Continuing with CDs?

I just bought a few CDs at the local hoard-o-rama, first CDs in many a year. I love vinyl, but CDs are cheap as borscht & sound great for the most part.

Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
Inbreds - Kombinator
some Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci album

These were all CD-era releases, which feels more comfortable than buying, say, an Equals or Zombies CD because I can’t find the vinyl at a reasonable price.

I really miss Google Music but tuomas that sounds like a good solution, any idea if cloudplayer works with Chromecast?

That sounds like a great solution. I too miss Google Play Music.

All that said, I've got two new laptops and neither have CD/DVD drives. I'm nae going back down the route of external drives.

I still get CDs whenever they are an option and this thread just makes me all the more reluctant to go digital. It just sounds like a bigger headache than space issues if you do actually have room for a few thousand CDs.

I still get CDs whenever they are an option and this thread just makes me all the more reluctant to go digital. It just sounds like a bigger headache than space issues if you do actually have room for a few thousand CDs.

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, January 29, 2021 6:11 PM

Why not both? Once you get the habit of quickly fixing metadata to your liking, it's not such a laborious process.

While I've stuck with CDs for 28 years, I've been digitizing for at least half of that. I was one of those weirdos with daisy-chained CD changers--pretty sure I had a 200 and a 300-disc player. I first got an mp3 CD player in 1999 or 2000 or so, and a 100GB mp3 player (that you stuck a laptop HDD into) in 2004. And I have to admit, having my collection at instantaneous reach--whether randomized, making playlists, or picking a few albums to shuffle--had a profound positive effect on my listening. I think it made me much more sensitive to connections between different music, made me far less focused on individual artists and more interested in movements, times, places, common threads, and confluence between them. The ritual of pulling one album out and listening front to back--still important (though less ritualized) to me, but I really appreciate the more holistic perspective digitizing my CDs has allowed...

do you folks just sell back your CDs after you rip them or what?

lol that sounded snipey, sorry <3

For me, I keep all the CDs (hence continuing with CDs), rational or not. They're like... the archive, the library. But the digital library is what I use, day-to-day.

that's illegal, brimstead. just as a point of interest.

fixing metadata to your liking

― Soundslike, Friday, January 29, 2021 6:33 PM (one hour ago)

That just sounds stressful, I don't want to know about metadata, I don't want to spend time ripping CDs. I have about 10 or 12 digital albums and I have to remind myself I own them, which is a shame because they're great albums but I'd prefer to have them on CD.

You know what's crazy is that I have a decent-sized stack of still-shrinkwrapped CDs because I find it easier/faster to Slsk them rather than rip the CDs. I think the oldest one still unopened is the second Grinderman album, bought on release. I still like to have the physical product and in theory I'd prefer to be listening to the CDs, but the reality of my life right now is that my young kids have mostly taken oven my former listening area and 95% of my listening is through the Sonos speakers that have gradually been spreading throughout the house. I figure in 15 years or so I'll have time check out those liner notes and photos.

(I just looked up the release date of Grinderman II after writing that, I think it's not coincidental that it came out about three weeks after my firstborn.)

having my collection at instantaneous reach--whether randomized, making playlists, or picking a few albums to shuffle--had a profound positive effect on my listening. I think it made me much more sensitive to connections between different music, made me far less focused on individual artists and more interested in movements, times, places, common threads, and confluence between them. The ritual of pulling one album out and listening front to back--still important (though less ritualized) to me, but I really appreciate the more holistic perspective digitizing my CDs has allowed...

this. this. this.
a couple of years of re-ripping my cd archive off at 320 has totally paid off.

the process involved so many cds that i actually wore out the internal optical drive on my laptop.
thankfully, external drives are not that pricey these days ...

re: the demise of Google Play Music -- I really miss it. I'd done some research on alternates, and a couple looked interesting: iBroadcast and MediaLeap both give you unlimited music storage for $5/month (iBroadcast has a free tier but w/lower quality). Ultimately I decided that if I was going to be paying a monthly fee I might as well get access to a full streaming service, so I've started a free trial of Apple Music since as far as I can tell it's the only major one that also lets you upload your own library. But now I find I'm afraid to flick the switch that will sync my library because I remember all the horror stories of corrupted/disappearing libraries when they first started.

Completely forgot how long it took to rip my CD's for portable usage. There's no way.I would have done it on my own free time, I just did a few to a handful each day I worked in a computer lab, and pretty much got through it all over a year or two.

I have about 50 unheard-CDs; a separate ILM subject on here somewhere...

I ripped a bunch and uploaded them to Google Music, at my last job, over the course of a year or so when I had a CD drive. I focused on the titles that weren’t readily available for streaming, were out of print, etc. Glad I did it! They’re accessible to me now in YouTube Music.

I totally did this too ^. Took me days. I keep forgetting they're available in YT Music.

I've been seeing some rumblings about delays in vinyl pressing plants, but I'm starting to see a lot of talk about CD manufacturing delays as well now. I've gotten emails from four different labels this week about various pre-orders being delayed several weeks (or months in once case) due to manufacturing delays.

Yep - I heard from the printer this week that my CDs aren't gonna be ready for another 4-6 weeks (so, early April). I was kinda pissed, but then I got an email from International Anthem announcing that a CD I'd pre-ordered back in November, for release at the end of this month, also wasn't going to be coming out until April, so I thought, "Well, at least it's not just me."

On the other hand, I got a disc in the mail today that I bought on eBay - a 1988 edition of Julius Hemphill's Julius Hemphill Big Band still in its original longbox.

Yeah, seems like it's a bigger problem. Guessing I got the exact same International Anthem email, the Angel Bat Dawid live album?

Yep. Which were the other ones? I'm trying to figure out if we're all using the same printer (Stoughton, in California).

reading the recent thread re vinyl and the sheer insanity re configuring carts/needles to reduce inner groove distortion etc, just made me so grateful for the ease and brilliance of the cd format.
so, yeah, i am continuing with cds.

I just got a cassette deck, I'm increasing my format overhead

I have an old laptop I keep solely for ripping CDs. Keep expecting it to die, but it soldiers on.

weirdly i dug out my cassettes this week, and hooked up my boombox to my amp so i could listen to them.
they sound f&cking dreadful.
admittedly i am using the headphone out socket into an input socket on the amp, and even at the time, the boombox was a low level piece of kit.
however, i have subsequently spent the last few days perusing the local FB marketplace for anyone who is getting rid of an old cassette deck.
that said, even at the time, i hated tapes.
but i have quite a few of them that have never, and will never, make it to any digital forum.

either I've had too much of messing around with my record player or not enough, same difference I guess

that thread actually made me check the instruction manual for my record deck (Pro-ject Debut) as i was sure i had not done enough to get it to work properly.
which is weird, as i never listen to records these days.

Yep. Which were the other ones? I'm trying to figure out if we're all using the same printer (Stoughton, in California).

One was for a Riding Easy release, but that appears unrelated to the manufacturing delays. The other was for the upcoming Bob Dylan 50th anniversary 3xCD, got pushed back almost a month.

I know Stoughton is doing an upcoming Impulse! Records 60th anniversary 4LP box set; I wonder if it'll arrive on time.

I recommend getting a disc man.

I just got a copy of the Abkco Northern Soul collection, which is a US release from 2020 manufactured in the Czech Republic.

CD: 16 For Sale from $8.91
LP: 9 For Sale from $50.00

for a 2012 release

long may such madness continue.

Today at Goodwill for a buck apiece:
Carmen McRae - For Lady Day
Dianne Reeves - A Little Moonlight
Neville Brothers - Yellow Moon
Paladins - Rejiveinated

Anyone recently-ish found acceptably decent *high-capacity* CD shelves to buy online? Or ever had any custom-made?

I'm moving soon and for the first time in my adult life might have room to not keep my CDs (somewhere north of 8k, plus a few hundred Blu-rays) in boxes...

If you were in SF I'd say just go here:

http://booksandbookshelves.com/

But, I gather, you're not.

Damn, wish I could! Yep, other coast (Providence, RI)

I just ordered one of these:

https://www.cdrackshoppe.com/2413-cherry.html

It's pretty much the only 2000+ capacity off-the-shelf (heh) model out there I could find under $500. The shelves are only 1/4" thick, so I'm going to add some 3/8" dowel rods at the midway points of each shelf to prevent sagging. After this fills up (or if it's crap) I'll go for something custom-made made locally. You really need shelves at least 1/2" thick and no longer than 24" long or they'll sag.

If you can get someone to build you some, it def would look best in your space

another vote for a custom build here

I just ordered one of these:

https://www.cdrackshoppe.com/2413-cherry.html

It's pretty much the only 2000+ capacity off-the-shelf (heh) model out there I could find under $500. The shelves are only 1/4" thick, so I'm going to add some 3/8" dowel rods at the midway points of each shelf to prevent sagging. After this fills up (or if it's crap) I'll go for something custom-made made locally. You really need shelves at least 1/2" thick and no longer than 24" long or they'll sag.

― so tonight that I might ramona quimby (f. hazel), Saturday, March 6, 2021 4:38 PM

Curious how that one will go. Oddly, even that one is sort of space-inefficient by not being very tall. If I owned the apartment I'm moving into, I'd have 8' tall built-ins built under the loft, but I don't so it has to be "furniture"... I also know that movers typically have statements that basically they refuse to move MDF-based furniture as basically it never survives a move, so I'm hesitant to buy like 3 of those and have them become trash when I eventually move again...

So I'm thinking DIY, or custom-made is probably how I'll go...

This would theoretically be disassemblable, but even it only holds 2,400 CDs and is again pretty short, so not that space efficient: https://www.boltz.com/cd-floor-rack-shelving-cd-2400.html

Anyone seen any clever DIY solutions?

https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/cd-animal-sculptures-recycled-art-sean-avery-55-5885c8e8533ee__700.jpg

https://bookwalls.com/ ?

I'm planning on getting a wall mounted system from https://www.modernshelving.com/ for records and books, but the CDs look nice too.

https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/140196337_768102044062221_7894055247320804855_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=WHhn_mC8N4YAX8C7zCn&_nc_ht=scontent.cdninstagram.com&oh=4a09be715db17bb937c034111aa09d89&oe=60680A85

those Bookwalls are super cool but the minimum depth looks like 12"?

yeah, I think modernshelving.com might be plan B if this prepack shelf turns out to be subpar... sturdy and high-capacity (but will probably cost a couple grand)

Looking forward to the point when still keeping CDs looks cool rather than weird.

Have any of you ever worried about storing media (books, records, CDs) on a second or third floor of your dwelling? The anxiety of weight limit actually never even occurred to me until recently when I moved into a two-story apartment. The house was built in the 50s, and I assume it was never meant to withstand 5,000+ CDs, 2,000+ LPs, and two tremendous oak bookshelves, which of course weigh far more than the people + furniture for which the top floor was intended. I'm suddenly gripped with the fear of the ceiling collapsing and being literally buried under this stuff, just as an ex once prophesized