I was out with a girl the other day and I was telling her about the money that I spend on CDs monthly. It's a line item in my budget.
Building my CD collection is a concerted effort right now which involves buying and digitizing all of them so that I can actually carry them with me. SD cards make magic possible like carrying around a current (and needing an update of about 400 songs this month) 12,418 songs.
But my point is this. She asked me incredulously, "You still buy CDs?" And yeah. I do.
We are at a magical inflection point in CDs right now. They're still being made regularly, and look like they will survive for another 5 years at least. Not to sound like a snob, but they sound way better because there's much less compression. Though DRC will still fuck up your day. But, because of the change in consumer preferences, MP3s are the default purchase medium for most popular music. Moreover, people are getting rid of their CDs at secondhand shops all over the place. I have a V-Stock and an F.Y.E. within 10 minutes of my house and picking up CDs which are over two years old has become a 5 dollar endeavor. It's excellent.
The best part is that these CDs are secondhand, but there's no real difference to me. Everyone is getting rid of their CDs as they move on to the next medium. There was a point in time where all those vinyls that people are collecting and going crazy for were being thrown away en masse to make room for tapes and then CDs. That time for CDs is now and it's awesome. The market is flooded and access has never been better. But there's a big difference. Vinyl will always sound like vinyl. You don't get a digital rip out of it, even if you rip it, it still sounds like you ripped an MP3 from a vinyl. Which is fine if you like all that. But CDs are made of better versions of MP3s. You literally get both as long as you have a way to rip the CD. You can even do it in a lossless format to create better MP3s for yourself!
Why I think we're at an inflection point is this. That's a new copy of a Veruca Salt CD from 1997, which you should own. It costs 4.99 on Amazon and will be at your house in two days. You can look at the liner notes, see pictures of the band, put the CD in your car (if your car has a CD player of course), and just rip it onto the computer for free. And if you wanted to, you could go and sell that CD for a couple bucks at the local place. You'll still have the MP3s, though this technically does make you a career criminal since those MP3s were only for backup right?
Or, you can pay $1 MORE, and get only the music, in a shitty compressed MP3 format. Even better, a lot of Amazon CDs are coming with something inconspicuously marked with "Auto-Rip." You buy the CD, and then all of the MP3s are downloaded into your Amazon music profile to be listened to immediately. They don't expire. You just have them. Adele's 25 $10.99 for MP3. $9.99 for CD with AutoRip. What the fuck markets?
Another fun way to commit crimes is to go to your local library. Is your 1970s MP3 collection weak? Don't worry, Dark Side of the Moon is at the library waiting to be ripped to your computer. Do you think Pink Floyd gives a shit? I don't. There's a ton of music there just waiting to be listened to.
I used to rip CDs from my local library all the time. One time I accidentally ordered an LP from another library. I didn't even know you could do that still...
Plus, according to that NYT article based on a Study from 2014 it is a way to enlighten your children, and I will expand a bit by saying, a way to delight any one coming to your house.
This discussion reminds me of a radio commercial I hear sometimes, for a local record store : <fire alarm in background> First dude: "C'mon Anton, we need to get out of here - can't you hear the fire alarm?" Anton: "Nah, I'm not listening to this tinny shit, man - I'm waiting for the vinyl". Dude: "Vinyl? What vinyl? What?" Anton: "I've pre-ordered the Distress Records 'Assorted Alarms and Sirens, Volume 2', on 180-gram red vinyl. THAT, my friend, is the way to listen to an alarm". Announcer: "If it's vinyl or nothing for you, head on down to ..."
So basically MP3 music is over priced. A problem I think described by my economics lecturer as one of price discrimination - how can you charge in a market different prices in a market to different groups based on their utility assessment of the good. Essentially there are a number of different segments out there with different supply and demand curves. One group could be the market that missed out on the Napster generation who seem quite happy to spend over CD level prices on MP3 music, because they see it as more convenient to carry with them and have never questioned just how cheaply MP3 music can be distributed. Then there is another segment that experienced services like Napster and similar, which gave access to almost all recorded music including some genre's and artists you would never otherwise pick up because the marginal cost of hearing a different track or album to your regular favourites is zero. For this group there are high fidelity streaming services that include the ability to store your music offline if needed and the price compared to CDs if you "consume" a lot of a wide range of music is much lower. (and fortunately for me no artist I care about has boycotted any streaming service yet) And another group where physical ownership is important - like keeping favourite books on a bookshelf to tell a story of who you are and what you are interested in. There is something for everyone basically. Gotta love the free market.
I miss Napster. I came up into music when Napster was peaking and it was excellent. But what really blew up my music collection at first was iTunes' sharing client in a dorm in college. I went to Mizzou for a semester before dropping out, but was a student in the Journalism school while I was there. Everyone had to have a Mac computer in the J-School so we all had iTunes. Within about 15 minutes of setting up my computer on the dorm LAN I realized that I could stream whatever the hell I wanted from all of the connected iTunes profiles. A quick google search found that Apple had not programmed a way to download this songs directly, but that's okay, because someone else had. It was called 1.2.OhMyGod.SwingClient. It was excellent because at a time when most people had dial-up I had LAN access to a library of a jillion songs. So, of course, I deleted all of those as soon as I realized how ethically dubious and criminal I was being.
This is why I haven't bought any music in ages. I listen to the same stuff I've had for ages, and I likely won't be buying music until the price is appropriate. Video games are being sold for $5. Music should sell for much less.Or, you can pay $1 MORE, and get only the music, in a shitty compressed MP3 format.
I recently purchased a physical CD because of this discrepancy, turns out that the MP3 version was the "digital deluxe" version with 4 more songs. Ended up buying the album twice because of that. (I really only care about the mp3 versions tbh).You just have them. Adele's 25 $10.99 for MP3. $9.99 for CD with AutoRip. What the fuck markets?