Article About Not Killing off the CD.

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by weirdmikebeard, Feb 4, 2016.

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  1. Six String

    Six String Senior Member

    I am tiring of the constant jossling of formats trying to out do each other when the differences are sometimes small. All that does is split up the already small audience for physical product. As it stands we have 4 or five digitial formats though I'm including hirez files which aren't physical to make a point. Sure DVD-A and SACD aren't as robust as BR and HIREZ filesin sales but still, why so many formats? If these companies would focus on the music instead of the money side of the business something good might happen.
     
    Guy E likes this.
  2. majorlance

    majorlance Forum Resident

    Location:
    PATCO Speedline
    I think Mayor Quimby summed it up nicely:
    The public is "nothing but a pack of fickle squish-heads!”
    Or words to that effect.
     
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  3. Remurmur

    Remurmur Music is THE BEST! -FZ

    Location:
    Ohio
    This article is so right on for me !

    I buy a lot of stuff off Amazon and I am amazed at how many times the CD of any given release is often much cheaper than the download.

    Hell. I have EAC and can make my own download by making five easy mouse clicks.

    And my download is in WAV or FLAC .

    Your mileage may vary and that's cool, but for me ........no brainer ....:)
     
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  4. Runicen

    Runicen Forum Resident

    I think the rumors of CD's demise are exaggerated. Yes, sales are down, but we're still talking about MILLIONS of units sold. If McDonalds went from selling 10 million burgers one year to 9.8 million the next, it's a decline, but that's still a lot of people eating burgers. If you want to talk about even mainstream artists needing to do limited, numbered runs of 500 to even hope to offload a fair chunk of their stock, then we can talk about dead formats.

    Incidentally, a few people brought up the death of the PC. I'm going to disagree with that one. While tablets and larger phones are replacing pre-assembled PCs, it seems to me like the DIY market is going strong as hell and all people who game in addition to whatever else they're doing seem to be going that route. I don't think those numbers are representative of purchase and use at all. I suspect more people are moving into "power user" territory by assembling their own computers - not least of all since Dell particularly has taken a nose-dive in quality in their component selection and I believe HP has similar issues starting to appear, though not to the same extent.

    This may be wishful thinking on my part, but I think a lot of this talk about how CD is "dying" is short-sighted. Everyone said vinyl was dead 20 years ago and it's back with a vengeance now. Also, during the eras in which it was "dead," it was still quite possible to find vinyl editions of many albums (albeit not in the States) if you knew where to look. The format never "died" as much as it went dormant. I suspect CD will do the same unless and until something comes out to replace it.

    What IS dying off is the casual listener who maintains a music collection. I don't know any bigtime music fans not constained by financial concerns who ONLY uses streaming for their listening. That's for people who want to throw on a playlist while they do the dishes before the TV goes on. People who actively listen seem to only favor it for portability and I suspect its monopoly will be ending sooner rather than later. I have a lossless media server that I can access via any computer, game system, phone and a few other odd devices that was painfully easy to set up. As services like that become more ubiquitous, you'll see Spotify taken to the depths unless their investors get them to make the leap to hi-def.

    Just my take.


    And here, I find myself wishing I lived within walking distance of you and every other forum member who just throws out their CDs. My floorboards are not sagging NEAR enough. :winkgrin:


    EDIT: Oh, and one other thing to consider: do any of you really think this vinyl resurgence is going to survive these kids who are adopting the format realizing the necessity of careful stylus cleaning, alignment, protractor use, and so on for best sound? I think this bandwagon is going to lose a lot of followers once it's been going long enough for a few listeners to see their $30-$40 investment shredded to ribbons by their Crosley turntable.
     
  5. John Grimes

    John Grimes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbia, TN
    I'm not ok with that. Why should I be forced to download?
     
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  6. Guy E

    Guy E Senior Member

    Location:
    Antalya, Turkey
    I never hear anyone complain about occasional bad connections using streaming services. If I had one experience like the one described by the writer in the linked RS article it would be over and out!

    But I don't steam... not yet anyway.
     
  7. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    The only time I steam is when I've had a few beers. :)
     
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  8. Wally Swift

    Wally Swift Yo-Yoing where I will...

    Location:
    Brooklyn New York
    Own your carelessness knucklehead.
     
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  9. CrazyCatz

    CrazyCatz Great shot kid. Don't get cocky!

    Well after building up a massive Mp3 Collection and then NOT listening to music for a very long time, I've returned to music CD and Vinyl..i have no urge to play any of the Mp3 I own(yes I know for some peeps it fine) but for Me it just doesn't cut Tha mustard.. I don't believe CD will die off anytime soon, but I do think Mp3 and such are going Tha scrap heap in less time..CD has been around ages, and DVD/BR to me are extension's of CD and DVD was never going to take off and was obsolete by time most people had one, well according to some peeps it was.. Yet still here and cheaper than ever.. These are all just my thoughts..and just based on experience.. Thankfully I found my way back to Hi Fi.. Well real Stereo rather than compressed noise.. Waffling!

    atb
     
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  10. ricks

    ricks Senior Member

    Location:
    127.0.0.1:443
    In my area that is 3-5x what you would have received. Regardless of what CD it is the highest a shop pays in my area is .25 cash / .50 store credit. The "main" shops pay .20 /.40 per CD. Assuming they will take it from you in the 1st place. They just don't need any more copies of REM's Monster or Alanis' Jagged Little Pill.

    The "main" shops also will not pay more than .50 / .75 cent per vinyl album although there is one joint that will go as high as a "whole" 2.00 if they really need it.

    For me now pruning my collection of a CD with little interest means the trash or out back for Target practice. In a slight bit of irony I've never used a Target :targettiphat:CD for target practice.
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2016
  11. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    Well, because people buy those niche products. They'll line up (OK maybe that's an exaggeration ha ha) to buy the CD, then the remastered CD, then the SHM-CD, the SACD, and on and on, somehow hoping to find audio nirvana.
     
  12. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    I've never much cared about being trendy. When I growing up everyone else at school was into rock, while I was into the Carpenters, Gilbert O'Sullivan and country music (the Barbara Mandrell song "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" was fitting).
     
  13. Remurmur

    Remurmur Music is THE BEST! -FZ

    Location:
    Ohio
    Thank you. That has been my thought from the beginning.

    If you were into into vinyl in the pre CD days, you owned the best turntable that you could afford, and the best cartridge/stylus, and ....you made sure it was aligned on the tone arm properly and ...that the tracking was set properly. .

    You also owned a discwasher , and a stylus brush, and used them often.

    I would be very interested in knowing how many of the youngsters out there are performing anything even close to the above procedures, which were pretty much all considered essential if you were a vinyl owner back in the 70's.
     
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  14. Remurmur

    Remurmur Music is THE BEST! -FZ

    Location:
    Ohio
    (rimshot!) ...:)
     
  15. tomd

    tomd Senior Member

    Location:
    Brighton,Colorado
    I just got an email reply to one of the key people involved with MQA to this very question and he told me there are several Japanese companies that have expressed interest in physical discs (assuming cds) made with MQA technology.Makes sense as from what I've read the Japanese have largely resisted streaming preferring cds.Get ready for SHM or Blu Spec cds made with MQA perhaps?
     
    tmtomh likes this.
  16. Vocalpoint

    Vocalpoint Forum Resident

    I think the bulk of the entire "vinyl resurgence" is 99% people who are simply listening to "records" like we used to back in 1977 and the other 1% of us who care about alignment etc.

    I do not see a well heeled 21 year old (that can actually afford vinyl period) in 2016 suddenly caring about stylus cleaning or alignment or any of that. Like we did in 77 - they throw the LP on and listen to it. When that's done - stick another on. It's hard for me to fathom that this 'resurgence" has suddenly lead to a sea change in people suddenly caring about great sound and all it's minutia.

    I also do not believe a twenty something looks at a vinyl record as an investment either. It's a carrier to be worn out and discarded when it's no longer relevant.

    VP
     
  17. Anthology123

    Anthology123 Senior Member

    For me, I treat audio CDs as if they were my own library of personal master discs. I buy them, rip to losses and burn onto CDs in the form of copies, that I can afford if something happens, to just burn off another copy. I have disc images made with Toast, that have all the CD-Text set up just right, and burn them if I need a copy again. Also, I rip to MP3 to build MP3 discs to use in my MP3-CD car player my own mixes. Its sounds just fine in a car, and I like having 100+ songs handy on one disc. With all the price gouging of old CDs in the secondary market, being able to make a copy to and not have to worry about damaging it is the plus of a CD.
     
  18. 4stringking73

    4stringking73 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio
    Yes, this sucks. The auto manufacturers are looking to cut corners and they jumped on the kill cd bandwagon in full force.
     
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  19. 4stringking73

    4stringking73 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio
    Wish I lived in your neighborhood! :laugh:
     
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  20. Gardo

    Gardo Audio Epistemologist

    Location:
    Virginia
    This.

    Also, it's articles like that Rolling Stone piece that make me really glad for this Forum. Although I share the RS writer's affection for the CD as a format, the real issue for me, always and forever, is sound quality. If all I knew was what that article said, I'd pass up the Dennis Drake mastering of Layla, which the writer criticizes as a bad early CD. I think that's the "first mastering" he means - but again, who knows? RS and other popular magazines of its ilk usually use sweeping, authoritative-sounding generalizations with no earthly way to know what they're talking about, and so no systematic or reliable way to fact-check them.

    Only a forum like this one contains enough viewpoints, calibrated along multiple vectors (including reputation, experience, and yes, equipment), with a few authoritative voices like Steve's who have direct, in-depth experience with listening to actual master recordings, to give one the sufficiently complex and truly satisfying understanding of these topics.

    Knowledge, wisdom, and love > marketing and 'tude (even if I like the 'tude myself).
     
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  21. dh46374

    dh46374 Forum Resident

    The only problem with this is how many people can pay $50 and up for a cd?
     
    tmtomh likes this.
  22. Sondek

    Sondek Forum Resident

    I don't think Rolling Stone magazine has been relevant for a long time. Not to most people under 60 anyway.
     
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  23. ServingTheMusic

    ServingTheMusic Forum Resident

    Location:
    SoCal
    I disagree. I still get a lot of good musical tips from them and they have had quite a few scoops. Their article on Bowie's last days
    was very revealing.
     
  24. tomd

    tomd Senior Member

    Location:
    Brighton,Colorado
    How many can pay $50 for half speed mastered digitally sourced vinyl?
     
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  25. dlokazip

    dlokazip Forum Transient

    Location:
    Austin, TX, USA
    When CDs were taking over and vinyl was "dying" (i.e. being murdered), the industry pretty much knew how to manufacture a good LP. Sure, there were mastering issues and the majors kept trying to make LPs thinner, but there was both the infrastructure and the knowledge to make a good LP.

    Much of that was lost over the past couple of decades. So, despite vinyl's current resurgence, people complain because they are buying brand new LPs that are warped or have a non-fill defect or something similar, even if the LP is 200g. (How do you screw up a 200g LP, anyway?) Oh, and most of the new LPs were digitally mastered. Even the reissues of 50's music. Sorry.

    So, where am I going with this?

    Well, it seems to me that we are in a similar place with the CD. Everybody is proclaiming (or calling for) the death of the CD. Yet, we are at a point where the industry has both the infrastructure and the knowledge to make the best CDs possible. Sure, we have the loudness war issue. Sure, many CDs sound just as bad as their MP3 or streaming counterparts. But, those who are astute can take advantage of this period of time by either scooping good used CDs that people are unloading dirt cheap or buying well-mastered, well-manufactured new CDs that are being ignored because everyone is busy streaming the albums, downloading the albums, or seeking out the LPs.

    I got some great deals on LPs in the late 80's and 90's. If the CD is in the same place today, then it is a buyer's market. Sort through the crap and snatch up the good stuff.
     
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