Who buys CD's anymore?

[Redtea]

Old habits die hard. But they do eventually die. Witness this week;s statistics from the US sound recording industry.

The fewest record album sales since accurate data measurement was instituted were sold this week, with just under 4 million album sales recorded. The top album, Wiz Khalifa's "Blacc Hollywood," sold just 90,000 albums.

NielsenSoundScan began tracking album sales in 1991, bringing a measure of science to tallying record sales by using the scanned results at retail and other locations. Before that, it was all smoke and mirrors, with the Billboard charts being compiled by calling record stores and asking a clerk for information, most of which was subject to influence and highly suspect.

There was an old saying in the record business, which relied on consignment sales: albums "shipped platinum and returned gold," since "certification" of an album was based on shipments, not sales.

As strange as the old system was, it seemed to work for most people (except the artists, who were usually subject to all sorts of strange reasons for withholding their royalties). The US recording industry at one time was a $15 billion business, with worldwide sales tripping that number, ensuring prosperity for all.

But a funny thing called the Internet happened, and a flurry of new entertainment choices emerged to compete for the available dollars of teens, including games, cable and satellite television, virtual worlds and smart phones.

Part of the album sales decline can be attributed to streaming music, which allows you to pick and choose songs, as opposed to buying an entire collection from an artist. But streaming comes at the expense of individual track sales, which provides a much greater profit to record companies than subscription services.

There will always be music. Whether there will always be a recording industry is questionable. You can bet the film and television industries are nervously looking at what happened to their music industry cousins as they assess the impact of new technology on their established revenue streams.






-RedTea
Independent News for the Right-Minded American





redteadotcom

[The Sci-Fi Slob]

People who don't own computers.

[Miss Vicky]

I've bought two cds this month.

[The Sci-Fi Slob]

I've bought two cds this month.
:homealone:

[Jack1]

Me. I collect them. Or I did do up until a few months ago; haven't bought any in a while.

[wintertriangles]

I buy cds and vinyl.

[neiba]

It may sound strange, but for me buying a CD is a kind of therapy... Everytime I'm depressed, angry, sad or just very tired, nothing makes me better as going to a store, buy a cd, go home, take off the plastic, sit down, read the booklet and listen to it!

[7thson]

I cannot remember the last time I bought a cd. Just being honest - vinyl otoh, I gather up when I can.

Think "Blockbuster" , technology is phasing it all out.

Media that you can hold is old - just like books, the "screen" is boss.

Click and play - nobody wants the old manual '"open tray, hit play, pick song, etc...'

Not saying I agree, but there we are.

[Swan]

I've bought two cds this month.

And I'm pretty sure one was by that Pom Tetty guy.

[Miss Vicky]

Yes, one was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - and incidentally that album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Chart. The other CD I bought was Eric Clapton.

[Swan]

I only buy CD's now if it's one of my favorite artist's new albums. I think the last album I bought a physical copy of was Morning Phase by Beck, and that was all the way back in February.

[TylerDurden99]

I used to buy cds regularly, but it's mostly just vinyl now.

[jiraffejustin]

I haven't bought a CD for a new album in a long time. I did buy a CD halfway into a 15 hour road trip a month or so ago, because the radio was driving me mad. I'll buy a used CD if it's pretty cheap. I'll buy used vinyl too. Other than that, it's all digital for me.

[Derek Vinyard]

I always buy CD mainly for in my car when I want to listen to Linkin Park and Avenged Sevenfold :cool:

[R.P. McMurphy]

I'll buy CD's for a couple different reasons. Either at the used record store because they are cheap or because some bands I like only ever issued releases on CD. Mostly smaller, somewhat obscure bands that either didn't have the money or chose not to put anything out on vinyl, otherwise I will always prefer to buy vinyl.

[Gamobs]

Off topic but I still buy vinyls

[Nausicaä]

I still buy CDs and will keep buying them while they are still going. What pisses me off now, is people releasing their music as downloads only and no physical releases, **** off.

:)

[Miss Vicky]

Just pre-ordered another CD (http://www.amazon.com/Ride-Out-Deluxe-Edition-Seger/dp/B00NBXFAYY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410326140&sr=8-1&keywords=bob+seger+ride+out). It's not out for another month but I'm really looking forward to it.

[Captain Spaulding]

I'm very attached to physical media, so yeah, I still buy CDs. I'd like to get into vinyl at some point, especially after finding a kick ass record store only about 30 minutes from where I live, but first I'd have to buy a record player, which is something I've never owned.

Holden posted a picture of his gigantic DVD collection, which totally gave me a boner. I know some idiots who would call that hoarding, but I take pride in having large collections of DVDs, CDs, and books. I want things I can display on a shelf and touch and admire instead of scrolling through some digital screen.

[windsoc]

The last CD I bought was "All hope is Gone" by Slipknot. The next album I intend to buy is ".5 The Grey Chapter" by Slipknot, they seem to be the one band whose albums I will buy without fail on every release.

I mostly use Spotify to listen to music either at home or on the go and so do a few people I know however they do seem to be in the minority, there are still a lot of people I know who own CD's and LP's etc.

The thing that still gets me about CDs and the music industry is you can still get into trouble for ripping the music from the CDs you own to play on another format, I know they don't want people putting illegal music out there but surely they must be able to do something that allows people to it legally?

[doubledenim]

I don't like the idea of spending thousands and thousands of dollars on downloads, that I don't physically own. With the use of a cd burner and the ability to convert to mp3, lack of convenience is the only downside. Cd sound quality is so much better, anyways.

I prefer to buy a cd, make a copy, use the copy for everyday wear and tear. If dark days hit, I would like to at least be able to sell off a cd collection.

[donniedarko]

I buy vinyl more than I buy CDs, but since my car doesn't have Bluetooth and I don't really like the radio I'll occasionally buy a used one to listen to while driving.

[neiba]

A good option for those who don't want to spend a lot of money on CD's is a second handed CD store... I lose myself there for hours...

[Iroquois]

I still buy 'em.

[Yasashii]

Aside from the people who don't have computers (or aren't interested in using them for music), audiophiles still don't really have a better option. Audio CDs offer excellent sound quality (huge bitrate compared to the puny 320 kbps of mp3s).

While some music is digitally released in the .flac format, which offers great quality, it's still not up to par with Audio CD, because to keep the file size down, the bitrate is still usually not the same (even though it can be), although considerably bigger than with mp3s. There are people who are simply not willing to tolerate that.

Then again, Audio CDs are limited to 16 bit and 48 kHz, whereas digital downloads are not. Still, digital downloads don't normally go above those values and until they do, Audio CD will be on top.


Personally, I've abandoned the idea of buying CDs long ago. If I want good quality I just opt for .flacs. They are good enough for my ear.

[RexyCoop]

I tend to download music and then buy the CD if I really like something. There's something about having it physically in my hand.
BUt I'm also buying a lot of second hand vinyl at the moment too, but I don't buy new stuff on vinyl. It costs a fortune.