paisleypark4 said:

Wow I need to look into that. I have been wanting to find one

Seems like its 50/50. CD's are a great backup, but for some its no longer a primary listening format and thats growing by the hour. I'm with Vainandy, my stereo is rigged to bump my PC and iPod. Whatever I'm in the mood for, I have a playlist ready to go. It's become my own personal radio station, COMMERCIAL FREE!!!! I ripped all at a much higher bit rate (you can do that with iTunes), so really, no sound quality is lost. Nothing thats really noticeable anyway. My vinyl and cassettes are all ripped and sounds amazing. When I put it all on shuffle, it's my own music heaven. I guess I like the convenience of it all and being able to take it wherever I go. I can press play on the PC and entire collection comes to life.
I'm glad I kept them all and the new technology has allowed me to enjoy all of them again. Some I completely forgot about, and sounds new again.
Yes I have them backed up (several times) in case the hardware crashes.

I use the CD's as a reference when I need to find out who played that guitar solo! buts that about.

Superstition said:

Superstition said:

After buying my 120 Ipod, I would say the same thing. I still like my CDs. Unless it is unavailable on CD, I will not buy it online.

DecaturStone said:

Actually, a few years ago, everyone started selling small stereo systems with a turntable, CD, tape and radio. They also sell turnables with the ability to put the songs into MP3 format. They even sell that at Costco. Turntables and records are making a slight comeback.

That's what I absolutely love about the computer being plugged into the stereo. When I put my songs in the computer, I formatted each and every song with a genre and many of them with a year because I love the shuffle feature. If I'm in the mood for funk in general, I can play funk on the shuffle mode (I'm talking hundreds of hours worth of funk). I can do the same with slow jams. Also, if I'm feeling a particular year, I will play that year on shuffle. Like you said, it's like having your own personal radio station and the best thing about it is, you never know which song is going to be played next. Plus, the computer may play a great song on shuffle that I haven't heard in years because I never thought about playing it in years.

I have also gotten lazy. It's much easier to type in a song title and watch it pop up rather than dig through the endless stacks of music I have to find the song. I'll always have my music on some physical form though not only for backup, but also because I like to mix. I have a program called Magix that will play two songs with a crossfader but I can't get the headphone feature to work so I can cue the songs. Also, when you press that "play" button, the computer may take about a second before it actually plays which disrupts the flow of the mix. Computers still have flaws so physical CD players and turntables are still needed especially for perfectionists like me.

i have inside info. that walmart will stop selling cd's by 2012, and will push mp3's more as the music source. i think other stores are going to be doing the same thing.

I think "CD On Demand" will be the future. Like Warner Home Video are doing with DVD.

http://www.wbshop.com/War...lt,sc.html

There'll always be budget-priced impulse-buy CD compilations in supermarkets - I'm sure of that.

GirlBrother said:

The thing is that the market is changing for the most part, labels realize that kids for the most part arent buying cds (and most arent buying mp3's) the audience of "buyers" is over 25 at least, and alot of them already have "catalog" cds, so you will not see catalog cds in these stores anymore. I was in a major Best Buy location yesterday looking through some things and wandered past the Elton John section and there were 2 cds there, both best of's. And thats pretty much where its going to go, it doesnt pay for any of these stores to carry cds, it never did, best Buy and the others make their cash of other things and the cds are to draw you in, they arent gonna draw you in with "catalog" they are gonna draw you in with a new cd that is aimed at the top 40 crowd, for the older crowd, these stores will be useless with the exception of exclusive deals. Special things like Vinyl, Box Sets LTD editions etc....are just ways to get more money in, and you will see more and more of these, because its really the only way to make money.

all the music i buy is on the computer. Fuck cds, let em die.

I am thinking I would rather dive head first into strictly vinyl. I have already been risking toward this category anyway.

BlaqueKnight said:

it's almost like the sound quality gets worst with each new format with the exception of super audio which is old now and didn't really catch on and dvd audio

I got an mp3 player in 2005 when I realized how much lighter it would be to run with, than my discman I'll take it on planes for travel and on very long subway rides. But I'd estimate 75% of my music listening takes place with a cd or tape. I play them in my stereo at home and in my office.

When itunes started and made it possible for people to buy individual songs, it was a crushing blow to the industry.
Why pay for an entire CD with 4 good songs and 11 shitty ones when you can just spend $4 for the only songs you really want anyway?

Of course illegal downloads hurt but if you were not computer savy or were older and just didn't have the time to hunt down free music, people wouldn't be bothered. I think that music stores like itunes, Amazon, etc did a lot more damage because ANYONE could just go and pay a buck for the songs they wanted and rightfully so.

The consumer has been getting ripped off for a long time by having to purchase CD's that were half ass in order to get the few songs that they actually wanted.
Killing CD's and offering single song sales with reduced prices(under cut iTunes) and in multiple formats, MP3 and WAV would be a smart and perhaps the only choice labels may have in the future. Start their own music store and offer things not available elsewhere.

paisleypark4 said:

They're easy to find if you just don't expect to find them at every supermarket. You can often buy them even from stores that simply sell vinyl records, most stores that sell records to DJs carry them as well - not to mention, buying one from the internet should be always an option. You'll just need to, you know, use Google.

I don't see a need to discard the CD format altogether - although they could change the format to DVD by this point. The companies just shouldn't expect to have sales that would equal those of the past two decades, so reducing considerably the amount of printed copies is the first sensible move. I don't see a reason why the music industry couldn't survive if it started to favour the practices that preceded the nonsense business models they've been following for the last 20-25 years. Record sales back then in general weren't any lower than these days. It's just that during this day and age it seems like nothing is considered profitable until it produces shitloads of profit.

joseph8 said:

Well, the vast majority of pop records have always been like that, so it's not exactly a new phenomenon. It's hardly like absolutely every song that Motown put out was pure gold. Nevertheless, the "good song" / "bad song" -distinction works on the basis of the other kind existing as well. If everybody would be simply fishing for those "killer single" downloads and not attempting to produce also less commercial material that can be usually found on many hit albums as well, then music would probably become really homogeneous and boring.

I can't even imagine replacing my CDs with MP3's. The quality on many MP3's are lacking and I need my artwork and complete liner notes. Downloading a bunch of MP3s just kind of takes away from the authenticity of the music experience.

kitbradley said:

But if you adjust the bit rate, you're really not losing that much. This is what I like about Amazon. Their Mp3 bit rate is at 256, iTunes is a low 128. I've always hated Apple for that.
I ripped my CD's to Mp3 at a 320 bit rate, I don't get as many songs on my iPod, (because the fies are larger) but I'll sacrifice that for sound quality.

tricky2 said:

With better speakers the compression is clearly audible. When I got my current ones, it took me ages to be able to listen to MP3s that were coded at rates less than 256kb/s. Nevertheless, the bass on them really does sound rather hollow and the high end quite lifeless, no matter what coding rate you would use. I am aware that on more compromised setups the difference isn't that obvious, of course.

Nevertheless, I don't think it's really even about "not losing that much". It's more about resisting the constant, systematic downgrading of the quality of the products that we are forking our money for. People accepting inferior products as the "new standard" is always worrying.

There will always be a market for a physical product, whether it's available to be purchased online or in stores.

tricky2 said:

7digital use 320kbs for the majority of their MP3 files.
http://us.7digital.com/cm...loads.aspx

GirlBrother said:

THX!!

I'd say most people won't notice if it happens. Apart from collectors and those who don't like digital, everyone seemed to move on. Artists included.

Moonbeam said:

We hope!

Moonbeam said:

And if you think about it, people have had a hard time selling just MP3s and stuff to people because many consumers rather just either buy (or burn in some cases) CDs. Chances of it being predominantly MP3/bluetooth/whatever is actually slim whether some technical geeks wanna believe it or not.

Timmy84 said:

yeah as it was said before there is always going to be the market for the "physical" copy, its just really tough though for indie labels to foot the bill to manufacture cds vinyl whatever when it really doesnt cost anything to put up the mp3's so you will see alot of mp3/digital only releases but more from small small labels. One label like this is SIRI music, which is actually owned by Universal if you follow the chain link, its run by Chauncey Jackson, but its bare bones, one artist on the Label Stefani Vara, has an album out since July but its only digital on iTunes and Amazon, so its tough to really get out there when you are really selling....nothing. I mean she has done events and interviews and it really helps when the host has something to hold up AND SHOW, as opposed to say go to iTunes.

kitbradley said:

This is exactly how I feel I have to have the physical copy of an album,whether it's a CD or vinyl.I don't really like the idea of downloading and obtaining music thru my computer.I guess I'm "Old School",lol.

Try to explain that to someone in the age range of 15-25. They will never know the experience and the joy of hanging out in a "wrecka stow."
And when they become 35-45, what will they consider "old school?" The Mp3?
Heaven forbid!

tricky2 said:

Apple songs have all been 256 for quite some time, at least a year or so. They also removed DRM from their files, so no passwords are needed to play them.

tricky2 said:

That's my age range and I do so what's your point