CD Sales Diminishing...

I am fine with that as long as the downloads give a lossless option for a reasonable price.

I still prefer CDs to digital downloads. The Borders store near my office has so few jazz CDs that I almost have their selection memorized. They never get new ones and I am sure that within a year, they will cease selling them. I get most of what I want from Amazon.com, CD Universe or Arkiv.com. Thanks for the story.

For physical media, I think BluRay is the best music delivery format at the moment and for the foreseeable future.

Downloads still have a long way to go before the older, more affluent "audiophile" give in completely to a "virtual only" music library.

They are the ones who spend the most money on music!

Downloading music is just so... unsatisfying. At least for this rapidly aging young person.

I do like having a tangible object for my $. A lot of the less discerning young peeps don't very seem interested in this type of "ownership" though.

But when they lose that huge music collection because of an unrecoverable drive failure, it's gonna hurt.

A lifetime of backing up your music files sounds tedious and probably potentially risky at some point in time. It sure is less fun than getting new cd/dvd storage furniture or having shelves full of lps! But hey, I'm slowly digitizing my collection so, I guess I'm in now!

I'm still keeping my cds though. And my lps are some of my most prized possessions and are fast becoming quite valuable.

Apple is the biggest player in the download game, so the fact that they are gearing up for high definition music downloads is giving me hope that audio quality issues are at least finally being addressed.

But when cds become obsolete, I bet I will still be buying new and used records!

And probably used, vintage cds!

All very good points.

I too am finally moving to digitizing our collection, setting up for a streaming audio system (likely Sonos), but have not yet moved into a paid downloading service for music.

I want lossless, non-proprietary files from a selection that is no less than what one can find in a music store.
Presently that is asking too much yet of what exists out there.

So, DIY.

No, sadly, they're not. Not collectively, anyway. If that were the case, their buying power would have some influence over the market. Unfortunately, the many uneducated (in things audio) masses will happily download compressed, dynamics-free schlock and not know it.

You can tell Cd sales are dropping, just look at how much floor space the retailers have taken away from the displays.

I am feverishly buying CD's in an attempt to get all the ones I haven't bought/replaced over the years and always meant to before they are no longer available. I have found I have to order a number of the online as they are not stocked in stores.

Best Buy and Future Shop both seem to be cutting down considerably on the cd's, and I heard a few days ago that HMV is having some problems and will be closing 50-60 stores(worldwide I think, not necessarily here).

Well, I'm thinking of us audio obsessed types and unfortunately, we're not that many in the scheme of things.

And most of us buy older or obscure music more than the newest pop sludge the record companies are trying to hawk.

I love Amazon and Gemm for buying music online and we have some great record stores here in Atlanta. One of the best is Criminal Records. I can't go there often because I spend way too much money when I do.

But I've also learned that the Amazon one click buy option is a very dangerous thing...

I still buy CD's and will continue doing so until they are no longer available. I still read my books with a hard cover too.

I believe this is just the human culture evolving again (into what is debatable). The ease of sitting on one's ass, clicking a couple buttons and getting instant gratification without paying a dime is just too alluring for the majority. CD's will become extinct in that environment.

I purchase all my cd's and dvd's via Amazon. The selection is always better than the local Future Shop/Best Buy etc. I will continue to buy cd's as long as they are available. My wife purchased a Kobo reader for me as a birthday gift. I am quite enjoying this technology compared to hard cover books. The only downside is not being able to share the book with someone.

How does it compare to Wuxtry?

For the non-Athens crowd, link.

I feel the same way, except for one thing. Buying on line is not instant gratification. Getting in the car, driving for 7 minutes, then having that object in your grubby mitts---that's instant gratification.

And like everyone else I see coming out of the CD store, there's much plastic ripping and teeth gnashing inside the car so I can hear it, uncompressed, now---right now. Or just wait 7 more minutes to return to Axiomville.

And no cover art?! Unthinkable! I really feel like downloading that crappy sounding stuff, then having to download and print an info sheet, if it were even available.

Now that jewel cases are disappearing (yay), there's been some great stuff to read and great designers to look at with CD packaging made entirley of paper products. I'm glad I'm going to vanish before books do. It's just a friendlier (appearing) version of Farenheit 411.

The world is made of real objects, real sensations and real experiences. They're not happening for you now at what you are currently staring at. They're going on without you right behind your head.

I'm grateful that technology did not interfere with nor steal my youth. So much social networking leads to sociopathy. I'm glad I got to become sociopathic all on my own.

Oh, Wuxtry rules!

Anytime I'm in Athens I usually always stop in there.

Both Criminal and Wuxtry are excellent. Both have new and used vinyl and cds.

And even more importantly, they both do a lot of business.

I haven't really been going to local stores to buy CDs, so I haven't yet witnessed the shrinking shelf space. I buy CDs when I can. The only time I don't buy CDs (or other physical formats) is when it's content that's exclusive to a downloadable format.

While I prefer having something I can hold, most of my listening is from the ripped copies of the music. I like music on Blu-ray, but it's always better if it's Blu-ray+CD so I can rip a version of it.

The thing I DO want to see take off more in download form is music videos. I would love to have a good store for downloading a wide range of music videos in high-def which I can then play jukebox-style... if I ever have a party.

It's all pretty simple really. The market has spoken:

Convenience > Quality

Bluray is even going to die off or become the next Laser disk as sudo HD streaming video becomes the norm.

Problem I have with downloaded albums is...you can often find a used or new CD for less than what you can download it for. So, why not have something concrete? Even if you do rip it to your computer, you can display your music!



Says the Amazon.com customer of the year

I would seriously be scared to add up how much I've spent there.

I should spend some more money with Axiom to offset it. VP180 time?

With the recordings I found on my 2011 Grammy nominations CD, I'm beginning to wish CD's would go away.

Charles, you can download music videos off YouTube. I've downloaded an innumerable number of videos of various types, and a lot of them are in high definition (even 1080p).

I've downloaded a fair amount that way, too, but I've never been impressed by the quality, including the 1080p ones. Just too compressed. Of course, the insurmountable problem beyond the compression issue is the fact that music videos tend to be made on too small of a budget, so pristine video presentation is probably a rare thing.

I can’t find anything in most local stores I want to buy. The last time I bought a regular CD locally what about 3.5 years ago when I stopped at a high end audio shop to buy my headphones. The owner demoed about 20 CDs for me and I bought about 10 of them. Otherwise it’s Amazon, CD Universe and a couple other on-line places.

I’m with you Cam. Most off my recent “targeted” acquisitions have been HQ videos from YouTube. I then just use a program to rip separate the audio from the video if I want it separately.

That's the reason why I purchase via Amazon. There are not a lot of recent releases I am interested in acquiring. I usually wait to load up the cart with dvd's and cd's.