5 ms·

I used to have a large CD collection. I bought them and I sold them. I bought second-hand and new. It was fantastic. And then one day I moved overseas and one

I used to have a large CD collection. I bought them and I sold them. I bought second-hand and new. It was fantastic. And then one day I moved overseas and one of my CD boxes got lost in the mail. And then, some other day, the bottom box of my CD boxes that were temporarily stored in a basement got flooded and destroyed. Now I don't give a shit about CDs. I have unapologetically pirated the music from CDs that I used to own but got lost or destroyed, and for all my new music I bought it online and back up the digital files to the cloud. I'll never lose music I paid for again. CDs are legacy media for a reason. All other legacy digital media will follow it, except for the small group of people who fetishize it for nostalgic reasons. There is a tiny argument that still exists for buying legacy analog media - the "it sounds warmer" argument. But honestly, you could just pipe your digital files through a filter and get the same effect, so, meh.

chiefalchemist 4y ago
Were you listening to those CDs or eating them for breakfast?? It's a world 7B+ strong, there's room for everyone. Even those who like to appreciate holding a music medium in their hands. It's ok. You can move on.
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
  Is there, though?
criddell 4y ago
> There is a tiny argument that still exists for buying legacy analog media - the "it sounds warmer" argument. There are more arguments than that. For some people, it's all about collecting and community. For others, they love the large format artwork. I'm not playing analog media, but I still like the physical interaction part. Many of us also like that, for some artists, buying a record is a way of supporting them. Then there's the fact that playing a record or CD doesn't require an internet connection and that means nobody is tracking the records you play today in order to better sell things to you tomorrow. There's also the gear part - it's an excuse to put together a great audio setup. For those of us who still buy physical media, I don't think the "it sounds warmer" argument is terribly common. All of this stuff is fun. There's not a lot of joy in tapping "dylan blonde" into a search box and pressing play.
- alisonatwork 4y ago
  I completely understand the hobbyist appeal - it's the same reason why people still buy hard copy books and comics - but from the average consumer perspective there's no real reason to do it since you can easily buy the same or better quality tunes direct from digital distributors. Nowadays I most only buy music on Bandcamp, and if I want to throw more cash to the artist there are other venues like Patreon or even just a Paypal account where I can do that. Paying for physical media or merch is of course another indirect way to funnel money to the creators, but if getting money to the creator is the main goal, there are often more efficient ways to do it too.
  - iggldiggl 4y ago
    > the same or better quality [...] direct from digital distributors Not wanting to object fundamentally, as enough of my recent music purchases have indeed been digital downloads, however I'm still glad that at least for now CDs still exist and provide an alternative option: - Some digital releases have been somewhat mangled in a very minor (the mouse squeak at the end of 3:47 EST is missing) or somewhat more major (several live albums/albums with live content of Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series are missing the pre-gap material between the individual tracks) fashion. Okay, in the former case I've simply grabbed the squeak off a Youtube recording and edited it back on, but in the latter case just getting the CDs is the most sensible option. - Cover art beyond the front cover and liner notes are mostly missing. Okay, sometimes they're forgettable anyway and after all the music is the main thing, but sometimes it's still a bit of a shame to miss out on those things. In principle at least Apple/iTunes does have facilities for including a PDF booklet together with an album download, but in practice at least for the kind of music I'm interested in, encountering such a thing seems to be the exception rather than the norm. The Bootleg Series again is being a culprit here – personally I find the liner notes definitively interesting to read, but online you're getting none of that. (On the other hand kudos to whoever made sure to include the booklet for the Traveling Wilburys Collection on iTunes!) - Occasionally (not often, but definitively sometimes), the (new, not used!) CD turns out to cost noticeably less than the digital download. - Remasters are par for the course (though in some circles even those can provoke heated discussions about whether a certain remaster is really better or not), but with remixes the difference is more immediately noticeable even to someone like me. Sometimes remixes are being offered as an alternative version, and you can still buy the original version if you prefer that, but sometimes the remixed version is replacing the original albums. Online that means that subsequently piracy is your only choice of still obtaining the older mixes, whereas with CDs you've still got a chance on the second hand market. - Where live albums are mastered with a pre-gap between tracks, it turns out I sometimes (e.g. especially when there's some stage banter related to the upcoming song) prefer the pre-gap to be tacked onto the beginning of the next track instead of the end of the previous track as seems to be the usual standard. When ripping a CD myself I can easily adjust that, when buying a download less so. (Having the pre-gap at the start of a track does have the trade-off that the music doesn't start playing immediately, but on the other hand during shuffling it means that any preceding stage banter remains together with the track it belongs to, and personally I find the latter more important.) Though I guess you can classify some of those objections as somewhat "hobbyist", too… :-)

chiefalchemist 4y ago

Were you listening to those CDs or eating them for breakfast?? It's a world 7B+ strong, there's room for everyone. Even those who like to appreciate holding a music medium in their hands. It's ok. You can move on.

PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
Is there, though?

criddell 4y ago

> There is a tiny argument that still exists for buying legacy analog media - the "it sounds warmer" argument. There are more arguments than that. For some people, it's all about collecting and community. For others, they love the large format artwork. I'm not playing analog media, but I still like the physical interaction part. Many of us also like that, for some artists, buying a record is a way of supporting them. Then there's the fact that playing a record or CD doesn't require an internet connection and that means nobody is tracking the records you play today in order to better sell things to you tomorrow. There's also the gear part - it's an excuse to put together a great audio setup. For those of us who still buy physical media, I don't think the "it sounds warmer" argument is terribly common. All of this stuff is fun. There's not a lot of joy in tapping "dylan blonde" into a search box and pressing play.

alisonatwork 4y ago
I completely understand the hobbyist appeal - it's the same reason why people still buy hard copy books and comics - but from the average consumer perspective there's no real reason to do it since you can easily buy the same or better quality tunes direct from digital distributors. Nowadays I most only buy music on Bandcamp, and if I want to throw more cash to the artist there are other venues like Patreon or even just a Paypal account where I can do that. Paying for physical media or merch is of course another indirect way to funnel money to the creators, but if getting money to the creator is the main goal, there are often more efficient ways to do it too.
- iggldiggl 4y ago
  > the same or better quality [...] direct from digital distributors Not wanting to object fundamentally, as enough of my recent music purchases have indeed been digital downloads, however I'm still glad that at least for now CDs still exist and provide an alternative option: - Some digital releases have been somewhat mangled in a very minor (the mouse squeak at the end of 3:47 EST is missing) or somewhat more major (several live albums/albums with live content of Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series are missing the pre-gap material between the individual tracks) fashion. Okay, in the former case I've simply grabbed the squeak off a Youtube recording and edited it back on, but in the latter case just getting the CDs is the most sensible option. - Cover art beyond the front cover and liner notes are mostly missing. Okay, sometimes they're forgettable anyway and after all the music is the main thing, but sometimes it's still a bit of a shame to miss out on those things. In principle at least Apple/iTunes does have facilities for including a PDF booklet together with an album download, but in practice at least for the kind of music I'm interested in, encountering such a thing seems to be the exception rather than the norm. The Bootleg Series again is being a culprit here – personally I find the liner notes definitively interesting to read, but online you're getting none of that. (On the other hand kudos to whoever made sure to include the booklet for the Traveling Wilburys Collection on iTunes!) - Occasionally (not often, but definitively sometimes), the (new, not used!) CD turns out to cost noticeably less than the digital download. - Remasters are par for the course (though in some circles even those can provoke heated discussions about whether a certain remaster is really better or not), but with remixes the difference is more immediately noticeable even to someone like me. Sometimes remixes are being offered as an alternative version, and you can still buy the original version if you prefer that, but sometimes the remixed version is replacing the original albums. Online that means that subsequently piracy is your only choice of still obtaining the older mixes, whereas with CDs you've still got a chance on the second hand market. - Where live albums are mastered with a pre-gap between tracks, it turns out I sometimes (e.g. especially when there's some stage banter related to the upcoming song) prefer the pre-gap to be tacked onto the beginning of the next track instead of the end of the previous track as seems to be the usual standard. When ripping a CD myself I can easily adjust that, when buying a download less so. (Having the pre-gap at the start of a track does have the trade-off that the music doesn't start playing immediately, but on the other hand during shuffling it means that any preceding stage banter remains together with the track it belongs to, and personally I find the latter more important.) Though I guess you can classify some of those objections as somewhat "hobbyist", too… :-)