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This take seems very slanted towards new CD sales. I listen to a lot of underground music (namely black metal, hip-hop, and the like), and not only are CD's se
by z3c0 5y ago
This take seems very slanted towards new CD sales.
I listen to a lot of underground music (namely black metal, hip-hop, and the like), and not only are CD's selling out regularly, so are cassettes. Once they've sold out, they hit Discogs and Ebay at severe markups that people are happy to pay. Several CD's that I've bought in the past few years have compounded many times over in value, as the supply can be very limited but the demand isn't diminishing. The spread on my collection per Discogs ranges from $800-$2500. That lower bound has been continuous, but I saw the upper bound increase by $1000 in just the past two years.
It's also not uncommon for me to go hunting for CD's that originally sold in the 80/90/00's, so as to get around "re-masters" that undo the lo-fi sound underground music fans enjoy so much. I doubt my copy of The Cramps' first compilation* is going to reflect in last year's CD sales.
I'm aware that this is a niche interest, but it's a growing niche. There are a few subreddits that I've followed in the past (/r/CDCollectors and /r/CDKvlt), and in my time there, I saw those groups grow considerably.
There IS a CD Revival, if you look in the right place.
- softwarebeware 5y ago> This take seems very slanted towards new CD sales. Yeah, because the articles that it's commenting on are about the supposed "increase in sales" of CDs this past year. Which only includes releases in 2021.
- Tao332 5y ago> Once they've sold out, they hit Discogs and Ebay at severe markups that people are happy to pay. No one is happy to pay a scalper.
- thisisjasononhn 5y agoI'm not happy paying scalpers, but I WILL pay a Discogs merchant to sell me specific region-locked media (for example, Japan-only releases which often feature special remasters, or often bonus tracks and extra media). The cost of buying from them is often the same or slightly above paying through the real site (plus translation headaches), and cost of a reshipper.
- aidenn0 5y ago> It's also not uncommon for me to go hunting for CD's that originally sold in the 80/90/00's, so as to get around "re-masters" that undo the lo-fi sound underground music fans enjoy so much. I doubt my copy of The Cramps' first compilation* is going to reflect in last year's CD sales. I'm into pop and rock, but it's not uncommon for me to go hunting for CD's that originally sold before 1996 or so to get around "re-masters" that compress the life out of the music and undo the hi-fi sound that I enjoy so much.