[saintsebastien1]

So guys, I was just wondering how long you all think it will be until CDs are officially the next dead form of Music storage (Following cassette tapes and vinyl)?

As now we're in the year 2013, and most of the new younger generation get their music by buying iTunes downloads (Some still buy CDs in shops) will we CDs facing a death and becoming obsolete soon?

[saintsebastien1]

Just thinking back to years ago when I really wanted a new form of Music. For example, when Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake came out in 2002, I really wanted the single (Yes, single) of it to listen to on my boombox, so I recall going to Woolworths and choosing the single on cassette format rather than CD as the CD was dearer (£3.99 or something! )

Now these days, you can pick up a whole album for around the same price, if not less! It's quite surprising at first when I saw Justin Timberlake's Justified album for a quid in my local CeX a few weeks ago

[gpk]

Originally Posted by saintsebastien1

Just thinking back to years ago when I really wanted a new form of Music. For example, when Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake came out in 2002, I really wanted the single (Yes, single) of it to listen to on my boombox, so I recall going to Woolworths and choosing the single on cassette format rather than CD as the CD was dearer (£3.99 or something! )

Now these days, you can pick up a whole album for around the same price, if not less! It's quite surprising at first when I saw Justin Timberlake's Justified album for a quid in my local CeX a few weeks ago

i picked up his second album for a quid in poundland last year, because i lost my original cd.

[StratusSphere]

I think CDs will stick around for a while yet for the older generations at least, they have more purchasing power and will pay more for CDs because its what theyre used to.

Vinyls still exist anyway. Tapes...lets not go there

[starfoxxx]

I'm only young but I like to buy cds, much prefer to own albums on a cd rather than just the mp3 files so i hope they don't die out anytime soon!

[shackfan]

Oh, a thread about cds dying out ......how bloody original. Search button not working op?
Cds will be around for a long time yet.

[nikproffitt]

Vinyl is most definitely not a dead form of media storage, I would say most new idie or rock albums have a vinyl format, if only for collectors.

[Woffy]

I gave my CD collection to charity a while back as it was taking up too much space and the cases are too fragile (and nothing worse than a broken case).

Having surround sound set up to my PC means massive benefit of mp3s over CD.

1. Don't have to constantly change CDs
2. Playlists etc
3. Easy to find albums quickly without bringing down a tower of CDs
4. No CD player taking up extra space

[Hav_mor91]

I still buy CD's i don't Download albums i have once or twice when i have been given a voucher but hard copy for me and i'm 21.

[davor]

CD's are lossless whereas MP3 is compressed music. The songs on iTunes are compressed and although the sound quality is decent (256 kbit/s), my cd's always sound better, fuller at 44.1 KHz on my dedicated £2000 CD player. The point is, MP3 music can't ever sound better than music from cd's. Thing is, people can't really hear the difference. Many for example can't hear if a bass line is missing in a compressed mp3 file and it doesn't make any difference to them.

[SexiRokStarr]

I always buy a CD rather than downloading it, however I do download songs because it's a lot easier. I just love having the physical CD with the artwork and the booklet and all.I'm 15 as well.

[Slojo]

Got to be CDs for me. I like to have something to show for my money so the whole CD package is great, plus the sound is better

And of course one of life's little delights is visiting someone and leafing through, and comenting on their CD collection

Cant really do that with MP3

[Glawster2002]

Originally Posted by saintsebastien1

So guys, I was just wondering how long you all think it will be until CDs are officially the next dead form of Music storage (Following cassette tapes and vinyl)?

As now we're in the year 2013, and most of the new younger generation get their music by buying iTunes downloads (Some still buy CDs in shops) will we CDs facing a death and becoming obsolete soon?

CDs still account for @ 70% of music sales in the UK so they won't be dying out any time soon.

Universal Music's digital boss: CD definitely not dead

[La_]

Digital downloads for me. Some of the artists I listen to are unsigned and release music through Bandcamp website; they're not available on CDs. I like hip hop; there are lots of free mixtapes around only available on download (e.g. Dizzee Rascal released two in 2012). And I don't have space to store CDs in my tiny flat.

Saying that, last music that I bought was on CDs. I got all three albums of the British rapper Blak Twang on CDs; for some reason the downloads were more expensive. I predict those will probably be my last ones.

[CLL Dodge]

Originally Posted by Woffy

I gave my CD collection to charity a while back...

Something you won't be able to do with your mp3 collection if you get bored of it.

[paperplanes_]

I like CDs. I don't buy them a lot, I usually get them as gifts for others

[FrankBT]

It might be dead for kids who only have a superficial or passing interest in music or the latest singing celeb and don't care about the audio quality. MP3 for the most part sounds like compressed cr*p. But for those whose muscial interests goes well beyond chart artists and who do care about what they are listening to, the CD will be around for years to come. Why would Amazon continue to happily sell CDs otherwise?

[gold2040]

Originally Posted by FrankBT

It might be dead for kids who only have a superficial or passing interest in music or the latest singing celeb and don't care about the audio quality. MP3 for the most part sounds like compressed cr*p.

Except there really is no discernible difference between a 320 MP3 and a CD

[starfoxxx]

yeah unless it's one of the really small 64 or 92bit mp3 files i can't tell the difference i rip my albums to the computer at mp3 256 and can't hear any difference from the cd.

[kramstan70]

I own lots of CD's and still buy CD's regularly, but I also have a premium subscription to Spotify, which means that I now hardly ever download tracks from itunes etc. The good thing about Spotify is that if I really like an album I will go out and buy the CD. At least that way I won't get it home and realise that there is only one or two decent tracks on it.

On the whole I don't find downloads very good value for money. In many cases you can still buy the CD for the same price as the download album from itunes and often if you pick up the CD album in the sales whether online or on the high street you can purchase it far cheaper than you can the download version. You can rip the CD to your hard drive if you want to, sell it if you get bored of it, donate it to charity, lend it to friends or family, use it as a coaster if particularly bad or even use it to scrape ice off the car windscreen in the winter! So you see there are multiple uses for the old CD- you can't do many of those things with an MP3.

I will agree that the sound quality of tracks purchased from itunes is pretty good and you won't find a discernible difference between the compressed format (recorded at a decent bitrate) and the lossless tracks on a CD unless you're an audiophile, although I'm still amazed how many people listen to MP3's at really low bit rates which sound bloody awful. The disposable nature of music these days I guess, when people just want to listen to the track immediately and don't really care too much about the quality. I think CD's will be around for a few years yet, although the death of high street retailers could certainly speed up their downfall!

[Glawster2002]

Originally Posted by kramstan70

The disposable nature of music these days I guess, when people just want to listen to the track immediately and don't really care too much about the quality. I think CD's will be around for a few years yet, although the death of high street retailers could certainly speed up their downfall!

CDs, like vinyl, will endure while there are musicians and music lovers who do genuinely care for music, how it is produced, and how it is listened to.

I can't imagine there will be many classical or Jazz fans who will be dumping their vinyl and CD collections in favour of downloads any time soon. The same is also true of most rock fans. But I think physical music sales will continue to fall off a cliff with the more mainstream genres, such as Pop and Urban.

[Eraserhead]

I can see CDs being just for collectors and audiophiles like vinyl is mostly these days. Most people seem happy to listen to mid-quality mp3s on tinny headphones on an iPod or smartphone. The way to listen to music now is on the move, portable and easy to access. It's a niche that CD and other physical media just can't keep pace with. I imagine that as bandwidth increases, particularly on phones, that downloading tracks to a disk will fall out of favour in place of streaming tracks from a cloud.

[mgvsmith]

Originally Posted by davor

CD's are lossless whereas MP3 is compressed music. The songs on iTunes are compressed and although the sound quality is decent (256 kbit/s), my cd's always sound better, fuller at 44.1 KHz on my dedicated £2000 CD player. The point is, MP3 music can't ever sound better than music from cd's. Thing is, people can't really hear the difference. Many for example can't hear if a bass line is missing in a compressed mp3 file and it doesn't make any difference to them.

It's a really good point that. Of course, many CD collectors rip flac files from their CD collections and now store them on streaming devices. As the devices for doing this become cheaper and more popular, then we may see the end of CDs.

[davor]

Originally Posted by mgvsmith

It's a really good point that. Of course, many CD collectors rip flac files from their CD collections and now store them on streaming devices. As the devices for doing this become cheaper and more popular, then we may see the end of CDs.

Olive 4HD is a great streaming and CD player. Having said that, it;s not as perfect as a CD player. Same goes for FLAC. Not all FLAC encoders would rip a perfect FLAC. The more important thing, what are you going to do with all the music you have stored on your streaming devices hard drive once the hard drive is worn out and can not be used anymore? You would have to either buy a new streaming device ( rather expensive if you are buying a quality one, over £800 the cheapest), or you could buy a new hard drive and install it yourself. Not many people know how to replace a hard drive. Another thing saving your music from your old hard drive before copying it onto a new one. I've lost so many files that I had stored onto external hard drives simply because when they broke, not all the files were readable.

I have some CD's on the other hand bought back in the late 80's and early 90's and they are still playable and have a wonderful sound.


I'm not against the streaming devices, but in my opinion they are not a reliable way of storing music.

[Metal Mickey]

The thing is, that it won't be the public that decides, except indirectly. Cassettes didn't die when they did because people stopped buying them, it was because shops stopped selling them, which isn't quite the same thing...

With virtually nowhere on the High Street selling CDs now, power has shifted to the online outlets, dominated by Amazon, and one day, probably sooner than we think, they'll start telling the labels that they don't want the CD version of any given album, and will go download only... without Amazon, there'll be hardly any point going to the expense of pressing CDs at all, and a download-only paradigm will be on us, like it or not...

What'll be interesting will be to see who the first major artist to do it will be... my money's on a teeny act like 1D or Bieber...