CD baby trashing physical CDs

[dazzjazz]

CD Baby are moving away from selling physical product to concentrate on being a digital aggregator. The still have ONE copy of my last album which unless I pay to ship it back here to Australia, will be thrown in the trash. 
 

Would be kinda cool if someone wanted it…I’m guessing there’s other forumites with the same issue. 
 

long live CDs!

[Ivan May]

I don't use CD Baby but I have had several friends who use that site. Hope ya recover that CD...

[D. Gauss]

welcome to the club....they threw away tons of mine.

[ProfD]

Inevitably, CDs will go the same way as vinyl, 8 track tape, cassette tape, etc. Technology accelerates obsolescence.

 

@dazzjazz, pay the shipping cost to retrieve your CD and put it up for safekeeping. 

 

Everyone else consider holding out for the CD renaissance when they might go from coaster to collector's item.😁😎

[Delaware Dave]

I'm ripping mine and moving the MP3's to my phone.  More convenient, still listen to CD's in my home but listen to the MP3's outside the home.

[CyberGene]

I don't see how CD-s are better than digital formats. Besides opening a case and reading the leaflet eventually. I fell for the vinyl craze and bought a turntable two years ago, borrowed my mom's huge collection of classical music vinyl from the past, also ordered new one. It was fun for a while but I haven't turned it on for a year now. It's so much easier to listen to Apple Music on the HomePod-s at home or my Mac at the office or iPhone through the AirPod-s on the go (and then continue from where I was when I step in my car through CarPlay). I guess in 30 years we may see some CD-revival where young hipsters would be interested in it and we will try to convince them the death of CD-s was for good but they won't listen to us 😀 

[bill5]

My old car which doesn't have MP3 ability is the only reason I bother with CDs at all. I ripped everything to my home system years ago. That said, there was something fun and satisfying about buying an album on CD or LP, having that physical thing, seeing the artwork, reading the liner notes, etc that is gone with MP3s. 

[ProfD]

3 hours ago, bill5 said:

That said, there was something fun and satisfying about buying an album on CD or LP, having that physical thing, seeing the artwork, reading the liner notes...

Sure. Leaving the record store with something tangible and/or digging through a record collection was a fun experience back in those days. 

 

Yet, beyond acetate and polycarbonate plastic, the most important thing in that sleeve or jewel box was the music.  Thankfully, we can preserve the content.

 

Nowadays, we can consume music a la carte.  No longer saddled with buying a whole record containing 2 good songs and 8 fillers.

 

Also, we can digitize an entire record collection and create customized playlists and carry it around on a thumb drive. 

 

Through TVs, computers and the internet, we can get as much visual and data as required on the artist/band, studio, backstory, tour schedule, etc.

 

Times have changed.  The delivery system is different.  But, that organized noise we call music remains the same.😎

[Docbop]

I miss record stores so much.   Part because I worked for one off and on for many years, but later would go to Tower Records and spend an hour or so going through the Jazz section.   I'd talk to others about the music and we'd suggest CD's to each other to was great hang.   

 

I don't understand why CD Baby doesn't offer one offs of albums just in a plain sleeve or a generic CD Baby CD cover.   I used to make special order CD's for place I worked.  Once the artwork for the label is in the computer it's easy to print the label on to the CD and then burn the contents to the CD.   

[yannis D]

Not as hip as vinyls, not as good as good quality mp3s, seems normal that CDs have gone obsolete. Regardless, I still keep the ones I play in (my bands or other people's bands) as a reminder of my past years and the good times and the days I was digging in my city's stores (I have more than 5000 CDs and some vinyls).

 

I know these things will go to the recycle bin after I'll be gone, but they will remain on my shelves untill then.

 

[ProfD]

15 minutes ago, Docbop said:

I don't understand why CD Baby doesn't offer one offs of albums just in a plain sleeve or a generic CD Baby CD cover.   I used to make special order CD's for place I worked.  Once the artwork for the label is in the computer it's easy to print the label on to the CD and then burn the contents to the CD.   

Very few people under 40 years old are listening to CDs.  Many of them don't remember landline telephones either.🤣

 

Waxing nostalgically (pun intended), there's a niche market of people who listen to vinyl.  Definitely not as many folks as before the 1980s. 

 

There is zero demand for CDs.  Check the bins at Wal-Mart or Best Buy.  They don't even categorize CDs by genre. Just alphabetical order.  Most of the titles are Best of [insert artist here].😁

 

Otherwise, into the foreseeable future, the primary music delivery device will remain digital.😎

[CyberGene]

15 minutes ago, ProfD said:

Very few people under 40 years old are listening to CDs. 

It’s really hard to find CD players nowadays. And they stopped putting CD drives in laptops at least 10 years ago.

 

I personally remember how happy I was when I replaced my portable CD-player with one of the first MP3 players in the early 2000s. I could bring my entire music in my pocket. And it didn’t skip 😉 Oddly enough I felt sad when I replaced my cassette Walkman with a CD player because I gained in audio quality but lost on the ability to create my own mixtapes (do you remember that word? 😉). Yes, there were CD-R-s later but do you remember how unreliable they were… they all stopped working in a year. 

[jazzpiano88]

21 minutes ago, CyberGene said:

It’s really hard to find CD players nowadays. And they stopped putting CD drives in laptops at least 10 years ago.

 

I personally remember how happy I was when I replaced my portable CD-player with one of the first MP3 players in the early 2000s. I could bring my entire music in my pocket. And it didn’t skip 😉 Oddly enough I felt sad when I replaced my cassette Walkman with a CD player because I gained in audio quality but lost on the ability to create my own mixtapes (do you remember that word? 😉). Yes, there were CD-R-s later but do you remember how unreliable they were… they all stopped working in a year. 

Apparently they’re still being used extensively for professional and high end audio.  
https://shop.usa.yamaha.com/en/c/audio-home-theater/hi-fi-components/cd-players

 

They’re also all over Amazon, usually in portable form factors or combined with video.  
Phillips makes one for $50. 

[CyberGene]

I doubt those sell as hot cakes. One can purchase cassette players and recorders too, even they are not completely abandoned. But going back to the OP, there’s probably a reason why CD Baby are moving entirely to digital distribution. 

[Docbop]

1 hour ago, ProfD said:

Very few people under 40 years old are listening to CDs.  Many of them don't remember landline telephones either.🤣

 

Waxing nostalgically (pun intended), there's a niche market of people who listen to vinyl.  Definitely not as many folks as before the 1980s. 

 

There is zero demand for CDs.  Check the bins at Wal-Mart or Best Buy.  They don't even categorize CDs by genre. Just alphabetical order.  Most of the titles are Best of [insert artist here].😁

 

Otherwise, into the foreseeable future, the primary music delivery device will remain digital.😎

 I'm fully aware the big corporations want to kill off anything physical that they can convert to digital and if possible turn it into a subscription business.   That's why I said one off for the few people that might want one.   

[ProfD]

43 minutes ago, JazzPiano88 said:

Apparently they’re still being used extensively for professional and high end audio.  
https://shop.usa.yamaha.com/en/c/audio-home-theater/hi-fi-components/cd-players

 

They’re also all over Amazon, usually in portable form factors or combined with video.  
Phillips makes one for $50. 

Sure. 

 

MacIntosh still makes this $8K receiver:

 

 

Old technology will continue to be manufactured in order to accommodate the 1,000 people still using it.😁

 

3 minutes ago, Docbop said:

 I'm fully aware the big corporations want to kill off anything physical that they can convert to digital and if possible turn it into a subscription business.   That's why I said one off for the few people that might want one.   

Manufacturing one-off CDs would not be cost effective for most small businesses.  They would have to sell that one CD for $30 in order to cover postage. 🤣😎

[jazzpiano88]

1 hour ago, ProfD said:

MacIntosh still makes this $8K receiver:

 

 

Old technology will continue to be manufactured in order to accommodate the 1,000 people still using it.😁

 

 

Audiophile amplifiers have largely been immune to the advance of technology into Class Z operating space to build a 10kW powerhouses for $49.

 

$8k is nothing.  Its the cost of the iron needed to meet the specs class A.   The serious audiophiles are chasing specs to maintain performance down to 8Hz.     They could just as soon use their stereo for arc welding as they don't break a sweat driving a short.

 

Check out this repair on the $20k amp. ($40k for two monoblocks).

 

 

 

 

 

[bill5]

5 hours ago, ProfD said:

Nowadays, we can consume music a la carte.  No longer saddled with buying a whole record containing 2 good songs and 8 fillers.

 

I don't think that's necessarily a good thing. There are a TON of great songs I probably never would have discovered if I didn't have to buy the whole album back when and if I somehow rack and stacked my all-time favorite songs, I guarantee there would be many more non-hits than hits. "Careful what you ask for" and all. 

 

[bill5]

4 hours ago, ProfD said:

There is zero demand for CDs. 

I wouldn't go quite that far. In fact, CD and vinyl sales are about the same - a trickle, but there.

[jazzpiano88]

48 minutes ago, bill5 said:

6 hours ago, ProfD said:

Nowadays, we can consume music a la carte.  No longer saddled with buying a whole record containing 2 good songs and 8 fillers.

 

I don't think that's necessarily a good thing. There are a TON of great songs I probably never would have discovered if I didn't have to buy the whole album back when and if I somehow rack and stacked my all-time favorite songs, I guarantee there would be many more non-hits than hits. "Careful what you ask for" and all. 

 

 

Yeah, I hear this argument all the time but I never heard anyone actually break down their album purchase down by hit song.   You bought the album to access the song(s) and that was that, with no complaint.   Usually (more times than not) those "fillers" were actually decent, equal, or better that the hit.

[RABid]

Searching through isles of albums and CD's in a store was magical. Searching for music on Apple Music or some other online digital retailer feels like data mining.

[ProfD]

@bill5 and @JazzPiano88, I'm from the same generation of folks who bought whole albums and dug the deep cuts more than the hit song. That was our time.

 

My point was the music industry eventually embraced selling singles as digital downloads. Napster showed them selling music a la carte was more lucrative than CDs.

 

The music industry has gone full circle. Nowadays, it's more lucrative for artists and bands to perform live and only record music when there is a demand for it. Selling CDs or thumb drives containing *new* music at gigs is fine. 😎

[CyberGene]

9 hours ago, RABid said:

Searching through isles of albums and CD's in a store was magical. Searching for music on Apple Music or some other online digital retailer feels like data mining.

I come from a generation that used to search through isles of CD-s in a music store and would spend hours there and I used to love it. But now that there's Apple Music (and other streaming services) with all the music in the world, I like it so much more browsing through the endless Apple Music library, especially doing it at home, switching easily between various albums and releases, cross-reading Wikipedia articles about the album/composer/musician/conductor/orchestra, correlating with linked articles, reading reviews, without the anxiety that I am at a store and spending too much time on music selection. I started wondering what exactly I did like about music stores at all.

[Joe Muscara]

Here in Houston, we still have a great record store called Cactus Music, and it has both CDs and a large vinyl section. They also regularly have in-store performances by artists as well as book signings and other appearances. It's a cool place but I rarely go because I don't buy CDs like I used to. I mostly buy from the artist to support them, read it, and put it on the shelf while I listen to it on Apple Music (which, theoretically, supports the artist again from the pittance streaming pays them).

 

I'm usually more than happy to support an artist I love by buying their CD, especially if I can do it directly (Bandcamp is another great option).

 

Meanwhile, we have a TASCAM CD/SD/Media player with Bluetooth for your studio in the MPN Shop.  

[zeronyne]

The Kpop industry has gone the other way to recoup some investment. In the US, you can walk into a Target and buy an album from Twice or Blackpink or BTS, and they are between $50 and $100. Sometimes, there's not even a CD (just a download code). But what the packaging is absolutely full of are photo cards and tons of other swag. And they are like blind boxes...you have to buy multiples to get everything if you are a completist.
 

It harkens back to reading lyrics in the record liner while listening to an album for the first time.

[bill5]

2 hours ago, CyberGene said:

 I started wondering what exactly I did like about music stores at all.

If you have to ask........

[ProfD]

Thrift stores and Goodwill are filled with CDs and vinyl and it's cheap too. 

 

Browsing through the unorganized offerings might even conjure up some of the nostalgia of being in a record store. 🤣

 

There's still a record store in my area that sells new and used CDs, vinyl and DVDs.

 

That store has  so much donated/salvaged vinyl that it's in rows of boxes strewn across the floor. 

 

Excellent place for those who enjoy crate digging and/or hanging out in a record store.😎

[Ed A.]

IMO, a CD is a relic of the past, like 8 track, cassette, and LP’s. Even though I still have spindles of old CD’s in storage, I don’t even own a CD player anymore, not even in my car. I have a USB CD burner only for ripping old CD’s on my computer. For streaming, I use Apple Music with 24bit 48k lossless that exceeds CD specs. I could stream greater than 96k if I wanted to, but I honestly don’t notice a difference. Even my own music with DistroKid is 24bit 48k lossless. I did sell my CD’s on CD Baby, but I don’t anymore. Anything I release in the future will be strictly streaming or download.

[jazzpiano88]

It sounds like independent record shops can actually make it with a reasonable population base.   Sort of immune from the big box store effect.

Same way with independent and used book stores. 

 

For me as well, part of the joy is the experience of being in that environment.  It's a way of relaxing on a weekend afternoon.

[D. Gauss]

I think y'all are missing the OP's original point.  i.e. If you had a ton of CD's in their warehouse (as i did), they just toss them, unless YOU pay the shipping to get them back.  Now I don't know for sure, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that they sift through the lot of what they say they are trashing, and cull the ones they think they can make money off of and sell them on the side.  i.e. most of my CDBaby sales were to indie mom & pop record stores.