Continuing with CDs?

funnily enough that included a couple of galaxie 500 remasters

thats a great score nicky

I wish cd's were as cheap here in the UK

Here's the Horace Silver on UKebay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HORACE-SILVER-12-CLASSIC-ALBUMS-1953-1962-NEW-CD-/351371586390?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item51cf60eb56

I think I'm ok with keeping up what I started with CDs as long as I'm savvier about it now, rather than buying £15 for a new album in 1998 or whatever

I personally need to keep it up, I don't trust my listening attitudes and habits without physical product.

not bad but shipping could be a killer

sorry about that. I posted the wrong one. This one ships from UK

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Horace-Silver-12-Classic-Albums-1953-1962-NEW-CD-BOX-SET/351338959459?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3D26144e5c1ef14acab5bb119acd4cb34f%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D351371586390&rt=nc

ok that is a good deal

Since artwork is rarely mentioned, do most downloads include all the sleeve art? For certain genres the art is a big appeal.

I still haven't got an mp3 player so I've never bought many digital downloads. I'm scared of all this stuff about "loss" files, don't understand it.
I've got a kindle and use it constantly but never read books on it (also worried about drm shit), so I'm doubting I'll buy mp3s much unless I have no other choice or it's way way cheaper.

Do albums disappear from a server often?

I've been piling up boxes like the Horace Silver one mentioned upthread (have that, and another one like it gathering 12 Bill Evans albums on 6 CDs) and the 5CD "Original Album Series"/"Original Album Classics" sets (5 albums for like $20), and even the slightly more deluxe sets like the one with all six Van Halen albums (there are only six), the first 10 ZZ Top albums, etc., etc. This is a fucking golden age for budget CD reissues, especially if you're into 70s rock like I am. And I still buy new albums on CD from time to time. Going to Target on Friday, planning to pick up the new Dwight Yoakam (the Target version has 3 bonus tracks).

Will you bother trying now to sell off your existing CDs?
Will you leave them as a record of 80s/90s to early 00s buying?
Will you continuing buying CDs selectively alongside downloading, for reasons of completing certain artists or genres?

1) No.
2) I keep them and play them often.
3) I buy CDs new and used all the time.

the vinyl resurgence is so awesome: cds cost like 50c now.

I don't think the vinyl resurgence and the drop in used CD prices are related

"resurgence" should be in scare-quotes anyway, we're talking about a tiny fraction of the music sales market (still)

No, CD price drop is correlated to the rise of digital.

Vinyl resurgence is compensation for the need for a tangible/own-able product after digital dominated the convenience side.

^^^

CDs sound bad and suck to carry around but I've no intention of uploading my entire collection to hard drive when those fuckers crash all the time (otoh I'm less attached to things these days, the art of losing isn't hard to master and all that; if I lose music it's no big deal). Still buy new ones too. Still burn CD-Rs with that season's killer singles and album tracks.

the college radio station I advise still receives 95 percent of its material on CD too, I suppose because there's no way upload watermarked copies to Megaseg.

That aspect of the vinyl market that is comprised of $45 prestige box editions of single-disc albums, etc., is totally gross conspicuous-consumption noise as described upthread. The aspect that just keeps putting out "reasonably" priced editions of everything is pretty great, even though I also agree that there's less guarantee of a quality sound on a new record than there was 10-15 years ago, when if you were putting out a vinyl release you probably gave a shit.

What's annoying is that the price of a "basic" record has drifted up in that period quite a bit, though I can't really put a bead on how much of that is just inflation. I feel like in 2000/2001 when I first really started collecting, a straightforward single LP from Kill Rock Stars (say) would be like, $10-12 bucks. Inflation calculator says that should now be $13.25-$15.90, and if you go to their website, they do in fact sell tons of records right at $15, with download included, and some at $12 - though perhaps some of those are things that have literally been in stock the entire time. But I see a lot more stuff in stores in the like $18-23 range which just doesn't feel like what a record costs, even if I try to remember to include the inflation facts in my head.

The only circumstance in which I could imagine buying a CD at this point would be at a show if that's all they have. I never really had much affection for the format, and I bindered what was left of my collection years ago, risking scratches and stuff in order to no longer have a billion godawful jewel cases taking up space. CD really feels just about as disposable and forgettable as streaming, like even if I see a stack at a garage sale for cheap it just feels like, why bother; sure I can get thirty albums for a couple bucks but I could also just stream them if I cared. Whereas with a record I've never shaken the notion (however misbegotten) that I'm getting something I want, in addition to the music, for my money. God damn they take up space though.

I buy vinyl mostly, because I like it and CDs seem so disposable etc. It just looks better in the flat.

I like physical media because having it makes you play something and leave it alone till it finishes. You get on with something else and stop tinkering. If I play stuff on Spotify I'm always skipping to another album by track 6. Also, I can't be bothered to play the same albums on Spotify over and over. I'm always looking for something new. I like having new records or CDs next to the stereo, which makes you play them more and more. It's sort of lazy: it's next to the stereo, so you put it on, get on with doing what you're doing, and before you know it you've listened to a new album 20 times or something. I like the feeling of listening to the same thing 20 times. I get more out of that than listening to 20 albums once.

Probably the reason I buy physical stuff is the same reason people get gym memberships. You ought to be able to get fit just bobbing around, having sex, dancing, running for the bus etc. It doesn't happen enough though. You need discipline.

So I buy vinyl mostly and am happiest when it comes with a free CD of the album rather than a download. Then, I have to admit, I mostly just play the CD and the vinyl never gets played. I'm happy with that. But I buy CDs too, if an album has a shit cover or I don't expect to want to play it much beyond a month or two. Or if I'm just being stingy.

Cheap used CDs and the fact that my car doesn't have an aux port are the only things that keep me using CDs. I still have a ton of them though and won't get rid of them unless it becomes impossible to rip CDs onto a hard drive.

Will you bother trying now to sell off your existing CDs?
Will you leave them as a record of 80s/90s to early 00s buying?
Will you continuing buying CDs selectively alongside downloading, for reasons of completing certain artists or genres?

Well, I still buy CDs, mainly. I buy lps as tangible own things, but they are mostly second hand.

I've logged all the lps into Discogs, so I know where it all is now. Alphabetical order? Do me a favour.

Of course, I can now put the ones I don't play any more up for sale, and that helps me work towards a maximum cool collection, or something.

Funny, the comments about "The kids don't care about vinyl" as Alice (15) prefers to get lps rather than CDs nowadays. I guess if she went for CDs she'd have loads by now but she's selective about it. She's often talked about harvesting my collection, but never brings herself to take any. She's been a couple times to Oxfam Records, but her selections have been strange: Muddy Waters at Newport last time, and two Count Basie lps this time. I have no idea why.

Oh yeah, the question..

I should log the CDs into discogs and do the same way, hut there's tons of them and the majority wouldn't go for 50p.

Muddy Waters at Newport last time, and two Count Basie lps this time. I have no idea why.

because she has good taste?

She's working towards it, sure.

The muddy, they'd talked about it in school.

The Basie, she was working through the jazz section and decided he must be good as there were two lps there.

I will never, ever understand people's affection for vinyl, especially not people younger than me. I'm 43, so I was already buying music before CDs were introduced, and I fucking hated records as a kid. If they didn't get scratched enough to skip, they still sounded like ass, all crackly and getting a little worse every time you played them; if your turntable was shitty (like mine was), the speed wavered so the singer's voice slowed down and sped up...plus they took up so much space and my room was tiny already...a fucking terrible format. I preferred tapes to vinyl, for all of the aforementioned reasons plus portability (I was never without my walkman starting in about eighth grade), and when CDs came out I was all about that shit, and have never looked back. Now, I do 90 percent of my listening on my iPod, but I still buy and rip CDs, and every once in a while will actually throw something on the stereo and lay on the couch and listen to it.

I don't understand the cassette revival. Yeah, they're as portable as CDs but sound like shit plus they lack the artwork of vinyl releases if you're into that sort of thing. The worst format ever save for the 8-track and I have no idea why hipsters thought it would be a good idea to bring them back.

I don't understand the minidisc revival!

i don't understand "cd vs. digital". uh, cds _are_ digital?

Don't vinyls also require a lot of maintenance? They seem to warp in the heat easily.
There's a big thread about audio file maintenance/collecting, all this crap about lossy/lossless files I need to learn. So I feel comfortable with cds because I never scratch them and very rarely have problems playing them.

i don't understand "cd vs. digital". uh, cds _are_ digital?

― rushomancy, Wednesday, April 22, 2015 8:19 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The distinction is about physical not sound quality.

getting ready to move and I've put aside about a thousand CDs to try and sell, knowing that I'll probably have to leave them in the street and should have done this 13 years ago. (haven't estimated how many are going into storage yet.)

OK that's true there are plenty of questionable pressings. It's up to the collector to be savvy.

this is an insane attitude.

currently in the process of cataloging on discogs and ripping all my CDs - well, re-ripping the majority at higher bitrate - and sticking them away into archive boxes. this'll clear out both a corner of my bedroom where I'd stuffed the old CD racks and made half of them a pain to access, and also free up the cabinet in the main room that currently has a boombox and piles of CDs strewn all over (and inside) it. not particularly interested in the streaming services so have gone with a sonos box to route everything through the amp that I also run my turntables through.

I'll still buy CDs though - it's not like I've run at the 4-5 new ones a week that I was amassing them at from '02-05 anyway. well, other than a recent eno reissue binge.

I am going to try and schlep off a pile of about 50 that a) don't interest me any more b) might actually go for something second-hand. which is an OK retention rate for roughly 1k in the collection.

my experience with an mp3 player/aux port in the car is that the signal from the mp3 is very weak, where you've got to nearly max out the volume on the portable player to get substantial sound. i've only used Sony or Sandisk-brand players, so that may be a factor in the signal weakness.

the convenience of the CD is its best quality, and there's a lot of specialised (EAI, electronic, weird jazz etc.) that isn't even printed on vinyl. CD-RWs are nice to test out new stuff on the stereo, but the cd-r still seems like a cheap/not 'true' medium for audio files. that's just a mental/aesthetic quip, i suppose.

i recently visited with friends who have a lot of interest in high quality amp/receiver/turntable setups, and while it seems a bit silly (and expensive) to me, there's something endearing about a room full of afficionados putting on something like sea change and really basking in/believing in the increased warmth/clarity/whatever such a setup/medium allows. these are mostly new/alt-country, 'easy listening' type chaps.

the cassette revival is annoying because people are putting out shoddy dubs on normal bias tapes, and while it's punk/novel/creative or whatever, i believe these people should re-examine their standards for audio quality. i'm all for high-bias audio cassette listening experiences, though the metal bias tapes are hard to come by. anything more than a limited run is unrealistic. tape is nice because you can't just up and skip ahead, without some difficulty. I think that limitation improves the listening experience. Also, mix tapes are still fun to make.. you're definitely spending more time with the audio material, which improves the sequence of tracks and the material you choose to include. unfortunately, most people don't really appreciate the process, or have the means to play it, nowadays.

my experience with an mp3 player/aux port in the car is that the signal from the mp3 is very weak, where you've got to nearly max out the volume on the portable player to get substantial sound. i've only used Sony or Sandisk-brand players, so that may be a factor in the signal weakness.

When I plug my iPod into my car stereo, I can control the volume via the iPod or the car stereo. And yeah, I have to turn it up louder than I would if I had headphones on, but not that much louder.

I think the "vinyl resurgence" is mystifying and kind of awful

OK, I'll take the bait, why? I love buying vinyl these days, can't imagine why I'd buy a CD for the life of me.

This sums it up, pretty much (though I'm about ten years younger):

[q]I will never, ever understand people's affection for vinyl, especially not people younger than me. I'm 43, so I was already buying music before CDs were introduced, and I fucking hated records as a kid. If they didn't get scratched enough to skip, they still sounded like ass, all crackly and getting a little worse every time you played them...(snip)...a fucking terrible format. I preferred tapes to vinyl, for all of the aforementioned reasons plus portability (I was never without my walkman starting in about eighth grade), and when CDs came out I was all about that shit, and have never looked back.[q]

CDs aren't perfect but that they're still the physical format with the least disadvantages.

I understand the aesthetic appeal of LP album artwork but from a sonic perspective CDs are easily superior for the most part (much better signal-to-noise ratio, none of the consistency problems due to different pressings, worn-out stampers, etc.) In any event, almost all new vinyl is pressed from digital files these days. Plenty of people I know and respect are very passionate about new vinyl releases but I just find the whole thing faintly ludicrous and (to use a very hackneyed phrase) a triumph of style over substance.

Buying new vinl2015 strike me, to use a hackneyed phrase, as a triumph of style over substance. Plenty of people I know and respect are really into it, I just think it's silly.

Ugh, formatting blues. Take 2:

I think the "vinyl resurgence" is mystifying and kind of awful

OK, I'll take the bait, why? I love buying vinyl these days, can't imagine why I'd buy a CD for the life of me.

This sums it up, pretty much (though I'm about ten years younger):

I will never, ever understand people's affection for vinyl, especially not people younger than me. I'm 43, so I was already buying music before CDs were introduced, and I fucking hated records as a kid. If they didn't get scratched enough to skip, they still sounded like ass, all crackly and getting a little worse every time you played them...(snip)...a fucking terrible format. I preferred tapes to vinyl, for all of the aforementioned reasons plus portability (I was never without my walkman starting in about eighth grade), and when CDs came out I was all about that shit, and have never looked back.

CDs aren't perfect but I think they're still the physical format with the least disadvantages.

I understand the aesthetic appeal of LP album artwork but from a sonic perspective CDs are easily superior for the most part (much better signal-to-noise ratio, none of the consistency problems due to different pressings, worn-out stampers, etc.) In any event, almost all new vinyl is pressed from digital files these days. Plenty of people I know and respect are very passionate about new vinyl releases but I just find the whole thing faintly ludicrous and (to use a very hackneyed phrase) a triumph of style over substance.

- lots of old music still hasn't been properly mastered to cd, but i say that every week around here.

- lots of new music isn't pressed on cd, period. i don't know about rock music but new techno vinyl still sounds pretty good.

- yeah it sucks having to spend 20 seconds cleaning a record. but it does actually prevent the whole "sounded like ass, all crackly and getting a little worse every time you played them" thing.

- seriously, though, it does suck having to spend $100 every 5-10 years for a new stylus

- cds are cool

good breakdown imo

like, deep purple in rock, the 1995 remaster that's out there sounds so bad. i'd have to find a 1980s out of print edition, one of those $50 out of print audio fidelity edition, or *GASP! HIPSTER! UNCLEAN!* some 70s vinyl edition to fully get my rock on

i bet the friday music lp reissue of in rock sounds awesome. that's a label whose vinyl pressings really sound great. no crackle or nothing, honest!!

maybe these 00s japan cd issues are worthwhile..

so, in conclusion, everybody's wrong and everybody's right. this court is adjourned *pounds gavel*

- lots of old music still hasn't been properly mastered to cd, but i say that every week around here.

- lots of new music isn't pressed on cd, period. i don't know about rock music but new techno vinyl still sounds pretty good.

- yeah it sucks having to spend 20 seconds cleaning a record. but it does actually prevent the whole "sounded like ass, all crackly and getting a little worse every time you played them" thing.

Thanks for adding this so I don't have to. I also like the format, I like that I can watch it play and handle records when DJing. I accept the fact that there is a resurgence of vinyl and have read about the quality issues that have stemmed from that demand, but I haven't personally had that experience. I download music for many genres and if there's a nice vinyl release, then I will purchase that.

Actually I don't even own a CD player, except in my old Mac. That said, I'd sooner get a cassette player these days.

haha great posts brimstead

I bought a cassette a couple of weeks ago, I just rip them to digital like LPs, no big deal.

Yeah, there's the occasional cassette where I think that it would be cool to own it with the artwork as the official release and listen to it that way as well.

I feel less like a persecuted minority after this thread. CDs are fine by me, although I sometimes wish the brittleness and unnecessarily generous depth of the standard jewel case had been resolved in some other way early on. When it comes to storage they're not really all that compact.

I have plenty of vinyl but can't imagine any situation where I'd buy it new unless it was cheaper than the corresponding CD. Given the cost of used CDs these days, this situation doesn't seem to arise. Downloads too are comparatively expensive, especially lossless, and frankly I find it too easy to skip around a collection of soft copies, thereby failing to really listen properly. I came to the latter conclusion after doing precisely that for a decade.

One area where where I suspect there's little chance of a major vinyl revival is with classical audiences. There seems to be an expectation that both new recordings and reissues of older recordings should be filled out (often twofer style, in effect) to near the capacity of a CD. Makes the prospect of listening to 4 sides of vinyl to hear, say, one Bruckner symphony seem a tad archaic.

I haven't bought CDs since my whole collection was stolen in 2008. I can't say I miss them at all.

Buying second-hand CDs benefits the artists even less than streaming. My main issue with CDs is that a whole wall full of cases looks fucking ugly, especially once they get past a certain age, they're just not nice as an artefact and they mostly look cheap and shitty. A wall full of vinyl looks cool, a wall full of books looks cool, a wall full of CDs looks like a 90s student bedroom.