Why Do ~You~ Still Play CDs?


I'm curious why you still play CDs in the age of streaming. I recently got back into CD listening and I'm curious if your reasons align with mine, which are:

  • Enjoying the physical medium—the tactile nature of the case, the disc, the booklet, etc.
  • Forcing myself to actually listen to an album, versus being easily distracted by an algorithm, or "what's next" in my playlist.
  • Actually owning the music I purchase, versus being stuck with yet another monthly subscription.

Others? 

itanibro

Showing 2 responses by fleschler

Mine align 100%.

Also, my own 150 to 200 live recordings of orchestral, chamber and especially choral recordings often at major venues cannot be duplicated (but they can be digitized).  Of my 16,300 CDs, I have about 20% which are not streamed and will probably never be publicaly available again.  Third-current streaming quality is 85% of the time inferior to my CD playback using a Lampizator Poseidon DAC/Pre-Amp and Jay's Audio CDt3 Mk3 transport.  So, that's six reasons, just like my reasons to listen to my 31,100+ LPs (30% will never be digitized-especially my 2,500+ ethnic music collection and 1,000 comedy albums).  

@no_regrets I agree.  When I drive I listen to local KUSC which often has new music and most of the music played are newer recordings from the last decade or so.  Thereby, I am being exposed (as much as I want) to new music and new performances.  Sometimes I get excited by a performance and purchase the CD.  So, streaming has a place after I get through about 10,000+ LPs and CDs that I haven't heard in my collection.   I just purchased a collection of about 700 Japanese pressed Jazz LPs (50/50 mono/stereo) and 200 45 rpm Jazz remasters (Kevin Grey).  So, I have much to hear in the next several years that I never encountered (although my Jazz listening best friends have heard them).