# Are CD's dead, yet? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 9, 2017, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860 "2017-07-09T18:43:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/21 "2017-07-10T01:13:37Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > That’s still a CD. Yes, it is. It’s a way to play your downloaded music in your car if you can’t play your smartphone on your stereo system. What’s your point? You don’t have to buy CDs to make use of your car’s CD player. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/22 "2017-07-10T01:19:08Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > CDs still have much higher sound quality. Streaming is fine for casual listening on my phone or as background music. The CD is preferable for serious listening. Yes, the sound is much warmer than from a thumbdrive. 😉 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/23 "2017-07-10T01:25:18Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > It’s going to be many years before CD players are not standard in cars anymore. I it’ll be fewer than you think. ---
**Author:** ![bunyupp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@bunyupp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bunyupp)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/24 "2017-07-10T01:55:29Z")
I’ve bought probably 30 CDs this year alone [2 this week]. I listen to obscure\* (and not so obscure) Japanese bands that I can’t find on Amazon or eBay. In Japan physical media is supreme, so no CD, no listen (there might be a song or two on YouTube, but not albums). Plus, at the remaining national book chain, I can buy classic CD albums for $5 or $6, cheaper than buying a download. \*some bands are so obscure I imagine 99.9% of the Japanese haven’t heard of them (using 125,000,000 as population) If they have 12,500 fans I’d be surprised. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/25 "2017-07-10T02:23:35Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Those are two different questions. I don’t know if CD’s are dead. But vinyl, another physical medium, is increasing to the point that there are more vinyl plants coming online. I, personally, have only bought one or two CDs in the past 5 years, and have also only bought 1 or 2 _new_ vinyl (that I didn’t own in any medium) in the last 5 years, so if CDs were king of the physical media before then I’d say yes, CDs are dying. But vinyl is not dying. AS a matter of fact, _cassettes_ :eek: have been on an increase in the past 3 years or so, so while physical media may yet die, it is too soon still to nail its coffin. Yeah but that is a fad. There was a time 40 years ago when vinyl was the best technology available, but now it isn’t. Supposedly 3.2 million vinyl records were sold last year, an increase of 53% vs 2015. > **[Record sales: vinyl hits 25-year high](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/03/record-sales-vinyl-hits-25-year-high-and-outstrips-streaming)** > > LP sales up by 53% on 2015 after deaths of many music greats throughout the year and a trend for returning to ‘tangible music’ By comparison, 251 billion songs were streamed in 2016. > **[Streaming Now Officially the Number One Way We Listen to Music in America](https://pitchfork.com/news/70724-streaming-now-officially-the-number-one-way-we-listen-to-music-in-america/)** > > Streaming consumption beat digital sales for the first time in history, according to new Nielsen report So streaming and playing digital media you own (legally and illegally) are the most common forms of music. For me, I haven’t bought a CD in at least 10 years. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/26 "2017-07-10T02:53:25Z")
I bought a CD just this week, because my favorite album (Ok Computer) was remastered and if you want a full sound lossless version that’s portable, you buy a CD. My brother bought a cd a couple weeks ago for the same reason. They remastered one of the Chicago albums and we wanted to hear it in “full glory.” Most new music I do buy as a download, though. I don’t need it to be so sonically perfect to please my ears. I did go buy some vinyl copies of the Courtney Barnett songs I bought to download. Because I had a feeling that her stuff would sound pretty great on the “warmth” of vinyl. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/27 "2017-07-10T05:41:21Z")
I can’t remember the last CD I bought and the new car I just bought doesn’t even have a factory option for CD. It’s got aux and blue tooth, and that’s it for playing my own tunes. One of the other models had an option for an SD card but still no CD. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/28 "2017-07-10T05:48:00Z")
I still buy them, even though I rip almost all of them to AAC, I like having the actual physical media for when the zombie apocalypse occurs (aka my HD dies.) I even started occasionally buying vinyl again, probably because I’m a dumbass. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/29 "2017-07-10T10:15:19Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > … > I even started occasionally buying vinyl again, probably because I’m a dumbass. Probably not dumb. More like: > [@Trancephalic](#): > > … > Plus there’s always incorrigible hipsters to keep obsolete shit alive for inscrutable reasons. 😃 Serious question: Why rip as AAC versus some other format? What’s the benefit and what’s the downside? As I mentioned in an earlier post I’m thinking of (finally!) ripping my entire 400 disc collection and I’d like to do it the smarter way the first time, not the third. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/30 "2017-07-10T10:54:48Z")
I strongly advise against AAC. Whatever advantages there are must be balanced by the format having built-in DRM and being proprietary to apple. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/31 "2017-07-10T10:59:00Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Serious question: Why rip as AAC versus some other format? What’s the benefit and what’s the downside? As I mentioned in an earlier post I’m thinking of (finally!) ripping my entire 400 disc collection and I’d like to do it the smarter way the first time, not the third. Brainfart. I meant ALAC (Apple Lossless) not AAC. AAC is a lossy compression format, like MP3, but more advanced. It will sound better than MP3 but not as good as the actual CD. ALAC is a lossless compression format and will sound just like the original CD. (Because it decompresses to the exact original PCM stream.) The resulting files are bigger than a MP3 or AAC, but smaller than a raw CD rip. FLAC is also a good format for lossless ripping. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/32 "2017-07-10T11:01:46Z")
Nobody else has said it yet so I will: “Are CD’s what dead yet?” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/33 "2017-07-10T11:11:20Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > I strongly advise against AAC. Whatever advantages there are must be balanced by the format having built-in DRM and being proprietary to apple. I assume you made the same mistake \*\*friedo \*\*did and are referring to ALAC, not AAC. I’ve since learned that AAC is an MPEG / ISO / IEC standard. [Advanced Audio Coding - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding) ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/34 "2017-07-10T11:14:14Z")
For reference, ALAC is [open source](https://macosforge.github.io/alac/) and royalty free, and does not have any DRM. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/35 "2017-07-10T11:58:11Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Yes, the sound is much warmer than from a thumbdrive. 😉 > > 😃 Cute…but MP3 files really don’t sound the same as CDs. Like JPG vs BMP for images, most of the time the MP3 format is “good enough” - but I recognize certain passages in certain songs where the lossy compression of the MP3 format results in degradation as compared to the original. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/36 "2017-07-10T12:12:06Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > I strongly advise against AAC. Whatever advantages there are must be balanced by the format having built-in DRM and being proprietary to apple. Wrong on both counts. Although AAC is Apple’s preferred format, it is not proprietary to them. Rather, it was developed by a consortium of companies. > **[Kirkville - AAC: Apple’s Preferred Audio Codec](https://kirkville.com/aac-apples-preferred-audio-codec-2/)** > > It seems that almost every day I read something about people not wanting to rip their music in AAC (the default format for iTunes and the iPod) because “it’s a proprietary format”… And iTunes hasn’t used DRM since 2009. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/37 "2017-07-10T12:26:14Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Cute…but MP3 files really don’t sound the same as CDs. Like JPG vs BMP for images, most of the time the MP3 format is “good enough” - but I recognize certain passages in certain songs where the lossy compression of the MP3 format results in degradation as compared to the original. In some ways I envy people who can hear a difference between MP3 and anything else, but on the other hand I rather like the fact I can’t, since it’s one less thing for me to worry about when sourcing music. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/38 "2017-07-10T12:31:31Z")
CDs are my preferred medium. Just bought 2 Billy Strings CDs after a show on Sat (and got them signed by the entire band!) Try doing THAT with your download! 😉 Just bought a new car w/ a CD player, so I’m probably good in THAT department for a decade or so. Unfortunately, the player is somewhat inconveniently in the glovebox. ☹ Car also plays USB or some kinda cards which I had never heard of before. I’ll learn about using those when I have to. I suspect that will occur when I get a new computer. My old iMac is getting creakier and creakier, and I imagine when I go to replace it, I’ll find my choices limited should I require a CD drive. I tend to be a very late adopter. Unless I perceive some clear advantage, I basically adopt new technology when I HAVE to, when my old, preferred tech is no longer supported. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/39 "2017-07-10T13:04:57Z")
Classical music fan. I buy CDs exclusively. 1 - I like the idea of having a something to look at, hold and store. 2 - CDs usually come with booklets that can be extremely informative and are almost compulsory for operas. 3 - This is probably irrational but I don’t trust cloud storage for music and pictures. I know that it works, that it’s extremely convenient and that lots of people wouldn’t want to go back physical media. And I do have some music backed up in the cloud but it’s just that : a back-up in case something happens to “the real stuff”. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860/40 "2017-07-10T13:09:45Z")
Street musicians often have CDs for sale. The last one I got was this same year. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cds-dead-yet/790860.md?page=3)