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The demise of the music CD inevitable?

Hi,

Back on campus, my senior year. Everywhere I look, its all earbuds and cell phones streaming audio. None of my friends would even consider purchasing a CD! I as well almost completely stopped purchasing CD's now that I have lossless streaming from TIDAL. It seems that SQ is not an issue anymore for this generation, its content that is most important and there is no loss of it out there in the streaming world.
grm
hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5
1,611 posts
 
I suspect CD will be with us for a long time.  The format has been around for about 35 years and have, over that time, achieved such market penetration with "gazillions" of them in circulation world-wide that the silver devils and the machines that play them will be here for the foreseeable future.

Look at the renaissance that is happening with vinyl!  After all of the old "record" stores sold off their vinyl in the late eighties, early nineties, in favor of CD shelf space, I never foresaw the re-appearance of vinyl in stores but here we are.  Even Borders book stores carry some vinyl.  The last mall store I entered had a large vinyl display with records of most current major releases. It is a part of the cultural "retro movement" currently taking place in the West. The question that time will answer is whether it is a "fad" or a true re-emergence of vinyl.  The good news for the audiophile world is that vinyl will hopefully ignite a spark in younger listeners to care about sound quality and engage in the hobby we all so enjoy.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next 5-10 years.

vindanpar
58 posts
 

CD rot was happening a short time after cds came out but it was do to bad manufacturing facilities that were used by certain labels. Classical labels such as Hyperion and Pearl and one anomaly I had was a Pinnock DG cd.

However the overwhelming majority of my cds are fine and I continue to buy them. I am genuinely astonished that in 2016 so many new ones are available on the internet and that at least in the classical sector there are so many comprehensive reissues of artists long dead for whom I thought at this point the audience would be equally dead. Vinyl is for pop and I can't believe how bad the compression and lifelessness are on 'remastered' pop cds these days.

I'm stuck in the 20th century and always will be so I don't give a hoot and a holler about streaming. The only thing that annoys me is that discmans today are few and far between and break down in no time whatsoever. If they're not going to make them to work beyond a couple of weeks why make them at all.





vindanpar
58 posts
 

do=due, ugh

As to my point as on classical reissues it is gratifying to see so many great artists long gone and whose artistry can never be replaced still being appreciated by many younger people.

 

jafant's avatar
jafant
10,525 posts
 
Like Vinyl, the CD will never go away...
czarivey
4,494 posts
 
I’ve owned many digital discs as well including released in 80’s and still sell them online and at the store. Ones released in 80’s get the most return requests because they can’t be played on one’s player. I don’t sell CDs with marks or scratches, but still they skip and can’t be played on quite large number of CD players which means their life is over. I don’t care for what reason, but it’s over. My 80’s records still rock. A vs B or A-B or A><B whichever you prefer simple math shoves S to complex science ’bahind’. The reason why I refuse to sell imperfect CDs is again return requests due to the small scratch that claimed to be a culprit of not playing a specific song! 
Hey the long story short: Small scratch on CD can make certain players to skip. Small scratch on LP not even noticable and plays through with no surface noise at all. 
So forget the vinyl junkie terms, it's all real and it's all known very well about very very finite life of CD.


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