Book sales also skyrocketed, but for the wrong reasons.
AI datacenters are buying them up and destroying them for data. Chances are they’re doing this with CDs too.
I get the vinyl nostalgia because people like the imperfect recordings but not so much CDs.
Just saying…you can still checkout CDs from the library and rip them to digital.
Which is fine if you’re trying to still get the artist paid somewhat indirectly, but… It’s easier to just download it. Heck, most of the big guys let you download the FLAC without any login if you use the SpotiFlac tool.
One up and coming artist that was new enough to still answer mail, told me they didnt have a cd… this was after cds fell from favor. I ripped the songs from some service and sent them a check for $15 to theit fan mail address. They actually cashed it.
An ownership boom*
People are tired of being upcharged on rentals. Because any digital “purchase” is a rental with no consumer protections.
Not to mention, the secondary market is way cheaper than the storefront. Grab a few CDs for $5 vs pay $5 per track or $15 per month. Simple math honestly.
Support your local shops everyone.
A few CDs for $5? I wish. In my area, the local CD shop was around $9 for individual CDs. I mean, I am willing to pay if it keeps them open, though. And despite thrift stores being cheaper, it’s almost always extremely hit or miss to find anything I’d want.
REMINDER: CDs degrade over time and eventually become unreadable.
- Burned CD-R’s can last as little as 5-10 years(!)
- CD-RW discs generally last 20–50 years
- Factory-pressed CDs generally last 50 years
Rip your disks to your permanent HDD storage, which ofc should be on a RAID mirror and backed up regularly. Always store a copy in a separate location in case of fire/flood/etc.
I LOVE YOU AND WANT YOU TO OWN YOUR DATA FOREVER!
Depending how you handle them, it doesn’t take much to scratch a cd
A surprisingly small quirt of cat urine left undiscovered on a pile of exposed disks for a few days can render them unusable. Ask me how I know…
Thank you for doing the lord’s work.
I love that physical media is getting new life, but CDs are not archival in nature. It’s a drastically different problem from not owning anything, but I don’t want unreadable CDs to push people back to streaming.
I’ll also mention that a major benefit of vinyl records – despite cracks and pops and quality turntables being generally expensive – is that they are so dirt simple as to be effectively immune from similar issues. Not trying to sway opinions at all, but as physical media goes, it still exists for a reason.
Personally, I have both CDs and vinyl. And tapes!
vinyl records
… and ofc gold is not tractable for consumer-priced devices, but there’s a very good reason the very best minds at NASA listened to Carl Sagan and added this to Voyager
I love you for providing this information that helps us own our data forever! 💖💖💖
I have my original CD-RW.
I’ve saved a copy (HDD) of all my library onto an external hard drive that I’ve lost in the move.
I have a second copy on my PC (SSD) that I have operational.
Then my old laptop (HDD) has my original library and thats lost somewhere at my parents home (remote location)
Am I doing this right!??
Oh big edit immediately: I LOVE YOU TOO AND ALL MY OTHER LOVELY LEMMY FRIENDS
I’ll recommend one more tool I use for off site backup: iBroadcast
I already have a NAS, my original discs / records, and Plex running Plexamp for music streaming, but iBroadcast has been my music locker for streaming / storing in case my home system goes down. You can re-download Your original music and keep the quality (FLAC) so nothing is lost.
Free accounts (which I use) have unlimited upload space but You are limited to 128kbs for streaming. If you pay their monthly (or annual) subscription, you can stream full quality. So it depends on what you want to use them for.
Hope this helps someone!! :)
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We actually own the discs
I always find it funny how companies like Spotify talk about “Lossless audio” and “Maximum quality”, but if you look at the numbers, they really just mean “The same quality you used to get on a CD 25 years ago, and if you don’t pay for the most expensive plan, CDs are going to be better.”
25 years ago
Nearly 44, actually.
Imagine spending MONEY on CDs when you could bolster the numbers of your local library instead
Local town library -> interlibrary loan -> hard-to-find CD -> rip to my HDD -> return to local town library
Literally how I got half of my music library
I’ve been buying them since the 90’s. Those old CDs still work too.
Main problem now is that many artists don’t release CDs anymore.
Or when they do they have some arcane copy protection that fucks up the file if you try and make mp3s.
That squeaky sound is from resellers rubbing their greasy hands.
Any good websites you all enjoy getting physical media at? Ive picked clean the thrift stores around where im at.
My wife likes to go to antique stores and they always have a ton of CDs. We were in one yesterday and joked with each other about how we don’t even own a way to play optical media any more. Fortunately they also had a shelf full of old CD players. Unfortunately we live in a van and space is at a premium so owning a CD player isn’t an option for us at the moment.
It’s not physical, but band camp allows you to download your bought music in flac and mp3 and you could rip the files to a cd or just put it on a hard-drive.
One of the best parts about that site is when the artist releases their album not only digitally, but in a limited physical release as well. It’s how I got my Specters CD album from nostraightanswer.
Yeah but I like having the physical media too. Covers and such. I like bandcamp too.
Try libraries. Borrow the disc and rip it to a hard drive.
doing my part
