CDs Are Dying Three Times as Fast as Vinyl Is Growing

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by pseudopod, Sep 20, 2018.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    The current location isn't their original location (the new one is actually closer to where the first Newbury Comics was), so they've done this before without incident. I doubt it's going to be a problem at all. They're literally just moving about three storefronts down the block.
     
  2. x2zero

    x2zero Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn USA
    They were must have, new and shiny, but especially in those crappy jewel cases, they were never cool, the way LPs, reel to reel, cassette mixtapes, or an original iPod were cool.
     
    ian christopher and walrus like this.
  3. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    That's not entirely true though (re: who is streaming) as there's many members of this forum (and other audio related forums) that have large music collections and still stream and I am one of those as are many of my friends. It's not just the average buyer who finds streaming to be a benefit. There are many reasons why people use it.

    As for how much music the average streamer listens to - I'd bet it mirrors the way most of us listen to music. Regardless of how many lps and cds you own your listening habits are probably going to be like the average person; concentrated in certain areas. If you have more in your collection the spread might be different between each artist but it's probably going to look relatively the same.

    Yeah I agree, many people pretty much like one thing and don't necessarily branch out, even those with large collections, but I don't know if that's still true for the younger generations of listeners and it's certainly not true for many of the members of this forum. I've had a lot of conversations covering many different genres with the same people over the years here. Anecdotal evidence suggests, they (younger listeners) are far more open to listening to different genres from the get go and they don't define themselves by music they way many of us did in the past (as was the norm IMO).

    I'm not really sure if having access to everything from the start is a good idea either but I can only base my opinion on my experiences. What I do know is that back in 1985 if someone had said to me "Here's a computer and with this program you can listen to almost any album released", well, I don't think I would've turned that offer down.

    It reminds of the George Harrison story where he's asked what it was like to a Beatle and he said he doesn't know because he's only ever been a Beatle and can't compare it to not being a Beatle (paraphrasing). I don't know if things would've been different for me if I had access to everything right away but as someone who has a wide variety of tastes and can jump genres frequently in a listening session it sounds mighty appetizing.

    If people like to get to know their music, then streaming is no hindrance to that. They can play their music anytime they want anywhere they want (as long as they have connectivity) as many times as they want. Even better, they didn't have to buy that Adele "25" cd to enjoy the music and since they don't listen to it much anymore they don't have to look at a cd they never play either. But if they get a feeling like they want to listen, they still can. :)

    The problem with these discussions is that most of the time our own biases inform our opinions (and I'm not excluding myself from that). Eg you and your friends have large collections and therefore you don't think people with large collection stream whereas I do because my friends and I have large collections and do stream. There's a lot of anecdotal evidence and conjecture floating around. About the only thing we can really say with any certainty is that we really can't be sure of anything.
     
    Vinyl_Blues and jay.dee like this.
  4. Reamonnt

    Reamonnt Mr.T

    Location:
    Ireland
    I think CD is great for electronica and jazz which are my two favourite genres but if you have deep pockets vinyl can of course deliver a similar level of sound quality and even higher with top level gear but I really dont think the revivial is resulting in massive increases in high level turn tables more crosley and audio technica levels as you would expect given the income levels of the youth of today.
     
    ian christopher likes this.
  5. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    It is great for (traditional) jazz and classical, but those are niche genres. And once all streaming offers lossless, there won't be any sonic difference. Electronica is almost always mastered too hot, at least the 'mainstream'-y stuff that I listen to, so no real CD benefit there either. Some of the Daft Punk & Chemical Brothers albums are borderline unlistenable in their digital formats.
     
    ian christopher likes this.
  6. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Yeah for something that was not meant to be cool, people were certainly shovelling them into their baskets like they were a rarity at the record stores!

    From what I remember, at the time, LPs seemed old hat and pointless. I can't imagine all those people dumping their collections for nothing were thinking "My LPs are so cool"

    But I agree, LPs are cool. Cds aren't. They're like cassette tapes. But I;m sure some find those cool too.
     
    ian christopher likes this.
  7. Humanoid_Z

    Humanoid_Z Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Canada and China
    many used cds are still more expensive than used vinyls, are they really dying:(
     
    ClassicalCD and Pop_Zeus like this.
  8. Blowby

    Blowby Static lp

    Location:
    Colorado
    I'll ride the wave and pick up used CD's. I see more and more available at local thrift shops. Yesterday I picked up about 30+ in great condition, bands I wanted for $20.00
    Now I need to upgrade my CD player, it never ends!
     
  9. SoporJoe

    SoporJoe Forum Resident

    Location:
    British Columbia
    [​IMG]
     
  10. TheVU

    TheVU Forum Resident

    That guy is a ****.
     
    GKomar likes this.
  11. Nostaljack

    Nostaljack Resident R&B enthusiast

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Incredibly so!

    Ed
     
  12. vette442

    vette442 Senior Member

    I was buying new CDs in 1986-90 during college (and well beyond) as fast as I could earn another $16-$18, or more for UK imports. Couldn't wait to see deep catalog by the bands I was just discovering come out. I started buying killer, mint used vinyl that people were dumping for $3-$4 a pop in 1991 and have a massive, pristine collection of both now.
     
    patient_ot and SandAndGlass like this.
  13. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    Well, again, they're ditching CDs *at that location*. Newbury Comics' urban neighborhood locations and their suburban mall stores have very different merchandise mixes. I don't think they're getting rid of CDs at all locations, at least not yet.
     
  14. TonyCzar

    TonyCzar Forum Resident

    Location:
    PhIladelphia, PA
    He's my spirit animal.
     
    mr. steak and ian christopher like this.
  15. Kevin j

    Kevin j The 5th 99

    Location:
    Seattle Area
    I wouldn't say cds were ever cool, they were just the "next big thing". just look at this fact: millions of records were thrown in the trash by people just because they had to have the "next big thing", and they were told that vinyl was obsolete. looking back, that seems like a pretty dumb thing to do.
     
  16. Kevin j

    Kevin j The 5th 99

    Location:
    Seattle Area
    they censor the word "retread" now? maybe you spelled it wrong.
     
    ian christopher likes this.
  17. Sondek

    Sondek Forum Resident

    I remember CDs being cool. All new, shiny and sleek. Back when they cost quite a bit more than an LP.
     
    andrewskyDE, clhboa, bpmd1962 and 3 others like this.
  18. mikedifr0923

    mikedifr0923 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Well said. I have a large CD collection (4-5,000) and building a vinyl collection, maybe 300-350 or so at this point......I have a tidal subscription in addition. I use it in work, and I also use it to explore artists I haven’t heard.

    But then I do go buy CD or vinyl for those artists I end up liking more than casually

    There is a place for everything.

    My only issue with streaming is that I wish artists were paid more from it
     
  19. slop101

    slop101 Guitar Geek

    Location:
    So. Cal.
    Regular CDs (that aren't too "loudened") sound fine in my car, as do songs off my ipod - which are definitely compressed. But most of those I've only ever listened to digitally.
    I mostly meant that I was taken aback by compressed digital versions of albums after ONLY hearing them many times through an all-analog signal. Just how the difference was so startling.
     
    ian christopher likes this.
  20. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    Not really, though. They sold records almost from the time they opened back in 1978 (originally mostly punk and new wave singles from the UK), and by the '80s they were a record store that also sold comics, not a comics store that also sold records.
    Again, not really. 15 years ago, the music section of this Newbury Comics location was rows and rows of CD racks and a little selection of records in the back. 10 years ago, it was about 60/40 CDs. 8 years ago, it was 60/40 LPs. 6 years ago, they made one side of the store all vinyl and moved the remaining CDs over on the other side. A couple years ago, they moved all the remaining CDs to one little rack way in the back corner of the store, and that rack has been shrinking ever since.

    Why did this happen? Because people at that store don't buy CDs anymore.

    But again, this is only what's happening at this location. I also shop at various other locations in the Boston area, and their CD racks, while not what they were a decade ago, are not shrinking. At the stores where customers still buy CDs, they still sell CDs. This isn't a difficult concept, but a lot of people seem to think they're going to stop selling CDs at all their locations, and that's just not happening yet.
     
  21. TonyCzar

    TonyCzar Forum Resident

    Location:
    PhIladelphia, PA
    If I actually stream an album (which I haven't already bought) over and over again, I make a point of asking myself if I should put a ring on it.
     
    mikedifr0923 likes this.
  22. Blowby

    Blowby Static lp

    Location:
    Colorado
    Slap me if I turn into That Guy!

    This must be an old picture if you can still smoke in a public place. Or a he’s pulling it off a a turntable weight.
     
    SandAndGlass and ian christopher like this.
  23. RonBaker

    RonBaker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Jackson, Ohio USA
    My 2019 car came without a CD player. I balked, then the dealer said, "CDs are obsolete." Sounds like the death knell to me.
     
    Vinyl_Blues, eric777 and SandAndGlass like this.
  24. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    This is something very interesting that you say here.

    "just look at this fact: millions of records were thrown in the trash by people just because they had to have the "next big thing", and they were told that vinyl was obsolete".

    Cassette's had replaced new vinyl sales, years before CD's hit the scene, but people still held on to their vinyl.

    When CD's came out, people were told that definitively vinyl is dead, get rid of it and come and repurchase your entire vinyl collection all over again on CD.

    And dang, if that wasn't what happened with many record collections.

    In the late 80's, used record stores were flourishing. A decade later, you could not sell or even give used vinyl away, so a great deal of records did end up as landfill.
     
  25. Roland Stone

    Roland Stone Offending Member

    ABSOLUTE SOUND called and wants their 1989 op-ed back . . .
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine