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My personal pet theory: CDs were kind of like an in-between format between vinyls (nice and feel good, but inconvenient and not as mobile) and hard digital stor

My personal pet theory: CDs were kind of like an in-between format between vinyls (nice and feel good, but inconvenient and not as mobile) and hard digital storage/streaming (zero feeling, because it is just digital files on your storage device or streamed to you, but super convenient on the go). Until we all got devices that became able to stream music or upload music to it, CD addressed the mobility problem. But streaming/file storage is definitely a way more mobile and convenient solution than CDs in every way. With a more convenient option such as streaming, all the benefits that CD provided over vinyl became meaningless, as streaming/file storage beat it in every aspect. But vinyl still stayed, as it provides something that neither CDs nor streaming/digital file storage can provide. So as CDs got wiped as a medium, vinyl rose back. I have observed a similar situation in a completely different industry too. More specifically, with book stores. Before big bookstore chains, we had a lot of independent small book stores (following my earlier analogy, the vinyl). Big chain book stores started appearing and dominating, such as Barnes&Noble (the CD), squeezing out smaller independent book stores. Then came Amazon (the streaming/digital file storage, still following my earlier analogy with music), wiped the floor with the in-betweener medium (Barnes&Noble), and the number of small independent book stores (vinyl) has increased over that entire time period as the in-betweener got wiped. For specific numbers, the number of small independent book stores in the US has increased by about 50% over the past decade (from around 1,600 to 2,500)[0]. Unlike with the in-betweener formats, the original ones will always have something to provide that the future iteration of a "more advanced format" (CD=>streaming) won't be able to provide. And with this in mind, I am happy, as it indicates that physical books and vinyls will be here to stay (albeit not for mainstream usage, but as personal preference pieces for enthusiasts). This isn't some hard rule that is guaranteed to be the case forever, but the current numbers and observations seem to support the idea that this trend will likely last for quite a long time, beyond lifetimes of people currently alive. That's just a pure guess based on the gut feeling. 0. https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2020/02/12/how-indie-bookstores-beat-amazon-at-the-bookselling-game-lessons-here-for-every-retailer/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2020/02/12/how-indi...

dTal 5y ago
>all the benefits that CD provided over vinyl became meaningless, as streaming/file storage beat it in every aspect The sound quality of CDs is superior to any stream. But alas, "worse is better".
- ubercow13 5y ago
  Apple Music actually streams above CD quality now, some of their lossless streams have higher bit depth or sample rate than CD [1]. [1] https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT212183 https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT212183
allturtles 5y ago
Vinyl was actually (mostly) killed by cassette tapes, then CDs replaced those because of greater fidelity and instant seek times.[0] Though it really took the emergence of writable CDs to totally kill cassettes, since you couldn't replace the 'mix tape' use case until then. 0. https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/annual-recorded-music-sales-by-format-from-1973-2015-and-what-that-tells-us-about-the-limitations-of-gdp-accounting/ https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/annual-recorded-music-sales-b...
- throwawayboise 5y ago
  No, cassette audio quality is noticably inferior to vinyl. They had a strength in convenience/mobility. The original Walkman mobile music player was a cassette player. Cassette players were popular in cars, and portable "boom boxes." Most people I knew bought their music on vinyl and made cassette copies or mix tapes to play in their car or otherwise on the go. Cassettes did not seriously threaten vinyl sales at least not that I remember. The vinyl killer was the CD.
  - allturtles 5y ago
    Just look at the data I posted above. Cassette sales were replacing vinyl well before cd sales took off.
    - throwawayboise 5y ago
      Well I find it surprising. I was at the height of my music-buying as a teen and young adult in the 1980s/1990s and I never bought music on cassette, nor did any of my friends. We bought vinyl, made our own cassettes for the car, and switched to CD when that format came out.
  - anyfoo 5y ago
    With the right tape deck and the right tape formulation, cassettes could get incredibly good, with SNRs over 60dB. Not bad at all considering that vinyl also degraded much faster from playing than tape did. It's just that a lot of people had cheap tape decks and even cheaper tapes, hence the bad reputation nowadays.
Phrodo_00 5y ago
CDs still sound better than vinyl, but I'm a sucker for that big cover art and like the ceremony of records so I have a small record collection.
- garciasn 5y ago
  This is why I got into vinyl; I love the art. I have streaming available in every room via Alexa devices but I do enjoy the experience of vinyl when I’m being intentional about my music listening. Between the art and the tactile experience vinyl requires, I like it for active vs passive listening.
- MBlume 5y ago
  I'm honestly really annoyed that streaming doesn't have a better cover art story. Like, it seems like it should be such an easy thing to arrange it so if I'm listening to an album I can see the album cover in high resolution and full screen on my device, and afaict Spotify doesn't offer this at all.
  - JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
    If any Tesla engineer is reading this please change it in the Tesla. I want the road on one side of the screen and a big huge cover art of what I'm listening to on the other side, big enough for everyone in the car to see as we drive. It's a huge missed opportunity. Right now we get a tiny postage stamp of the cover art and a meaningless track list in text. https://i.redd.it/vcp3nr7ibje21.jpg https://i.redd.it/vcp3nr7ibje21.jpg This is an abomination.
- worrycue 5y ago
  So you are really just buying the cover art.
  - xeromal 5y ago
    There's something about using Vinyl that's unique among the physical media. I abandoned all physical media early on, I'm thinking like early early 2000s, but the past few years I've been collecting Vinyls. I find it soothing to throw on a record and eat dinner or put together some legos. I can't explain it and I don't think its better in any way other than the comfort it provides me. lol
wavefunction 5y ago
I think it's just that CDs were the preferred format for mass consumption over tapes, previously before tapes 4-tracks and back to vinyl when vinyl was the only option. Now streaming serves the purposes of most people for casual listening while vinyl represents what it always has to the niche.

dTal 5y ago

>all the benefits that CD provided over vinyl became meaningless, as streaming/file storage beat it in every aspect The sound quality of CDs is superior to any stream. But alas, "worse is better".

ubercow13 5y ago
Apple Music actually streams above CD quality now, some of their lossless streams have higher bit depth or sample rate than CD [1]. [1] https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT212183 https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT212183

allturtles 5y ago

Vinyl was actually (mostly) killed by cassette tapes, then CDs replaced those because of greater fidelity and instant seek times.[0] Though it really took the emergence of writable CDs to totally kill cassettes, since you couldn't replace the 'mix tape' use case until then. 0. https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/annual-recorded-music-sales-by-format-from-1973-2015-and-what-that-tells-us-about-the-limitations-of-gdp-accounting/ https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/annual-recorded-music-sales-b...

throwawayboise 5y ago
No, cassette audio quality is noticably inferior to vinyl. They had a strength in convenience/mobility. The original Walkman mobile music player was a cassette player. Cassette players were popular in cars, and portable "boom boxes." Most people I knew bought their music on vinyl and made cassette copies or mix tapes to play in their car or otherwise on the go. Cassettes did not seriously threaten vinyl sales at least not that I remember. The vinyl killer was the CD.
- allturtles 5y ago
  Just look at the data I posted above. Cassette sales were replacing vinyl well before cd sales took off.
  - throwawayboise 5y ago
    Well I find it surprising. I was at the height of my music-buying as a teen and young adult in the 1980s/1990s and I never bought music on cassette, nor did any of my friends. We bought vinyl, made our own cassettes for the car, and switched to CD when that format came out.
- anyfoo 5y ago
  With the right tape deck and the right tape formulation, cassettes could get incredibly good, with SNRs over 60dB. Not bad at all considering that vinyl also degraded much faster from playing than tape did. It's just that a lot of people had cheap tape decks and even cheaper tapes, hence the bad reputation nowadays.

Phrodo_00 5y ago

CDs still sound better than vinyl, but I'm a sucker for that big cover art and like the ceremony of records so I have a small record collection.

garciasn 5y ago
This is why I got into vinyl; I love the art. I have streaming available in every room via Alexa devices but I do enjoy the experience of vinyl when I’m being intentional about my music listening. Between the art and the tactile experience vinyl requires, I like it for active vs passive listening.
MBlume 5y ago
I'm honestly really annoyed that streaming doesn't have a better cover art story. Like, it seems like it should be such an easy thing to arrange it so if I'm listening to an album I can see the album cover in high resolution and full screen on my device, and afaict Spotify doesn't offer this at all.
- JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
  If any Tesla engineer is reading this please change it in the Tesla. I want the road on one side of the screen and a big huge cover art of what I'm listening to on the other side, big enough for everyone in the car to see as we drive. It's a huge missed opportunity. Right now we get a tiny postage stamp of the cover art and a meaningless track list in text. https://i.redd.it/vcp3nr7ibje21.jpg https://i.redd.it/vcp3nr7ibje21.jpg This is an abomination.
worrycue 5y ago
So you are really just buying the cover art.
- xeromal 5y ago
  There's something about using Vinyl that's unique among the physical media. I abandoned all physical media early on, I'm thinking like early early 2000s, but the past few years I've been collecting Vinyls. I find it soothing to throw on a record and eat dinner or put together some legos. I can't explain it and I don't think its better in any way other than the comfort it provides me. lol

wavefunction 5y ago

I think it's just that CDs were the preferred format for mass consumption over tapes, previously before tapes 4-tracks and back to vinyl when vinyl was the only option. Now streaming serves the purposes of most people for casual listening while vinyl represents what it always has to the niche.