Saturday Deluxe: 18 January 2020

…I hate plastic jewel boxes, collected thousands at home. If all CDs were edited as, for example, the Dukes Of Stratosphere editions (hard cardboard digipak with a book inside, precious for sure, content and continent), my collection will shine as my parallel vinyl collection…Thanks for the matter and the stupendous debate. Best wishes from Madrid City, Spain.

I think we are fed too much shit years ago it was digital formats are far better sounding than analogue so ditch records now it’s the other way analogue we are told is a much better sounding you even watch pop stars promoting there products holding the vinyl up on talk shows I think we need to get to the bottom of this debate analogue v digital once and for all

I would love to first comment that this is a diplomatic essay about music and eventhough I haven’t read everyones responses, which I will over coming days. There will be some serious debate.

I’ve been a Music lover and purchaser since 1980. It’s always been about the Music. Vinyl was always my first love. The Walkman changed a lot of my listening habits. So, I bought both Vinyl and cassette upon releases. Then I found that vinyl warped or the stylus caused scratches which caused as I called jumping. I never used inferior hardware or stylus. But this was fact. I lost the use of many 12 inches and albums.

I resisted the CD format until 88,89. It wasn’t until artists concentrated on this format did I truly embrace it. When genuine remasters became available and listening to them on a decent system it became obvious to me the CD is superior.

It’s still my preference for Music and will continue to be. The internet fucked up the industry as we for a moment stopped buying CDs as we all felt paying £15 for a CD was too much. I remember downloading Depeche Mode Exciter two months before release date. I still bought it on release day as that’s my musical character. But this era of Internet destroyed music.

I was working in music media at the time and the agenda of labels was how to recoup monies lost. The only way was to re-educate the public and resell vinyl. Via movies, journalism, TV etc.. This agenda is the only way too recoup monies. Example, show much does vinyl cost these days. I rest my case. We are been resold what we’ve already bought. Heavy Weight vinyl is the biggest rip off.

I kept Picadilly Records in Manchester going and now they have pretty much dumped CDs. They haven’t had my business in 3 years I buy elsewhere. I still buy a lot of music so they have lost out.

I’m not anti vinyl. I still have it but it is not my first choice of buying music and it never will be. Audio sound is more my thing so until a better source of format arrives its CDs for me.

Paul, did you read last week’s article at Discogs about SACDS?

Although I don’t actually play CDs directly any more, I still buy them in preference to MP3s (I hate streaming because you don’t own the tracks!) because they’re often cheaper than MP3s and act as a useful physical backup after you’ve ripped them to your preferred digital format.

I upload my ripped CDs to Google Play Music for free (100,000 tracks allowed!) and them download them onto my phone/tablet’s microSD card for offline playback (I don’t understand people who use 4G to stream music while on the move – it’s a complete waste of your expensive data plan).

An obvious example is Amazon UK, where a CD album is often cheaper then the equivalent MP3 album and regularly comes with Autorip if you really are too lazy to use CD ripping software. Just make sure they haven’t snuck in bonus MP3-only tracks compared to the CD, which does occasionally happen.

Note that I’ve never bought anything vinyl in my life because the only advantage it has over CDs is larger artwork – it’s a worse medium in every other way compared to CD. I’ll tell you one thing I miss – the heyday of CD singles: 4 different songs (some non-album quite often) or 8 remixes of the song for 99p! Tori Amos was the “mistress of the CD single” in her early days – you oftem got an entire album’s worth of non-album tracks if you picked up all the CD single discs from an album!

Excellent article, first level research! I congratulate you Paul … greetings from Mexico.

A good article, Paul,

I’m aware that there are some comments on vinyl quality and n area which I feel, merits more attention is the quality control of vinyl pressings.

As a keen vinyl collector (blues/blues-rock/folk/folk-rock), my preference is for the earliest releases I can find (or afford) but I am frequently tempted by the new, well-packaged, re-issued box sets available on-line or in-store.

The recent trend towards heavyweight pressings (180g to 200g) should help ensure that the audio(phile) customer gets the best experience possible. However, on a number of occasions over the past 3-4 years in particular, I have been caught out by pressing errors and pressing residue on LP surfaces. Apart from being very annoying, I suspect this has caused damage to my stylii on more than one occasion – and replacement or refurb costs are in my case, quite high!

Normally there has been no issue in obtaining refunds or replacements for the records, but there is no compensation for the damage or hassle involved.

In my experience, CDs don’t have the same quality issues.

Regarding the Quality Control of vinyl pressings, what insights do you have?

Wow! You put a lot of work behind this article, Paul, and I’m glad you posted it here (IN FULL) on SDE.com.

Thanks and Great work!

Very interesting read. I would be interested to see how this translates to “across the pond” (U.S. and Canadian) format sales.

As for me, I guess I’m niche-niche, as I only purchase surround-sound discs (now), whether a dts-Cd, DVD-A/V or Blu-ray with my preference being 5.1 SACDs. If Cds are attached to any surround-sound SDEs, many times it ends up being another copy of something I already own, but now RM’d — and if I suddenly need/want a copy of something 2.0 Cd, I head to my local CdTraders (often a “second-hand” purchase). In fact, I think I’ve only purchased one, NEW, 2.0-item (“Aja” RM’d on Cd) in the last 5+ years!

I was a vinyl guy. Always vinyl – and I made my own cassette copies from that virgin vinyl, but I don’t miss those days. My vinyl sits unused since the 80s or never opened and in pristine condition in surround-sound, SDE offerings.

Cheers.

I don’t quite get the use of CDs, vinyl or cassettes. They all eat up a lot of space, but I also do not like streaming music as it is never really my own, stuff disappears and with it playlists too.

I prefer digital downloads, wave, highres 24/192 or 24/96 although I know that’s it’s largely placebo so 16/44.1 is alright too, I’ll make mp3s from that on my own for two portable devices.

The industry is rather lacking for those of us who want to buy digital, I have never ever gotten the lyrics and the artwork in pdf format so that I can at least read the lyrics etc whenever needed

As an avid vinyl collector of over 40 years, I am often amused as to the heated arguments about which format is “better”. Everyone, but everyone is going to have a subjective view on this because everyone is different (thankfully). I have had countless audio freaks try to convince me that CD’s were/are superior to vinyl and I remember getting quite offended by anyone that had the audacity to impose on me their rigid views on the matter. Yes, it is scientifically proven that digital music/CD’s are technically better than vinyl reproduction, but life does not need to be ALL about science and how it dictates what we should or shouldn’t do. We’re all different, but as far as music is concerned, we are all the SAME – we all love music! No matter how it is consumed. Why oh why do people get hung up on trying to insist that their way of consuming music is better than the next persons?
In respect of how music products are to be marketed, well, since CD’s came into force in the early to mid 80’s, it has always been the case that whatever drives the market is the key – the industry doesn’t really care how we consume music, they only care about profit. Of course now vinyl is being marketed as a big cash cow, due to the huge markup to be made, some of the prices are clearly designed to rip music lovers off and I wholly resent that fact. The bottom may well fall out of the vinyl buying market because vinyl buyers will get fed up of being ripped off and stop buying, simple as that – it’s still a niche market, just more of a niche market than it was 10-15 years ago. Things are cyclical – formats will peak and trough in the future, but I don’t think the urge to handle physical product will ever wain – we are a tactile race. Ironically, CD’s will probably become as niche as vinyl became in the mid 90’s and in 10 years time, you will see some CD’s going for the silly prices you find on Discogs (my own vinyl collection is now worth over 64k, with most of that valuation for vinyl purchased between 1994 and 2005).
Anyway, we are all at the mercy of the industry and will always be dictated to accordingly. Personally, being selfish admittedly, I quite like to coexistence of the various formats, because it highlights how different we are, but ultimately it confirms that we all adore music!

Lee.

May I ask, where are new old formats HD, BD-Audio, or at least DVD-A or good old SACD also?

If CD used to die, OK., but they founded replacement in the past, so where they are now, who is working in record companies?

Companies are lazy, artist are lazy too, where are those all high density 192kHz, 96/24, 5.1, 9.2 and other super dupper exiting numbers?
No steady bottom line… One example, last box of depeche Mode, what is propose after BD Video, BD-Audio and dM SACD Remasters from the past?
One step closer, two steps outer… No R&D policy at any form. Next, in the UHD BD era special super deluxe editions included what, DVD? … are you sure, majors?!

Of course, vinyl is the best (sarcasm).
But not for customers.
For sealers, 20-30 playing and you need new one copy because of phisical degradation.

XXI century! Where we live now?
I see now in the industry almost only stranger people and greed.

The CD decline is justa manipulation of the Records companies to get right of physical format, logistics and storage and only be paper companies that license to streaming companies (that will kill them afterwards; bu t they do as for mp3, they dont see the wall approaching tpp busy focussed on their bonuses. They really don”t give a fuck about soudn qaulity where CD is superior to streaming and vinyl ( Maths and specs applies there, not urban legend.

If Steven Wilson and Jethro Tull can keep putting out these great Tull box sets with CD’s, DVD’s and BluRay’s – even for Tull records that are not highly though of – and they sell out to the point where third party vendors can sell a new box set copy of “Songs From The Wood” for $300, I am sorry, but the physical format is not going away. People predicted ages ago that CD’s would be gone by now, and yet they remain. There is an audience for COLLECTING music. Moreover, I think you will see a massive artist push back if the record labels try to abandon the physical format. Artists earn much more money from CD’s and LP’s being sold than thru streaming. I would be willing to bet that Mick Jagger earned more money in FY2019 from Rolling Stone CD’s and LP’s being sold that he earned from Spotify. Moreover, artists generally want their music presented in the best possible fidelity, which streaming will just never provide because it eats up too much bandwidth. Lastly, the record industry understands that some of the biggest selling artists in history like Pink Floyd and The Who would’ve died if they were forced to be singles acts. There are some artists like Tool who simply cannot sell hit singles. They must sell an ALBUM. Their music and artistry is meant to be listened to through an entire album with artwork and such. I think you will see less record stores (they are already fading, but mainly because amazon.com can beat any of their prices), and maybe less CD’s will be less manufactured, but I would be completely STUNNED if we do not have a PHYSICAL FORMAT for music in 10 years. There is still an audience for it, and there is money to be made from it. The business model will just be adjusted to understand that when a group like Tool releases a CD, it’s not gonna sell 10 million CD’s.

The figures above suggest that the physical formats are dying on their arse in comparison to streaming services and that goes for movies too. I used to buy a fair few dvds but that has declined greatly with the advent of streaming. I still buy the odd blu ray but these are restricted to favourites that will have repeated viewing.

With regards to music my vinyl days pretty much ended when cds became readily available and cds remain my medium of choice to this day. I have a decent system so I’m happy with the sound i get so i can’t justify the extra outlay on vinyl, plus cds are more practical from a space point of view at the rate i buy.

My view is that the industry is going to big up what makes it the most money. Vinyl is much more expensive since it was re-launched so the profit margins must be far greater than what they are making on cds, especially with box sets so they will try to boost the popularity of the format with marketing ploys such as saying it’s outselling cds.

Don’t know if this was posted because there’s too many replies, but here’s another one.

https://blogs.sas.com/content/graphicallyspeaking/2019/11/11/will-vinyl-records-outsell-cds-in-2019/

I think the record companies got so burned with CDs being so easily copied 100% perfectly (despite the fact that they LOVED them when they first came out as they charged twice what vinyl or cassette cost) that they now like the fact that not only can they charge double again for vinyl than CD, but that vinyl is not as easy to copy as CDs either. So no wonder they might want to push the narrative that CD is dead.

To me its really simple – its just about the very personal love of the music that inspires individuals. And whether that happens to take the form of vinyl, CD or streaming it doesnt really matter. I wont even start to get into the debate on what sounds better – there are so many factors involved there is no simple answer. to just say CD sounds better than vinyl or vice versa is just nonsense.
I have collected records for too many years to remember and am lucky enough to hold a collection of around 380,000 all told. I also have a significant number of CD’s. I guess I have always loved vinyl records and just never lost the bug even when they were out of “fashion”.

But people deserve a choice – why should you be ignored as a consumer just because you prefer CD over vinyl? I think the biggest issue will be when the pressure comes in to remove any physical options. I give kudos to Paul and all those on here who are passionate about whatever format they choose to listen on (or in many cases multiple formats). without these voices it will be far too easy to just slowly strangle the physical product market until it breathes no more.

I love tangible “things” – I dont mind Spotify in the car – its actually really convenient and great fun building that long journey playlist. But I want to see what I own, read about the band, how the album was constructed etc, etc. I want to cherish that SDE. Its so much more than listening to the music.

I can remember as a kid listening to radio luxembourg (or at least trying to get that signal late into the night when I should have been sleeping). I am very fortunate now that I have been able to buy the very top end hi-fi to enjoy my music on – it literally sends me to a different world when I listen to it – in awe of the magnificent sound filling my room – whether CD or vinyl. But I still remember the crackly radio as a child, because it was still the magnificent music that dragged me in.

I hope everyone on this site will never lose that feeling of magic – and I hope the industry continues to fuel our passion with the products we each demand and look forward to like excited kids at Christmas.

Honestly I will never understand how someone with a good head on their shoulder would actually long for streaming or promote that as the format to go.
Do you not realize yet that streaming availability is at the mercy of someone else who is not a) you or b) the artist?
Do you really want someone to decide what you can listen to?
Have you not had enough times been in a situation where stuff disappeared from the platform?
That already should be enough to make an alarm go off and say oh hell no you don’t, let me buy a product that I will own and decide when to play it. It’s been like that ever since records started being sold a century ago and should remain like that.
Digital or streaming should be an additional market.
Have people become so lazy that they can’t be bothered with ripping a cd themselves and need it to be already there like that? Have people been spoiled like that?
I will never joint spotify or netflix. I am forced to download occasionally when stuff is only released that way and I want it badly (i.e. the stunning Burning The Heater EP) but I will go out of my way to not support it and I think any real music lover should.

Ask yourself if you want to depend on someone else’s decision on what to listen to. The answer can only be No. You would not be on a blog of this nature otherwise.

I could write a much longer piece, maybe I will. But for now, one question. If Vinyl is so superior, why do so many copies of vinyl albums come with a cd copy, (minus most of the artwork) or MP3 download code?

The taste for vinyl vs CD is quite controversial.
Obviously the CD delivers much more quality than vinyl. This is technically proven. The CD is easy to handle and store, does not scratch easily and when sold in special boxes and digipacks with inserts they are as cool as vinyls. It is enough for the industry to invest in the production of a beautiful product, use durable materials, etc. In the case of vinyl, for you to get great quality in reproduction, you need excellent equipment, which is inevitably very expensive! In the case of the CD, even with simpler equipment, you can hear an album in great quality. The frequency ranges are larger and there is no friction.
Although many purists defend vinyl with arguments such as sinusoidal continuity, I think that just because there is friction between needle and vinyl, it is already something that generates significant losses of audible frequencies. The amount of samples per second on a CD is very high, which does not justify the defense of vinyl.
Vinyl as an object in itself, for a collector may even be more attractive, but the advantages stop there.
As for Streamings, I think it is a format that really leads and has won the world, however, I realize that the albums available are far from the same ones found on CD. A lot is out of print and I see that if Streamings become the most accepted standard, we run the risk of falling into mechanisms like Google, which starts offering only what sells more. This greatly limits the experience of those looking for content.
Another detail, Streamings in general provide audio in a maximum quality equivalent to the 320 kbps mp3, which is not the best way to listen to music. Flac files far exceed this requirement. I think that this war is more a war of marketing, and generally in these wars, only consumers lose.

It will be interesting to the USA RIAA report which comes out in March. Their mid-year report reveals a slightly different environment than the UK numbers.
While it is true that in the first half of 2019 80% of US music revenues were from streaming, CD sales were only slightly higher than LP revenue numbers (247 million vs 224). However, the units shipped for CDs were much larger than LPs (18.6 million vs 8.6). The important economic point is the spread between the mediums on a per unit basis (cd 13.33 vs lp 26.04). And while it is true the calendar year 2019 will see larger LP revenues vs CD the “revival” of plastic is a function of price points & not units sold. Lps will account for about 30% of all units shipped in 2019. So much for the revival of LPS.
read the RIAA mid-year report here
https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2019/09/08/vinyl-overtake-cd-sales/

Hi Paul,
First of all, tks for the post, another hit.
You have already highlighted the KPIs (just to keep on the loop fd business industry idiots),
“manipulation”, “much of this is down to money” “Vinyl is a more profitable product.” .
I have already written ink rivers about this, vinyl vs cd & physical vs streaming. I just want to post a short outline. As you I got some thousands vinyls, and of course a huge cd collection, I will keep buying cds. Will not waste time about cars without a cd reader, same battle between combustion engine cars and PHEVS, electric and so on.
This is something similar to the past when cds coming from the US where inserted in a kind of packaging that slightly reminded to vinyl covers, then it was removed because of paper consume, thus only jewel cases offered. I my particular situation, I remove jewel cases because of an storage reason, and keep cds into special plastic bags, and because jewel cases immediately show scratches, etc

In the late years I am a bit concern because a large number of new issues are launched into digipack formats, thus what are we talking about?

As you quoted: much of this is down to money, not with music.

This article also referenced in the Stones fan site iorr.org under “Tell me” “Does anyone still dig CD’s”. Paul spreads far & wide!

CD’s all the way for me! I can’t see that changing as I’m not gonna replace them. I don’t have a record player, tapes are dead. I only listen to new music on YouTube for example the new Morrissey single & Moby & Sigor Ros long ambient music( The latter 2 you can’t even buy hard copies of ). I will never pay for Spotify or any similar thing. For the most part, music belongs in my own hands & on the shelves in my man cave!

I agree with your view Paul 100% and appreciate someone in your position going out of your way to make this case. We can hope that some people see this and word travels to the powers that be and maybe it can save the format we love very much. My father and I both have extensive cd collections. I was raised on music for the most part, and will only listen to cds. To me they sound the best, despite what other people think. Honestly in my opinion at the same time, music sounds best in the car. Especially in my case where I have one of the best car audio systems I’ve ever heard. it’s the best place to be completely surrounded by the music. With good speakers and a good player, it can make everything sound amazing. You can’t truly get that sound on a surround system at home listening to vinyl. In the car, the music can bounce off of the glass and plastics can absorb a bit which creates sound and in my case again with how good the acoustics are in my actual vehicle, you just can’t find a better sound. I’m not sure what is making these car companies take an 1/8”off a head unit that’s being put in a car anyway because it looks “sleeker” and because some of the population doesn’t listen to cds anymore. Well not all of the population listens to vinyl and streams! Some of us only listen too cds. Why do we have to be punished? I had a 2018 Nissan Sentra SR Midnight Edition from May-November. Got out of my loving 2016 Toyota Corolla S (biggest mistake ever). After a few months I unfortunately recognized that the Sentra’s cd system just simply wasn’t as good, especially compared with the Corolla. Aside from that the ends of my cds always skipped due to the player being terrible. You could tell they didn’t put too much into the player, as it was dying then and taken out completely in the 2019 Sentras. So what did I do? I searched everywhere for the exact same Corolla I had (2016 S-2019 S is the same car mostly before the redesign for 2020). After months of looking and debating I finally found a 2019 good enough for me with low miles and in near mint condition. Took a financial hit but happy to say I got back into the car I loved so much, mainly for the CD player and system it comes with stock. That is part of my dedication to this format for sure. I also did it because even Toyota took out the CD player in 2020, so I had to get something that had it while I could! I’ll never get rid of this car. My hope is one day the music industry and car companies will see that we are all different and like different things, and it doesn’t cost that much to cater to everyone. Hoping cds will stay around, and everyone will stop following trends just to make money and make that trend more popular. It’s ridiculous that they try to push us away from them. It’s a great format and I will always be here supporting it. And we need to get Columbia/Sony to realize not putting out Bruce Springsteen Albums Collection Vol. 2 on cd was completely ridiculous and that they should release it on cd. They STILL have stock of the limited edition vinyl set to this day. That tells you something.

Anyone who thinks a vinyl or digital file sounds better than a cd, I welcome to contact me and come listen to my CD player in my car. You will be blown away.

Sorry for rambling, this is a sore subject for me lol. And a lot of this is opinion and it’s just fine that we all like what we like. One side nor the other is wrong, it’s all about what makes you happy. If you stream, listen to vinyl or cd. As long as you like it that’s what matters. We all should be able to enjoy what we like, and not be made to feel like we need to go one way or another.

Very good article Paul. I’m 47 and I still collect records and cd’s. Spotify I use mainly in the car and in the office or on holidays. Even though I miss the old times a bit, living in 2020 is great. Through Spotify I discover so much music legally that I would have never heard. You don’t need to buy everything if you just like certain songs of an artist.
The problem is if I hear something on Spotify that I love and there is a nice limited edition I have to buy it. :-)

You can’t buy radios with AM on them anymore either. Something is amiss, up, and going down.

I do like vinyl and still buy records but Cd’s sound better. It’s a shame the way the CD, such a great format for music has been abandoned by so many.

The best thing about the vinyl revival is that it’s keeping CD prices low. I bought the recent The Police, remastered box set on CD from Amazon for £15. The vinyl was £107. I got the first couple of Michael Kiwanuka albums on CD, brand new, for £4 each.

Long live the CD.

Absolutely spot on IMHO.
Last Saturday I went to a concert of an acquaintance. He had made an album and was selling it there. On vinyl at 15€ and on CD at 5€, same content. That shows pretty much the difference of margin the two formats can have, even at a cottage industry level.
Vinyl is like Nespresso: they manage to convince the public how hip is to pay double the price for the same product.

One thing to take into consideration is the geographic markets. Japan is an outlier in the sense that CDs still remain the dominant format, even compared to streaming.
https://metropolisjapan.com/cds-still-big-japan/
I think the CD still has lots of life left in it and the industry should be doing much more to support it.

I’ve already made 3 comments on this thread, so I’ll shut up after this! But I thought SDE readers may enjoy this song/video by Jeffrey Lewis. It’s all about his love of vinyl collecting, but now they’re too expensive, so he’s returned to another format!….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3urXygZXb74

I LOVE CDs! I am an avid US collector. I have well over 11,000 CDs. All tracked in a database. My basement is a music library from the last 30 years+. It frustrates me to no end that there have been albums not released on cd at all!! I am willing to spend the money on expanded issues and box sets. I ask artists to release their albums on cd and get no response or that it might come out at a later time. I think it is outrageous and foolish of the music industry. To phase this format out. I am totally baffled when I see that cassettes are available but not CDs?!! Really?!! I hope they come to their senses. If they need to charge more, go ahead, but I would gladly pay it and would appreciate the consideration to someone who absolutely adores music on this format! Stop the insanity!!

My first priority is getting the best quality sound and whilst I would prefer to own my music physically I will sacrifice physical ownership for better sound. I maintain an audiophile system for vinyl and FLAC (ripping any physical CD/Blu Ray/DVD-A to FLAC in order to play back at 24/96 through my external DAC)

I suppose the ideal for me is a well mastered physical 24/96 format (Blu Ray or DVD-A) but these as rare.

However mastering is the key here and often (but not always) the vinyl mastering makes vinyl sonically superior to any of the digital lossless formats available and this is why I buy vinyl over any digital format.

However without question a well mastered 24/96 FLAC (or even 16/44) will outperform the same master pressed to vinyl (compare the Eurythmics half-speed mastered vinyl to the associated vinyl downloads). Both are good but the download has the edge.

The “warmth” many refer to with vinyl is actually colouration (distortion). Using my Rega RP10 (very neutral) I don’t think vinyl is tonally much different from the digital lossless version of the same master.

Often (but not always)

FOPP Byres Road Glasgow has a closing down sale today. The last record shop in the West End (I remember when Partick/Hillhead had 8 not including the two Woolworths that had record counters). Probably means nothing to anyone in London, who bemoans having to travel to Shepherds Bush or Covent Garden but… as at one time apart from Japan, Glasgow was the biggest buying market per head of population than anywhere else in the world it’s a sad day. Seems hipsters are buying their CD/Vinyl online now. Although I’ve said physical formats are doomed, regardless of formats, rather than slag off whether a piece of music comes in the format you want or doesn’t, or if you think record companies are promoting or killing off a format. If you want somewhere other than ONLINE and want a physical EXPERIENCE as well as physical PRODUCT maybe visit your local record shop today.

If I was just starting to listen to music, I’d definitely opt for streaming. £120 per year multiplied by 35 means I’d have spent approx £4,200 for an all you can listen to experience. I must have spent over £30,000 on physical product in that time. It’s all ripped to FLAC and streamed and I now just regard most of the residual CDs and cases as clutter. The fact that I wouldn’t own anything and that I’d have to keep paying a monthly fee to access music wouldn’t be a concern.

PAUL! There’s a link to this story from the well known and well respected Bob Dylan site Expecting Rain. Big time!!

Ah, petroleum products. Whether actually wanted or not, the illusion of desire and need will continue to be pushed through so many channels.

A related opinion appeared in the New York Times this weekend, it’s satire, but relevant to this discussion. https://nyti.ms/2G46NnO

“ AN OP-ED FROM THE FUTURE
We Should Have Bought the DVDs
It’s 2022. I don’t know if I’ll ever own a house, but I can own my favorite television shows in their entirety.”

An additional point to be made…
When Paul or any other expert out there takes the stance that CD’s outsell Vinyl by a huge amount, they are ONLY talking about NEW product. The used market, which is the lifeline of most record stores leans quite heavily on vinyl sales. In fact, it’s so skewed towards vinyl, that most stores won’t even buy used CD’s unless they are premium titles, and if they do…they won’t pay but pennies on the dollar, if even that. Most likely they will only offer store credit.

My 2 cents:
I always prefer CD. I would only buy vinyl if it’s absolutely the only way to get the “album” and even then I am likely to skip buying it if it is only digital or available on vinyl.

This doesn’t apply to most of the major artists covered on this mighty fine web page, but smaller independent artists are also making great music, but absolutely struggling to make a living as musicians because the amount paid out by streaming services. What’s going to kill the music industry and creative people is if we don’t value the art they make and pay them fairly for making it. There will be no incentive to choose that profession as their job. Imagine a world with no new music. I don’t want to live in that world.

Poorly written article about Vinyl overtaking CD sales.
What they mean is DOLLAR-WISE…not number of units. They make much more from vinyl sales than they do on CD sales. Would you rather sell 20 million pennies, or 5 million nickels?

Read this version of the article.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/vinyl-cds-revenue-growth-riaa-880959/

I agree with you, Paul. Thank you for posting this essential topic. I have not abandoned the compact disc format since it was introduced. I still buy new CD’s. I did have to largely abandon the vinyl LP because the record industry (major, indie labels, record stores) as a whole had abandoned records back when CD’s came in big time. I loved records. So, I was left with little to no choice to adapt over to CD’s. Now, they want to abandon CD’s and have gone back to LP’s which are priced way too high and, prohibit me from buying them. In some cases, these LP’s are mastered from digital sources instead of direct from analog when they were originally analog. Think about that. The prices for new LP’s and 7″ singles have really not come down in price as CD’s eventually did when their popularity and sales increased. The fact that the number of new record pressing plants have not increased in a large way that makes a difference is very suspect. The level of disrespect that the record industry has had for the CD format for the past 10+ years is despicable especially when one sees the care & consideration that they now give to new LP’s and vinyl box sets. Greed is greed when it comes to the record industry (major & indie) and with certain record stores which has gotten worse. Even Record Store Day has sadly devolved into a money grab for labels and stores in gouging music fans with high prices. If we all can push back and say that there’s room for all of these formats: CD’s, LP’s, and cassettes for us music fans who want something tangible it might have an effect.

This reminds me of in the 90’s when people were getting rid of their vinyl collections for CD’s. I was buying in some cases perfect LP’s for 50 cents to a dollar. Now it’s the same with CD’s.

Excellent article.
The physical music product is driven ONLY by profit (with few exceptions).
As a former early 90’s music store owner (cds/vinyl) in Tampa, Florida your words resonated with me. My partners and I had the funding to go direct to the music companies (five at the time, WEA, UNI, SONY, etc.) so we paid the same price for product as Tower, HMV, Peaches, Circuit City, Best Buy. The music companies allowed big-box electronics stores to sell below-cost, which put all us mom-and-pop outfits out of business……all for the instant profit.
Additionally, as more cd manufacturing factories came online the cost to produce cds was slashed dramatically….but the music companies maintained high prices for back catalog albums….inevitably enabling Napster to be created.
Nothing has changed in the accounting department since Alexander Graham Bell….so we need articles like Paul’s to remind us that we music lovers must keep the torch lit……no one else will!

Lets face it there are better formats than Vinyl and CD.

Its a source of immense frustration when you want a blu ray for instance to have to dive in to a big box with Vinyl and possibly CD’s just to get what you want.

While I appreciate a Box set often its only the main album which comes on Vinyl while the bonus tracks all appear on CD. Thus the Vinyl Nut misses out on hearing the extras on his preferred format and the CD nut has to buy a redundant piece of plastic.

Its is so much better for all to release the formats separately. The mega fans will buy all formats anyway and the casual fans are more likely to buy a lower priced set.

For instance only a passing fan of Henry cow but blimey £80 buys 18 CDs in a box with a DVD imagine if you had to buy vinyl as well.

My preferred formats in Order are Blu Ray (preferably Surround) then CD then Download.
I do however understand that some people want Vinyl and that should be available.

I am also not a fan of record store day which seems to be entirely about making limited edition scalpers exclusives.

I also bought the Police box on CD too good a price not too, I wonder how many more CD boxes will be sold that the Vinyl Equivalent which I had no interest in.
One last though remember the days when CD was in its infancy Albums came out with extra tracks to entice the buyers in nowadays it seems vinyl is doing the same.

Very interesting article Paul and lots of strong points.

From the point of view of an independent reissue label, CDs can often be more profitable. Although the retail price is a lot less for CD, the manufacturing cost is considerably cheaper. For us, CDs weren’t initially part of the plan but we realised there was still a market for them and then decided to try to create something CD sized that had the feel of the LPs. Some hardcore fans obviously buy both formats but that wasn’t the reasoning.

Long term I’m sure there are some labels with big catalogues who would be happy with no physical formats at all. Everything available online means less staff, zero manufacturing costs, very low risk and so on. We will see how things play out over the next few years. It’s going to be interesting.

After further reading of the many postings in this interesting blog about CDs vs. LPs, I’ve noticed quite a few SDE subscribers expressed preference for the CD format, but enjoy the larger more attractive packaging of LPs, which is my sentiment. Some years ago I was able to find a few CDs that were housed in 12″ x 12″ LP sleeve replicas:
David Bowie “Heathen” in gate-fold jacket,
The Who “Live at Leeds” in gate-fold jacket including posters,
Free “Fire and Water” from Japan, and
The Who “Who’s Next” from Japan.

All four CD albums replicated the full size vinyl LP sleeves including all LP inserts. This to me was the best of both worlds — CD convenience with large attractive graphics. Even though these CDs in 12″ x 12″ album jackets were a little more money than a standard jewel case CD, they were in fact more affordable (and felt more satisfying) than buying a CD and a vinyl LP of the same album separately. I hope the music industry revisits this idea.

Great article Paul!

You bring up the point I always make, but have not seen in actual media articles before, and that is the issue of CD players in cars.

Behind streaming, which will of course one day win this “format war”, the lack of CD players in the car is the main reason for declining sales for sure. If I still had one, I would still be playing CD’s daily, not to mention buying more of them. 2019 I bought the least amount of CDs since 1984, and all of them were some kind of reissue (Prince, etc.).

The next reason, and not really ever mentioned, is the lack of optical drives on computers and laptops. While many desktops still have them, it seems like (at least in the US) that most desktops are used in the work environment, where CD playing is not really practical. Most people are using laptops or tablets at home and there is no way to play CD’s or transfer music to an iTunes-like platform without getting a costly separate drive and hope it’s drivers are compatible with your laptop.

I could play CD’s through my home system via DVD/BluRay player, but honestly, I don’t have the time to devote to pure music listening at home anymore as I get older. That is why the car CD player was so important.

Honestly, I just hope the Seeds of Love deluxe box comes out before CD’s are stopped altogether. LOL

Thanks for your candid comments Paul. Once CDs were properly mastered the sound has always been superior to my ears over vinyl. I love vinyl, but it deteriorated from the first time you start to play it. It is also ridiculously priced now. I prefer vinyl for artwork but I prefer CDs for a consistent superior sound.