Gen Z and physical media lover here. Aside from wanting to own my music forever, I’m much more inclined to buy a cd over a vinyl because a) it’s much cheaper, and b) I can use it in more places. I can buy a cd at the thrift store for $2 or $3 and then listen to it in my car on the way home. I can also burn my own cd mixtapes, which I couldn’t do for vinyl.
Yep, that's the true reason they became popular in the first place. It's hilarious that people seem to think vinyl is superior, surface noise, rumble , scratches and pops , its incredibly annoying. CDs were a revelation when they came out.
Yep, that's the true reason they became popular in the first place. It's hilarious that people seem to think vinyl is superior, surface noise, rumble , scratches and pops , its incredibly annoying. CDs were a revelation when they came out.
I've been investing in CDs because, as another commenter said, digital versions can disappear whereas you own physical media. I had an iTunes library, but people have reported losing them on synching, and if you lose internet access, you're also out of luck.
I looked into vinyl vs CDs and there is a very active market in pre-used CDs in excellent condition. The CD sections at my local record stores offer an incredible selection. The same cannot be said for vinyl, which even used is expensive and can have scratches, and the selection is much smaller. I welcome all those people divesting from CDs because I'm buying them up and rediscovering so much great music.
I think people are also starting to realise that their media (be it music or film) does not belong to them if it's on a streaming platform, as rights can be lost or not renewed. Physical media means you own it forever so if (god forbid) you want to listen to Now 25 in 20 years time (long after Spotify has been replaced by whatever comes next) and you still have a working CD player, then you can (also assuming CDs don't degrade over time, which is why I'm sticking to vinyl).
This. Amazon can yank back your Kindle purchase at anytime because it's a license for use. With music, the issue of your streamer of choice losing the right to stream your favorites is a risk, especially if you listen to non-mainstream music. I can rip my cds and take them with me on my phone anywhere and not worry about my connection, and if the files get corrupted, rip them again.
I was shocked to note the other day that my CD player is over 30 years old. A six CD changer jobbie no less. And even my LP collection is back in fashion!
CDs are GREAT! Superb sound quality. Less cumbersome and expensive than vinyl. I've been rebuilding my collection (I threw them all out back when iTunes emerged). My teenage kids are getting into them, too.
Beyond the advantages mentioned here (owning v. leasing etc.) CDs have two distinct advantages over other formats.
First, are bonus materials. Over the past 15 years the record companies began unloading their vaults to try and stimulate falling CD sales. This material - demos, live recordings, unused tracks, alternative versions etc. - are often only available on CDs. Streaming services don't carry them. They are also incredible artifacts for fans of the artist. Worth every penny.
Second, some music is only available on CDs. During the peak CD era, much edgy, unusual, and avant-garde music and artists were put out on discs but later ignored on streaming.
Most people incorrectly believe streaming is a 1 to 1 replacement of all CDs. It is but a fraction...and getting smaller by the day.
CDs have unique advantages that should not be overlooked or waved off as simply less convenient. They have a place in any listener's collection.
Not a lot to add here that hasn’t been commented on by others but connecting all the threads:
1. CDs are still widely available in charity shops as we call them in the UK - or ebay etc at very low prices.
2. For Classical music in particular there is a lot more selection and usually a lot easier to find and play a whole album
3 CDs allow us to rip the digital track and own it forever and play where we want
4. Since demise of Itunes there still seem to be very few or poor options for organising digital tracks - Roon seems to be the best at preserving analogue LP or CD digital libraries and combining streaming (Tidal not Spotify) with digital mpg files. But Roon is quite expensive…
Thanks for thought provoking article though - and reminds me to get my CDs out of the box and onto a shelf so I can see them - and maybe even play them in their raw form…
I remember, at the dawn of the MP3 era, a friend of mine asserting that American consumers will always trade convenience for quality. This is why he was sure that the iPod would be huge, and why physical media would die.
He was wrong that physical media would die, though I think his claim is still more true than false. It's part of why buying physical media feels countercultural even thought it's still consumerism.
I think about that trade-off between quality and convenience all the time when I'm buyng things. CDs, for me, offer the best balance of convenience (portability, durability, cheapness) and quality of experience (which encompasses sound but also things like liner notes and the pleasure of perusing one's own library).
I had a blast a year ago rebuilding much of my music collection--and it didn't cost much. I'm still inclined to pick up a new CD here and there to support an artist I like, and some of those anniversary editions from 80s releasees are fun to have on the shelf.
I think you're missing why people collect music in any media form. It always been about how you listen to music in your car. As a kid of the '50-60's the luxury item in a car was a record player for 45's. By the 1970's the 8 track was in just about every young person's car. I had a pretty decent collection of 8 tracks that could be used when driving and local FM station was only playing top 40 stuff. By the 1980's along came cassettes, which car companies actually made standard equipment. In 1990's CD players replaced cassettes. My 1987 Camero bought in 1990 had a factory 10 disk player in the trunk. I haven't lived in the US since 1995, but I understand music in cars today in the US is with wireless streaming? Do they still have CD players?
Let's see how these comments stir things up. I'm a boomer who has both a good vinyl collection and a very good CD collection including my own stuff and all of my kids stuff. I don't like any of the music streaming services because they skew away from my musical interests, which tend more toward various types of jazz and classical. I do listen to a jazz and a classical radio station via internet. And I do get myself CDs that I like from the library and then rip them to my music database if I like them. It makes sense to me that many people would sell their CDs and that boomers like me would buy them, but none of those approaches to listening benefits musicians or the music industry in any way. So while I find your analysis interesting, I think the biggest increase in CD listening and interest is maybe happening in the resale market rather than in the industry market. Probably not easily subject to data analysis, but arguable, no?
When I was a kid, my family actually had a CD player and we’d listen to music that way. I can’t speak for other Gen Z’s but this seems like a trend that’s actually nostalgic for a time we lived through and not just a collective cultural memory that some of us are too young to have known
I will never go back to cds. I mean, I miss how they forced you to listen to things (even if it was confirmation bias since you bought them), and thus sometimes expanding your horizons. And I miss booklets.
But streaming is superior in nearly every way, and I really don’t want to go back. I love how it also isn’t siloed - I don’t need to subscribe to Apple Music and Deezer.
However, whilst I will dabble in the odd audiobook, I will not trade in hard copy books for anything else, and I will die on this hill.
Gen Z and physical media lover here. Aside from wanting to own my music forever, I’m much more inclined to buy a cd over a vinyl because a) it’s much cheaper, and b) I can use it in more places. I can buy a cd at the thrift store for $2 or $3 and then listen to it in my car on the way home. I can also burn my own cd mixtapes, which I couldn’t do for vinyl.
Meeeeeeee Gen Z 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻
CDs are better quality than streaming or vinyl. And I can get them cheaply from charity shops.
Yep, that's the true reason they became popular in the first place. It's hilarious that people seem to think vinyl is superior, surface noise, rumble , scratches and pops , its incredibly annoying. CDs were a revelation when they came out.
CDs are certainly better than vinyl or cassette but there are services that stream 24bit lossless audio.
Yep, that's the true reason they became popular in the first place. It's hilarious that people seem to think vinyl is superior, surface noise, rumble , scratches and pops , its incredibly annoying. CDs were a revelation when they came out.
I've been investing in CDs because, as another commenter said, digital versions can disappear whereas you own physical media. I had an iTunes library, but people have reported losing them on synching, and if you lose internet access, you're also out of luck.
I looked into vinyl vs CDs and there is a very active market in pre-used CDs in excellent condition. The CD sections at my local record stores offer an incredible selection. The same cannot be said for vinyl, which even used is expensive and can have scratches, and the selection is much smaller. I welcome all those people divesting from CDs because I'm buying them up and rediscovering so much great music.
I think people are also starting to realise that their media (be it music or film) does not belong to them if it's on a streaming platform, as rights can be lost or not renewed. Physical media means you own it forever so if (god forbid) you want to listen to Now 25 in 20 years time (long after Spotify has been replaced by whatever comes next) and you still have a working CD player, then you can (also assuming CDs don't degrade over time, which is why I'm sticking to vinyl).
This. Amazon can yank back your Kindle purchase at anytime because it's a license for use. With music, the issue of your streamer of choice losing the right to stream your favorites is a risk, especially if you listen to non-mainstream music. I can rip my cds and take them with me on my phone anywhere and not worry about my connection, and if the files get corrupted, rip them again.
I was shocked to note the other day that my CD player is over 30 years old. A six CD changer jobbie no less. And even my LP collection is back in fashion!
CDs are GREAT! Superb sound quality. Less cumbersome and expensive than vinyl. I've been rebuilding my collection (I threw them all out back when iTunes emerged). My teenage kids are getting into them, too.
Beyond the advantages mentioned here (owning v. leasing etc.) CDs have two distinct advantages over other formats.
First, are bonus materials. Over the past 15 years the record companies began unloading their vaults to try and stimulate falling CD sales. This material - demos, live recordings, unused tracks, alternative versions etc. - are often only available on CDs. Streaming services don't carry them. They are also incredible artifacts for fans of the artist. Worth every penny.
Second, some music is only available on CDs. During the peak CD era, much edgy, unusual, and avant-garde music and artists were put out on discs but later ignored on streaming.
Most people incorrectly believe streaming is a 1 to 1 replacement of all CDs. It is but a fraction...and getting smaller by the day.
CDs have unique advantages that should not be overlooked or waved off as simply less convenient. They have a place in any listener's collection.
Not a lot to add here that hasn’t been commented on by others but connecting all the threads:
1. CDs are still widely available in charity shops as we call them in the UK - or ebay etc at very low prices.
2. For Classical music in particular there is a lot more selection and usually a lot easier to find and play a whole album
3 CDs allow us to rip the digital track and own it forever and play where we want
4. Since demise of Itunes there still seem to be very few or poor options for organising digital tracks - Roon seems to be the best at preserving analogue LP or CD digital libraries and combining streaming (Tidal not Spotify) with digital mpg files. But Roon is quite expensive…
Thanks for thought provoking article though - and reminds me to get my CDs out of the box and onto a shelf so I can see them - and maybe even play them in their raw form…
I remember, at the dawn of the MP3 era, a friend of mine asserting that American consumers will always trade convenience for quality. This is why he was sure that the iPod would be huge, and why physical media would die.
He was wrong that physical media would die, though I think his claim is still more true than false. It's part of why buying physical media feels countercultural even thought it's still consumerism.
I think about that trade-off between quality and convenience all the time when I'm buyng things. CDs, for me, offer the best balance of convenience (portability, durability, cheapness) and quality of experience (which encompasses sound but also things like liner notes and the pleasure of perusing one's own library).
I had a blast a year ago rebuilding much of my music collection--and it didn't cost much. I'm still inclined to pick up a new CD here and there to support an artist I like, and some of those anniversary editions from 80s releasees are fun to have on the shelf.
https://osho.substack.com/p/lps-as-a-historical-media-business
Something similar which occured to me.
I think you're missing why people collect music in any media form. It always been about how you listen to music in your car. As a kid of the '50-60's the luxury item in a car was a record player for 45's. By the 1970's the 8 track was in just about every young person's car. I had a pretty decent collection of 8 tracks that could be used when driving and local FM station was only playing top 40 stuff. By the 1980's along came cassettes, which car companies actually made standard equipment. In 1990's CD players replaced cassettes. My 1987 Camero bought in 1990 had a factory 10 disk player in the trunk. I haven't lived in the US since 1995, but I understand music in cars today in the US is with wireless streaming? Do they still have CD players?
Let's see how these comments stir things up. I'm a boomer who has both a good vinyl collection and a very good CD collection including my own stuff and all of my kids stuff. I don't like any of the music streaming services because they skew away from my musical interests, which tend more toward various types of jazz and classical. I do listen to a jazz and a classical radio station via internet. And I do get myself CDs that I like from the library and then rip them to my music database if I like them. It makes sense to me that many people would sell their CDs and that boomers like me would buy them, but none of those approaches to listening benefits musicians or the music industry in any way. So while I find your analysis interesting, I think the biggest increase in CD listening and interest is maybe happening in the resale market rather than in the industry market. Probably not easily subject to data analysis, but arguable, no?
When I was a kid, my family actually had a CD player and we’d listen to music that way. I can’t speak for other Gen Z’s but this seems like a trend that’s actually nostalgic for a time we lived through and not just a collective cultural memory that some of us are too young to have known
I will never go back to cds. I mean, I miss how they forced you to listen to things (even if it was confirmation bias since you bought them), and thus sometimes expanding your horizons. And I miss booklets.
But streaming is superior in nearly every way, and I really don’t want to go back. I love how it also isn’t siloed - I don’t need to subscribe to Apple Music and Deezer.
However, whilst I will dabble in the odd audiobook, I will not trade in hard copy books for anything else, and I will die on this hill.