Are CDs Making a Comeback?

🎂 Happy 40th to the 💿 -- CD sales rose in the US last year, but are its glory days coming back? Bloomberg's Nate Lanxon explains.

#technology #CDs #explained

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[toomanyopinions]

I DESPISE the subscription service based music industry of the internet. I don't want my songs locked in an account from a single platform that I have to remember the password to. I don't want to pay repeatedly. I make sure to buy CDs of my favorite albums because I refuse to not have a physical copy.

[tonybroken]

CDs haven't gone away, many people still buy them, not as many sure because most people stream music now but there are still people like me that own a HIFI and actually sit down to listen to an ALBUM! and for this a CD is pretty hard to beat. I'll never get rid of my CD collection either, its not just the music that i can stream but the memories and importance of the albums, same reason i still own a lot of DVDs and BDs, its a real collection not a disposable thing on my phone that might disappear at the whim of a record company or streamer, also no internet needed which i think is actually something worth having.

[graemeknowles]

CDS rule. If mastered well can sound fantastic. I love buying them.

[mondoenterprises]

I still buy cds. Not interested in streaming. I enjoy having my own music and gear to listen.

[caliente-frio]

I've decided that I'm buying a CD player this week. I have a huge CD collection. I relied on copying them onto iTunes (and then playing them on an iPod) for most of the 2010s. It's been years since I've actually had a CD player though. For the past three to four years I've been using Spotify with a Bluetooth speaker. I also got into vinyl and bought a record player, but I'm just not feeling it anymore. I can't get over the ridiculous cost of records these days and the amount of space they take. And do I really want to spend up to $2, 000 or more replacing the CDs I already have with records? Other than the larger artwork, I don't see the benefits to vinyl. CDs were the best.

[JamesKeno]

CDs sound better than the other formats.

[JerryWCarman]

I think that people realise that they're getting more for your money with CDs. The price of vinyl has got too high.

[AALavdas]

Streaming does nothing for those of us interested in collecting. It's always CDs (and vinyl records and open reel tapes etc etc...)

[jamesdavies]

CD is my preferred format, I do have vinyl but I find CD’s so much easier

[FireOfJagz]

I don't care what anybody says. I collect CDs for their convenience, but mainly because they're so much cheaper than vinyl. If i really love aan album I'll consider buying it on LP. But them being twice the price of a cd isn't with it for me to buy everything in vinyl

[DorianPaige]

Availability in the recording industry has always been it's Achilles heal. If you bought when the album was a current or still in print, you're set to enjoy a lifetime of music. Streaming isn't that way. Streaming eliminates the expenses a label has to endure by warehousing and distributing physical product but it's always subject to licensing contract that come up for renewal. With artists now having the ability to control the rights of their masters after 35 years, the chain of ownership and subsequent legalities will mount and those contracts will often especially in the future get delayed or disputed. You'll also get that cantankerous artist that doesn't want to put their stuff out there.

[ChrisFalk]

'Perfect copies' and 'zero data loss' aren't completely true. The 128kbps mp3 files people downloaded from Napster wasn't nowhere near equal to the quality of a CD. But people didn't care because the convenience and availability triumphed over the pure audio quality, you didn't need to know someone to copy his or her music.

[andrefelixstudio]

I have a great collection of CDs that’s how I best like to listen to my music when I want to relax, when I’m working I don’t mind playing the digital from my iPod through my computer, but when I’m relaxing kicking back I’d like to have the whole experience of a CD!

[Astro_Gnome]

You don't hold it, you don't own it. CD was the peak of audio recording. And you got a little booklet to read while listening. Way better than iTunes or Spotify.

[masocre]

records are bigger but have less design work. a CD booklet feels like it includes more than a gatefold.

[groofoot]

5:23 - 5:28 = BS. Compact discs are Not experiencing their last hurrah ...

[JerryWCarman]

As long as vinyl prices keep going up, I'll buy CDs.

[AbdAlgani]

i think it should come back, because now no way to buy any program or movie without cds, and like internet is shit

[jlee]

In a blackout, the only way to listen to music might be through a battery powered portable CD player or mini boom box.

The way the world is going now, that kind of scenario can’t be discounted. I do believe extended blackouts somewhere will usher in huge demands for physical media, so its a good idea to snap up CD players while they’re affordable.

[stephenfeltner]

I can't remember the exact date, but I think it was in 1988 that CDs outsold vinyl for the first time and that dynamic was only reversed in 2022 or 2023. This was mostly due to Taylor Swift's catalog being re-released in addition to a few other big pop acts putting out new music. Everyone jumps on the newest trend, which is now vinyl, and sales go up. I suspect it won't be any different in 2024 with Swift having a new record out, so I'm waiting to see the stats for 24 and 25 in terms of CD vs Vinyl sales before I write the epitaph for the CD format. There are tons of videos on this subject, and it's always been a head-scratcher to me since most of them were done in either a year the CD (still!) outsold vinyl, or in the first year that the reverse was true. I may be biased as a CD fan and buyer for life, but the idea that the CD is going away as a mainstay of physical media is just not supported by sales data. If vinyl outsells CDs for a decade running, then perhaps I will change my mind, but until then all this discussion of CDs "making a comeback" is kinda irrelevant. The better question would be "Is vinyl going to stick around this time?". At around $40 for a single record, and the price of everything else going up....my answer would be no. But I guess time will tell.