Continuing with CDs?

A few years ago I ripped all my CD singles/EPs to my computer, put the discs and inserts in plastic sleeves into a couple of those metal DJ box things. Chucked the jewel cases, saved a lot of space, the discs have been under my bed ever since. Have considered doing the same with albums - I've ripped them all already, would just be a case of letting go of the cases.

Those space-saving sleeves look a good solution, if a little expensive compared to doing nothing.

Reading through this thread nobody has seemed to mention the biggest benefit of physical copy (though not really vinyl) over digi - browsing, keeping track of what you've got. Having 500-1000 CDs shelved with their spines (damn those new cardboard cases) makes it easy to know what you've got and not get lost in a maze of folders on your computer or hdd.

Like with a lot of digital storage it's out of sight out of mind. You're easily likely to go a year without playing a record you like b/c you forgot about it. With CD@s theyre always there staring you in the face, not hidden down endless scrolling.

It's the same basic reason why visiting an actual book store is infintely better for book discovery than Amazon. Even with it's recommendations ( you don't always want recommendations, you want to browse something new)

I buy records and can never keep track of what Ive got, Ive grown to prefer it that way, I crate digger even in my own cabin

Like I said, records don't help, because they have no spine. CDs and tapes have. A 14inch computer screen can never replace this.

Uh, records do have spines! Granted more than half of mine are worn to shit from past lives in other storage/display situations but nearly all are basically legible, if not always from across the room.

RUSSIAN records don't have spines, ime. Also a copy of Ellington Uptown on Phillips from the early 50s. HMMMMMMMM

ehhh slap on some masking tape and grab a fine-point sharpie, whattyawantfromme

what about singles did you think of that

singles are for storing face-out and flipping through!

I ws suggesting Auk ws from the 50s and/or Russia actually, sry

flipping through is a v different experience to browsing spines & more wearisome imo

The records i buy dont have anything written on the spine

What about that Shriekback record?

Most of my heroes don't appear on no spines.

what about all your fat impulse records?

best spines...

The Spineless Ones are a humanoid race living in the alien dimension known as the Mojoverse. They have a yellow skin, no hair, only three fingers on each hand (plus thumb) and most importantly: no spine. Because they have no spine, their legs are mostly atrophied and they are very obese. The Spineless Ones are larger than humans (about twice their size). Somehow they could mentally receive television programs that were sent from Earth. These transmissions caused madness within the Spineless Ones and the creatures in these transmissions (humans) have become demons in the myths of the Spineless Ones.

needless to say, if you don't buy records, you never get to see photos like these.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10998010_10153878390682137_8721982341794000337_n.jpg?oh=fd9ad241ad10ee2461c37a381c5c169f&oe=559B28FE&__gda__=1440152961_3edbb351daf4b768dca884032cf7d272

https://scontent-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10987344_10153878390482137_1935241303877396662_n.jpg?oh=ca4022215759b93ab09ac5448df5ce96&oe=55DEBB1A

/thread

what about all your fat impulse records?

― scott seward, Saturday, April 25, 2015 11:00 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've only ever owned one original Impulse, Roswell Rudd's Everywhere, that I sold in the early 00s. Only other Impulse vinyl I have is a reissue of the Elvin Jones/Jimmy Garrison Sextet's Illumination.

one of my fave elvin impulses...

http://www.birkajazz.com/graphics2/jonesHeavySounds.jpg

i have a nice copy of Everywhere. sounds so good.

60's impulse vinyl....mmmmmmm.....oh MP3 peoples i wish i could play you some records...........

I do remember my copy of Everywhere sounded great, and all the Impulse records I've seen are super heavy.

Reading through this thread nobody has seemed to mention the biggest benefit of physical copy (though not really vinyl) over digi - browsing, keeping track of what you've got

― Arctic Noon Auk

Read again - this concept is central to my argument against hard drive stacks and mention it at least 4 times. Never new they made records without spine labels; too bad.

i challenge any1 2 read a record spine from more than 50 cm a way

When you know your LP collection the spine only has to remind you of the album it is, not tell you specifically. Colour, tatters, etc.

When you know your LP collection the spine only has to remind you of the album it is, not tell you specifically. Colour, tatters, etc.

a well worn battered spine = classic album.

One actual risk is that a good but kinda beat spine gets overlooked when you're just kinda browsing your collection deciding what to throw on. Especially if it's alphabetically next to a big chunk of one artist - the eye can kinda whisk past the "Beatles section" etc. But then when you do stumble on this record you've forgotten about for ages, it's a treat.

One of the most beaten spines in my collection is the white-label promo of Kick Out The Jams. I wince every time I see the spine, because I always forget how beaten it is (I've had it for 30 years).

Wish all spines were so easy to read. That Grouper CD Dragging Dead Deer is easy to miss.

This thread has inspired me to, with no clear direction in mind, consolidate my bindered CDs from two binders (a big honking 128-er that I picked up when I was DLing Survivor episodes from IRC and burning one at a time as Video CDs a decade ago, and a 72-er that i've had since forever), down to just the one small one, to contain only things of Sentimental Value, or just ones where the album really WOULD be missing something without the gloriously lavish 24-page lyrics book or whatever.

As projects go this is a fairly stupid one, since it'll take me days and reduce my storage and future-moves footprint by only the size of a biggish 3-ring binder. Also, it means my hard drive is rapidly filling up with the music I listen to least these days and which would give anyone who saw it the most distorted image of my tastes. But... it's oddly satisfying to throw the damn discs and booklets into the trash. Letting go of baggage you didn't know had become baggage and all that.

i still download instead of streaming, but if i was 20 years younger i'd definitely be streaming.

― rushomancy, Thursday, April 23, 2015 12:40 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

curious as to what you mean by this. Why is streaming a young person's game?

I think it mean that downloading is an old habit from when streaming was rubbish, and now they can't quite break away from it.

I also identify a bit with the "But I need to have something!" impulse.

I just am surprised by the idea that twenty years separates "those who are cool with downloading" and "those who are cool with streaming", esp since I'm in my mid-30s and have always thought dling was a gyp compared to CDs

For me (legal) downloading has proven a skippable part of music distribution's evolution

I never purchased a download. My iPod contains stuff that I get from labels and publicists who send me them even though I don't do shit anymore. If I like something, I buy it physically; if I do not, I delete it.

I did just sign up for Spotify which will make for listening to new things to check for quality and I'll buy the stuff I like.

I buy downloads all the time. There's a surprising amount of stuff available from Amazon MP3 that's not available on CD.

in the 90s it was probably more moral to pirate music than actually buy it off the record companies. Not sure what's changed.

These last few entries bring about some good points; one of which is value. A hi-bit mp3 has less than ¼ of the data present in a wav - so the pricing should START there. Lack of physical media brings the value down even more -- so a downloaded mp3 is only worth 15-20¢ on the dollar as compared to an actual CD. Add in the requisite portion for marketing and royalties and i still can't get much higher than 30-35¢ on the dollar.

So, a $12 CD offers about the same value to me as a $4 mp3 download.

Seriously; mp3s cut out distribution expenses, retail margins, shrinkage, the need for inventory, printing and materials cost, etc. I don't think the illegal download boon would have been so industry-shattering if the fat cats had simply allowed the price of CDs to go down as their costs became far more advantageous than that of LPs -- manufacturers could have easily made new CDs in the $6-8 range and may have kept the ship from sinking alltogether.

Not sure what's changed.

― Arctic Noon Auk

One thing that hasn't changed is that the record companies are still too greedy -- looking at the latest Kendrick Lamar album (via Amazon) puts the CD at $15.88 and the mp3 at $14.49 -- the record companies are the ones saying that these formats are of the same value (or maybe they say they have to keep the mp3 price that high to offset illegal dl's). Either way, this pricing structure forces more mp3 customers into seeking illegal sources.

every new cd ever sold on earth should have been $9.95 as of jan, 1, 2000. i'd still be buying CDs if that had happened. also, every top 40 single should have been available in stores for $3.99 on CD too. would have bought a TON of those.

They should have been priced that way for economic or for philosophic reasons?

in the 90s it was probably more moral to pirate music than actually buy it off the record companies.

No it probably wasn't.

they should have been priced that way so that people kept buying them! people - myself included - got so sick of those 16.99 CD prices. and those are still standard prices in the 3 or 4 CD stores that still exist. i would buy 5 ten dollar CDs any day, but i have a problem buying ONE $17.99 cd. in a lot of cases, i would end up not buying any at all. the 2000's were not the go go 90's when people were spending hundreds of dollars on CDs at stores. huge stacks of CDs going out the door.

x-post

i was buying tons of records (both new and used) AND tons of CDs in the 90's. i bought so many CDs it was crazy. anything that wasn't rent/food/beer money went to records and CDs. mostly cuz i would go to tower or wherever in philly and be stunned by how much stuff was finally available. there was an electronics/record store in philly back then that had like 20 shirley collins CDs in their shirley collins section! they had a shirley collins section! so, i went a little overboard back then.

every new cd ever sold on earth should have been $9.95 as of jan, 1, 2000.

I'd put it earlier, like starting around 1989. That's when manufacturing costs of CDs were lower than those of LPs, but of course the price of CDs was nearly double.

Since everyone was buying CDs -- new shit and, most crucially, re-buying old shit -- what incentive did the labels have in 1989-1998 to lower prices? Not only did they go in the opposite direction -- I think retail prices topped out at $18.98 for a single CD -- but the majors colluded on price-fixing.

also, every top 40 single should have been available in stores for $3.99 on CD too. would have bought a TON of those.

Ditto. And that's why the majors killed the single. Why make a $3.99 single available when it's vastly more profitable for the $18.98 album to be the only way to own the song?

i was buying tons of records (both new and used) AND tons of CDs in the 90's. i bought so many CDs it was crazy. anything that wasn't rent/food/beer money went to records and CDs. mostly cuz i would go to tower or wherever in philly and be stunned by how much stuff was finally available. there was an electronics/record store in philly back then that had like 20 shirley collins CDs in their shirley collins section! they had a shirley collins section! so, i went a little overboard back then.

― scott seward, Sunday, April 26, 2015 2:42 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I did this, too.

re: the Shirley Collins section!, I vividly remember when the ESP-Disks were first reissued. Tower in Chicago had a huge display, complete with the usual Tower huge mock-ups of the label logo, dedicated to ESP-Disk (which a friend told me about, and I didn't believe him until I saw it). It was completely surreal.