CDs Are Dying Three Times as Fast as Vinyl Is Growing

I don't know. My son is 18 and continues to want new CD's. He had 6 on his Christmas list.

 

Definitely. Part of this ongoing entitlement is the notion that music should be almost free or inexpensive. Artists need capital in order to create new music, but streaming isn't profitable except for the shareholders of the streaming services. Established artists from the old money who are still recording and touring aren't going to feel the pinch nearly as much as the younger, newer artists who don't have sufficient capital to enter a recording studio. If streaming eventually becomes the only way listeners can consume music, I don't see how many newer artists will be able to justify devoting their lives to careers in music on a full-time basis.

 

Too true, too true. Buy CDs. Support the artists. Be a good citizen.

 

Muicians/artists will HAVE TO TOUR n fill seats w ticket sales to earn s living..n also merchandise ing

 

Definitely. How is an artist supposed to tour behind a single or an album they haven't been able to make in the first place due to lack of capital?

 

I bought a ton of CDs in 2018, more than your average Joe has in his entire collection.

 

Damn good question. Guess they better get a following of fans doing bars clubs...utube ?..

Good luck right

 

I interpreted it as not neccesarily no present value, but as something that functionally has been eclipsed by downloads/streaming, which it factually has. I am a CD fan btw but I can't pretend that the statement isn't true

 

Most artists in the past started touring before they made their first album. It's getting famous the hard way. You play in the club circuit for five years saving money for a recording session. This concept works fine for rock groups. And if you are less talented and depend on your looks try starting in a Disney series

 

I think people just wanna talk ish on people who buy CD's.

 

CD/vinyl is the only way to be 99.9 % sure that the music you own will still be there for the rest of your life. You are in control, not the record company or some internet cowboy.

 

Right but people like your son and myself (in my 20's currently) are definitely in the minority - not that one is better than the other of course

 

It’s the same argument that people who stole music with file sharing used (I contributed in my shameful youth Napster days) - merch and concerts. Nowadays, instead of zero dollars it’s a fraction of a penny with this legalized theft called Spotify. It is reminiscent of USA consumers buying flowers from Ecuador where the workers are paid a dollar an hour and toxic chemicals are vaporized ubiquitously - even into their lungs. It’s yet another free but not fair relationship that many here need to think about. If you are a true music fan you’ll be a patron of artists. Otherwise, we’ll end up with an art-free world of corporate greed and idiocracy - we’re well on our way there. If you’re not mad, you might be an art leech.

 

I would argue digital downloads are up there as well, in fact maybe even more than CDs and vinyl - I never had a hard drive or backup hard drive fail but I have had warped vinyl and scratched CDs that skip!

 

There are artists developing a career based on social media and performances. Like these two ladies:

 

I tried to digitize my collection twice. First time my hard drive crashed when I arrived at the letter "D" (I know, you cannot plug it out when it's running.). Second time the software of my streaming device stopped supporting Spotify. Never scratched cd's, treat them with lots of TLC.

 

Is that the same under 30’s who think the best way of listening to music is via a soundbar?

 

Thank you

 

I would argue that there are just as many older folks who think that too, audiophiles are a vast minority in general

 

For me between a hard drive with Time Machine Backup, my laptop itself, and my iPod all harboring the same library I never had an issue - although I do love CDs as a format just for personal preference and make sure they are in good condition

 

Definitely. Artists can have videos which go viral and it may be just enough to kick start their career. In this day and age when most artists aren't "backed" by proper record labels, they're faced with large number of expenses. Whether or not income from live club gigs can cover these numerous expenses depends entirely on each situation.

 

Increased sound quality will result in higher data usage. Some people don't mind exceeding their bandwidth limit and paying additional fees so they can stream music, but you never have to worry about those issues when listening to LPs and CDs.

 

That first record is the difficult one I guess. Once you get it running and start producing music you can pay your expenses with the profits of the previous album. Lots of artists with large enough a following cut out the record companies and start doing most of it themselves (Marillion, Radiohead, Jack White). They earn much more than the would have done with a big record company and usually don't end up with stocks of unsold albums because of their steady following.

 

Unfortunately, this virality may come from plays to convention and conformity, I.e. Zeppelin covers. Rarely does profound art go viral. It’s usually playing to the pleasure centers of the social media age. Hence, the addiction to the Zeppelin sound has produced the most heralded new act of this very forum, Greta Van Fleet. A group whose aptitude for creativity would fall in-line with levels of creativity exhibited by those with mental disabilities - half-jesting about that last part.