Are CDs obsolete - Page 3

What do you mean I'm not helping anyone? You mean I'm not supporting theft??? Give me a break.

Sometimes I'll download or listen to a preview online to see if I like it and if I do I always buy the album.

You pay for the audio equipment you listen to music on, and you should pay for the music you enjoy listening to. If artists don't make money, they will cease making high quality music we enjoy.

I buy used because it's cheaper and someone had once paid full price for that album. If they no longer like it, they are allowed to sell it. The record company has already made their money from that pressing. But if I can't find an album used that I want or if I want a special edition, I buy new.

Your post is confusing because you said that Artist still need to make some money but you still buy used, also i didn't say you were supporting a theft
Ps I'm not against buying used cds it's just the main reason why people who download music would buy an cd is too support the artist

Together, you have said what I would say

I listen digitally, predominantly when listening portably but also more at home due to setting my own playlists. I still listen to my albums, either LP or CD, but less so than before the digital age. I predominantly buy 'used' or when on special. But I recognise as the current generation continues the trend towards downloads, then CDs or any physical form are less likely to continue. Hopefully they'll hold on though, like LPs, to a point where my hearing has aged beyond an ability to appreciate the quality they provide.

Tell me about it....just spend $500.00 for 2 used CDs

Compared to movies/DVD/Blu-ray, I don't think CDs are expensive. How many time can you really watch a movie (on any medium) before you get sick of it? I can listen to a favorite CD hundreds of times and get different kind of enjoyment out of it each time. While the initial cost of the CD may be high, it's not so bad once you factor in the amount of enjoyment you get out it.

CD is digital

beside the yet to come lostless legal download for everyone there is another thing that downloaded music cannot do which is the signatures of the artist. anything digital can be replicated but a hand signed signature on the medium can't (most likely). the excitement of your favorite artist sigh on your CD in front of you cannot be obtained via download.

DO you know how much here in my country (Egypt)they charge for an original CD for any modern artist or even old?50-90$!!!!!!!!!!thats why i buy my classical and jazz music from linnrecords.com,one album from 11 to 24$ depending on the format.

I disagree. Like others have said, if you illegally download things (not that all torrents are illegal) then you're really kind of ripping off your favorite artists and their labels, who do the releasing in the first place and have the passion and love for music to do so. Me personally, I try to stay away from low-quality music whenever possible (not to mention that lossless music downloads are few and far between in my experience). Unfortunately, many times I end up buying music from iTunes because CDs are expensive, but I still buy CDs when I can. I think it would be great if iTunes or a different internet music store would allow you to download in various formats/bit rates, but I don't think that's exactly what the majority of customers want, deeming it impractical.

Remember, the cost of the CD is also your payment to the artist, not necessarily the material cost. Being a musician, it saddens me that one iTunes download is only $.99 or $1.29 per track, and a great portion of that goes to the label company anyway. The music that the artist creates is a masterpiece. I wonder what Monet or Van Gough would think if their work was sold for a mere $.99 a pop? Just a thought nonetheless.

Heh. In 20 years, there will invariably be an article in Ether (the new Wired) about how the CD is making a huge comeback, much like vinyl is today.

The CD is not dead but likely on the way out: more and more albums will be released download/online only. It's going to take one very successful album being promoted well enough, with one publisher taking the risk of distributing it online only to set the bar. Then others will feel comfortable following suit.

I also buy plenty of CDs, new and used, and I don't want it to go anywhere. I still like liner notes/cover art. I like having the physical disc. It's far easier to lose a hard drive than it is to lose all of my CDs simultaneously. I won't download less than CD quality audio for the music I really care about, like many of us. For me, the best compromise would be a cheap, solid state flash storage medium holding WAVs on them. I think they would be cheaper to manufacture and platform-independent. It would very easy for Sony, for instance, to have their electronics arm create a home based player that reads little SD cards and have their music distribution arm use SD for albums. (Of course, Sony are a bad example since they'd use Memory Stick Pro Duos, put DRM on them, and then make them obscenely expensive.)

Anyway. In my experience, CDs can be acquired in the States for less than equivalent album downloads. Better quality audio and a physical product at the expense of delayed gratification and convenience in some cases, but I'm fine with that.

Clarinetman ~

I'm a bit shocked to hear that you're a musician in this situation...and then you go and buy off iTunes anyway, knowing that it cheapens artists' efforts?

I've never bought a single track off iTunes. For some reason though, Amazon keep throwing me in free MP3/Flac downloads for tracks when I buy too many CDs.

There are many different music stores of the 'Fairtrade' type including:

https://www.noisetrade.com/index.aspx#

You pay what you can for music you download, or just recommend the artists to friends and download music.

I hope this becomes a bigger thing for grassroots artists, but it will only take off if people start thinking about the artists, instead of just ploughing money in mindlessly to iTunes. Here's one artist who uses Noisetrade and also runs her own indie site:

Alli Rogers

Many other bands allow fans to buy music downloads direct from the artist without label involvement:

eg.
Sam Phillips (although Sam Phillips is on the Nonesuch label)

or

ELLERY music


Bigger commercial bands don't have a problem doing this however niche artists often rely on their income from their music and concerts.

New CDs still cost around US$10-20. Is that seriously a lot of money? For the amount of pleasure a CD gives, it's worth just cutting down on those cigarettes or alcoholic pub visits.

CDs are not obsolete. They remain a terrific way to deliver music and some of us simply do not trust the DRM, etc. found in legal downloads.

I like having a physical backup of my music and the case and liner notes, too.

It should also be pointed out that buying used CDs is usually less expensive than legal downloads. I've been finding used CDs for $2-$5 each. Downloading has completely demolished the used CD market. Getting a full album is usually less than iTunes today.

I still buy CD to use as my backups. I load them into my system in lossless format and put the originals away.
To note: Many bands make a great deal of money from live shows also not just music sales.

This is quite ironic indeed. But like I said, sometimes the purchase of CD's isn't really a possibility because I'm a student with no income at all, besides what I earn from doing things around the house or for what's given to me as gift money, which is usually saved for more audio equipment.




I'll look into these sites! Might find something I like, you never know. Thanks.

I think the CD is going to be around for a long time though I have no problem with having all my music solely on my HDD. All I care about is having the music to listen to. I would definitely like to have more lossless sites to download from though.

Oh, and I do back-up all my music to two different locations and take one of them off-site. If you only have one copy, you don't have any!

I thought I'd introduce an oft-overlooked example that may support the original poster's idea, at least in literal terms if not in underlying message.

Nine Inch Nail's Ghosts I-IV.

• Creative Commons licensed, making it free - and legal - to redistribute
• The artist released the first 9 tracks themselves via Torrent, 320kbps MP3
• The artist has also made the album available in ALAC and FLAC, directly from them for a nominal fee, and freely redistributable under the same CC license
• For those who want a physical product, you can purchase directly from the artist a traditional CD set, up to a limited run box set that included all the tracks in each song in .wav and a blu-ray disc mastered at 96/24

Whether you appreciate the music or not, as an experiment in an artist directly harnessing new distribution mediums while still caring about audio quality, this was an incredibly interesting move. I think that, reviewing the opinions expressed in this thread, this was something almost everyone could agree on as "The right way to do it."

That said, I'm sure that an undertaking like that is far easier for an established and well-funded artist than it would be for a smaller, less widely known or commercially successful act.

That doesn't mean it wouldn't work, just possibly not to the same scale - and starving artists with small fan bases can't place gambles on making their living on collectors editions, and hoping one person doesn't download the whole album for $5 and share it with every other fan, netting them all of $5 income.

Thanks for bringing this up - as this, in many ways, covers some of the gap for aforementioned smaller-scale artists.

Another "digital distribution medium" that doesn't necessarily address the CD question originally posed, but has tangent relevance to the discussion, is internet radio. Let alone Pandora - an application that does its level best to scientifically identify new (to you) music you're likely to enjoy - there are thousands of unique stations on the shoutcast network alone.

I can personally attest to having given small and obscure artists (and, of course, hole in the wall venues) many thousands of dollars in tickets and - my favorite way to patronize an artist - t-shirt/merch sales in the past couple years alone. I'm fortunate to live in a city that prides itself on a live music scene, and I'd have to say I enjoy a live performance more than a hi-fidelity home listening experience. I'm pretty sure the artist would rather have me hand them directly $25 in cash for a t-shirt than buy a CD from Amazon for $15, for which they receive such a minor cut.

My point being, these are artists that I discovered via those dicey 128kbps mp3 streams, listening to their work free of charge. Streamrip -> iPod -> 5 stars if it's good -> research when you get back home is an amazing way to broaden your musical horizons.

So, yes, CD retains its virtues for quality of sound (honestly, what this forum is about, sorry to be so off topic) but does not occupy that perch exclusively - nor does the proliferation of cheap/free (legal or not) digital music always incur the damage it's so frequently accused of.

And hell, 128kbps beats the snot out of commercial FM radio.

oops. When I was a student, I was able to work part-time at the same time earning about £85/week. It was hard doing both, but it kinda made up for things, being able to buy music and not be broke all the time.

I forget now that the recession and unemployment make it really hard for most students to get part-time jobs and things.

Well sign yourself up to Noisetrade! You'd be surprised at the traffic you can get from it

Happy exploring too