The last time I fell in love with music I’d not previously been exposed to... I was overseas. And even though I didn’t speak the language I still recognized what was a “hit.”
It is kind of weird to experience the extinction of a particular physical media that was once so ubiquitous. DVDs/Blu-Rays are on a similar path too. I'm amazed how small the movie section is at Best Buy these days.
On the other hand, it takes very little walking in any direction and these days I bump in to a record store selling vinyl. So that's been really nice to see.
That said, while I do like to occasionally visit local record stores, I actually do most of my vinyl (and rarely, CD) purchases online.I love the ability to sample a lot of an album before buying - via discogs or youtube - even some of the most insanely obscure stuff. It's simple to purchase and, because records are a cool physical media, I still get a thrill when it shows up at my door. I don't really need to go to a record store for that.
(But..I actually try to throw some of my business towards a local record store, to support it).
Blind listening tests on my rig proved Tidal sounds as good and sometimes better than my ripped CDs. Innuos Zen III. My ripped CDs sounded as good as my past CD transport/dac combo....PS Audio Perfect Wave Memory Player. Ended up selling off all my CDs. Nice space saver and clutter reducer. I thought I would miss my CDs, but it turns out I never even think about CDs anymore.
Searching for new music on Tidal is like shopping online for me. I avoid the crowds, hassle and exhausting shopping experience of brick and mortar stores. More time to ride my bike 😄.
"Change is inevitable, growth is optional" George Maxwell
I enjoy listening to the LP's and CD's that I have, but find myself streaming music about 90% of the time. Internet radio has provided a wide range of musical options from all over the world. It sounds fine to me through my outdated streamer, through a decent DAC, to my entry level stereo system (or high end mid-fi?). I just like listening to music.
There are more than a few reasons to dislike Walmart, but the biggest for me is that they sometimes censor the content on CD. Walmart’s clout in CD retail - at least at one time - meant record companies were willing to alter cover art, and even edit or eliminate some tracks, to suit the company’s moral sensibilities.
It doesn’t matter to me that the discs I’d probably be most interested in wouldn’t likely warrant such censorship. I think the company’s practice is so repulsive that I wouldn’t buy any CD there.
what do you get when you mix together Holy Water and Castor Oil?
A religious movement.
what do you get when you eliminate hard copy media sales?
a movement aimed at price gouging and distribution of unverifiable content.
do bare in mind, current online suposed HD file sales are presently based on retail CD sales!
competition is based on a set of altrnative paths for consumption of goods, and it is competition which serves to maintain more or less appropriate pricing with respect to merchandise.
removing alternative buying choices erases aspects of competition thereby enabling inherent price controls to be less encumbered..
essentially, this loss at wally World is just the tip of the iceberg and others are folowing suit.
once ther are no online, local, or secure sales of CDs, then what?
we are already seeing streaming subscription service wars.
soon we'll see or there will be proprietary file sale wars from BMG, SONY, UNIVERSAL, EMI, WARNER, POLYGRAM, and various independants, as they attempt to obtain their market share for the artists on contract., and themselves by foregoing the 'middleman'.
thereafter how long do you think dedicated music stores wil stand?
Hard copy vinyl sales will either die off or their cots escalate enormously .
I see the eventual online only file sales as just one more forced change in formats. one which carries with it an extremely inflated profit margin, and simultaneously an unverifiable product.
luckily, this theme will take longer than I have time on this planet, to fully culminate but it bodes poorly for new generations and falsely adds to a upwardly spiraaling needlessly inflated economy.
as was near immediately said, some are deliriously content with this prospect whose only saving grace is pure convenience at higher costs.
If they are loving this burgeoning business plan they must be unbalanced as they are merely being taken unjustifiably. and rapidly to the cleaners.
least I appear at all hypocritical or hard lined I am unopposed to online files sales. I have and likely will again buy them, now and then.
however, I am against having different possible outlets for obtaining media inordinantly removed. in the guise of some inauspicious formulae.
in spite of the complaints about the environmental impacts of hard copy production, it seems easy for them to ignore the loss of jobs that entire process endows.
manufacturing, distributing, archiving, shipping, receiving, displaying marketing, inventoring, selling, all require hands on.
BTW isn't recycling the move to reduce or eliminate environmental impact and prevent landfills and off shore venues from being over burdened with shiny discs, straws, cups, balloons, etc.?
if so, its not the CDs that is the problem, it is those who refuse to recycle,.
the bottom line IMO is IF indeed this is a better more cost effective, safer for the globe maturation of technology whose inherent attributes convey lower operational costs, then there should unquestionably be a comensurate more modest purchase price attached to a verifiable product.
if not, its just another format change which refuses to, or can not, give an appropriate justification to its end result
or re-learn how to be happy with MP3s again.
this should indeed make everyone deliriously happy.
that is of course when no one can recall when music could be acquired, touched, held, admired, , and enjoyed without the need for connectivity and redundancy.
BTW... due to the online forum colective bargaining agreement i'm paid by the syllable, not the word.
i've reached out to local 'On & On' self help groups, consequently truncated or abridged posts may be delivered by me soon enough.
I get the OP; that feeling of "saudade", the Portuguese word for the yearning for a time and circumstance that will never return. It's got nothing to do with CD's themselves, but what their sudden absence indicates about change.
Much like when Borders went under and took with it all those CD listening stations. Or when, as previously mentioned, when Tower Records vanished. There's an impersonal nature to streaming and house hermiting; and while CD's were always overpriced, they did represent a schema of socialization that neither Tidal nor Alexa can ever really replicate.
@simao : I too miss going to a local record store and looking through the bins for something new and unexpected! I wish Tower was still around! They had most everything - particularly jazz and classical!
In everything that changes, there are tradeoffs. With high quality streaming, maybe some of the religious experience has been lost, the walking over to one’s wall of lp’s or cd’s, picking one, cleaning it a bit, placing it on or inside the playback device, returning to one’s seat between the gargantuan speakers in the solitary chair and listening. Repeat for next album, etc.
With streaming, sit in that same chair and do it all from a tablet. BUT, here is where it gets interesting. The kids in the next room with their half dozen friends can access the same library and play their selections while the parents are enjoying a cocktail on the back patio listening to their selections. I have my entire library on my Nucleus Plus and have 2 backups, one at home and one at the office. At my office I have a audio wonderful setup there as well so I always have access to all my owned music as well as Qobuz and Tidal through Roon. People come in and out of my office all day, they hear music playing and often comment favorably on the music and the playback quality. I’ll have brief but sometimes lengthy discussions about the different music I am playing, their favorite music and then since I have immediate access to basically everything...I will play their favorite music over a high quality system and several have purchased their first (humble) high end gear. It’s often the first time many young people have ever seen tubes let alone understood their virtues.
so, all the hand wringing is valid if you happen to feel it is. The lamenting that there will no longer be a social hour at the Walmart CD bin. The mourning that a certain record store closed as the end of an era has got to stop. Water either flows around obstructions or pushes them downstream. With a limited perspective, some may say that the social aspects of music are gone forever. I would posit that just like the music formats have changed over the years, the way that the social interaction happens has shifted as well...like at my office.
All the whining about change is really tiresome. Im presently in my mid fifties but have chosen to live in an area where outdoor recreation and an active lifestyle is the norm. Alot of people where I live listen to alot of music but they are on the go more frequently so they listen on their mobile devices. They also take time to listen to the wind, to streams (water in this case), waterfalls, birds chirping and singing. Oh, and plenty of live music. Every generation is certain that when their norms are being disrupted that everyone’s in the same boat. Not hardly! Heck, clothing stores around here don’t even carry pants/slacks in waist sizes larger than 36 or rarely size 38. Not a pair of “dad jeans” in sight.
Get out of the basement, there’s a great big beautiful world out there.
I’m outdoors and generally out and about and active. That does not mean that there is something wrong with staying inside, especially on a bad weather day, and listening to real music on a very good quality hifi...and yes its in my basement lol. and just to add, I’m 52 and change sucks for the most part. No use for tidal, spotify, etc etc....to me the only thing that matters is owning physical media, LP’s cassettes, and CD’s. It truly is a sad state of affairs. I do hear that CD’s are staging a come back! Whether it will be as big a come back as vinyl....who knows. I always thought that cd’s sounded just fine on a high quality player, and they did not take up too much space. I have heard hi res this and that and I’m truly not that impressed, yes its convenient, but I want something i can hold and interact with. Something that involves me getting off my couch and doing a bit of work, whether it be cleaning a record or loading a cd onto the tray. I find it relaxing and rewarding to do either. Lastly, there is just something inherently right about browsing through LP's and CD's in a brick and mortar store. I find that it takes me back to my early years in the hobby, ahhh the memories...:)
Hey, its all good. Its cool to miss the good old days and think back fondly. The irony for me is that I put myself through undergrad working at a book and record shop in the early 1980’s. Those were the days before soundhound and other eservices so, when someone would come in and sing a part of a song it was my job to name that tune LOL. Sold alot of Allman Brothers and the Anarchist’s Cookbook along with zen and the art of motorcycle repair.
I too miss those great times and I also regret that today’s young people don’t get that experience. I further regret that today’s youth can’t send themselves to college with a menial job. Oh well, I learned alot about dealing with the public and how to ask someone nicely to leave. That was fun....
Indeed. My heart goes out to you for not being able to go to WalMart and get whatever you want whenever you want it.
This must be a real hardship for you and I can see why it would rank so high on your list of injustices in this world.
I only hope that that you can find some comfort listening to some of your older CD’s on your multi-thousand dollar audio reproduction system.
FYI, buying stuff online does not equate to not getting out. I buy most of my basic necessities online yet have lived in 7 countries in the past two years.
I guess if going to Walmart with a stop at Chick-fil-A on the way home constitutes getting out then perhaps your right.
Couldn't care less about Walmart's cd's! More than likely all they carried would have been "Popular music" cd's Are not dead by any means. I can find nearly anything I want on Amazon and various other sites. I also have a couple of record stores near me that sell new and literally thousands of used cd's! I love going to the record stores occasionaly and browsing through the used cd's! I always find at least a couple if not quite a few Gems that you could not even buy new. Some also say rock is dead which is not the case. You only have to seek it out. Plenty of great hands still making great music!😎
@blindjim, well thought out and said! We are in agreement on all points. I still go for the tangible media when serious but must admit to succumbing to convenience on rare occasions. We are a dying breed.........literally.
uberwaltz Target and Walmart have cut way back on their Music and Video sections. The new business model from these entertainment companies is to have the consumer rent/stream everything. This means no longer owning a physical product, at least, new product. This is the main reason why I am not into music servers/streamers-nor paying for that kind of service.
My smartphone let's me hunt for LPs with ease - no need to leave home! Yes shipping takes a few days to a week and patience is required. And I prefer original pressings, which the Big Box stores don't carry.
As a kid, one of my fondest memories was riding my bike to the local K-Mart and studying the cassette section. I couldn't afford a CD player.
I would spend an hour to pick out what I wanted that week and can remember the unmitigated joy of finding and hearing something spectacular for the first time like Black Sabbath's Sabotage. And the sadness when you realize the failure in a purchase like Steelheart.
In some ways I feel sad that those moments have been lost. Good news is Barnes & Noble has blown out vinyl and cd sections and they are a great place to browse until they go out of business.
And even mentioning K-Mart shows the times we are in.
Nothing wrong with the humble cassette tape either, I have hundreds of them and play them nearly as much as vinyl.
Agreed on Barnes & Noble and add Books A Million to that list too although I fear it is more to be "trendy" and attract some of the "hip" crowd than anything else.
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