up on cds?

Before I start, this isn't a cd vs mp3 debate, well not really anyway.

I don't DJ and as such I don't purchase any single releases as I wouldn't get much enjoyment from listening to full length tracks on their own. However I do buy a lot of albums and mix comps on cd. Over the years I have built up a nice collection.

Lately though when purchasing cds I wonder if its ultimately going to be money down the drain. I'm pretty sure that cds will become no more in the future and its only a question of when rather than if.

In knowing this, I question why buy cds now just to have them rendered useless years down the line. As it is, as soon as I buy a cd, I rip it onto my cpu to play through Itunes or on my ipod in my car so its not as if I am using it now. At the same time I can't bring myself to pay for the download version. Asides from the moral aspect, downloading legally or downloading illegally ends with the exact same product. I like to have something physical to show for my money.

I remember taking all my videos to the charity shop when dvds took over. And now I see myself doing the same thing with my cds at somepoint in the future. Sure, I could keep them regardless as a collection. But if I can't play them, whats the point?

Is it time to cut my losses and save the expense of buying any more cds. Or should I keep adding to the collection for sentimental reasons?

What do you think? Have you already abandoned your cd collection, ripped the lot to your cpu then chucked them? Or are you sticking with them to the bitter end?

I'm collecting vinyl.

I still buy CDs regularly, for several reasons. Track-for-track, it's usually cheaper to buy a CD album or compilation than the MP3s. CDs can also, as you say, be ripped without any specialist equipment, so it's not as if they're as immediately redundant as tapes.

Also, CDs are a physical back-up of my music collection. I've been tempted to rip my entire collection and sell the physicals on eBay, which would earn me thousands of pounds, but HDDs and MP3 players are frail things. My external HDD with my MP3s on is sometimes faulty, it could easily get infected by a virus and my last one packed in without warning one day. Nothing short of a house fire is going to destroy my CD collection, but technology breaks all the time.

I have collected a couple of hundred CDs throughout the years.. they are all lying in boxes.. i actually dont even bother to rip them as i download them again as mp3s.

I wish it wasnt like this, the feeling of going home from the record shop with a brand new CD is something i really miss.
Those days are gone forever, now its just filling up the harddrive with so much music that you hardly have time to listen to it all.

I believe there's always going to be some physical format for music and video but what and for how long is another story.

There's been some audio formats which are more or less forgotten nowadays, like the predecessor of vinyl discs, the shellac discs (made of a mixture of shellac compound and cotton). Then there's been cassette tapes, 8-track tapes and so on, ... yet loads of people still collect these formats even when the manufacturing and common usage of them has long since ended, apart from a few random cassette tape releases every now and then.

I've been a music collector for all my life and concentrating on both cds and vinyls. Vinyls came decades before cds and yet they are still being produced, tho by decreasing numbers but still they are around so why should one stop collecting cds suddenly when you could still keep on buying cds long after they're supposed to have died?

But if you want to follow the times and keep on buying new music, you probably need to start buying something else than cds eventually when they stop using them for new releases completely. But i don't understand why should you get rid of your cd collection as you can still listen to them and keep your collection backed up on cds even if you rip them all to your computer or mp3 player.

Cd players don't stop working at the same time the making of cds ends but if you don't actually listen to your cds as cds in your cd player(s), then getting rid of them would be somewhat understandable if you need more space or whatnot. Otherwise not really.

in order for cds to be a viable medium in the future they're going to have to package them in cooler ways. case in point: the deluxe editions of daft punk's alive 2007 and justice's a cross the universe, which come as bound hardcover booklets with photographs of the show inside. this is the sort of unique thing that digital media simply can't provide

What do you mean you can't play them?

rip them and sell the CD's back while they still have some value.

quote:

Originally posted by SMC What do you mean you can't play them?

Well, when the time comes that cds stop being manufactured, so will cd players (eventually). Yes I can keep the existing cd player I have at that time but chances are, it wont work out that way. I no longer have a cassette player even though I did own quite a few cassettes. I don't have a video player anymore despite having had a large collection of videos. As it stands, in one room I have just a docking station. In another room my pc, downstairs I do have a cd player though the amp is hooked up to the pc upstairs and all music plays through that. Point is, things change, technology changes and the old stuff becomes obselete. When no new cds are being manufactured, then my cd player will never get used, all my existing cds are on the pc. After a while, the cd player will end up in the skip as did the cassette and video players. I wouldn't keep it JUST IN CASE I needed to rip all my old cds again. Or if I did, it would go in the loft out of the way.

quote:

Originally posted by G-Con Well, when the time comes that cds stop being manufactured, so will cd players (eventually). Yes I can keep the existing cd player I have at that time but chances are, it wont work out that way. I no longer have a cassette player even though I did own quite a few cassettes.

cds will not stop being manufactured any time in the forseeable future because there is no better technology causing them to be obsolete, as cds were to cassettes

quote:

Originally posted by G-Con Well, when the time comes that cds stop being manufactured, so will cd players (eventually). Yes I can keep the existing cd player I have at that time but chances are, it wont work out that way. I no longer have a cassette player even though I did own quite a few cassettes. I don't have a video player anymore despite having had a large collection of videos. As it stands, in one room I have just a docking station. In another room my pc, downstairs I do have a cd player though the amp is hooked up to the pc upstairs and all music plays through that. Point is, things change, technology changes and the old stuff becomes obselete. When no new cds are being manufactured, then my cd player will never get used, all my existing cds are on the pc. After a while, the cd player will end up in the skip as did the cassette and video players. I wouldn't keep it JUST IN CASE I needed to rip all my old cds again. Or if I did, it would go in the loft out of the way.

CDs are highly unlikely to become obsolete any time soon. Even if they would be replaced by another stanard it is highly unlikely there wouldn't be any devices available that can read them.

You obviously have an optical disc drive in your computer, so play them there. I play everything on my computer.

If you're really afraid your CDs are gonna become useless you could stock up some optical drives, that should get you through the apocalypse.

quote:

Originally posted by supersaw abuse cds will not stop being manufactured any time in the forseeable future because there is no better technology causing them to be obsolete, as cds were to cassettes

Hard drives/mp3 players? Are these not gradually replacing cds already?

EDIT:

I'm not saying that mp3s playing off a memory disk is a "better" technology but it is an alternative which is rapidly becoming the primary method for many people.

I can't see the drives becoming obsolete any time soon, especially as DVD drives play CDs too, and I'm sure Blu Ray do too, or can be made to.

I still have a video tape player as well. I've loads of old tapes from TV that I still watch, everything from horror films to Copa America matches.

Vinyl 4 ever

quote:

Originally posted by euphoria rip them and sell the CD's back while they still have some value.

If you knew more about CDs, you'd know that some albums will sell for way more money later on. I've made some good money reselling early house, trance and techno CDs (extra originals that I found).

Original CDs are good for backup and copy, and mixed albums are easier to playback in CD format in mobile mode.

And many other reasons listed.

I still collect and sell CDs and have amassed a big collection. Its no the same way when it comes to digital format music, you cant call that a collection. It doesnt even feel the same.

quote:

Originally posted by supersaw abuse ... which come as bound hardcover booklets with photographs of the show inside. this is the sort of unique thing that digital media simply can't provide

Yea, until someone invents a way of displaying digital photos/images... oh wait.

I like physical media, I really do. The problem is that I have no real use for it. My CDs and vinyl just sit on the shelf taking up space while I manipulate all the music I care about in digital reality. Having recognized this I am at the point where I go to great lengths to avoid buying any sort of physical media for any reason... and I'm selling off most of what I've amassed up until now. It's dead weight. Labels disinterested in making their catalogue available as digital media are losing out on my business. Oh, and don't even mention MP3s... they are only really good for my iPod and certainly aren't worth paying for. FLAC is the format for this new age.

quote:

Originally posted by Gen3r4l1ty Yea, until someone invents a way of displaying digital photos/images... oh wait.

That has been around for over a decade now. Its called a personal computer with a scanner. Still not the same feel as CD though. Most people I know, myself included, would only spend a second or two if ever on looking through digital artwork. CD inserts are better in almost every way. Its much more fun to look through inserts than digital scans, especially when you're off internet or with friends, or checking out a CD to buy or to listen.

If you're with friends, and then they want to play some music on a stereo, would you shove your flashdrive or a music CD? Another example, would it be better to show your music collection to the friends in the MP3 collection or your originals CD/vinyl/DVD collection? Style points is one of the considerations. Also, remember that you're supporting the music artists and labels.

Lets wait and see until a better hardcopy format will come and replace the compact discs. Because mini-discs lost the battle to the CDs already, and most people I know who would buy movies or music prefer to have it as authentic and hardcopy format. Otherwise its throwing money away - why buy MP3s when you can download them for free? You only pay for lower sound quality and risk of losing the files to a technical problem later on.

Few years back here in Southern Ontario there was a massive power outage like never seen before. My CD collection really came to a good use, with all computers off for a full week ...

For home use at least, for people like me with large music collections, CDs are much more convenient to use than Ipods.

CDs will survive imo someway or another. 90% of the people i know hate to use money on mp3 beacuse its not a real product. only the elitist, desperats or djs buy mp3 it seems. music industry just need to accept that a change is needed, both price and avaliability, and somehow the government needs to stop piracy. When that happens everything will be back to normal, just wait for internet v2. If I could get my music on CD i would gladly pay for it anyday, but its just too much work to find it if its even avaliable. Then u have shipping waiting etc. One of the interesting things today is Spotify (eventhough it sucks) its somehow new thinking. If u could cache stuff and play it offline it would be graet

quote:

Originally posted by palm ..and somehow the government needs to stop piracy. When that happens everything will be back to normal, just wait for internet v2...

agreed

however with the closing of companies like tower records. hopefully the physical product- cds and vinyl will still be around if there is ever a comeback to be made.

I still buy CD's. Part of the fun of buying music is picking the album off the shelf, reading through the booklet outside the store with that brand new smell, and popping the disc in the car stereo for the ride home.

With mp3's it's boring...just a bunch of cold, lifeless files. You really don't get anything.

Plus I like having the lyrics and other interesting goodies in one place. The last album I bought, Solarstone's AnthologyOne, had a cool written history of the group in the booklet (something you wouldn't find by buying online).

With the album Never Better by P.O.S. (a rapper), it comes with like 30 inserts you can mix and match to create your own cover art. The digital copy? 14 mp3's with metadata for only a buck or two less. No point...

I like having a CD collection in my house cos wehn people come round they can look through it, same with the dvd collection (and to some extent the vinyl, but only the geeks look at that). It gives people who dont know me that well a little insight into who I am. You cant really do that with an mp3 collection.

I rarely buy CDs anymore. If I like a track I buy the single and that way I can also play it out too.

Sometimes a damn nice artist album or compilation comes along though and I get it as a collectible.

quote:

Originally posted by Magnetonium If you knew more about CDs, you'd know that some albums will sell for way more money later on. I've made some good money reselling early house, trance and techno CDs (extra originals that I found). Original CDs are good for backup and copy, and mixed albums are easier to playback in CD format in mobile mode. And many other reasons listed. I still collect and sell CDs and have amassed a big collection. Its no the same way when it comes to digital format music, you cant call that a collection. It doesnt even feel the same.

That may be the case but he never said he had anything rare or special edition. Most CD's in general decrease in value as time goes on. It's not gonna make him rich or anything. Even if he does have the one or two rare CD's here and there it would likely only give him enough to make back what he lost by purchasing the rest of the CD's at full price then reselling them for less. If he breaks even or makes a lile pocket cash then he's lucky. If you feel sentimental about your collection which it appears that you personally do then by all means what is any TA's going to do to stop you from keeping it

quote:

Originally posted by euphoria That may be the case but he never said he had anything rare or special edition. Most CD's in general decrease in value as time goes on. It's not gonna make him rich or anything. Even if he does have the one or two rare CD's here and there it would likely only give him enough to make back what he lost by purchasing the rest of the CD's at full price then reselling them for less. If he breaks even or makes a lile pocket cash then he's lucky. If you feel sentimental about your collection which it appears that you personally do then by all means what is any TA's going to do to stop you from keeping it

Luckily, one can also listen to CDs.

Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.