CD's are being phased out as early as 2012

Greg_L said:
I never was that enamored with the "quality" of CD. Vinyl sounded just fine to me.
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I'm with you on that one. When CDs first came out, they harped on so much about the "quality" of the sound. But I'd never found vinyl a problem. It's easy for people to say, "well, it's all you had" but that misses the point. They sounded fine. When I found a way of recording my vinyl records onto CD, they sounded just like the records.
Within the 'industry' they'd been looking for years at ways to make the sound of recordings 'clearer'. I could never see the problem.

Greg_L said:
No rewinding
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I must admit, I love a rewind. I like the inexactness of winding a tape and catching part of the song before. Also on alot of radio cassettes the radio comes on as it's rewinding so I like to listen in to random bits of radio chat ~ unless it comes on the adverts !
 
I feel like the people this change will hurt the most (when it inevitably happens) will be the small music stores. The big CD stores have been dead/dying for years now, so that's mostly money saved for the labels.

But small CD stores might have trouble moving product if all they have is a limited library of more expensive Special Edition CDs.

Of course, their vinyl sales seem to be doing OK, so what do I know?
 
grimtraveller said:
...live music does not, can not and arguably in the last 60 years never has rivalled recordings.
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I have been fortunate enough to have attended concerts where great musicians humbly pass the baton (creativity, improvisation, etc.). That stack of CD's has just never trumped being there. Time to go play guitar. Peace.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
I feel like the people this change will hurt the most (when it inevitably happens) will be the small music stores. The big CD stores have been dead/dying for years now, so that's mostly money saved for the labels.

But small CD stores might have trouble moving product if all they have is a limited library of more expensive Special Edition CDs.

Of course, their vinyl sales seem to be doing OK, so what do I know?
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i feel like smaller specialty stores rely more on collectors, who want to own physical product.

dahlbaker said:
I have been fortunate enough to have attended concerts where great musicians humbly pass the baton (creativity, improvisation, etc.). That stack of CD's has just never trumped being there. Time to go play guitar. Peace.
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apples and oranges
 
dahlbaker said:
I have been fortunate enough to have attended concerts where great musicians humbly pass the baton (creativity, improvisation, etc.). That stack of CD's has just never trumped being there. Time to go play guitar. Peace.
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So have I. And for me, the recording is always better because it never changes. No chance of disappointment if you already like it. No chance of the artist going through the motions or falling down drunk or being 5 hours late or not turning up or giving a damn. Doesn't matter if they are dead or alive..........you got the recording. The great thing about studios is that even where all of the above applies, the point of a studio product is that it is unchanging so all the creativity/hard work and practicality is sorted out beforehand so you either dig it or you don't. And once you do..........Live forces you to look through rose tinted glasses ! Why ? Because you only heard it once.
No matter how great a band they were, the Rolling Stones could never trump their recording of "Sympathy for the devil". I could itemize ten thousand examples.
As a slight side issue, isn't it interesting that all too often, live albums have to be touched up in the studio afterwards ?
But it's a moot point, it's irrelevant. We like what we like.
 
fat_fleet said:
i feel like smaller specialty stores rely more on collectors, who want to own physical product.
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That, being my point. If the physical product isn't being manufactured, what will the stores sell? The greater digital's market share becomes, the less room there is for physical stores.



grimtraveller said:
So have I. And for me, the recording is always better because it never changes. No chance of disappointment if you already like it. No chance of the artist going through the motions or falling down drunk or being 5 hours late or not turning up or giving a damn. Doesn't matter if they are dead or alive..........you got the recording. The great thing about studios is that even where all of the above applies, the point of a studio product is that it is unchanging so all the creativity/hard work and practicality is sorted out beforehand so you either dig it or you don't. And once you do..........Live forces you to look through rose tinted glasses ! Why ? Because you only heard it once.
No matter how great a band they were, the Rolling Stones could never trump their recording of "Sympathy for the devil". I could itemize ten thousand examples.
As a slight side issue, isn't it interesting that all too often, live albums have to be touched up in the studio afterwards ?
But it's a moot point, it's irrelevant. We like what we like.
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fat_fleet said:
apples and oranges
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I definitely disagree, Grim. The spontaneity and unpredictability of live is part of what makes it great.
Plus, there's a lot that goes into a live show that can never be captured on the CD (part of why live CDs need to get touched up. Those little mistakes sound great live; not so great later.)
You've got the audience participation, the energy of the crowd and band feeding back into each other.
But as Fleet said, they are apples and oranges. Neither live nor recorded music is better than the other. They're both great, but they're different.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
That, being my point. If the physical product isn't being manufactured, what will the stores sell? The greater digital's market share becomes, the less room there is for physical stores.







I definitely disagree, Grim. The spontaneity and unpredictability of live is part of what makes it great.
Plus, there's a lot that goes into a live show that can never be captured on the CD (part of why live CDs need to get touched up. Those little mistakes sound great live; not so great later.)
You've got the audience participation, the energy of the crowd and band feeding back into each other.
But as Fleet said, they are apples and oranges. Neither live nor recorded music is better than the other. They're both great, but they're different.
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I'm with you on this.

Some of the very greatest recordings are recordings of live performances. And the very best thing for me is to see someone creating right then and there.
I'm really uninterested in seeing an artist slavishly recreate their album note for note ...... any tribute band can do that.
And I don't listen to albums over and over ....... boring after a while for me.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
That, being my point. If the physical product isn't being manufactured, what will the stores sell? The greater digital's market share becomes, the less room there is for physical stores.
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right, but my point is you will still be able to buy CDs made for collectors in smaller runs much the same way you can still buy new vinyl, even though it was phased out years ago.... in small specialty shops. but yeah, it's only a matter of time for the huge chains, though i think 2012 is a little soon.


diggy_dude said:
It wasn't. Vinyl LPs were the golden age.
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that may have kinda been his point.
 
In some ways it could even be good for small shops. There will still be a market for what is available and used. It'll just be a smaller market which might be big enough for small shops but not big enough for them to have to compete with major corps because there's not enough to be attractive to them..
 
I haven't set foot in a "record store" in about ten years. I couldn't care less if they go under. We don't use VCR's or rotary phones anymore either. Progress. Move forward.
 
Greg_L said:
I haven't set foot in a "record store" in about ten years. I couldn't care less if they go under. We don't use VCR's or rotary phones anymore either. Progress. Move forward.
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I actually really like used CD stores as a way to discover new music.

I'll sometimes go to one and flip through the $1 bin until I find something that looks interesting. I've found some really cool bands that way; bands that I probably wouldn't have heard otherwise.
 
I used to frequent used record stores, but they all went away. I mean actual record stores that sold vinyl. I was never one to just buy something to find "new" music though. I'm not that big a fan of music in general. I sometimes wish I were, but I can't change who I am. Too much bad shit out there. I'm perfectly happy just listening to the same old stuff I've been listening to for 25 years. :o
 
Some artists are already releasing 24bit/96kHz audio files for (Paid) download as well as the CD
This would of course mean youd only be able to fit a couple of thousand songs on a current phone type player instead of tens of thousands but if the tech takes a step forward and we get cloud based WAV players instead of disc based MP3 players then those who feel the need to prove their self worth by the ridiculous quantity of crap crammed into their player, that they don't even have time in their lifetime to actually listen to, could still be kept happy

Physical product is nice and some see it as a safety net but as cloud storage becomes more and more the norm I think it will move that way. computer lost or stolen, left phone on the train, no problem you still have access to all of your stuff. One cloud account and you can play your music anywhere on any device (even your car if it has a WiFi connection), no need to re copy everything every time you get a new laptop or phone or player or whatever

Amazon has been doing this for quite a while with their cloud player (which is very cool except for the limitation of lowish bit rate MP3) and now apple with iCloud.

If the demand is there, better than CD quality is easilly within reach. But that's probably the problem, for many people music seems to be no longer about quality but about sheer quantity.
 
the internet's great for discovering music. no cost, no commitment.
if a current artist puts out something i really like (rare), i buy the product to support em.

but i'm not paying for a download of Master of Reality or any other album i've "bought" like 5 times already in different formats by an artist that's a 70 year old millionaire.
 
Since I've done about 15,000 paying gigs at this point ...... I basically never listen to music for enjoyment.
It's always about some hired gun gig I have coming up where I've got to learn 30 songs bass/sax/guitar for this Friday.

It's kinda sad really ..... I used to LOVE just listening but right now I have no pressing gigs coming up so the house stays silent 'cause I'm not interested.
And I have a monstrous record collection too but meh. Too much music all the damned time for 40+ years'll do that to ya'.

I do have a hired gun gig NEXT fri that I have to prepare for but I won't bother with it 'till around Tues.
 
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