Back to CDs and iPods-article in Grauniad

[hornucopia]

Article on streaming and personal interest.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/27/theres-endless-choice-but-youre-not-listening-fans-quitting-spotify-to-save-their-love-of-music?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

[Pete The Cat]

It's the circle of life.

My daughter has been buying CDs for the past couple of years (it's interesting to see how how '90s shoegaze is "in" with her peer group).

Like bookshelves, records and CDs add flavour to a home. If I'm round at someone's house it gives me great pleasure to scan them. I'd never ask to look at someone's Spotify playlists or hard drive.

Pete

[struth]

a good chunk of my cds are in boxes now as ive no room for them. same with my dvds and vinyl. i mostly stream but its mostly my own stuff. some qobuz too. same with streaming films.. most are streamed but again my own, except for 4k and bluray which i use the discs as you really cant better the quality of picture on them.

[walpurgis]

The observation that steamed music tracks/artists can be dismissed on first listen and the user then moves on is true I think. As was suggested, it can take a few plays before albums grow on you! (and I don't mean like Athlete's Foot :))

[struth]

The observation that steamed music tracks/artists can be dismissed on first listen and the user then moves on is true I think. As was suggested, it can take a few plays before albums grow on you! (and I don't mean like Athlete's Foot :))

of course that can be a good thing too ;)
i love running my music this way, although if i was fitter i would still use vinyl too

[AJSki2fly]

Using a streaming is good IMHO in several instances:-

1. You are out and about and want to just hear music, a bit like radio in a car or as background music, just select a genre that you like or go random play, or pick a playlist.

2. If you are serious about music then streaming from a hi-res source can be rewarding in terms of SQ, and if you want to listen to new music before purchasing then this can be good.

3. If you have a mindset where you are interested in styles of music or particular artists and enjoy listening to a collection from a band or individual then streaming can replace an LP, CD or other media collection. But this can breakdown if the temptation to just surf music takes over, much as the article talks about.

I personally have been streaming music for over 5 years, I have tried all the above, and still tend to use physical media, vinyl or CD, I seem to focus on it more when I do.

I do option 2 if someone or an article recommends an album. I sometimes do option 1 at home but that is really only with the Roon radio player where it selects music similar to what I have listened to, which is generally good. I have tried various recommended playlists on Qobuz, Tidal and others and too often find myself just skipping tracks I find irritating or poor, so this rather defeats the object, so I have more or less given up on this type of listening. If I am in the car, it is either radio or I select music from my own collection.

[Pigmy Pony]

It's the circle of life.

My daughter has been buying CDs for the past couple of years (it's interesting to see how how '90s shoegaze is "in" with her peer group).

Like bookshelves, records and CDs add flavour to a home. If I'm round at someone's house it gives me great pleasure to scan them. I'd never ask to look at someone's Spotify playlists or hard drive.

Pete

Yes I do this a lot. if I'm at a customer's house it can be a good way to develop a rapport. And at my house all the records and CDs are on shelves, never put away in boxes, not even the embarrassing titles! It is strangely comforting having all my my music stuff around me.

And in response to Geoff's post: I almost always play my records and CDs in full - Even though the CD player has a remote I never use it. I just let the stuff play. And I'm sure that is how the artist intended for it to be heard.

If I were to start with the streaming I'm sure it would encourage me to 'track-hop'. God I'm such a dinosaur :eek:

[Barry]

I had a friend who thought it was de rigeur to play both sides of an LP, and was amazed to learn that I might only play one side, depending on my mood.

Despite that, I would have little patience with downloading and streaming, and would readily skip tracks. So I will stick with my physical collection of 2,000 LPs and over 2,500 CDs, even though they take up a lot of space and are stored all around the house.

[Lawrence001]

It's the circle of life.

My daughter has been buying CDs for the past couple of years (it's interesting to see how how '90s shoegaze is "in" with her peer group).

Like bookshelves, records and CDs add flavour to a home. If I'm round at someone's house it gives me great pleasure to scan them. I'd never ask to look at someone's Spotify playlists or hard drive.

PeteI'm very pleased to hear Shoegaze is getting the recognition it deserved, it was always a bit of a niche genre and it got blown away by grunge before it could really take off

[hornucopia]

Luckily, we have a basement (ex hifi room....sob...)where the CD collection abides
Just about to make (better) shelves for the circa 1500 CDs.
I've just bought a CD player, though the Blu-Ray sufficed.
Occasionally a burnt CD won'y play on the Mac, but will on a CD player.
Otherwise both iPods have huge capacity SSD drives for a lossless collection.

[Pete The Cat]

I back CD to survive. Some of the reports about vinyl sales exceeding CD sales seem to confuse value with units and you can get two or three new CDs for the price of one new vinyl LP. Manufacturers are still launching new models eg Marantz. I don't want to exhume the tired argument about merits of analogue versus digital but if the loudness wars are gradually receding then all of this means that CD again becomes an attractive format to folks who want some engagement with a collection and who can't afford the exhorbitant cost of vinyl.

Pete

[Macca]

CD sales now following vinyl in defying the bell curve:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/14/22976557/cd-sales-increase-2021-recording-industry-association-of-america

CD sales in the US for 2021 increased for the first time in almost two decades, according to data published by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Shipments rose from 31.6 million in 2020 to 46.6 million in 2021,

about 30 percent increase in one year. Could be a blip but it's a big blip. And they said that about vinyl and that's into it's 13th consecutive year of sales growth now.

[Macca]

They might be ugly and plasticky but portable CD players are back:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3trHhHSfX_o&t=456s

[Gazjam]

Nostalga aint what it used to be.

Cool gizmo, I like it.

[mikeyb]

I wonder how much of this is sponsored by the music industry. Ooh look the next best thing is.....

Vinyl, no wait it's cassettes, no no wait it's CDs, few years down the line it's vinyl, no wait it's cassettes, no no wait it's CDs.

[Barry]

I though everyone these days played music through their smartphones whilst 'on the move'.

[Lawrence001]

There's a retro thing going on, presumably due to influencers on Tik Tok and Instagram. My 13yo daughter recently asked for a digital camera and she wanted a couple of CDs for Christmas.

[Macca]

I wonder how much of this is sponsored by the music industry. Ooh look the next best thing is.....

Vinyl, no wait it's cassettes, no no wait it's CDs, few years down the line it's vinyl, no wait it's cassettes, no no wait it's CDs.

It was never cassettes. Although a lot of my listening used to be via cassette.

[Macca]

There's a retro thing going on, presumably due to influencers on Tik Tok and Instagram. My 13yo daughter recently asked for a digital camera and she wanted a couple of CDs for Christmas.

I think it's mostly due to Taylor Swift releasing CDs and LPs, that seems to have alerted the youth that physical formats exist - and are desirable.

[Pigmy Pony]

I think it's mostly due to Taylor Swift releasing CDs and LPs, that seems to have alerted the youth that physical formats exist - and are desirable.

I did read somewhere that she makes music, but every time I see her on telly she's busy posing for cameras on some red carpet or other.

[Barry]

It was never cassettes. Although a lot of my listening used to be via cassette.

I can't see cassettes making a comeback; but they were extremely popular in Africa and remained so, long after we in the UK stopped using them.

[Macca]

I did read somewhere that she makes music, but every time I see her on telly she's busy posing for cameras on some red carpet or other.

I've not even seen her do that. Someone played me one of her hit songs once, seemed a bit bland. That's about it.

[Macca]

I can't see cassettes making a comeback; but they were extremely popular in Africa and remained so, long after we in the UK stopped using them.

There has been a bit of a cassette revival. Look at the price of decks, used to be you could not give them away unless they were Naks or some other high end effort. Gone a bit like turntables did.

[Pigmy Pony]

There has been a bit of a cassette revival. Look at the price of decks, used to be you could not give them away unless they were Naks or some other high end effort. Gone a bit like turntables did.

Probably a hipster thing - they won't give a toss how crap something sounds as long as they think they look cool using it. I'll be keeping that stuff firmly in the past, along with Sunny D and Izal toilet paper.

[Barry]

I used to make compilation cassettes for the car, and sometimes would make tape copies of entire LPs. I probably have about a 100 of them somewhere.

Was never that impressed with pre-recorded cassettes. That might have been because only a few manufacturers adhered rigorously to the Philips Red Book specification. Sony and Nakamichi did, but although I used their machines, I never bought any pre-recorded titles; I preferred LPs.

[Macca]

I used to make compilation cassettes for the car, and sometimes would make tape copies of entire LPs. I probably have about a 100 of them somewhere.

Was never that impressed with pre-recorded cassettes. That might have been because only a few manufacturers adhered rigorously to the Philips Red Book specification. Sony and Nakamichi did, but although I used their machines, I never bought any pre-recorded titles; I preferred LPs.

I gave all mine away. And the deck, although it was only a cheapo Sony. A pal used to have a high end Technics he got cheap off his wealthy brother. I loved that deck, it sounded and looked really good.

[Barry]

My first cassette machine was a Sony. I forget the model, but it had large fluorescent bar-graph recording level indicators on the front panel. It was later replaced by a couple of Nakamichi machines, which I still have.

[Gazjam]

Still have my Dolby S Sony TCK611S

Needs a service to function again, think a belt swap would sort it.
Looked after it, heads in great condition.

No interest in going down the cassette playback route again, but may have my deck converted for FLAC playback, think its very cool.
… yup, that’s a thing you can do.

https://i.imgur.com/qXF8QpK_d.webp?maxwidth=1520&fidelity=grand



https://www.facebook.com/mp3tapelessdeck/?locale=en_GB

[The Black Adder]

CDs have never been away from my system. Cassettes have not really returned to the same degree. But, back in the 90s, cassettes were for the car, not for my main system.

The thing is, CDs and cassettes still sound just as good and better than Spotify. So what gives?

One thing I'm quite furious about is car manufacturers no longer giving customers an option for media playback.

They make billions in profit, and they don't even give an option. If I was in the market for a brand new car, I'd opt for a cd player.

My kids like Spotify, and so do in some respects, but I feel Spotify is killing listening to albums. My kids make playlists and hardly listen to full albums. When they play vinyl and cd, they like compilation albums.



Sent from my BBC Microcomputer 32K

[Macca]

CDs have never been away from my system. Cassettes have not really returned to the same degree. But, back in the 90s, cassettes were for the car, not for my main system.

The thing is, CDs and cassettes still sound just as good and better than Spotify. So what gives?

One thing I'm quite furious about is car manufacturers no longer giving customers an option for media playback.

They make billions in profit, and they don't even give an option. If I was in the market for a brand new car, I'd opt for a cd player.

My kids like Spotify, and so do in some respects, but I feel Spotify is killing listening to albums. My kids make playlists and hardly listen to full albums. When they play vinyl and cd, they like compilation albums.



Sent from my BBC Microcomputer 32K

You can always buy an aftermarket CD player for the car - just like in the 1990s - not expensive either:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/zilitol-505966-Interface-External-Android/dp/B09CL2SJFT/ref=asc_df_B09CL2SJFT?

I'd guess the car companies would offer an installed one as an option if there was sufficient market for it. Not that surprising that there isn't, and I doubt that will change.

[Pete The Cat]

I have a couple of cassette decks and a few hundred tapes that I'm slowly digitising, things like old John Peel programmes and concert broadcasts. I even bought a new cassette a few weeks ago, one of those grey releases of a Rush concert from the late '70s.

It's not uncommon for underground bands to release a limited edition cassette version of a new album and you occasionally find that a big name artist does it too.

However I think it's more gimmicky than a real revival. Cassette's advantage was portability and that's now trumped many times over by digital players. Plus there aren't as many advocates for cassette's sound quality as there are for records, eg nobody is saying 'hear it as the artist intended' about the cassette version. There are still plenty of manufacturers making CD players at all price points, rather fewer with cassette decks and they're fiddly things to fix compared with turntables.

CD is very much still with us. You can tell from the increase in second hand prices for certain artists/releases and masterings from certain periods.

[Barry]

You can always buy an aftermarket CD player for the car - just like in the 1990s - not expensive either:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/zilitol-505966-Interface-External-Android/dp/B09CL2SJFT/ref=asc_df_B09CL2SJFT?

I'd guess the car companies would offer an installed one as an option if there was sufficient market for it. Not that surprising that there isn't, and I doubt that will change.


My car, a 12 year old Audi, has a slot-loading CD player, as well as a digital radio on which I can store up to 10 presets.

The sound quality is quite acceptable whilst driving , but the radio reception can vary, depending on location, from being crystal clear to something incomprehensible buried in noise! :doh:

[Pigmy Pony]

Our eight year old Volvo has CD player and DAB radio. The sound is perfectly acceptable. While my nine year old Mercedes Vito has FM radio and a slot for SD card which I can't be arsed with. That's progress.