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?

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Listen to and download all my tracks at www.gregnicot.bandcamp.com

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.

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Mixes:
> Maximum Elevation [Progressive House]
> DI.FM 26th Anniversary Guest Mix [Progressive House]
> Live @ Dance:Love:Hub London, 11.10.2025
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24

Like these sets? Come see me play live at Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/

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.

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http://soundcloud.com/subtara

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.

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The walking discography.

quote:

Leslie Nielsen: Doing nothing is very hard to do... you never know when you're finished.

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.

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Electronic Night Life
<3

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.

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Listen to and download all my tracks at www.gregnicot.bandcamp.com

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.

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Listen to and download all my tracks at www.gregnicot.bandcamp.com