Vice: Does Anyone in the World Still Buy CDs?

I've heard vinyl lovers say that surface noise (static, pops, clicks, skips, scratches, etc.) gives the music "character" that is lacking with a CD.

And no...sadly I am not kidding.

 

Hahahahaha !!

 

I still buy a lot of CDs, but I won't deny they've caused a lot of suffering over the years. Every time I tear the shrink-wrap off of one, my cat comes running over expecting food. And when I let her smell it, she gives me the most awful look of betrayal you could imagine, then saunters off to sulk in the corner, foodless.

People who only download will never know that pain.

 

It's all been said so I'll only add yes, I buy CD's...

 

It's a 2016 company car with no CD player option. It's making me rethink the compact disc. If they are no longer portable everything changes.

 

Oh, I believe you. I once read a message board post from a movie fan who claimed he preferred the look of VHS over DVD because he grew up with it and that was how the movies were "supposed" to look.

Still waiting for that VHS revival...

 

You can always believe what Baba says because he's so neutral on the CD/vinyl thing. Not a smidgen of bias.

 

Okay, I always like to have something good to say to balance things out, so here's what I'll admit to you:

I bought the "Sex Pistols vinyl" 7" Box set - mostly because it included MP3's of all the songs.

Okay... I'll admit... holding these things in my hands is badass. These aren't like the 45 RPM records I used to have back in the day: These are HEAVY. They are thick, super-thick, almost unnaturally thick. Kinda cool, I'll admit.

I've only listened to the CDR that I've burned from the MP3's, but I *might* throw some of those singles on the turntable someday...

 

It may have all been said, but it's not been said in your own unique way. Lay it on us!

 

COOL

Love me 45s and lps. Mp3s the sound was always lower than the cds.

 

I'm still buying cds, usually Classical music at the moment with other stuff I can't be bothered to hunt down on record (or overpaying for good copies)

 

I will buy CDs and physical records as long as I feel that there is music being made that is worth it. I want to support the creative artist because he is out there on the edge living the music. There's plenty of music I wouldn't buy. Probably 97% of it.

 

The Gong CD I picked up was the `Arista Years' double.....Pierre Moerlen. Oddly enough, en route
to me as we speak is the anthology by Gong proper from the UK. Also got the Vanguard Larry
Coryell `best of' and the Cozy Powell anthology......which I was surprised to see was a Bill
Levenson endeavor on the Chronicles imprint. The Brand X was the `History Of' CD and I
also scored a 2-disc Bill Bruford `best of' - `1987 to 2008'.

 

Yea, I still buy 'em sometimes.

 

CD is the perfect physical format, IMO. I have been in love with CD since 1985. And I think we've all become very jaded over the years, and take CD for granted. Which is, of course, human nature sadly.

 

Over the past month I've bought 110 CD's. I've sold just as many, working at a record store, if not more. Teens browse through our CD's. People my age browse through our CD's... Young parents show their kids who can barely reach the racks what it's all about... Of course, the majority of CD buyers are people in their mid-forties and up - and yes, vinyl LP's are more popular in the long run than the CD - but they can still definitely sell. Used as well as new... People who rebuild the collection they got rid of ten years ago. People who miss having stuff to hold. People who want to listen to what they like in their car. And of course those who never stopped collecting. Very happy all those kinds of people are still with us.

 

Nice to hear.

 

I'm still buying CDs. These new Mega Boxes for classical music are really an opportunity to get some really good music for a pittance. And there have been several mid to large rock box sets released with some really good stuff (Dylan, Cash, Turtles, Maca, Rundgren...the list goes on!) at a very reasonable price. When I started buying CDs instead of LPs over 30 years ago I bought them because they were more durable and they had the promise of better sound, which they normally do. I kept my turntable because there are opportunities to get LPs and nice sets with LPs (like the Smile set and the Tusk set), but I don't regret going to CD and as long as I can play them I keep buying them. Plus, I can rip them for those cases where I need a USB device. I don't have anything against people who like downloads or LPs, but it's CD for me.

 

Yes I still buy CDs.

 

I loved VHS Hi-Fi as an audio format.

 

Well, there are all kinds of "character".

 

If she didn't poop in your shoe, she's not that hurt.

 

Only young people -- younger people I should say -- say crap like that. I remember when CDs came out and we were all ecstatic to finally get music without surface noise. That was our motivation.

I prefer vinyl records myself, having gone back to them around 20 years ago, but I still buy CDs on occasion, and in Japan people certainly still do. There are still fully stocked, multi-story HMV shops, Tower is still here, the Disk Union chain carries new CDs...and I'm missing dozens more in and around Tokyo.

So does anyone in the world still buy CDs? Yes. Japan does. The article is a joke.

 

Everytime I go to Walmart with my daughter, she always asks if she can buy a CD. She is 12 years old and has a CD player and a mp3 player. She listens to both a lot. She has never streamed or downloaded music. I usually agree to buy her one out of the 5 dollar bin. Her CD collection is growing fairly large. Now she is asking about getting better headphones and a turn table.

What can I say. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

 

I will continue to buy CD's, and there have been some great new CD releases over the past couple of years. Keep making them, and I'll keep buying them.