With the whole vinyl resurgence going on, I’ve noticed I’m having a harder time finding certain albums on CD on Amazon.
This kind of concerns me.
What are your thoughts? Do you think CD’s will become a thing of the past one day?
2 Likes
Probably those hiplets in 20-30 years will bring back the compact disc 
3 Likes
I feel strongly that CDs will be obsolete sooner rather than later. Best Buy is in the process of removing CDs from their stores and using that space for vinyl records. Other retail stores, both physical and online, will quickly follow suit. Thus I do think CDs will go the way of cassettes and 8-tracks.
Of course something new will come along, but online music services such as iHeart Radio, Spotify and Pandora are well-positioned in the market and will likely increase in popularity.
BB King had it right: The thrill is gone.
6 Likes
Probably, because they’re not needed anymore and you can increasingly get lossless formats (APE/WAV/FLAC) through other means and store the files more efficiently, physically speaking.
However, I don’t think they are completely dead. It’s still difficult to find some types of music in any other way than CD, and lossless formats aren’t as widely available as lossy yet.
There’s also a significant used/archival/vintage market in CDs, and unlike vinyl, is actually decent in terms of audio quality. Getting a lossless/high quality rare recording is a great thing, and unlike vinyl, actually involves preserved sound quality. Decades of lossless/high quality recordings are on CD, not in some FLAC files on a hard drive.
But overall, I think CDs’ days are numbered. I think the only way they will sustain themselves is if optical disc formats continue to progress in such a way that new formats are worthwhile, and the readers are back-compatible with CDs (much as many Blu-ray players will also play DVDs and CDs). But only time will tell. I still buy CDs from time to time, when they’re the only format available, but I always immediately burn them.
2 Likes
Judging by the boxes full of CDs in the garage, I have to say that they are already becoming obsolete.
Everything is digital now.
2 Likes
Yes. I think so. I mean Walmart has been phasing them out for the longest time along with Dvds. I’m not too stoked about digital compression though but we shall see. 
1 Like
I still run into CD collectors who rip to their mobiles. It has to do with the notion of owning music, I think. I know I like to hoard CDs and listen offline still. And a lot of times, YouTube doesn’t have the exact recording I want (w/o an upgrade). For instance, I had a hard time accessing and copying “Model Man” by King Crimson once. Couldn’t copy the URL for some reason. And for the offerings we get online, we’re at the mercy of whoever makes the post. Call me a control freak, but I like more options.
1 Like
I expect vinyl will soon lose its popularity and people will ether go back to CDs or just stream their music. Vinyl is just so bulky, yes it sounds unique but it is problematic to operate. I don’t expect CDs will completely go away so don’t worry OP
1 Like
I remember the days vinyl died. Heaps of crazy albums bought!
I am all digital now so it don’t matter to me! I had a great vinyl and cd collection buy long ago got rifled so I just buy everything on digital namely apple. I like apple it’s a great format and quality is better for me than mp4.
It’s a worry. It’s good anologue and vinyl coming back online but the market will determine it.
Enough tossers buying vinyl will bring it back!
2 Likes
SSD’s (Solid State Drives) are the current technological trend to store and play hundreds of songs compared to the 15-20 songs that a CD (Compact Disc) can play. Smartwatches such as an Apple Watch connected with wireless Bluetooth earphones/headphones have succeed the trend where portable cassette players and portable CD players were once used in the 80s & 90s. In the 2000s it was the mp3 player like the iPod and in the 2010s it was the smartphone player.
1 Like
yes they are already obsolete.
2 Likes
Many people are getting rid of their CD’s, has be so for over a year now
2 Likes
That’s a bummer. And I just got a CD too! 
I’m listening to a record right now though.
1 Like
It all about what pleases you, if you like them , there are some real deals on them with people selling off their collections cheap
1 Like
I just set up my Amazon Alexa. So lazy just to tell it to play music by my favourite artist. It is a trick I haven’t got tired of yet. But I won’t be getting rid of my CDs anytime soon.
1 Like
Yes I do believe that they will disappear like everything else does.
1 Like
I just called two different stores looking for a Nirvana CD. No luck with either store. Haha.
I’m starting to feel a little dated. 
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.