1. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Still buying CDs?

    I bought two last week. Am I alone in still preferring CDs to compressed formats?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Still buying CDs?

      Only as presents, but two of my daughters are active buyers. And they are mad on film DVDs, which are damn cheap, mostly.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Pint

        Re: Re: Still buying CDs?

        We have tonnes of DVDs as they are so much better than our current cinema experience. The lovely Mrs Coat and I used to enjoy going to the flicks but our nearest is now a four hour round trip and the seats are like instruments of torture. They only show US blockbusters too. Our previous location had a small duplex cinema: one room for Hollywood twaddle and one for real films.

        We've recently started buying Blu-rays as we now have a PS3. It was a PS2 that got us started on DVDs. Mr Sony is clever.

        Beer icon cos I can drink and watch stuff at home.

    2. garetht t

      Re: Still buying CDs?

      That's something of a false dichotomy - it's becoming increasingly common to use .flacs for ripping, which are lossless. It's a great format if you want to move all your physical media into something digital.

      1. do everything you are passionate about passionatly

        Re: Still buying CDs?

        yes FLAC yes lossless yes digital media

        i havent bought a CD in YEARS

        the higher the bit rate the better IMO

    3. Tony Smith, Ed, Reg Hardware

      Re: Still buying CDs?

      Probably not, but I gave up on music discs years ago. Downloads more convenient and, like CDs, no tape hiss or LP cracks and pops - the reason I went CD in first place.

      I'd rip 'em anyway, and you don't have to replace broken cases with downloads. Leaves more shelf space for books. Audio quality of 256Kbps AAC good enough for my 45-year-old lugs and the audio environment of the trip to and from work.

    4. Bob726

      Re: Still buying CDs?

      I own some, but am getting used to everything being digital. Lately, when I want to hear a song I find a video of it on YouTube. I can't recall the last time I bought a new CD.

  2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

    I'm still a frisby buyer

    I've still not yet bought any music as a download. So it's all CDs ripped to the computer. I prefer the extra flexibility it gives me, and it's no trouble to do, if I'm already using the pooter.

    If/when downloading becomes much cheaper than CDs, I might change my mind though. But I'll then have to be a lot more paranoid about backups.

    I haven't gone to ebooks yet either, though I've bought a couple, direct from the author. As I'm currently moving, where to put CDs/DVDs and especially books (many, many books) is a big question.

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: I'm still a frisby buyer

      I still actively collect vinyl, which gets transferred to half-inch tape on the first (and sometimes second or third) playing. From that I make CDs. The collection started in the late 1960s ... CDs came a little later ;-)

      Backup, backup, backup. Especially if you have kids.

      I fiddled with ebooks (and contributed to Project Gutenberg a couple decades ago), but I much prefer the accessibility of dead-tree books & papers. Especially when I'm working on a thesis and have a dozen or so reference books open down in the stacks at UC Davis.

      I'm working on my Zymurgy Masters, at the ripe old age of 50ish ;-)

      1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

        Re: I'm still a frisby buyer

        I got my Masters a couple of years ago, also at the ripe old age of fifty<cough> - and related to ebooks: how to spell words that don't exist.

        Much as I love paper, I have too many books that are becoming too fragile to read.

  3. Bill Ray (Written by Reg staff)

    Worse, I burn my MP3s

    I can't seem to cope without a physical CD on the shelf, even if I'll never play it. The last few albums I bought were only available electronically, so had to be carefully burnt onto a CD around which a printed cover was wrapped so they could be placed on the shelf never to be touched again.

    It's still my backup, in case these computer things never really take off.

    Bill.

  4. Lannister

    Instant Gratification

    I've got used to getting stuff I want NOW!

    Apart from the chart twaddle in the supermarket, there isn't a decent shop within 30 miles of me and I can't be bothered either wasting some of my precious weekend travelling just to buy a CD, or having to wait nearly a week for it to come through the post. I've got used to clicking and it's there.

    1. D@v3

      Re: Instant Gratification

      The friendly South American River company are quite good for buying CD's from (at least in my experience) just this week (Tuesday) I ordered 5 CD's of varying age and mainstrremness and most of them turned up today (Thursday) the rest should be here by Tuesday (would be sooner but for the bank holidays)

  5. jasperellis

    I use to download mp3s. now i buy cds. it always nice to have a physical copy. having a mp3s doesn't feel like i own anything...

  6. Corinne

    A friend owns a second hand music shop and tells me that CD sales are slightly up, and vinyl sales up a lot (around 10% and 25% respecively over the last 6 months).

    He also recounted that a few months back someone sold him his entire CD collection as everything had been put on the laptop - this guy came back a couple of months later wanting to buy most of his CDs back as his laptop hard drive had died horribly and terminally.

    I buy everything on CD, then rip it to PC and put it on the MP3 player. If my PC dies or I lose my MP3 player I have the original available to re-copy. And I can hear the difference between the music played directly from a disc versus the same music on the same audio system but stored on the iPOD.

    1. Britt Johnston
      Pirate

      Back-up

      I recently lost a computer and the back-up drive. However, I was able to restore my transcribed records from my mp3 player.

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  7. Proeschel
    Trollface

    I still buying CDs as present to others. Will u buy someone else a printed book or just send him/her a PDF? lol

  8. Dan Paul
    Devil

    Physical Media is still the best!

    Is it real or is it Memorex? I choose real over rips any day.

    I have hundreds of vinyl albums and CD's. If possible I would rather buy the original CD of the vinyl album rather than the compilation CD because the CD keeps the albums sense of song order. Many of the remasters are just too good to pass up.

    For DVD's, the $5 bin at Wally World has become irresistable recently, less than the cost admission for one and so many to choose from.

  9. Chevalier

    I still buy CDs, I like having them when I wanna listen to music in the car, or camping or something where a phone or MP3 player may not be the best choice

  10. Dhr.
    Flame

    Long time ago for me. lol but started buying Blu-rays for PS3

  11. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Stop

    Won't buy music if it's not on a CD - and by that I mean a red-book CD, not some CD-shaped object with deliberate errors in it that's supposed to be unrippable. My physical CDs are rarely played and serve mostly as backup for ripped PCM (primary) or OGG/MP3 (secondary) copies.

    Don't by DVDs at all - neither films nor TV series - since the one I watch live or off the PVR and the other I watch in a cinema.

    I am probably the despair of the entertainment industry, but I guess I'm just not cut out to be a meeja consumer.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  12. Corinne

    Ownership

    I'm surprised that no-one has yet brought up the ownership issue - I OWN a CD (or vinyl), whereas downloads are RENTED. When i die, my family & friends get to pick over my CD collection & take away whatever they want. If my music is all downloaded, they have zero right to any of it.

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: Ownership

      You don't own the content of the media, just the media itself. When it wears out, you have to buy a new one. That's why I archive all my vinyl to half inch tape, and then make the actual copy (singular) I listen to from that.

      The recording industry hates this practice, but SCOTUS backs me ...

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Only ever buy music (or films etc) on physical disc

    Be it CD or BluRay (don't really buy DVDs any more). Occasionally vinyl if it's something only available that way.

    Then I rip to MP3 or MKV or whatever I need to have the portable copy to use more readily. It's the only sensible way round to do it in my opinion - this way, you get the permanence (as much as you can) of the original media and the portability.

    If you do it the other way, you get inferior "source" material anyway, and you have to do the backup incurring extra expense.

  14. elreg1990
    Holmes

    Quality online isnt as good

    I still buy CDs regularly , and rip to FLAC for my phone.

    At home I still listen on my Hi-Fi using the player, though.

    Quality online isnt as good. I would probably more more music online if they werent terrible 128kbps MP3s...

    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      Meh

      Re: Quality online isnt as good

      The problem I find with FLAC is that support is still terribly limited outside of some phones. My fleet car has a rather nifty hard-disk based system in it which plays digital files, but no FLAC support of course.

      I have to confess[1] to using WMA lossless by preference, which more things seem happy with, for this reason.

      [1] Yes, it is that embarrassing.

      1. Tim Parker

        Re: Quality online isnt as good

        "The problem I find with FLAC is that support is still terribly limited outside of some phones."

        FWIW I chose Logitech for multi-room audio in the house due to multi-platform server support, cost and their FLAC support (to which I tend to rip everything to initially and re-encode as necessary, not often) - i'd not even heard of FLAC support on phones (i'm wondering if that's really worth it in my usage cases, can't think it would be) ! The SanDisk Sansas used to support it as well (early ones after a firmware update) and were superb little players.

        The classical music I used to get online was typically available as FLAC as well, e.g. Passionato, which made life easier.

        YMMV, and obviously does and I guess may well be heavily influenced by what OSes (or support) you have around you on desktop, phone, AV equipment etc. In my case, we don't have any Microsoft-powered items so the idea of using WMA etc would be quite clearly perverse. As long as it sounds OK you, doesn't create extra hassle and works - that's the bottom line i'd say.. for me, that's FLAC (even with a fair bit of Apple kit about).

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ownership

    I buy CDs and DVDs.

    Guaranteed way to ensure any device I own can play a copy of their content.

    Other great features include infinite resale possiblites (Inc whom and when), lack of in content advertising, unlimited replay, unlimited FREE loaning potential and faultless backup potential for when the cloud bursts. :-)

  16. JamesTQuirk

    Thats what old USB is for ...

    As I upgrade my USB Keys a lot doing a lot of video, I find that I gathering collections on USB keys, like 1 - 4 - 8 GB Key, Good for different MP3's Playlist & Files, 8-16-32GB great for a series or collection of movies, give me 256GB keys, bugger burnin discs most TV or Displays Handle USB now, dvd/bluray can hum .........

    1. http://www.britishwholesales.co.uk/retail-bed-linens/

      Re: Thats what old USB is for ...

      I also want to share something that,I have hundreds of vinyl albums and CD's. If possible I would rather buy the original CD of the vinyl album rather than the compilation CD because the CD keeps the albums sense of song order. Many of the remasters are just too good to pass up. Thanks to all who participate in this discussion.

  17. therapistgames

    i have a very large pile of blank cds, blank dvds and blank vhs....i really should just dump them in the bin, i will never use them

    1. jake Silver badge

      @ therapistgames

      Why dump perfectly good backup media? Honest question.

      Do you not understand what it is useful for?

      The ifad/fandroid/crackberry/fondleslab/cloud generation is completely clueless when it comes to personal archives.

      We tried to educate. We failed. Marketing has apparently won over common sense.

      I weep.

    2. AceRimmer

      Bin them

      External drives are cheap and so much quicker to back up to that you'd be wasting your time backing up to DVD or CD.

      There is a reason they are being phased out of laptops - slow and low capacity!

      I've also had problems with the reliability of data DVD's, although it was 10 years ago when I stopped using them for backups.

      Just remember to have an "off site" solution of some type if not for everything then at least for critical/valuable data

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon