What's going to happen to CDs ?

[Count Bassy]

What you can do On a PC at least) is to play the stream or whatever and record it directly to a wav etc by setting up your recording SW to take the 'mix' as it's input.

Don't know what it's like quality wise, but better than loosing what you've paid for when it all goes tits up.

[PaulWarning]

7 minutes ago, Count Bassy said:

What you can do On a PC at least) is to play the stream or whatever and record it directly to a wav etc by setting up your recording SW to take the 'mix' as it's input.

Don't know what it's like quality wise, but better than loosing what you've paid for when it all goes tits up.

no worse than copying your CD's to cassette tape, or copying off the radio, 

[DJpullchord]

My cds are in boxes in the garage, next to the cassettes and vinyl.

Its only obscure vinyl that I can’t find on interweb.

Got Amazon music plumbed into the stereo, this has almost everything released on major record labels.

Never throw music away! Like books!

 

[hollywoodrox]

My mindset from the old days is .... if I am a fan I must have it  on vinyl ,cassette, cd , 8 track whatever it stems from the old days when it was important to your status to own the music you loved along with accruing knowledge of said band, record etc.  I remember when skyscraper by David Lee Roth came out and beast from the east by Dokken , a lad who worked in the video shop next door leant me the cassettes , and I had to copy them til I could buy the vinyl, I still play them all the time now. It was evangelical too if you had something good you had to share it, unfortunately , I had to stop this practice to all but the most trusted of trusted after loosing too many records.

[Little Dragon]

Home taping didn't kill music, it's dying of natural causes.

 

[Baxlin]

On 20/05/2018 at 14:08, Norris said:

I tend to buy the CD then immediately rip it into iTunes as mp3s so I can listen to it on my iPod. I then have a physical backup plus something to read/look at. Because our car is a bit old and only has a CD player, I'll occasionally make a compilation CD too

I think if you buy CD direct from Amazon, you have access to the download as well, which seems to me a win-win.

[Twigman]

3 minutes ago, Baxlin said:

I think if you buy CD direct from Amazon, you have access to the download as well, which seems to me a win-win.

That very much depends on the music you're buying.

Not all CDs are licensed to Rip through Amazon

 

[Twigman]

On 21/05/2018 at 18:29, DJpullchord said:

, this has almost everything released on major record labels.

 

 

You limit yourself to major record labels?

 

Hpw sad

 

[jazzmanb]

I'm happy to stick with CD's as i have a high end HiFi set up,don't do digital except whats in my amazon library from buying the cd

they will probably cease and there'll be a few die hard audiophiles with set ups left

[Monkey Steve]

In terms of the quality of the medium and allowing for differences in mastering, etc, CDs probably hold the advantage in terms of reliable reproduction - there's a neat idiot's guide level summary here:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-11-21/vinyl-streaming-cd-what-is-best-audio-quality/8693498

But for all that there are too many variables in the signal chain to laud one over the other, and in the end it's going to come down to personal preference (back to the point about super fans being the ones who buy most of the vinyl and a lot of them never actually play it, they just want the records).  Vinyl will sound "warmer" if you have the right set up and want it to sound that way.  Whether or not it was intended to sound "warmer" in the first place is another debate.

And people get used to what they know - I know a lot of people who claim that high end audio equipment doesn't make the slightest bit of difference, based on them assuming that what they hear on their equipment is what the record sounds like and that's the end of it (I amazed one musician friend by playing a 5.1 mix of one of his favourite albums - he then came back and insisted that I play the early mixes of his new album on the same system, somehow assuming that it would magically transform into 5.1, and regardless of that, now understands that my hifi makes music sound better than plugging speakers into his laptop).  It's always been the case, but I suspect that most people just don't care enough about differences in quality to seek out CDs or vinyl when streaming services have what they want.

And it's not like MQA is setting the world alight either regardless of the quality (although a lot of that seems to be the clumsy licensing issues that have got the hifi community's back up...I'm seriously thinking of getting an MQA DAC before too long)

So I think that CDs have got a while to run yet.  But Jazzmanb may well be right in the long run, as the great unwashed simply won't be used to buying physical formats, and the ones that care enough about the sound quality of digital files will be able to explore that.

What I do find interesting is the response of the cleverer musicians - Nine Inch Nails for instance understood very early on that there was money to be made by exploiting the super fans and made stacks of cash by issuing limited runs of new releases on vinyl and deluxe or special edition CDs.  

[DJpullchord]

15 hours ago, Twigman said:

You limit yourself to major record labels?

 

Hpw sad

 

No. I listen to all sorts. 

But I also like mainstream stuff.

 

 CDs don’t last.

[Bolo]

I'm surprised that CDs haven't been replaced by USB sticks or micro SD cards! Cheap, reliable, plenty of storage space for digital artwork, take up no space, etc. etc.

 

I still buy CDs, mainly from bands I like the live show of, or enjoy their music on Spotify or YouTube. The CD still sounds better than MP3 and/or Bluetooth and can sound as warm as you like with a little EQing.

I like records, sentimental things aren't they? Clumsy old things but keep you busy.

All tape should be molten into solar panels or somesuch. Unreliable crud.

[vbance]

I still listen to cd's through a half decent system and still buy the occasional one now and again...hopefully they'll stick around for some years to come yet. Never was a fan of vinyl but I had a crappy record player and everything sounded like I'd poured a packet of crisps over the thing. Saying that, I've no doubt that vinyl is the best format when looked after and played on a quality turntable.

[Luckystrike]

I've probably got about 600 CDs that I've built up since my teens, and a few dozen LPs of classic albums and personal favourites that warranted the sense of occasion that vinyl gives.

Despite this, the overwhelming majority of my music listening is now Spotify. I like being able to continue listening to the same playlists from the work pc to the car to the hifi at home, and when I come across artists and albums I like I buy the cd. I'll occasionally line some vinyl up for an evening of albums, and very occasionally stick a cd on in the car but I'm not really sure why.

 

I hope none of the formats die - at the very least, I'm fully on board with the concept of a complete album rather than it just being a collection of tracks, and digital media makes it all too easy to skip around and lose the cohesion of a well thought out album. The counter to that of course is that as specific tracks are regarded independently to their album brethren it is much more difficult to get away with dross or filler that might otherwise have been used to pad out an album, so there's pressure to increase the overall quality of songs.

 

This is a fun chat. Impressed at the absence of format evangelicals and hipsters, well done all!

Edited June 5, 2018 by Luckystrike

[taunton-hobbit]

11 hours ago, DJpullchord said:

CDs don’t last.

I've just pulled a Drifters cd randomly from t'other room - 1986

after 34 years it still plays fine............

😎

[Barking Spiders]

11 hours ago, DJpullchord said:

No. I listen to all sorts. 

But I also like mainstream stuff.

 

 CDs don’t last.

All the CDs i bought in the 80s are all in fine fettle with barely a scratch

[taunton-hobbit]

11 hours ago, DJpullchord said:

CDs don’t last.

Actually, that's an interesting statement - care to elaborate?

☺️

[Twigman]

CDs last  - they're plastic aren't they? thousands of years to degrade isn't it? All my 80s CDs still play fine.

 

 

[Twigman]

18 minutes ago, taunton-hobbit said:

I've just pulled a Drifters cd randomly from t'other room - 1986

after 34 years it still plays fine............

😎

Either you've got a time machine or you're posting from a different dimension or I've been in a coma for the last 2 years.

Which is it?

[ped]

I ripped all my CDs to iTunes when I was at University - I couldn't take them all with me. They still live in a huge shelf at my parents house, something they remind me of every time I visit. Back then iTunes was a pain and I remember manually adding artwork to them all.

Since then, I have moved to Spotify to discover music, occasionally download for offline listening and for convenience, but when I discover an album I really enjoy I buy it on vinyl so I have a copy of my own, with proper artwork. Most modern albums released on vinyl have an MP3 download token inside too, though I'll only use that if the album isn't on Spotify, or probably not bother using it (quite often they are 192kbps!)

One thing I quite enjoy about this setup is that I have access to most of the music I want immediately, or I can sit down and listen to a whole album on a record player. In between, I can use Discogs to search for and find good quality vinyl pressings of albums so there's an element of the 'thrill of the chase' there, too - the perfect antidote to the immediacy of streaming.

CDs sit somewhere in the middle, for me - they have a bit of a disposable feel, take up loads of space (somehow more than vinyl!) and are quite easy to find cheaply. I also hate trying to takeout the artwork/notes without making two bumps on it where those infernal little tabs sit on the jewel case.

In terms of sound quality, I'm convinced that streaming, CD and vinyl all have their positives and negatives and I can happily listen to either

[BigRedX]

8 minutes ago, taunton-hobbit said:

Actually, that's an interesting statement - care to elaborate?

☺️

Actually there's more than a grain of truth in the fact that CDs are not as indestructible as Philips would have us believe. Here in Northern Europe if properly looked after they should last a very long time, but in hotter, more humid climates there are micro-organisms that will attack the playing surface of the CD eventually rendering it unplayable. CDRs are even worse. In an adverse climate their life can be measured in months at best. Even here in the UK I would suggest that anything on CDR is backed up to a more durable medium, and even if looked after for their life to be 10 years at the very best.

[BigRedX]

For those of you using Spotify exclusively now, have you checked to see how much of your old CD and record is missing from Spotify's catalogue?

Spotify is fine for new music - provided that your tastes are firmly Euro/US-centric, but otherwise for me there is simply too much music that I would class as indispensable missing.

[ped]

I think there are some albums missing and I'm always wary that Spotify might recommend certain artists for reasons other than my listening pleasure but taken with a pinch of salt it can be a useful tool. Most of the time I use it to search for a band I've heard of and have a quick listen, then dive in for a more detailed album-based approach to the band.

Interesting point above about the lack of album based activity now - the kids at my school use iPads in class and often listen to music whilst working. 99% have playlists of individual songs (normally top 40) and when I say 'stick an album on and leave your iPad alone' they look at me as if to say WTF is an album. Many listen to things on youtube and nearly all use the standard Apple headphones. Having said that one chap has some decent Sennheisers that don't even fit into his bag and I saw him listening to RATM 'Evil Empire' the other day. Merit points given.

[taunton-hobbit]

1 hour ago, Twigman said:

Either you've got a time machine or you're posting from a different dimension or I've been in a coma for the last 2 years.

Now you know why I failed maths - 2yrs is a 'near miss' for me!

😊

[mcnach]

13 hours ago, DJpullchord said:

 

 CDs don’t last.

 

You mean physically?

My experience disagrees quite strongly... my CDs back to the 80s are all ok. Scratch damage has happened through carelessness... but even that is easy to fix. So, what do you mean they don't last?