Continuing with CDs?

I also picked up a Toe Fat one, but I think it was from Esoteric, which is another good place for decent single artist boxes. I picked up their Fruup one during the pandemic.

― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 20 January 2022 16:20 (fifty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

AIUI Esoteric is an imprint of Cherry Red, not that it matters very much.

I really like their approach of having these boutiquey little sub-labels with their own character - for me El and Doctor Bird are consistently great and I can easily follow what they are up to without having to wade through the things I'm less interested in. I think El remains the idiosyncratic product of Mike Alway, as it has been these forty years or so.

Can't really see much call for multi-changers over just ripping to FLAC.

AIUI Esoteric is an imprint of Cherry Red, not that it matters very much.

Ha, had no idea, but makes sense!

xxp Don't new cars come with a line-in port? Just run a cable from your discman's output to the car's input.

but it's worth it for getting the booklets alone... esp CDs from the CD era, there's so much info and personality in the booklets that you can't find online. some of them basically qualify as historical literature

this is what was best about the Finder Keepers cds that i have picked up over the years.
the sleevenotes are always a great read and full of information as Andy Votel is a full nerd re such details.
was really pissed off when they stopped printing cd editions for their reissues (i guess for similar reasons to Numero).
i know i can buy the albums on bandcamp (not always though due to licencing issues i suspect), but it's just not the same experience.

for me El and Doctor Bird are consistently great and I can easily follow what they are up to without having to wade through the things I'm less interested in

Both great labels, and lately I've been diving into the Joe Gibbs collections the latter has been showcasing.

xp would need to buy a discman, though maybe that's a preferable overall route vs a Car Toys install.

Does that sound OK (line in)? And then you gotta power the Discman from the cigarette lighter (like it's 1998), and unplug/stash it every time you park... oy. I guess if it's the only reasonable option, and sounds better than Bluetooth...

Yeah, the CD revival is pretty bleeding-edge just now. Still tough to sell most titles for more than $1 (and often not even that). I have boxes and boxes of discs that I’m just putting away in the basement for another few years til it picks up proper steam. I’m the meantime I’m really enjoying hunting the bargain bins for obscure/weird/local stuff. Feels like crate digging for vinyl did 20 years ago. So easy to take a flyer on something you’ve never heard of that looks interesting. (Yeah, even easier with streaming, but the serendipity of discovery doesn’t have the same flavour with Spotify.)

I just want to complain about this - I bought a vinyl reissue yesterday that came with a CD copy of the album, but the disc was packaged sans case, just slid on the outside of the LP sleeve under the shrinkwrap, not even in a paper sleeve or anything, just the bare disc. WTF do they expect me to do with that? Never seen anything like it. The disc is scratched, of course, and I guess I've got to source my own case for it if I keep it. Theres no download included, so I wonder if the thought was to use the disc to rip a digital copy and then toss it? So weird.

There's another interesting CD player video from Techmoan today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag2RVk2vx4o

tangent xpost to one eye:
the next wave of bullshit is new vinyl pressings that come with neither cd nor download code. for those of us who don't have any way to archive vinyl to digital and would like to put it on a personal music player, purchasing the album twice is a necessity. kind of wish that the bandcamp standard of placing a digital copy of the album in your collection (to be downloaded from wherever however many times you like) would become the new standard and anything that doesn't do it that way would simply be laughed at.

it’d be good if download codes which come with vinyl could be plugged into bandcamp - fsck an mp3

it's honestly amazing that such a lossy, shitty format like mp3 is likely still the most common consumer digital music format - especially after all the progression we have made in disk space and associated technology since Y2K. there is simply no need for such compression at all anymore...

People would rather stream for pennies or get free digital files than pay for something that sounds better but is less convenient.

Although the "convenience over sound quality" argument was made by vinyl purists when CDs came of age but so...

People watch Netflix which is like wall to wall garbage but it’s convenient

The DVD service gave everyone the option of “watch a good movie in two days or watch crap now” and guess what they chose

Yeah, I dropped Netflix years ago for that reason. I end up watching a little bit every time I'm at someone else's place, but it's never anything I like, much less be willing to put on myself. Whenever they've financed films I'm interested in (The Irishman, Orson Welles's lost film, Mudbound, The Power of the Dog, Marriage Story, Cuaron's Roma, and a few others) I see it in the theaters anyway.

The discussion here about CDs is related to the discussion I see on the Spotify thread: musicians trying to take their music off Spotify.

I don't know the details of any of it, but it confirms the point that some of us don't want our music to be reliant on an external whim.

Yeah, I held on to my old Neil Young CD's. I also have the 24/192 Pono downloads, but I have to play those off a flash drive. The old CD's are underrated even if Neil hates them for being redbook digital - they were done well.

Also I never have to worry about my CD collection being tainted by Joe Rogan

I was going to say I'll never be able to watch NewsRadio with the same innocence, but I forgot about Hartman's murder. Man, life has really damaged that great show.

Eh, I still enjoy the heck out of it... (I can shove modern-day Rogan to the back of my head, it's not like he's the focus of the show)

Haven't honestly been buying CDs much--mostly buying digital from Bandcamp since Covid. Probably three dozen in 2021, when normal would be 200 to 400 in most years prior...

That said, I gave up having custom shelves made for CDs after two people flaked, and instead found affordable ($110 per or so) metal shelves that hold around 860 per. Bought 5, which won't hold nearly everything, but a decent chunk. I've never had a proper library for my CDs in 30 years of buying, so it'll be cool (even if maybe a bit pointless)...

Where did you get these metal shelves?

I'd probably get them - I've noticed that the newer wood shelves I've purchased will sag over time, so I have to flip them at least once a year, whereas a set of shelves my parents bought in the '90s (and that looks superficially very similar) has never sagged after all these years. I'm guessing the older one simply has better wood, but metal would solve all my problems, as long as it doesn't rust.

Sadly, had to get them here--nearly impossible to find this sort of thing now, that's not made of MDF, or low-capacity super-expensive and ugly wood ones. Looked for years before I saw these:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Atlantic-Maxsteel-Gray-Multimedia-Rack-Gunmetal-38408071/

Ech, sorry. Try pasting this in:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Atlantic-Maxsteel-Gray-Multimedia-Rack-Gunmetal-38408071/305570283?MERCH=REC-_-searchViewed-_-NA-_-305570283-_-N&

Thanks soundslike! The fact that it's adjustable by one-inch increments is a big help. One of the annoying things about the shelves I have is that the height gets narrower as you get to the bottom shelf, to the point where the bottom shelf is actually too narrow to fit those mini-LP sleeves that are slightly larger than a jewel case (like Neil Young's current releases or MFSL's SACD's) or any compact boxed sets designed to sit next to your regular CD's.

xp that is exactly what I need, thank you. I have maybe 1200 but some are on very inefficient racks

I'm putting them together now, I'll try to share a couple photos of how they look "full". I hoped for something more built-in-like (tough now that I rent), but I'm hoping these "recede" visually once actually loaded up.

Did notice a spot of rust on one of the legs so far, but mostly in good shape and pretty easy to cobble together.

For CDs, I wish there were one more shelf in the box--there's room for one...

For the first time in about 24 years, my CDs are in the form of a library, instead of in boxes/closets/under beds:

https://www.twitter.com/musicophiliamix/status/1489039803018616835

I should say, about 2/3rds are. The rest, bought when I was 12 to 26, are in boxes 1,500 miles away at my folks' house. So it's an odd collection here, missing almost all the "basics," plus 500 or so post-punk albums...

Guess the twitter thing doesn't work, I'll try this...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FKofV5jXoAAQb1J?format=jpg&name=large

looks really nice!

yeah that looks cozy!

Cats destroyed the wingback (second in a row) using it as a scratching post, hence the blanket shroud haha. Haven't been able to replace it because of Covid : )

That's awesome! You can even stack some box sets in there!

Beautiful

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/is-the-cd-revival-an-actual-thing/

If it isn't yet, we're gonna thinkpiece the revival into existence.

I've been inspired by this thread, so thank you all. All my music consumption in the last 7 years has been streaming based, but I've been buying a bunch of CDs on discogs lately, as well as having success scouring used CD bins at record stores. Mostly old 90s and 00s faves, all extremely cheap, and I've been enjoying the experience of revisiting these albums on CD. Part of it is the simple things that I feel like I've missed out on in the streaming era: listening to an album the whole way through without skipping around to something new the second that I get a little bored, not being distracted by the internet while listening to music, the bonding aspect of listening and discussing the album with my partner, flicking through the booklet. I know that most of these things are possible to do while streaming music, but the nature of the platforms and my ADD-addled brain means that I have to make a concerted effort to do it and I'm not sure I've got that willpower.

So I'm also going to take a break from streaming services for a while too. Music has always been a great source of joy in my life, but I feel like I haven't enjoyed it as much as I usually have in the last few years. My guess is that a lot of it is due to music just seeming like Another Piece Of Internet Content to me, and feeling like I'm utterly exhausted with the internet in its current state. I want to move away from that and get back to experiencing music in a more impactful way. The simple act of listening to CDs and building a physical collection again has definitely helped already.

Badass shelves there.

Well said, triggercut.

triggercut otm

i love shopping for used cds even though i could easily find most of that stuff
the thrill of finding something is part of the whole “bring a new cd home and anticipate listening to it” experience

Bravo, Triggercut!

It hasn't mattered as much because I've had to be very cautious during Covid, but literally none of the record shops in my city sells CDs, even used. So I get jealous when I hear of the apparent extreme cheap and plentiful nature of used CDs these days--I haven't gotten to experience it at all. New CDs, even less likely...

Yes, poster triggercut's post is good - makes the case very solidly and convincingly, with balance and nuance. I'm glad to hear about triggercut taking this CD route.

xp

yeah same in vancouver, i don't know if there are any stores that still carry used CDs
last time i checked zulu records a couple of years ago they had one small box of electronic CDs remaining

a lot more choice in seattle, like everyday music, hope they're still around

damn it.
http://everydaymusicportland.blogspot.com/2021/03/seattle-store-closing-by-june.html

Re triggercut's piece - I have found that running a small dedicated music server attached to my stereo has revived my music listening. The combo of direct support via Bandcamp (amplified during COVID because my income hasn't changed but many beloved artists' has tanked) and the ability to drop lossless files straight into a proper hi-fi system, plus ease of access to my entire library via phone / laptop / tablet, has removed all barriers to throwing an album on while I cook or work from home. After ripping my 30 year CD collection and consolidating all my ROIOs and "other" digital files, I apparently have 4808 albums to summon at the flick of a finger. Sure I slsk a lot of music I'm curious to check out, but very often follow good leads with a purchase and a tip - I've spent more on music in the last 2 years than in the 5 before that I'd estimate. I've discovered so much new stuff and regained my appetite for pushing my boundaries, and I'm very grateful to the ilx massive whose tastes outstrip mine in all directions but who make sublime recommendations. Following Philip Sherburne on the bird platform has been fantastic for recommendations too.

the big CD-centered store where I live (college town, 150K) closed a couple years back, but 2 of the 4 remaining stores have extensive used CD stock, plus all the thrifts have 'em

Jealous!

I'm guessing by the time Covid is settled enough to safely travel, and I can get to NY or Portland or SF again, the big shops will hardly stock CDs anymore. Or maybe the "CD Revival" will be real and Gen Z'ers will up demand...

If I ever make it to Japan to visit my cousin who lives in Tokyo, I'll have to assume half of my time will be reserved for buying CDs.

scanner d., I was in Neptoon today & they had a solid if uninspiring selection of used CDs. Prices were $7 and up which feels a bit steep but they must know what they’re doing. Huge classical CD selection which I didn’t have time to dig into.

thank you, will check them out!
did you happen to notice if they had a decent electronic selection?
it's hard enough to find used cds now but electronic sections seem to be shrinking at an even greater rate