Do People Buy CD's Anymore?

[Sean]

I just realized this the other day but for the past 3-4 months, shopping at the Virgin Megastore near me, I haven't seen anyone buy a cd. It's really weird because I'm the only one purchasing cd's. I see people buy other stuff such as mp3 players at Virgin but not cd's. Are we seeing the final days of cd's? One of the largest record store chains in Southern California, Tower Records, closed all of its shops a few months ago. Was this due to sales?

I know that most teenagers these days don’t want to buy cd’s. They just want mp3’s and they would rather pay $10 for 15 songs as mp3’s than $15 for 10 songs on a pressed cd. Isn't that a shame. I go to parties with the younger crowd and all they do these days is set up a computer with a bunch of mp3’s and play off music off of that. There are no cd’s in site. People in their 20’s are kind of torn between cd’s and downloading mp3’s but a lot of them seem to lean more towards downloading because it’s cheaper. The people in their 30’s, like most of us in here, I believe are the last generation to wholeheartedly buy cd’s. Do you guys agree? Maybe 4-5 years life left for cd’s?!?

[randy]

It would really suck for the cd to go--with the number of times Ive lost music files and mp3's to crashes, etc, I would hate not to have a backup hard copy of some sort.

Then again--when Cds first came around I was one of the very last to give up on my vinyl!!!

And I always say--cd sales suck due to the lack of good product out there. True--its much better now than the dreadful void known as 1995-2003, but it is still lame out there compared to years past.

[popreactor]

I don't remeber the last time I bought a cd. The most of the music I like, I can't hardly get on CD here in Serbia.
And the problem with the new music is that you can get the new albums on the net before they arrive in the shops, so you don't even have to buy them.

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[birdmadgirl]

I only buy CDs from my very favorite bands. I want the songs, the art work, the little booklet thing with the lyrics. There are only about 10 bands that I care enough about to want to have these things, and those bands are the only ones that I feel like are going to give me $15-20 worth of music. I always hated spending $15-20 on a CD and getting 2 good songs and the rest was crap.

All other music is bought on iTunes on a song-by-song basis.

[MikeP]

[quote][i]Originally posted by birdmadgirl[/i]
<br>I only buy CDs from my very favorite bands. I want the songs, the art work, the little booklet thing with the lyrics. There are only about 10 bands that I care enough about to want to have these things, and those bands are the only ones that I feel like are going to give me $15-20 worth of music. I always hated spending $15-20 on a CD and getting 2 good songs and the rest was crap.

All other music is bought on iTunes on a song-by-song basis.
[/quote]
That about sums it up for me as well. I only buy new CDs when I can get 'em at a fair price -- say $12 or under and typically that's via Amazon or Ideal Copy. I save up trade-ins for the occasional trip to last bastion of west coast music stores, Amoeba Music and go on a used CD rampage, otherwise it's iTunes. Sorry, but after Tower's demise, my brick-and-mortar buying of new CD's pretty much came to an end. The nearest Virgin Megastore isn't close enough and they are probably in their death throes for all I know.

Regarding iTunes -- at first I was dubious about the quality of those 128kbps protected AAC files, but they sound good in headphones and I'm able to unlock them anyway. Here's hoping the new DRM-free higher quality songs from the EMI catalog are up to snuff.

Still, it's a bit sad to see CD's entering their twilight years. DVD's aren't too far behind either![:0]

[WolverineSyr]

I haven't bought a new cd for myself in maybe 5 years. I think it was Blondie's last album. They would be the one band that I would still consider buying a retail cd from - although after the last one, it would take a lot of convincing.

It's been mp3s all the way.

I think I would have a much harder time giving up dvds.

[rotator]

I buy vinyl and 'share' mp3s --no more cd's for me ---ever.

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[Synthpopfan]

I still buy cd`s. I would call it my one & only addiction. It would be sad to see cd`s disappear all together. Thank You

[KYYX4ever]

[quote][i]Originally posted by WolverineSyr[/i]
<br>I haven't bought a new cd for myself in maybe 5 years. I think it was Blondie's last album. They would be the one band that I would still consider buying a retail cd from - although after the last one, it would take a lot of convincing.

It's been mp3s all the way.

I think I would have a much harder time giving up dvds.
[/quote]
Me too, and echoing what BMG said, only from my very fave artists. I like to have their artwork, lyrics, etc. the last NEW CD I bought (I buy used CDs a lot) was 2004's Duran's [i]Astronaut[/i]. I will probably buy their new CD, whenever the heck that comes out. I stick to used CDs, and lots of mp3s.

I wouldn't have thought this about DVDs, though. What's taking their place ?

[MikeP]

[quote][i]Originally posted by KYYX4ever[/i]
I wouldn't have thought this about DVDs, though. What's taking their place ?
[/quote]
Well, to some degree the next gen video technologies HD-DVD and Blu Ray, however what I really see happening is the MP3-ization of video content with formats like MP4, where video content will be all be stored on a hard drive and streamed to your entertainment center, rather than popping in a DVD. This will take awhile though, and I don't see any reason to dump DVD's just yet.

[Sean]

For me, I just love buying cd's. There's just something about buying these little things that make my day. I know that I spend tons of money on it which I probably shouldn't but I believe people should spend on things that make them happy. Besides to survive, why else do you work to earn money anyways?

To me, an mp3 has no real value. It's just a file. Even downloading a song and paying money for it, I don't treasure it.

[Frau_Blucher]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Sean[/i]
<br>To me, an mp3 has no real value. It's just a file. Even downloading a song and paying money for it, I don't treasure it.
[/quote]
I wonder if that's why some people do actually put quite a lot effort in cataloging their music, making sure all have proper album covers, proper tagging, go search for exactly what year things were released, filing everything just so, etc. It's almost like we try to put as much artifice around these digitals files to make them as real as possible.

Agreed that I don't value "owning" an mp3 nearly as much as a CD (which the RIAA bastards will tell you you don't own in either case), but the more I've gone from having just the mp3s I want to listen to cataloging everything I want to have access too, the more value them as a "collection". Still nothing like walking out of Amoeba with a stack of cool used CDs. [:p]

[Bitter Almonds]

<p align="justify">Same as MikeP, except I don't buy mp3s of any kind. If it's on mp3, it better be free[}:)]

[Frau_Blucher]

[quote][i]Originally posted by MikeP[/i]
<br>Well, to some degree the next gen video technologies HD-DVD and Blu Ray, however what I really see happening is the MP3-ization of video content with formats like MP4, where video content will be all be stored on a hard drive and streamed to your entertainment center, rather than popping in a DVD. This will take awhile though, and I don't see any reason to dump DVD's just yet.
[/quote]
I'm actually a little worried about this. The first efforts to wirelessly or wiredly [sic?] port mp4 content to TVs have been pretty sketchy. Even looking at something as highly touted as Apple's iTV looks terrible on true HD - both compression artifacts and total size look WEAK. It's likely that for this to really work, all current content will have to be completely redone at higher rez and better compression. Plus, the market itself doesn't seem to fully appreciate the imperity of backing up these precious O's and I's - ack.

[randy]

To my previous post--yes--its USED cds I generally buy as well.