CD's Obsolete?

[Rapier Half-Wit]

One thing to remember is if you buy downloads and they are MP3's they dont sound as good as a CD.
MP3's are compressed audio and are missing a lot of sound quality compared to CD's. Some downloads are full CD quality. MP3's are smaller that is why they are so popular. 
It is something to keep an eye on.
It is strange how with all this technology we have went backwards in sound quality.

That depends soley on the bit rate at which they were ripped. When buying MP3's, if they don't tell you the bit rate, assume it's low; ie, 128 or less. Ergo. the higher the bit rate, the lower the compression ratio and the better the sound quality. The highest "common" bitrate is 320. A 640 bit rate can be had, but the players/decoders aren't likely designed to be able to play them.

If you are an audiophile and sound quality is your passion then you most likely will be listening to music on CD on stereophile quality equipement (ie, Mark Levison Nº 512 CD/SACD Player with Mark Levinson Nº 326S Pre-Amplifier and Nº 532 Dual Monaural Power Amplifier using Audioquest interconnects and speaker cables to B&W speakers). If portability is your priority, then MP3s on your iPod/whathaveyou will be your focus. Neither is better than the other. It is simply a matter of priority and application. Hence, a tire is not better than a skillet.

[winterland]

One thing to remember is if you buy downloads and they are MP3's they dont sound as good as a CD.
MP3's are compressed audio and are missing a lot of sound quality compared to CD's. Some downloads are full CD quality. MP3's are smaller that is why they are so popular. 
It is something to keep an eye on.
It is strange how with all this technology we have went backwards in sound quality.

That depends soley on the bit rate at which they were ripped. When buying MP3's, if they don't tell you the bit rate, assume it's low; ie, 128 or less. Ergo. the higher the bit rate, the lower the compression ratio and the better the sound quality. The highest "common" bitrate is 320. A 640 bit rate can be had, but the players/decoders aren't likely designed to be able to play them.

If you are an audiophile and sound quality is your passion then you most likely will be listening to music on CD on stereophile quality equipement (ie, Mark Levison Nº 512 CD/SACD Player with Mark Levinson Nº 326S Pre-Amplifier and Nº 532 Dual Monaural Power Amplifier using Audioquest interconnects and speaker cables to B&W speakers). If portability is your priority, then MP3s on your iPod/whathaveyou will be your focus. Neither is better than the other. It is simply a matter of priority and application. Hence, a tire is not better than a skillet.

Yes but if you buy the CD or Cd quality download Wave file etc. then at least you have the high quality audio then can convert into a smaller MP3 for portability. I am actually looking at getting a new turntable and digging the vinlyl albums out. Haven't listened to vinyl in over 10 years.   

[Rapier Half-Wit]

Yes but if you buy the CD or Cd quality download Wave file etc. then at least you have the high quality audio then can convert into a smaller MP3 for portability. I am actually looking at getting a new turntable and digging the vinlyl albums out. Haven't listened to vinyl in over 10 years.   

That's a whole different point and digresses the original subject of the post even further. Yes, what you say is true, however the original post was "Are CDs obsolete, with a secondary sub-thread of what's a better quality media, which is what I addressed.

[Auryn]

I am 28 and I buy CDs.
I have downloaded a couple of songs off of Amazon but only because I had a free credit in my account from a promotion.

I am very computer literate- I build them (computers that is)- and I spend probably about 10hrs a day on the computer,hence I hate being on the computer.
I like coming home or sitting in my car and popping in a cd.
I buy CDs at faire and even online from my favorite acts. I have no problem with paying for the shipping of a cd

[robin35051]

Thanks everyone for your candid and thoughtful remarks.  I believe it means it's back to the studio for us (Crimson Pirates).

[Rapier Half-Wit]

Thanks everyone for your candid and thoughtful remarks.  I believe it means it's back to the studio for us (Crimson Pirates).

Good luck to you in your endeavors good Sir!

[will paisley]

FWIW, the O'Danny Girls didn't bother to record a CD this year and instead went with a download card.  They sold them hand over fist, but they also offered a discount on the card ($10 instead of $15) and offered an additional discount if purchased along with their old CD.

[replicant]

One thing to remember is if you buy downloads and they are MP3's they dont sound as good as a CD.
MP3's are compressed audio and are missing a lot of sound quality compared to CD's. Some downloads are full CD quality. MP3's are smaller that is why they are so popular. 
It is something to keep an eye on.
It is strange how with all this technology we have went backwards in sound quality.

if you encode at 320 the human ear can't tell the difference .. another option is to encode in FLAC which is loseless ..

[replicant]

I've thought about this alot myself when thinking of musicians at a festival. While I thought a USB key would be nice, the consumer wouldn't use it until they got home. So instead, I would say offer either a card with a URL and distribute yourself and hookup with CDBaby and have them host. Or encode and setup your own shopping cart .. There are a ton of open source solutions out there to achieve this if you or someone you know is technically savvy. So I would say this:

1) Offer a CD for instant gratification. I personally purchase CD's and listen to them on the way home from a festival then encode them after I get home.

2) Offer a card or a flier that has a URL address with the ability to download the CD.

[BLAKDUKE]

Now I know this will date me(as if my photo did not already), but truth to tell I would rather see a vinyl album with nice art work.

Yeah like that's going to happen.  I am never on the bleeding edge of technology.   The only reason I have CD's is because it is to difficult to get my music on to cassetes, and all of my daily driver cars have CD players in them.  My antiques have only radios.  I have one car with a cassete in it and I'm trying to sell it, so when it is gone then I am at the mercy of the techno-crats.

[Amras Elfwine]

Though I keep up with technology (New Squirrel Wagon has MP3 capability), I still prefer the sound of my turntable at home. (Right there with you, BLAKDUKE!) I prefer to buy CD's at faire, and probably will never buy a "down load card".

I don't like keeping up with any gadget small enough to lose. And, I still enjoy classical and 40's Big Band music on my old-style Crosley radio...

Cheers!

[Carl Heinz]

As has already been mentioned, CD's provide a backup if you have a catastrophic failure.  I've got both a 1.5T external drive and a 160GB Ipod Clasic, but I still want the CD's.

In addition, Sony makes a couple of juke box type players that hold up to 400 CD/DVD/Bluray disks that have an Ethernet connect so that you can identify and categorize them almost automatically.  I say almost because the web service used isn't yet 100% complete.

[Leneas Distara]

if you encode at 320 the human ear can't tell the difference .. another option is to encode in FLAC which is loseless ..

This is true, and being a live music audiophile I usually keep a high BR MP3 copy of the concert and a FLAC copy. Until I find a decent portable FLAC player I will have 2 copies of my live music collection. I also believe that FLAC encoding or SHN takes a certain amount of audio and computer knowledge to play let alone encode. I just don't think it is a viable alternative for the average listener. But man do I love listening to a screaming concert in FLAC...

Anyway sorry for my ADD

I tend to buy CD's then go home and encode them to MP3. Unless of course I am lucky enough to find live recordings straight in MP3. Most live music today is traded through High BR MP3 or FLAC directly. For example I have been to a modern concert and downloaded the show directly from the Archive (www.archive.org) the next day. Now in the case of the Renaissance Festival, this is generally not the case. However if a group would record live and encode to a USB flash memory card I would ABSOLUTELY buy it.

In summation, I believe that CD's of studio music are just as valuable today as they were five years ago and the discerning listener will know the difference between the CD copy of the master and a lossy encoding. This is why I don't purchase music from iTunes. So if you want I would offer both an encoded copy and a standard CD copy of your latest album

[Fugli]

Sound quality aside, if you want to increase your odds of making a music sale beyond a nice tip, you need something in hand to sell to patrons. People are just more likely to make a purchase if you have the product there to place in their hands, rather than making them look you up later on the internet. For most of us, that means burning a CD. It is the cheapest way to physically distribute your work. Some might offer MP3s in some format or another too (you can burn them onto CDs) for the few patrons that don't want to rip their own. You can also produce hybrid CDs that have both CD player and computer files (pre-ripped). I also suggest you put stuff online for those who are diligent enough to look you up. I find, however, that I am more likely to sell singles or just listens online than I am to sell entire collections of downloads.

I usually carry a few professionally packaged CDs and, and a few USB drives with MP3s just because they are so small as to be negligible. Each USB drive also has a mini web site on it and some extra materials (like videos) just because they would fit. The USB drives can be very small, but the only way that I have found to make them cost effective is to buy them as closeout items, and label them myself. Unfortunately, I cannot find them as cheaply as I once did (about $1 each), so I don't think they are nearly as cost effective as just burning a CD (about 20 cents). We just did a short run of 120 CDs with full graphics, cases, booklets, and packaging. With shipping they came to about $3 each. At $15 each our break even point was 24 sales. So now we're up to around 70 sold, with nothing sold online.

[Poldugarian Warrior]

I buy CDs, and this is why, a CD is like a book, it's a large object which holds info. And I don't have to power up a CD to get the music, i just throw it in a player and it plays. On the other hand, if I downloaded stuff, not only do I have to have a internet connection, I also have to have an IPOD or other digital device to run the music anywhere else, and some cars won't play MP3's, or have IPod connections and what not, but a CD will always play, unless it's scratched or someone didn't burn it correctly. But, I'd say if corporate America has it's way CD's will be obsolete and internet will be the only way people will get music, because it's all about the merchandising. So keep pumpin out CDs for those that just want to hear music, without having to deal with technology.