Continuing with CDs?

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

I did not. They have a small dedicated electronic section in vinyl, but it’s pretty shabby, frankly. The whole shop is shabby in a way, but that’s part of its charm.

buying a few more CDs here too - among other reasons, the postman actually puts them through my letterbox instead of leaving them outside on the doorstep all day long like he does with records

evidently I imagined a post from within the last week that just read "I'll be continuing with CDs" and it gave me so much lol and pleasure and now I can't seem to prove in any way that it existed. I must make it myself

I'll be continuing with CDs

For used electronic CDs, Audioplile is probably the best place to look, but even they don’t have very much.

I wonder if any genres of CD are being more held on to by aging nerds like me/us, vs. what has long since flooded the local Goodwill/trash dump, now that CDs apparently have no $ value?

And does that mean as Gen Z revives CDs, they'll only be discovering REM's 'Monster' and Green Day's 'Dookie' and the complete works of Cake?

I half wonder -- this is based on my various Amoeba dollar bin spelunkings as noted earlier -- if there'll be a random wave of people discovering/noticing 00s era semi-pro CDRs with Myspace addresses on them. Definitely a less captured era than some, especially since so many of those songs are now gone otherwise.

^^Numero Group is already investigating, might press to vinyl.

I wonder if any genres of CD are being more held on to by aging nerds like me/us, vs. what has long since flooded the local Goodwill/trash dump, now that CDs apparently have no $ value?

In the past 5 or 6 years, I've noticed that a lot of great jazz CD's could be had for dirt cheap. Not European "public domain" releases from questionable sources, I mean the original or remastered major label CD releases from the best known sources. Sadly, I think this has a lot to do with original audience for this music aging and dying off. This is especially true for earlier pre-WWII jazz, from the first recordings to the Swing Era.

Just to give one example, I recently got some triple disc and four CD sets that used to go for $40 or $60 a pop in the '00s. Got them all for less than a sawbuck after taxes.

Most of the CDs I want are still expensive

are the prices starting to shoot up for OG cassette copies of 70s/80s albums? i feel like suddenly what might've been $5 curios are now $20-$30

I would never buy old cassettes of albums. Even if you had one that was never opened, those things can lose so much fidelity in so many ways (and they never had "great" quality to begin with). They're charming novelties though.

There was a certain period of cassette manufacturing and music production that still holds up. Roughly 1980-1987 over-produced stuff like Duck Rock, Punch the Clock, Duke...that kind of thing, they sounds amazing on cassette.

cassettes are cool again - lot of bandcamp releases on cassettes

xp I would add better quality cassettes (like 'metal' or chromium dioxide cassettes) might hold up, and something like Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's "real-time" dubbing would help tremendously. Since cassettes of new albums probably have a much, MUCH lower production run nowadays, they could sound a lot better as there's no rush to crank out that many of them.

("real-time" dubbing would help with the sound quality, that is, not longevity)

At the start of the pandemic, I got in the habit of wiping the outside of every CD I buy with rubbing alcohol just out of fear of infection. Obviously we now know the odds of getting COVID from touching any mail that's been sitting in your mailbox is astronomical, but the practice made me realize how filthy the jewel case of a used CD can get. I've continued the practice, and apologies for the imagery, but it never ceases to gross me out when a paper towel scrap ends up looking like a used piece of toilet paper. Also strange is when it looks like it's been handled by a coal miner. Ick.

I always would buy a new jewel case when purchasing a used CD at Amoeba or wherever. Transfer that puppy first thing, sitting in the car.

the bummer is that jewel cases are unrecyclable by most urban facilities

It's a good point made above, that the CDs that you actually find in charity shops (at least here in the UK) are extremely generic.

I guess it mostly comes down to things that were popular in the 1990s and 2000s, and also a fair amount of 'landfill indie'. Examples would be:

Keane. The Corrs. Catatonia. The Thrills. The Darkness. Stereophonics. Late Madonna.

What would other names be?

In a way it all feels like a representation of the album landscape in the early days of ILM.

By extension, there's much that you *don't* typically find. Which does, in turn, suggest that CDs as such haven't lost all value; just a certain tranche of unwanted CDs have.

Roughly the same can, of course, be said about DVDs. The same period of Jennifer Aniston films is being given away, while Nouvelle Vague or Neo-Realism would never turn up in those racks.

I've found a lot of CD treasures at thrift stores because unlike record stores that sell used CDs, they don't tend to check them against Discogs and remove the rare ones to sell online. You can actually find something rare for $2. You just have to trawl through an ocean of crap.

charity shops up here usually are full of take that, spice girls, steps, robbie williams, dido, corrs and other big selling stuff to kids at the time and the rest is usually dance or pop music comps. I think they keep the good stuff for places like Glasgow so they can sell them in the actual music charity shops

as per the relevant thread over on SHF that i update with my weekly finds, i do pretty well re the random stuff in charity shops.
but there has been a drop in quality of finds in the last couple of years.
still, there are treats to be had.

You just have to trawl through an ocean of crap.

^^^ New board description.

Sometimes I do really well in thrift store CD shelves and can pick up 4 or 5, sometimes just one. Last couple months have been fruitless. My most-found discs lately are Natalie Merchant and Enya, both of which I actually don't mind musically but don't need to own them even at 99 cents.

The initial CD release of Enya's Shepherd Moons with the original Irish-language version of Book of Days on it is worth a few dollars.

I live in Berlin, Germany. Charity shops don't really exist here but there are a few second hand record/CD shops. I recently went to one CD shop only to find that quite a bit of its stock was on sale for €15-20 used. Maybe cashing in on the "revival".

The shop is called Silverdisc by the way, for those who are in Berlin. Near Schlesisches Tor.

In contrast, there is a shop in Wedding called Zee Dee which has decent pricing.

The shop is called Silverdisc by the way, for those who are in Berlin. Near Schlesisches Tor.

― Duke, Monday, 7 February 2022 23:39

Of course I'm not suggesting you go there. I'm suggesting you stay away, but just for info if you're curious.

€15-20 used

if they're Japanese CDs, sure

My most-found discs lately are Natalie Merchant and Enya, both of which I actually don't mind musically but don't need to own them even at 99 cents.

Continuing with SACDs?

I love SACD's, I wish Sony and Philips had miraculously invented and produced THAT in 1979 rather than a redbook CD.