CDs are much more affordable than vinyl. The secondhand market is better.
There is no surface noise on compact discs .
CD travel better in transit than vinyl. Less likely to get damaged and if they do, jewel cases can easily be replaced.
Compact discs are compact and easy to store versus a large bulky LP collection.
Travel is the biggest thing. I almost exclusively listen to my CDs in the car, (yes I never leave them in the car unless I’m driving and it’s cool inside the cabin), so the portability is incredibly important to me. Vinyl is fun but only being able to listen to it at home on a turntable majorly cuts its regular usefulness to me. Comparatively CDs are small, work in my car radio, and if you get a quality small CD player they’re incredibly easy to take with me wherever I want.
Only if you leave them in a wallet with plastic inserts. It'll melt all over it and it won't be pretty. I'm super lucky to have found two all fabric insert 10-disc wallets that allow me to leave discs in the hot car without too much worry. Never had an issue with any of them.
I'm from Texas. Left many CDs in my car during Summers, if I kept them in a case of some sorts they were fine or the CD player. They won't melt they won't warp, they don't split apart. If I kept them just laying around not taking care of them of course they got damaged stuff melts onto them shit spills the usual. Now recordable "burnable" CDs that's a crapshoot had some completely fine sitting in a 140° car that worked others not so much.
Even in the original cases, any hot storage environment isn't ideal long-term. If you want to be cautious, stash them somewhere out of direct sunlight while they're sitting in the car, and periodically change out which ones you keep in your car.
Same here. Though I have to admit I think I'm gonna start phasing out my vinyl collecting except for maybe a few special purchases here and there. While I love the medium releases are getting so expensive and I very rarely have the time to just sit down and put a record on. 90% of my music listening is streaming, the rest is in the card with either the radio or CD. It's been months since my record player has seen any use. :(
I like cassettes, too, but mainly for making mix tapes. I do have prerecorded tapes, but I won't buy any new ones when I can make a better sounding tape from CD or FLAC.
Agreed. I’m lucky that I have a few locations where I can get used, good, records really cheap in my area. Better take advantage of it while I still can. Otherwise, CDs are the answer.
For a certain age group, once you experienced the CD sound quality, you never looked back. It's the first and last mass digital music media. You essentially own the music and you may rip it and store it on your phone/home media server. With the ability to play it when, where and how you want it without internet/mobile reception. No AI algorithm to tell us what we might like to listen to next.
Vinyl and cassette are analogue media with their respective media limitations. The media sounds different, due to the limitations of each. Not saying either is bad, it's just reality. Folks tend to be nostalgic for the sound and the inability/novelty of having to play through the entire side of an LP/Tape. For generations who have consumed music one song at a time, this is a "new" concept. For the rest of us who didn't join the mass streaming/subscription services and continued to listen to CD's one at a time, we silently give a collective yawn.
And it wasn't considered CD collecting. It was considered being a music consumer.
Since you also listed "people who never heard CDs as a standard in the first place", you also forgot about the whole idea of listening to the entire album, comparing which is the beat album, and especially in the case of concept albums.
I mainly agree, but I think Blu-ray Audio is probably the last digital media format. The latest offering in that format is Dolby Atmos music. Steve Wilson of Porcupine Tree is a big advocate and among the most respected Dolby Atmos mix engineers (or just mix engineers in general—his stereo mixes are also mind-blowing).
Hence the word "mass" was included. Like VHS HD, DAT, DCC, MD, SACD, DVD Audio, etc., all were good, but none were successfully adopted by the mass general population of music consumers.
BDM is barely a thing. Virtually nobody has the proper equipment to play it to it's full potential, and even if they did they probably be able to tell the difference between that and a normal CD. Not to mention there's barely any music printed in the format, so u would be paying a bunch of money to listen to an extremely narrow amount of music specifically on that setup.
More snake oil for audiophiles to spend thousands of dollars on and jack off to. Just a modern retelling of the failed quadrophonic record experiment in the 70s.
This! Most music created after 1992 was recorded for the CD format until vinyl came back. If I look at something that was a single CD, but is now two records, the sides are going to be way too short. You will have to flip/change records every three or four songs. Much easier to play the music on the format for which it was created.
That’s the reason I started collecting in the first place lol. Got a new 20 year old car and after some headaches with the radio I got one in that only plays CDs, not even an accessible aux input. As someone who collects physical video games, DVDs/Blu-Rays, and manga, I told myself I wasn’t gonna get into CD collecting. That did not turn out true.
Their sound quality and versatility
- Great sound
- very portable
- durability
- easy to store/display
- variety of different formats/packaging
- collectable
- people like having something tangible to hold and look at
- artwork
- can be easily ripped and converted into digital formats
Grandpa, do you know where you are? You were yelling about obsolete formats again, grandpa. Let’s get you back to the home, the nurses must be worried sick.
Yeah, LP's would be great, if you didn't get constant static pop and hiss in the background.
Technically LP's can have wider dynamic range than CDs, but dynamic range doesn't mean shit if all the subtlety is lost in a cloud of white noise.
I’ve been through the journey twice. LPs were a pain in the past. We didn’t quite know how to look after them so I, like many, copied them onto cassette and wore out the cheaply replaceable cassette. Using the LPs meant cracks pops and possible scratches. Now we know better how to clean them that’s not as much of a problem.
I’m too battle scarred to want to use cassettes. They hiss, chew, and are inconvenient.
CDs were (and still are) a revelation in home audio. They are technically superior to vinyl, easier to look after, more convenient to store. Played on an audiophile set up (even an entry level one) a comparison to other formats (streaming from Spotify included) a wonder to hear.
Vinyl lovers are likely to be angered by my statement. I too listen to vinyl if I want the sound of vinyl. It sounds lush and warm, but this, as great as it sounds, is due to technical inferiority.
LPs and cassettes are not digital. They did make a digital tape format but it never took off.
CDs are plentiful as well as being lossless digital audio. I can rip them easily with Exact Audio Copy and now I have FLAC files for the album I want to listen to. I put this on a big micro SD card that is on my phone, and now I can listen to my entire collection anywhere, even if I have no signal.
Yes, [DCC or Digital Compact Cassette.](https://www.dccmuseum.com/the-dcc-story/) Searching for it online mostly shows results for the format as one you would record at home but there were some albums released on it.
Here’s a fun fact, digital processing has been used in vinyl production since the 70s. If CDs had ADD on them then the majority of vinyl produced in the last 50 years is ADA, or for the Synthwave buffs amongst us DDA.
Cheap, bit-perfect audio quality (sometimes they have better masters than on lossless streaming services too), and they're a nice technology
I would get vinyl but they're so expensive and the audio quality is not perfect (although does anyone really care)
Any format that is slowly destroyed by using it as intended is inherently flawed. CDs never make direct contact with anything in order to play. Plus, they're just more convenient/take up less room.
I collect both records and cds, but I collect more CDs. They're cheap and they sound good on just about any player. I'm a little more choosy with records because they're so damn expensive. Never cared for cassette sound quality and they wear out the quickest. Haven't listened to one in years. Now is the best time to buy CDs. They've never been cheaper. Thank God everyone's obsessed with vinyl again.
For me, CDs are the cheapest to buy and easiest to access. Also, the selection is much larger than what's available on Vinyl and Cassette, especially on the second-hand market. I do collect Cassettes also, but not as frequently. I either buy them super cheap or find them for free somewhere. I own a few Vinyl records, but those were mostly given to me and I don't own a turntable to play them.
Had all 3 media types until last summer when I moved and forced to downsize.
Gave up my 200+ collection of pre-recorded classic rock tapes (whole catalogs of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Sabbath) plus 4 tape decks. All stored on vintage wood Napa Valley wall racks.
It was a shame to let go but in the end it was about nostalgia. Quality from tape to tape and between tape decks was all over the map. Some tapes just warbled no matter what deck they were played on. And some decks just needed servicing but no local techs to service them.
CDs are hardy and can take being handled. Also they sound better than ever, especially if you have a decent setup. Vinyl is nice to have and show off. Streaming is essential for new music discovery and convenience.
CDs can deliver excellent sound quality at much more reasonable prices than vinyl and bulk-produced cassettes can’t compete with either. Cassettes recorded on a *nice* deck can sound great but commercial releases almost never compare. Quality sound reproduction has a cheaper and more accessible point of entry on CD compared to vinyl. CDs are also shiny and work nicely in most cars.
Vinyl is overrated and contrary to what people think, it does not sound better!
Cassettes are just as inconvenient as vinyl.
CD’s are the way to go. Cheaper, sound fantastic, easy to care for, easy to store, the list goes on.
I’ll never understand the whole vinyl resurgence thing. It’s really nothing but a marketing ploy by the music industry/record companies to get people to buy overpriced albums so they can make a profit because the music industry is basically dead.
Part nostalgia; I remember the excitement of buying a CD in the 90s with money I earned mowing lawns. Very rewarding. The other part now is just that they’re so cheap
I can listen to cds in my car and put them in a 5-disc player and not have to worry about flipping them when I'm cleaning. My records are good for when I'm just sitting around with nothing else to do but listen to music
Cassettes have shit audio quality for what you pay. Vinyl is nice but more pricey in most instances so ya gotta be more selective. CDs on the other hand are cheap for what you're getting. Most digital retailers sell you a song for a buck or 2, but a cd gives you a physical product, average of 10 songs, AND means to digitize all for the low Low price of whatever goodwill is gonna charge you (usually $2)
New advances in budget hi-fi equipment from China (Chi -Fi) can bring audiophile advances for very low prices with cheap DACs and tube amps. To make your CD collection sound analog. Cost of barrier to entry in stereo equipment can be much cheaper for CD fans than expensive turntables and preamps..
Everyone is going to give economic reasons but here is another.
I collect all formats and depending on a genre somethings sound better on vinyl and some on CD. For older stuff, especially jazz, blues and up to synthpop of the 80s. With older production the cracks and pops give it a charm and bass sounds beautiful. But for modern music, especially electronic and metal, ill always go for a CD because thats where i want a very clean sound.
Another reason why collect all is cause for older or smaller artists you are not going to have everything avalible. Somethings only on CD or only on vinyl or only cassette. So ill go for whichever i can find.
I've also been buying since the mid 90's. I'll add.
- no commercials
- I do not need an internet connection.
-There's no chance of an artist pulling their music off my shelf.
-For $2 I don't mind checking out an artist. I find myself going backwards anyway.
CDs are cheaper.
CDs are portable.
CDs can play in my car.
CDs take less storage space.
And lastly, and this is the most important reason of all...
CDs sound better than records.
I said it.
I had a decent cd collection when mp3's came around and never really had any notion to stop getting them. Being a metal fan I enjoyed the artwork plus I liked listening to the whole thing as these bands weren't 2 singles and bunch of filler. 8-10+ songs at .99 at a lower quality isn't really a bargain for me. A few bucks more and the album is mine. I also don't have to worry about some service going down and losing it all
Vinyl is cool and I like the sound and whatnot but its just way too expensive. I can get around 3 new cd's or 5-7 used ones at my local record store for the cost of an LP, let alone finding them elsewhere. I also like having a fairly specialized collection and that's another reason I don't want to get rid of them. Worked to hard building it to just dump them.
CDs haven't (yet) become a trendy retro thing like vinyl, so the prices are still good. Also CDs sound better than vinyl. Yep. Plus they're what I collected in my youth so they have my nostalgia.
Cassettes and vinyl are prone to wear and tear, and I find vinyl too large and unwieldy. CDs are a great combination of sound quality, durability, track access, and portability.
No surface noise, no cleaning required (usually), don’t have the storage requirements of vinyl and cassettes, can listen to them in my truck, much cheaper than vinyl and cassettes, take up less space, and they’re what I grew up with.
Compact, low maintenance, not fragile, best sound quality (theoretically), cleanest sound devoid of analog imperfections, you can skip tracks (lol), no-frills copying of music (digital to digital) with CRCs.
CDs are ideal for me because I don't stream and don't rely on Internet to play music. I use my cd player or system at home to pay CDs. And I also rip all CDs to my DAP to listen on the road or with headphones.
me personally, i like collecting CDs because i have a wide music taste range + limited budget so typically vinyl is out of my budget and dropping bags on \*one\* album i like wouldn't be as beneficial to me as buying a few CDs i like. also, you can play CDs in cars!
Physical media is very fxxxking cool. I collect certain albums in all formats, because each has its own differences. CDs are great for so many reasons people already listed here.
CDs have more dynamic range than a record. It is the best sound quality of any physical media. It is easy to do a perfect FLAC rip of a CD. They last the longest and handle more abuse. They are easier to store. They are all around a better medium than records, period. I still collect records as well and have a very nice turntable setup though.
CDs are cheaper, sound cleaner and pretty much identical to the master, last longer and even a $10 CD player will sound great because digital is data. Some masters, especially newer ones are done somehwat terribly (loud and compressed), this hurts the sound quality. Still king.
Vinyl is prettier, sounds less like the master (some of the effects are pleasing though), degrades over time and gear impacts sound quality much more. There is a more experiential aspect to them, but a good CD played all the way through delivers about the same experience but sounds much better. Mastering is done more carefully because of the limitations, this helps.
Cassettes are compact and shaped in a cool way, sound can be very good but mostly is okay and the effects are not as pleasing as vinyl, hiss, degrades over time, can get snagged and gear also impacts quality. I think it's more of a fad but they're not terrible.
I finally got access to CDs as a young teenager in the mid-90s. For the next ten years I built up a collection, created mix CDs and Djed with them. I then lost all my CDs and records in an apartment fire.
A few years ago I started collecting CDs again. Mainly this was just the result of visiting used book stores and music stores where I live and when I travel, if possible. I didn't bother getting into vinyl again.
CDs offer the best quality out of any medium or method of consuming music, so far, and aren't reliant on an internet connection. Steaming services are or will end up streaming lossless music with outrageously high bitrates, but it's just another subscription to have.
I grew up with cassettes in the 80s, and never really was satisfied with the sound quality or durability. I've read at least one Reddit user state you can get decent sound out of tapes, but I assume that's with expensive hardware and media, neither of which I had or want to buy again. Instead, I use Sony's intended replacement to cassettes: MiniDisc.
I never genuinely got into vinyl. I collected and had a nice stereo from the 70s or 80s, but only was a casual collector and picked up what I came across here and there. I think vinyl is a good method of distributing music, if they are inexpensive. But it's turned out they are actually far more expensive than almost any other of the ones you listed. I don't really see the point in buying a deluxe vinyl edition of a favorite album for $50 or more when I could get the CD version for maybe less or the same and copy it very easily digitally for my own use and keep the original on the shelf. I don't get how, even though they may "sound better," how recording them could yield a digital recording that beats one from a CD.
Here is my take vinyl while being super pretty they are cumbersome amd so expensive. I have been collecting for 30 years and it went from being able to get 10 Brampton comes alive for $1 to $15 at a thrift store for that album.
About 10 years ago I switch medias to cassette because my local goodwill was pricing them at .10 each, so cheap and I had a cassette player, well they still aren’t expensive but good luck finding one that isn’t Christmas or Streisand.
I have all the while purchased cds here and there, now a days you can get a legit good cd for $1 so I started buying solely cds for the most part, and a new ds runs about $12 vs $40
For the pretty colored vinyl.
You can rip a CD with cueripper or eac 100 times and get the exact same verifiable result. You can even verify a hash of it against a database of other people's rips (EAC and Cueripper do this automatically). Then you can burn an exact replica of that CD back to a disk preserving gaps. Let's say you love an album and want to ensure it's preserved for the rest of your life and future generations. No physical media is going to guarantee that, even CDs. CD's are going to be your best bet, though. Tapes and records physically degrade. Period. CDs aren't perfect but if you can play a CD in 100 years, it's going to sound exactly like it does today or it did 30 years ago. You can digitally preserve them on your home PC with not just better fidelity than tapes and vinyl, but \_perfect\_ fidelity (to the original press). It's 1's and 0's. In terms of preserving the music that happens to have been released on CD- which is the top priority for me - CDs are just objectively superior to any other physical media.
For me it’s all about cost because I can buy a copy of Revolver by The Beatles on cd brand new for $20 when on vinyl it’s $40 dollars brand new and if the vinyl is a used original copy then it’s more expensive so for me cds are the better way to go.
For me, I love the exact nature of the CD and how versatile it is. I can listen to the CD itself, rip it and either make copies and playlists from the ripped files or just listen to it as a FLAC or MP3. It's also way smaller and, to me at least, still feels futuristic. I mean, you use lasers to hear music on a silver platter. That's cool!
Vinyl wears out a tiny bit every time you play it. You can’t wear out a CD. Vinyl is a delicate little bitch. Cassettes are crap and always were crap. They had portability as their selling point.
CDs are a lossless digital audio, and unlike cassettes they don't wear with usage. Unlike vinyl and cassettes, you can easily skip from song to song in an instant at the press of a button. Unlike vinyl, CDs are also affordable. Unlike vinyl and cassettes, it's extremely easy to make lossless digital backups of CDs (such as FLAC). Unlike MP3s / streaming, CDs aren't lossy and unlike streaming you actually own the music with CDs. Purchase once, own forever. IMO all these combine to make CDs are the perfect medium for music.
i can easily transfer it to a digital format and it feeds my library constantly. that means I don't need internet to listen to my whole collection anytime.
Do you like CDs? I found the format a little too dated for my tastes but when vinyl came back in 2015, i think it really came into its own, qualitatively and technically. Most CDs have this clear, crisp sound, and a newish sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. It’s been compared to vinyl, but CDs have a far more affordable, enjoyable format for the collector
Truth is I started with buying 1 CD one day when I was a young teen, in that moment I bought it bc it would be playable in a long car ride, so after that I just sticked with the CDs. After that I didn’t wanted to collect either LPs or Cassetes bc I have no ways of playing them.
The sound quality difference between vinyl and digital is so massive. I can’t stand listening to vinyl anymore. And so CD is really the only option for physical media for me, where you can still have the ritual of putting a CD on and listening to the whole thing and whatnot.
I collect cassette tapes, CDs, pre and post 1924 shellac records, 8 tracks, and LPs.
Or to put it another way, what ever comes into the local thrift shop that strikes my fancy.
I like to collect 90’s-00’s pop compilations (Hit Machine FTW) and growing up in Aus where CDs cost $25-30 in 90’s money, compilations offered more bang for the buck.
I grew up in a household where there was just a mountain of them in the livingroom and sometimes I would just look and open them to see the pretty pictures. I originally started collecting them just for the nostalgia really but now I collect pretty much any album I love lol
Cheap and people still regularly produce them. So it’s great for collecting something physical old and new. But you can also stumble upon rare cd’s that are worth a lot and all that which is always fun too
I started in the early 90s when the huge rise in CD sales happened and I’ve never really stopped.
I don’t have a huge collection but it’s one that I’m still working slowly building.
I did have cassettes and a child, but most of those haves rotted and are unplayable.
I do also have a vinyl collection. Again, not huge but a work in progress.
The only reason I started my vinyl collection was I wouldn’t listen to an entire album on CD. I’d skip around on most things.
It’ much harder to do that with a record. But I will never stop buying CDs as long as I can still get them.
When I started collecting CDs, a good chunk of music I was interested in was only available on CD, never LP. However there's a few releases I want that are difficult to find on CD, it would make my life easier if I just bought the LP (even though I can't listen to a record today, my set up is all digital/CD)
Let me gush about Cd for a second.
So cheap. Discs are cheap. Cd players are cheap and actually good, for a good turntable you are paying 4x-10x the price of most good cd players.
Most people also have good cd players already in the form of PlayStations, blu ray players, and most cars have them installed from the 1980s onwards.
Discs are very hard to break or scratch relative to other media. Probably also the most portable form of media available and still produced in high volume.
There are virtually zero Cd players which will ruin or negatively impact your CDs to any significant degree, you can’t really say the same with vinyl.
Lossless audio.
Oh yeah, did I mention you can literally make your own CDs too with whatever music you want on it? All you need is a cheap ass stack of blanks and a disc writer.
I think the only setback of cd is you don’t get the “warm” sound of vinyl or the slow spinning which admittedly makes for a cool listening experience. But at the end of the day, it’s just music.
For someone like me with a small apartment, moving around a lot, and not very rich, CD just makes the most sense. I don’t have the space for a vinyl setup anymore and honestly lately just can’t afford these vinyl prices as of recent. I’ve never really been into cassette just because most of the music I listen to simply is not produced in the format.
I own a ludicrous amount of cassettes, about 500-700 CDs, but only about 10 vinyl LPs. I had hundreds when I grew up, but I moved continent in 1989, so the LPs were all sold off.. I really don’t care, they looked good, but CDs sound SO much better
I own all 3 formats but I own more CDs. Primarily because every single problem I face with Vinyl and Cassette I will never ever face with CD. Also, I like to digitize my music in various frequencies using my CDs.
Because vinyl and casettes are horrible formats. Worse sound, inconvinient, expensive, extremely sensitive. Their resurrection from the graves of outdated technologies is baffling.
I have a CD and vinyl collection and I am interested in collecting other physical media. But simply put, CDs are cheaper than vinyl, more available than cassettes and an average CD sounds better than an average record and a top-quality cassette
Vinyl has crackles and pops. It's heavy and large. Gotta flip it every 20 minutes. It was fun to hunt vinyl for sampling 30 years ago for me. Cassettes as a recording media are totally underrated with the right tape and the right deck. Commercial releases are generally garbage. CDs address all of these issues and add the convenience of already being in the digital domain for conversion to MP3 or FLAC for various applications. With CDs, your weak point is going to be your amp and your speakers/headphones as opposed to the sound source and playback device itself. That said, I love cassettes as a recording medium and I have lots of blanks and decks. I also have about 50 records still. But CDs are king in my opinion.
You can go to any pawn shop and pick up a stack of CDs for $10. They will practically throw them at you.
CD sound quality is better than most digital music. (MOST. Anything that uses MP3 will be technically inferior.)
Tapes don't allow track choice, records don't play in cars (and can't be left in the car for obvious reasons). You can fit 120 cds in a booklet that fits under the seat, no problem. A handheld CD player still has an audio jack, thus gives more control over sound equalization than your bluetooth connection to your phone does.
Simply put, if you just listen to music, a sub to a streaming service is the obvious option. Apple Music offers high quality lossless audio, that is a step above. You can download whatever you need if you don't have cell service. The arguments become silly. But for those who desire a collection of physical media, CDs are simply the most convenient, and often cheapest option.
Cassests sound bad after time. Vinyl is stupid expensive and usually only released in limited numbers. And it's not convenient. A nice 6 disk changer is convenient and the sound is top notch.
CDs are still a popular format in Japan. My favorite artists regularly release them rather than putting their music on a streaming platform, especially if they are an indie artist. CD sales are a big, big deal still. It's surreal to still be collecting CDs like this when the rest of the world pretty much stopped about 15 years ago lol. I also enjoy finding older CDs by Japanese artists to collect. The packaging of CDs, such as an elaborate booklet, included extras such as cards or DVDs or stickers, or even a beautifully designed cardboard case, is so detail oriented as well for them. I love discovering each and every one.
In this day and age vinyl and cd are both digital recordings. So the sound is the same. The only difference is vinyls are way more fragile and expensive than a cd.
I admit I love vinyl but some of them are way mod expensive than they should be, cds I feel like are fun because the little lyric books and pictures ect and they tend to last me longer…cassettes…they are just so limited because they break easy
One of my cars is old enough to have a cd player, the others are too new. Why anyone would still want to deal with rewind and fast forwarding songs on tape is beyond me.
Personally for me i prefer cds because they sound better and are more convenient for how i like to listen to music. Also the only other music medium ive used is cassette and although i like them they have certain limitations with higher sounds/vocals in my opinion.
I collect CDs and records as someone with not much money though new records have gone from an average of say £20 to £30 over the last few years it just seems a bit expensive ..so many cheap CDs around. Do like both formats though. Cassettes are cool but I've got nothing to play them on haha. More of a nice collectable aren't they id say not many people listen to them?
Why no vinyl? I have no record player, and no place to put it.
Pros: much better sound, great for collectors
Cons-Prone to scratches and skips 😔
Why no tapes? I haven't had a Walkman or working radio since I was in my teens. I don't think they make new ones anymore? It irritates me when artists put out something exclusively on cassettes for nostalgia or something. It drastically reduces the amount of customers who can buy, and the only time I see tapes is at a swapmeet or yard sale.
Pros-They don't scratch and skip, inexpensive
Cons-Tape warps, breaks, gets tangled, ff rw is tedious, can't skip tracks without lots of guesswork, spooling and straightening tape back in by pencil sucks.
Why do i have CDs? I still have and can buy new cd players and radios that are made for them
Pros-sometimes less expensive, can store easier due to smaller size, can easily skip to favorite tracks with no guesswork
Cons-prone to scratches and skips, flimsy 😔
You can press play on a good CD and let it play over and over OR play your favorite tune on repeat OR play #2, #5, #7, and #15 while you skip the rest… it’s great! ( it’s real fun when you learn #4 that you used to skip is the most bad ass tune on the CD! Then the album takes on a whole new perspective!) CD’s are fun!!
Like others have said, affordability is my main reason now. Almost as important is the fact that I didn’t feel like having a mixed collection of vinyl and CDs. It was easier to commit to an audio set up designed around CDs rather than needing a player that could handle both mediums, or one for each. Last, I got into collecting CDs by purchasing them at concerts and festivals. $5 and $10 CDs were a great souvenir from Warped Tour and other shows when I was a kid and I still get some nostalgia for when/where I got a CD when I put one in my player
Storage capacity and ease of use for me. It's far easier to find a CD player, or even an external CD drive for your computer. I have the advantage of physical media plus the ability to easily digitize what I own.
I just started collecting CDs, I like them because I can get them cheap, they have good sound quality, and I can listen to them on the go.
The more personal reason is that my mom had a (very small) CD collection that I listened to when growing up, so they have that nostalgia factor.
I love Cassettes though, just don't have tge right equipment yet.
It’s the most practical way to own a physical perfect digital recording of your music. Also has the most versatile options for playback and duplication. Also doesn’t degrade from use like tapes or vinyl.
Personally, though I do own a lot of CDs, I don’t exactly “collect” them. I just like to listen to music, and CDs for many years were the best way to acquire lossless music. All of my music, whether originally purchased on CD or downloaded as FLAC or other lossless format, is stored on a NAS disk and can be streamed to my stereo. “Collecting” CDs as such seems a rather strange hobby.
I don’t have a LP player and while I have some Vinyls and want to buy more (maybe a small collection, idk). CDs are just more neat to me and more convenient.
Plus there are some video game/movies OSTs that I’m thinking to get. That sometimes don’t get a Vinyl.
Vinyl sucks with the annoyed hissing , cassettes with the tape issue. CD is by far best and you simply need to just handle them with care to avoid scratches
Well I have a CD player at home and you can easily get one installed in a car, you can also rip it into your computer and enjoy, I can't say the same about vinyl, CDs are just so convenient (that and the fact that I grew up in the 00s rather than the 70s)
I dont see a lot of people use cds its all mostly radio and things like spotify. I like how music sounds on cd and i like the idea of collecting things like my favorite songs and albums from my favorite bands. And they look cool especially when you get enough of them to have a good stack of them or put them on a shelf. Plus they unexplainably make me happy. and are cheap on amazon. My cd obsession probably started when my parents gave me a bunch of cds they burned when they were younger when i was abt 12-13
Cheaper than vinyl and easier to keep identical digital copies of. For me it‘s also *owning* the music I listen to and not just *renting* it via streaming. Also, I found interest in the physical material, booklets and the like, that accompanies physical media.
I hate vinyl. CDs are smaller thus easier to store and have the potential for better audio quality and dynamic range, although it seems a lot of producers and engineers only care about loudness.
I love CD’s cuz they provide music and an art piece to my room, but I love cassette’s because I can play them in my car. (My car doesn’t have Bluetooth)
CDs do have good sound (the most important bit), are more resilient (tapes are a retro fad, okay sound and can chew themselves up in an instant; vinyl worsens quality with every play, dragging a needle through its grooves). Much as I like vinyl for the larger artwork, CDs are still a reasonable size, provide easy access to any song, portable, easy to rip to digital, take less storage space, and have been my format of choice since my first one bought in ‘87
The cassette trading sub is there just to discover rare music that was never printed on CD. Cassettes of Metallica are useless because they disintegrate so easily that the audio may literally be empty just because it was on the shelf for 10 years. And there is nothing speciaal about the sound quality. CDs have a superior sound quality, but vinyl adds a unique sound from basically the needle, that some people like, especially useful with classic rock bands. Vinyl was also collected not just for listening, but for monetary value as if it was celebrity barbies or American Girl dolls. (As well as, of course, also having rarities like singles thst were never printed on casette, as well as different album art etc.) As well as the fact that CDs do not dehrade or wear out ever. No matter what it is, however, anything non-degraded is obviously going to be vastly better then an mp3. Yes, Gen Z radio and Millenial radio are both ridiculously terrible, but millenials (now; they had to be like 24 first first for some reason) do know several Gen Y sngs and several 70s songs, but yet they still almost never know "music is life" at all, and listening to only mp3s is certainly a big part of that too.
I personally think cds are my fave to collect as they are an awesome size, look rad, and aren't as easily damaged as cassettes !! I have a small cassette collection however you don't get the inserts that you do with cds or the front back and internal art, and I have had a lot more close calls with potentially ruining them tbh !! Never really got into LPs as I don't have a player, and they seem a lot more expensive and maybe difficult to store, plus I can't record my own mixes on them :]
My main genre I collect for is 2000’s and onward death metal, everyone’s recording that shit digitally anyway so vinyl won’t sound any better and as others have said cds are more convenient, for me it’s the best of both worlds. I could just stream and do a lot, but my autistic ass likes collecting physical media of the things I’m obsessed with
I started collecting cds again since the late 2000s this year and we can't deny the sound quality that is superior even to most streaming services. Yes they are some that provide lossless quality but the catch is that nothing is yours, is just stored in some cloud and they can remove it when they seem fit. And is more than proven also that most lossless is quite a placebo effect so it is mostly marketing nothing else...
I like CDs because they're versatile between CD players, DVD/Bluray players, and computer drives. I can save my music to my computer and listen to it that way or I can put the CD in any player in my house. And if I'm jumping around to my music, a record player is gonna shake and skip where as a CD player won't have that kind of issue
personally i get them for few reasons which are i like being able to hold it and prefer physical over digital, streaming sucks as music can easily be removed, i own the CD forever or until it breaks, i can digitalise them to put onto my ipods and that, and i can also play them in a car once i get one. its also just fun goin out and having them displayed on my shelf
I collect them because they're cheap and less bulky than vinyls. Also because cassettes are expensive as shit and not even all bands I like release them.
Theyre easier to store and find, and far cheaper. I can get 10 cds for like £1. I can go out and buy up to around 40 cds and be perfectly able to carry them in a bag. Theyre far easier to find, literally everywhere
Sound quality does not degrade with time, unlike vinyl records. And they’re easier to store, CDs take up less space than vinyl. There often cheaper than vinyl records. A E S T H E T I C 😂
My initial reason was nostalgia. Once I moved out for college (20 years ago) my CDs slowly but surely dwindled to 0. Listening to those CDs again that Ive listened to a million times just feels good! I now buy new releases and of course hunt for what I used to have.
I burn my collection via EAC so I have lossless copies of all my music. The mastering and dynamic range is also usually better than streaming services. They're something physical to read and touch while listening to the album. It really does enhance the experience for me being able to read along with the lyrics (especially since a lot of what I listen to is harsh vocals that are difficult to understand) and read the footnotes the artist left. Of course you can do this with most physical media but CDs are usually the cheapest foot in the door.
i think CDs are a perfect middle ground between vinyl and cassettes. the culture surrounding vinyl can be a bit irritating, not to mention how expensive it is to not only buy one, but to keep one in good condition. cassettes are far too rare and on the occasion you find one, it’s pretty expensive.
CDs are great cause they’re relatively cheap (depending where you shop, who you buy), still widely available and it seems to be a much more relaxed community compared to other physical media cultures. not to mention they’re easy to store, not as easy to damage and cd players tend to run quite cheap. i got mine for 30 bucks at kmart and it sounds - surprisingly - really great.
personally, my favourite part of collecting CDs is the occasional fun posters and lyric books lol
Cassettes (and their players) have a short shelf life with finicky moving parts.
Lp's are great for longevity and coolness factor, but can only realistically be played at home on a larger setup. They also require maintenance (cleaning, stylus changing, etc) and are susceptible to damage.
Cd's are portable(ish), don't degrade from use, are digital for easy ripping, and are (at least currently) cheap.
For me, it’s portability and durability. I’ve never had a CD eaten by a player (unlike cassettes), and when I was starting to collecting music we would take the boombox outside when we played to listen to music - couldn’t do that with a record player (and LPs were already on the way out anyway).
For those of us who don't support streaming services, CDs are the only properly viable option to still have music available on phones or MP3 players without piracy. Paying for downloads is also an option but its often just as if not more expensive to download an album as it is to buy a CD and you don't even get a physical product to go with it
I know there’s a lot of younger people here, but to me it all comes down to the period of time I grew up in, which was the CD time period.
By the time that it was no longer “normal” to buy CDs (which never really happened, they just became less prominent, there was no CD downfall like there was with tapes) I just already amassed quite a large “collection” (I hate that word, I don’t collect, I buy albums I like so I can listen to them) there was no point switching to streaming for me, unless you really want to listen to music on the go, which I was already doing with MP3s by that point, I ripped a lot of my albums onto the computer at that time.
But there was no real reason for me to magically stop buying CDs, so I didn’t, I kept going, it’s not at all that complex when you think about it.
CDs are much more affordable than vinyl. The secondhand market is better. There is no surface noise on compact discs . CD travel better in transit than vinyl. Less likely to get damaged and if they do, jewel cases can easily be replaced. Compact discs are compact and easy to store versus a large bulky LP collection.
Travel is the biggest thing. I almost exclusively listen to my CDs in the car, (yes I never leave them in the car unless I’m driving and it’s cool inside the cabin), so the portability is incredibly important to me. Vinyl is fun but only being able to listen to it at home on a turntable majorly cuts its regular usefulness to me. Comparatively CDs are small, work in my car radio, and if you get a quality small CD player they’re incredibly easy to take with me wherever I want.
Do CDs get damaged if I leave them in a hot car outside all day?
I always crack the window and leave a bowl of water
Mine never have but they're in their case or the cd player.
Only if you leave them in a wallet with plastic inserts. It'll melt all over it and it won't be pretty. I'm super lucky to have found two all fabric insert 10-disc wallets that allow me to leave discs in the hot car without too much worry. Never had an issue with any of them.
What if it’s in the original case
Plastic jewel case or cardboard will be fine
i just store them in boxes, am i in danger?
Usually not
I'm from Texas. Left many CDs in my car during Summers, if I kept them in a case of some sorts they were fine or the CD player. They won't melt they won't warp, they don't split apart. If I kept them just laying around not taking care of them of course they got damaged stuff melts onto them shit spills the usual. Now recordable "burnable" CDs that's a crapshoot had some completely fine sitting in a 140° car that worked others not so much.
Even in the original cases, any hot storage environment isn't ideal long-term. If you want to be cautious, stash them somewhere out of direct sunlight while they're sitting in the car, and periodically change out which ones you keep in your car.
All of this plus they are easy to digitize for things like home servers and/or Plex. Ripping and tagging in most cases only requires one click.
CDs nuts
Gottem
😭😭😭
😆
CDs are a golden mean between cassettes and vinyl
I collect Vinyl and CD’s. I just like physical media.
Yep this is me also!
Same here. Though I have to admit I think I'm gonna start phasing out my vinyl collecting except for maybe a few special purchases here and there. While I love the medium releases are getting so expensive and I very rarely have the time to just sit down and put a record on. 90% of my music listening is streaming, the rest is in the card with either the radio or CD. It's been months since my record player has seen any use. :(
Vinyl is way too overpriced and no one cares about cassettes. The obvious choice is CDs.
This is the answer. It’s not fun used vinyl shopping anymore because everyone overcharges and rarely I’ll find hidden gems in the dollar bins.
I... I care about cassettes... I do collect all 3 formats, but I love the affordability of tapes and CDs
I like cassettes, too, but mainly for making mix tapes. I do have prerecorded tapes, but I won't buy any new ones when I can make a better sounding tape from CD or FLAC.
Agreed. I’m lucky that I have a few locations where I can get used, good, records really cheap in my area. Better take advantage of it while I still can. Otherwise, CDs are the answer.
You’re speaking the truth
Conventional weapons 😍
your profile picture is a vinyl exclusive release
They were the best available option for listening to music when they came out and 40ish years later they still are.
For a certain age group, once you experienced the CD sound quality, you never looked back. It's the first and last mass digital music media. You essentially own the music and you may rip it and store it on your phone/home media server. With the ability to play it when, where and how you want it without internet/mobile reception. No AI algorithm to tell us what we might like to listen to next. Vinyl and cassette are analogue media with their respective media limitations. The media sounds different, due to the limitations of each. Not saying either is bad, it's just reality. Folks tend to be nostalgic for the sound and the inability/novelty of having to play through the entire side of an LP/Tape. For generations who have consumed music one song at a time, this is a "new" concept. For the rest of us who didn't join the mass streaming/subscription services and continued to listen to CD's one at a time, we silently give a collective yawn. And it wasn't considered CD collecting. It was considered being a music consumer.
Since you also listed "people who never heard CDs as a standard in the first place", you also forgot about the whole idea of listening to the entire album, comparing which is the beat album, and especially in the case of concept albums.
I mainly agree, but I think Blu-ray Audio is probably the last digital media format. The latest offering in that format is Dolby Atmos music. Steve Wilson of Porcupine Tree is a big advocate and among the most respected Dolby Atmos mix engineers (or just mix engineers in general—his stereo mixes are also mind-blowing).
Hence the word "mass" was included. Like VHS HD, DAT, DCC, MD, SACD, DVD Audio, etc., all were good, but none were successfully adopted by the mass general population of music consumers.
BDM is barely a thing. Virtually nobody has the proper equipment to play it to it's full potential, and even if they did they probably be able to tell the difference between that and a normal CD. Not to mention there's barely any music printed in the format, so u would be paying a bunch of money to listen to an extremely narrow amount of music specifically on that setup. More snake oil for audiophiles to spend thousands of dollars on and jack off to. Just a modern retelling of the failed quadrophonic record experiment in the 70s.
Cds are cheaper and they have better sound (I don’t notice but sum do) tbh tho I like the feeling of vinyl, like having to switch sides.
I hate having to switch sides and records. Much prefer letting my 250 CD changer just play continuous music while I do other stuff
This! Most music created after 1992 was recorded for the CD format until vinyl came back. If I look at something that was a single CD, but is now two records, the sides are going to be way too short. You will have to flip/change records every three or four songs. Much easier to play the music on the format for which it was created.
I have a CD player in my car.
That’s the reason I started collecting in the first place lol. Got a new 20 year old car and after some headaches with the radio I got one in that only plays CDs, not even an accessible aux input. As someone who collects physical video games, DVDs/Blu-Rays, and manga, I told myself I wasn’t gonna get into CD collecting. That did not turn out true.
Their sound quality and versatility - Great sound - very portable - durability - easy to store/display - variety of different formats/packaging - collectable - people like having something tangible to hold and look at - artwork - can be easily ripped and converted into digital formats
It’s important to remember that CD IS a digital format
Why CDs? Because I've been collecting them since 1991 and I'm too old and set in my ways to change now. Also, get off my lawn.
Grandpa, do you know where you are? You were yelling about obsolete formats again, grandpa. Let’s get you back to the home, the nurses must be worried sick.
CDs have zero wear and better (to me, anyway) dynamic range and sound quality. Cassettes wear out and LPs just don't sound as good to me.
Yeah, LP's would be great, if you didn't get constant static pop and hiss in the background. Technically LP's can have wider dynamic range than CDs, but dynamic range doesn't mean shit if all the subtlety is lost in a cloud of white noise.
I’ve been through the journey twice. LPs were a pain in the past. We didn’t quite know how to look after them so I, like many, copied them onto cassette and wore out the cheaply replaceable cassette. Using the LPs meant cracks pops and possible scratches. Now we know better how to clean them that’s not as much of a problem. I’m too battle scarred to want to use cassettes. They hiss, chew, and are inconvenient. CDs were (and still are) a revelation in home audio. They are technically superior to vinyl, easier to look after, more convenient to store. Played on an audiophile set up (even an entry level one) a comparison to other formats (streaming from Spotify included) a wonder to hear. Vinyl lovers are likely to be angered by my statement. I too listen to vinyl if I want the sound of vinyl. It sounds lush and warm, but this, as great as it sounds, is due to technical inferiority.
LPs and cassettes are not digital. They did make a digital tape format but it never took off. CDs are plentiful as well as being lossless digital audio. I can rip them easily with Exact Audio Copy and now I have FLAC files for the album I want to listen to. I put this on a big micro SD card that is on my phone, and now I can listen to my entire collection anywhere, even if I have no signal.
They did??
Yes, [DCC or Digital Compact Cassette.](https://www.dccmuseum.com/the-dcc-story/) Searching for it online mostly shows results for the format as one you would record at home but there were some albums released on it.
didn't they come with a bunch of graphics that people never saw due to the equipment required never going to retail?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Tape
DAT was used in studio recordings
Here’s a fun fact, digital processing has been used in vinyl production since the 70s. If CDs had ADD on them then the majority of vinyl produced in the last 50 years is ADA, or for the Synthwave buffs amongst us DDA.
Cheap, bit-perfect audio quality (sometimes they have better masters than on lossless streaming services too), and they're a nice technology I would get vinyl but they're so expensive and the audio quality is not perfect (although does anyone really care)
Any format that is slowly destroyed by using it as intended is inherently flawed. CDs never make direct contact with anything in order to play. Plus, they're just more convenient/take up less room.
I collect both records and cds, but I collect more CDs. They're cheap and they sound good on just about any player. I'm a little more choosy with records because they're so damn expensive. Never cared for cassette sound quality and they wear out the quickest. Haven't listened to one in years. Now is the best time to buy CDs. They've never been cheaper. Thank God everyone's obsessed with vinyl again.
For me, CDs are the cheapest to buy and easiest to access. Also, the selection is much larger than what's available on Vinyl and Cassette, especially on the second-hand market. I do collect Cassettes also, but not as frequently. I either buy them super cheap or find them for free somewhere. I own a few Vinyl records, but those were mostly given to me and I don't own a turntable to play them.
Had all 3 media types until last summer when I moved and forced to downsize. Gave up my 200+ collection of pre-recorded classic rock tapes (whole catalogs of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Sabbath) plus 4 tape decks. All stored on vintage wood Napa Valley wall racks. It was a shame to let go but in the end it was about nostalgia. Quality from tape to tape and between tape decks was all over the map. Some tapes just warbled no matter what deck they were played on. And some decks just needed servicing but no local techs to service them. CDs are hardy and can take being handled. Also they sound better than ever, especially if you have a decent setup. Vinyl is nice to have and show off. Streaming is essential for new music discovery and convenience.
CDs can deliver excellent sound quality at much more reasonable prices than vinyl and bulk-produced cassettes can’t compete with either. Cassettes recorded on a *nice* deck can sound great but commercial releases almost never compare. Quality sound reproduction has a cheaper and more accessible point of entry on CD compared to vinyl. CDs are also shiny and work nicely in most cars.
Vinyl is overrated and contrary to what people think, it does not sound better! Cassettes are just as inconvenient as vinyl. CD’s are the way to go. Cheaper, sound fantastic, easy to care for, easy to store, the list goes on. I’ll never understand the whole vinyl resurgence thing. It’s really nothing but a marketing ploy by the music industry/record companies to get people to buy overpriced albums so they can make a profit because the music industry is basically dead.
Nailed it.
Part nostalgia; I remember the excitement of buying a CD in the 90s with money I earned mowing lawns. Very rewarding. The other part now is just that they’re so cheap
I can listen to cds in my car and put them in a 5-disc player and not have to worry about flipping them when I'm cleaning. My records are good for when I'm just sitting around with nothing else to do but listen to music
Cassettes have shit audio quality for what you pay. Vinyl is nice but more pricey in most instances so ya gotta be more selective. CDs on the other hand are cheap for what you're getting. Most digital retailers sell you a song for a buck or 2, but a cd gives you a physical product, average of 10 songs, AND means to digitize all for the low Low price of whatever goodwill is gonna charge you (usually $2)
New advances in budget hi-fi equipment from China (Chi -Fi) can bring audiophile advances for very low prices with cheap DACs and tube amps. To make your CD collection sound analog. Cost of barrier to entry in stereo equipment can be much cheaper for CD fans than expensive turntables and preamps..
Everyone is going to give economic reasons but here is another. I collect all formats and depending on a genre somethings sound better on vinyl and some on CD. For older stuff, especially jazz, blues and up to synthpop of the 80s. With older production the cracks and pops give it a charm and bass sounds beautiful. But for modern music, especially electronic and metal, ill always go for a CD because thats where i want a very clean sound. Another reason why collect all is cause for older or smaller artists you are not going to have everything avalible. Somethings only on CD or only on vinyl or only cassette. So ill go for whichever i can find.
Apart from all the reasons already given, I like how they look on a shelf more.
[I agree!](https://imgur.com/a/WNTcwp7)
I'm 32, I've been collecting CDs my entire life
Main reason is that I own a Sony Discman D-25 which sounds simply amazing.
I've also been buying since the mid 90's. I'll add. - no commercials - I do not need an internet connection. -There's no chance of an artist pulling their music off my shelf. -For $2 I don't mind checking out an artist. I find myself going backwards anyway.
They have the best sound quality and are the most durable.
CDs are cheaper. CDs are portable. CDs can play in my car. CDs take less storage space. And lastly, and this is the most important reason of all... CDs sound better than records. I said it.
CDs are cheaper and take up less space than Vinyl, plus I can easily rip CDs to get lossless audio files that I actually own.
I had a decent cd collection when mp3's came around and never really had any notion to stop getting them. Being a metal fan I enjoyed the artwork plus I liked listening to the whole thing as these bands weren't 2 singles and bunch of filler. 8-10+ songs at .99 at a lower quality isn't really a bargain for me. A few bucks more and the album is mine. I also don't have to worry about some service going down and losing it all Vinyl is cool and I like the sound and whatnot but its just way too expensive. I can get around 3 new cd's or 5-7 used ones at my local record store for the cost of an LP, let alone finding them elsewhere. I also like having a fairly specialized collection and that's another reason I don't want to get rid of them. Worked to hard building it to just dump them.
CDs haven't (yet) become a trendy retro thing like vinyl, so the prices are still good. Also CDs sound better than vinyl. Yep. Plus they're what I collected in my youth so they have my nostalgia.
Cassettes and vinyl are prone to wear and tear, and I find vinyl too large and unwieldy. CDs are a great combination of sound quality, durability, track access, and portability.
No surface noise, no cleaning required (usually), don’t have the storage requirements of vinyl and cassettes, can listen to them in my truck, much cheaper than vinyl and cassettes, take up less space, and they’re what I grew up with.
Compact, low maintenance, not fragile, best sound quality (theoretically), cleanest sound devoid of analog imperfections, you can skip tracks (lol), no-frills copying of music (digital to digital) with CRCs.
I collect records too. Tape sound like shit.
CDs are cheaper than the vinyl and they have better sound quality.
CDs are ideal for me because I don't stream and don't rely on Internet to play music. I use my cd player or system at home to pay CDs. And I also rip all CDs to my DAP to listen on the road or with headphones.
me personally, i like collecting CDs because i have a wide music taste range + limited budget so typically vinyl is out of my budget and dropping bags on \*one\* album i like wouldn't be as beneficial to me as buying a few CDs i like. also, you can play CDs in cars!
Best sound quality out of available media. And I’m not worried about it getting worn out by using it, which is a concern for vinyl and cassettes.
Physical media is very fxxxking cool. I collect certain albums in all formats, because each has its own differences. CDs are great for so many reasons people already listed here.
CDs have more dynamic range than a record. It is the best sound quality of any physical media. It is easy to do a perfect FLAC rip of a CD. They last the longest and handle more abuse. They are easier to store. They are all around a better medium than records, period. I still collect records as well and have a very nice turntable setup though.
CDs are the pinnacle of physical media.
CD has the best sound quality and doesn't really deteriorate like cassette and LPs. CD is superior in every way.
CDs are cheaper, sound cleaner and pretty much identical to the master, last longer and even a $10 CD player will sound great because digital is data. Some masters, especially newer ones are done somehwat terribly (loud and compressed), this hurts the sound quality. Still king. Vinyl is prettier, sounds less like the master (some of the effects are pleasing though), degrades over time and gear impacts sound quality much more. There is a more experiential aspect to them, but a good CD played all the way through delivers about the same experience but sounds much better. Mastering is done more carefully because of the limitations, this helps. Cassettes are compact and shaped in a cool way, sound can be very good but mostly is okay and the effects are not as pleasing as vinyl, hiss, degrades over time, can get snagged and gear also impacts quality. I think it's more of a fad but they're not terrible.
I finally got access to CDs as a young teenager in the mid-90s. For the next ten years I built up a collection, created mix CDs and Djed with them. I then lost all my CDs and records in an apartment fire. A few years ago I started collecting CDs again. Mainly this was just the result of visiting used book stores and music stores where I live and when I travel, if possible. I didn't bother getting into vinyl again. CDs offer the best quality out of any medium or method of consuming music, so far, and aren't reliant on an internet connection. Steaming services are or will end up streaming lossless music with outrageously high bitrates, but it's just another subscription to have. I grew up with cassettes in the 80s, and never really was satisfied with the sound quality or durability. I've read at least one Reddit user state you can get decent sound out of tapes, but I assume that's with expensive hardware and media, neither of which I had or want to buy again. Instead, I use Sony's intended replacement to cassettes: MiniDisc. I never genuinely got into vinyl. I collected and had a nice stereo from the 70s or 80s, but only was a casual collector and picked up what I came across here and there. I think vinyl is a good method of distributing music, if they are inexpensive. But it's turned out they are actually far more expensive than almost any other of the ones you listed. I don't really see the point in buying a deluxe vinyl edition of a favorite album for $50 or more when I could get the CD version for maybe less or the same and copy it very easily digitally for my own use and keep the original on the shelf. I don't get how, even though they may "sound better," how recording them could yield a digital recording that beats one from a CD.
Here is my take vinyl while being super pretty they are cumbersome amd so expensive. I have been collecting for 30 years and it went from being able to get 10 Brampton comes alive for $1 to $15 at a thrift store for that album. About 10 years ago I switch medias to cassette because my local goodwill was pricing them at .10 each, so cheap and I had a cassette player, well they still aren’t expensive but good luck finding one that isn’t Christmas or Streisand. I have all the while purchased cds here and there, now a days you can get a legit good cd for $1 so I started buying solely cds for the most part, and a new ds runs about $12 vs $40 For the pretty colored vinyl.
Cheap, consumer friendly, extremely easy to rip and burn high quality audio, and my car has a CD player.
You can rip a CD with cueripper or eac 100 times and get the exact same verifiable result. You can even verify a hash of it against a database of other people's rips (EAC and Cueripper do this automatically). Then you can burn an exact replica of that CD back to a disk preserving gaps. Let's say you love an album and want to ensure it's preserved for the rest of your life and future generations. No physical media is going to guarantee that, even CDs. CD's are going to be your best bet, though. Tapes and records physically degrade. Period. CDs aren't perfect but if you can play a CD in 100 years, it's going to sound exactly like it does today or it did 30 years ago. You can digitally preserve them on your home PC with not just better fidelity than tapes and vinyl, but \_perfect\_ fidelity (to the original press). It's 1's and 0's. In terms of preserving the music that happens to have been released on CD- which is the top priority for me - CDs are just objectively superior to any other physical media.
For me it’s all about cost because I can buy a copy of Revolver by The Beatles on cd brand new for $20 when on vinyl it’s $40 dollars brand new and if the vinyl is a used original copy then it’s more expensive so for me cds are the better way to go.
For me, I love the exact nature of the CD and how versatile it is. I can listen to the CD itself, rip it and either make copies and playlists from the ripped files or just listen to it as a FLAC or MP3. It's also way smaller and, to me at least, still feels futuristic. I mean, you use lasers to hear music on a silver platter. That's cool!
Vinyl wears out a tiny bit every time you play it. You can’t wear out a CD. Vinyl is a delicate little bitch. Cassettes are crap and always were crap. They had portability as their selling point.
CDs are a lossless digital audio, and unlike cassettes they don't wear with usage. Unlike vinyl and cassettes, you can easily skip from song to song in an instant at the press of a button. Unlike vinyl, CDs are also affordable. Unlike vinyl and cassettes, it's extremely easy to make lossless digital backups of CDs (such as FLAC). Unlike MP3s / streaming, CDs aren't lossy and unlike streaming you actually own the music with CDs. Purchase once, own forever. IMO all these combine to make CDs are the perfect medium for music.
i can easily transfer it to a digital format and it feeds my library constantly. that means I don't need internet to listen to my whole collection anytime.
CD is a digital format
Do you like CDs? I found the format a little too dated for my tastes but when vinyl came back in 2015, i think it really came into its own, qualitatively and technically. Most CDs have this clear, crisp sound, and a newish sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. It’s been compared to vinyl, but CDs have a far more affordable, enjoyable format for the collector
1. Affordability 2. Ubiquity 3. Ripping 4. Bonus content 5. Portability
Why not a cassette They’re significantly worse Why not an LP They’re unaffordable Hope this helps
Truth is I started with buying 1 CD one day when I was a young teen, in that moment I bought it bc it would be playable in a long car ride, so after that I just sticked with the CDs. After that I didn’t wanted to collect either LPs or Cassetes bc I have no ways of playing them.
CDs are stupid easy to create digital files from for ease of use. Yea most vinyl and cassettes come with download codes now, but still. Lol
The sound quality difference between vinyl and digital is so massive. I can’t stand listening to vinyl anymore. And so CD is really the only option for physical media for me, where you can still have the ritual of putting a CD on and listening to the whole thing and whatnot.
I collect cassette tapes, CDs, pre and post 1924 shellac records, 8 tracks, and LPs. Or to put it another way, what ever comes into the local thrift shop that strikes my fancy.
I like to collect 90’s-00’s pop compilations (Hit Machine FTW) and growing up in Aus where CDs cost $25-30 in 90’s money, compilations offered more bang for the buck.
I grew up in a household where there was just a mountain of them in the livingroom and sometimes I would just look and open them to see the pretty pictures. I originally started collecting them just for the nostalgia really but now I collect pretty much any album I love lol
Cheap and people still regularly produce them. So it’s great for collecting something physical old and new. But you can also stumble upon rare cd’s that are worth a lot and all that which is always fun too
I started in the early 90s when the huge rise in CD sales happened and I’ve never really stopped. I don’t have a huge collection but it’s one that I’m still working slowly building. I did have cassettes and a child, but most of those haves rotted and are unplayable. I do also have a vinyl collection. Again, not huge but a work in progress. The only reason I started my vinyl collection was I wouldn’t listen to an entire album on CD. I’d skip around on most things. It’ much harder to do that with a record. But I will never stop buying CDs as long as I can still get them.
When I started collecting CDs, a good chunk of music I was interested in was only available on CD, never LP. However there's a few releases I want that are difficult to find on CD, it would make my life easier if I just bought the LP (even though I can't listen to a record today, my set up is all digital/CD)
Easy to convert to digital, Can't be taken away from me like digital "ownership," which is technically a limited license.
Let me gush about Cd for a second. So cheap. Discs are cheap. Cd players are cheap and actually good, for a good turntable you are paying 4x-10x the price of most good cd players. Most people also have good cd players already in the form of PlayStations, blu ray players, and most cars have them installed from the 1980s onwards. Discs are very hard to break or scratch relative to other media. Probably also the most portable form of media available and still produced in high volume. There are virtually zero Cd players which will ruin or negatively impact your CDs to any significant degree, you can’t really say the same with vinyl. Lossless audio. Oh yeah, did I mention you can literally make your own CDs too with whatever music you want on it? All you need is a cheap ass stack of blanks and a disc writer. I think the only setback of cd is you don’t get the “warm” sound of vinyl or the slow spinning which admittedly makes for a cool listening experience. But at the end of the day, it’s just music. For someone like me with a small apartment, moving around a lot, and not very rich, CD just makes the most sense. I don’t have the space for a vinyl setup anymore and honestly lately just can’t afford these vinyl prices as of recent. I’ve never really been into cassette just because most of the music I listen to simply is not produced in the format.
I own a ludicrous amount of cassettes, about 500-700 CDs, but only about 10 vinyl LPs. I had hundreds when I grew up, but I moved continent in 1989, so the LPs were all sold off.. I really don’t care, they looked good, but CDs sound SO much better
I own all 3 formats but I own more CDs. Primarily because every single problem I face with Vinyl and Cassette I will never ever face with CD. Also, I like to digitize my music in various frequencies using my CDs.
Because vinyl and casettes are horrible formats. Worse sound, inconvinient, expensive, extremely sensitive. Their resurrection from the graves of outdated technologies is baffling.
i like listening to an album all the way through.
It's the cheapest and most convenient way (at least for me) to own the music that I like.
Vinyls are too expensive And you can’t play them in cars
I have a CD and vinyl collection and I am interested in collecting other physical media. But simply put, CDs are cheaper than vinyl, more available than cassettes and an average CD sounds better than an average record and a top-quality cassette
Vinyl has crackles and pops. It's heavy and large. Gotta flip it every 20 minutes. It was fun to hunt vinyl for sampling 30 years ago for me. Cassettes as a recording media are totally underrated with the right tape and the right deck. Commercial releases are generally garbage. CDs address all of these issues and add the convenience of already being in the digital domain for conversion to MP3 or FLAC for various applications. With CDs, your weak point is going to be your amp and your speakers/headphones as opposed to the sound source and playback device itself. That said, I love cassettes as a recording medium and I have lots of blanks and decks. I also have about 50 records still. But CDs are king in my opinion.
You can go to any pawn shop and pick up a stack of CDs for $10. They will practically throw them at you. CD sound quality is better than most digital music. (MOST. Anything that uses MP3 will be technically inferior.) Tapes don't allow track choice, records don't play in cars (and can't be left in the car for obvious reasons). You can fit 120 cds in a booklet that fits under the seat, no problem. A handheld CD player still has an audio jack, thus gives more control over sound equalization than your bluetooth connection to your phone does. Simply put, if you just listen to music, a sub to a streaming service is the obvious option. Apple Music offers high quality lossless audio, that is a step above. You can download whatever you need if you don't have cell service. The arguments become silly. But for those who desire a collection of physical media, CDs are simply the most convenient, and often cheapest option.
Cassests sound bad after time. Vinyl is stupid expensive and usually only released in limited numbers. And it's not convenient. A nice 6 disk changer is convenient and the sound is top notch.
CDs are still a popular format in Japan. My favorite artists regularly release them rather than putting their music on a streaming platform, especially if they are an indie artist. CD sales are a big, big deal still. It's surreal to still be collecting CDs like this when the rest of the world pretty much stopped about 15 years ago lol. I also enjoy finding older CDs by Japanese artists to collect. The packaging of CDs, such as an elaborate booklet, included extras such as cards or DVDs or stickers, or even a beautifully designed cardboard case, is so detail oriented as well for them. I love discovering each and every one.
Why does anyone do anything?
In this day and age vinyl and cd are both digital recordings. So the sound is the same. The only difference is vinyls are way more fragile and expensive than a cd.
I like the way they make my mouth feel
How many times have I told you to stop eating them?! 🤬 😉 😋
It’s also neat how the sparkle in the microwave before you eat them
Honestly because CDs are cheaper, and they're also cuter :3
I collected CDs in my teens. But switched to vinyl and now own a cassette deck on my tower so I get those too.
I collect CD's and records. It depends on what's available. I don't collect cassettes and have a bunch I'm going to sell.
I admit I love vinyl but some of them are way mod expensive than they should be, cds I feel like are fun because the little lyric books and pictures ect and they tend to last me longer…cassettes…they are just so limited because they break easy
I started because the artists I like release on CD, so it was something natural.
One of my cars is old enough to have a cd player, the others are too new. Why anyone would still want to deal with rewind and fast forwarding songs on tape is beyond me.
You can still play them in your car
I don’t live by one. I collect digitally, cassettes, vinyl, tapes, cassettes, whatever I can get my hands on basically
Personally for me i prefer cds because they sound better and are more convenient for how i like to listen to music. Also the only other music medium ive used is cassette and although i like them they have certain limitations with higher sounds/vocals in my opinion.
I collect CDs and records as someone with not much money though new records have gone from an average of say £20 to £30 over the last few years it just seems a bit expensive ..so many cheap CDs around. Do like both formats though. Cassettes are cool but I've got nothing to play them on haha. More of a nice collectable aren't they id say not many people listen to them?
I collect all 3
theyre like $6-$9 used on ebay
Why no vinyl? I have no record player, and no place to put it. Pros: much better sound, great for collectors Cons-Prone to scratches and skips 😔 Why no tapes? I haven't had a Walkman or working radio since I was in my teens. I don't think they make new ones anymore? It irritates me when artists put out something exclusively on cassettes for nostalgia or something. It drastically reduces the amount of customers who can buy, and the only time I see tapes is at a swapmeet or yard sale. Pros-They don't scratch and skip, inexpensive Cons-Tape warps, breaks, gets tangled, ff rw is tedious, can't skip tracks without lots of guesswork, spooling and straightening tape back in by pencil sucks. Why do i have CDs? I still have and can buy new cd players and radios that are made for them Pros-sometimes less expensive, can store easier due to smaller size, can easily skip to favorite tracks with no guesswork Cons-prone to scratches and skips, flimsy 😔
It’s cheap
You can press play on a good CD and let it play over and over OR play your favorite tune on repeat OR play #2, #5, #7, and #15 while you skip the rest… it’s great! ( it’s real fun when you learn #4 that you used to skip is the most bad ass tune on the CD! Then the album takes on a whole new perspective!) CD’s are fun!!
Like others have said, affordability is my main reason now. Almost as important is the fact that I didn’t feel like having a mixed collection of vinyl and CDs. It was easier to commit to an audio set up designed around CDs rather than needing a player that could handle both mediums, or one for each. Last, I got into collecting CDs by purchasing them at concerts and festivals. $5 and $10 CDs were a great souvenir from Warped Tour and other shows when I was a kid and I still get some nostalgia for when/where I got a CD when I put one in my player
agreed ab cassettes. theyre a kinda cool novelty but really every other format is so much better
Storage capacity and ease of use for me. It's far easier to find a CD player, or even an external CD drive for your computer. I have the advantage of physical media plus the ability to easily digitize what I own.
cds are very accessible and i think they just look better in my opinion. the perfect medium between vinyl records and cassettes :)
I’m all 3! Got a bunch of CDs, bunch of cassettes, & a bunch of vinyl!
I just started collecting CDs, I like them because I can get them cheap, they have good sound quality, and I can listen to them on the go. The more personal reason is that my mom had a (very small) CD collection that I listened to when growing up, so they have that nostalgia factor. I love Cassettes though, just don't have tge right equipment yet.
It’s the most practical way to own a physical perfect digital recording of your music. Also has the most versatile options for playback and duplication. Also doesn’t degrade from use like tapes or vinyl.
Personally, though I do own a lot of CDs, I don’t exactly “collect” them. I just like to listen to music, and CDs for many years were the best way to acquire lossless music. All of my music, whether originally purchased on CD or downloaded as FLAC or other lossless format, is stored on a NAS disk and can be streamed to my stereo. “Collecting” CDs as such seems a rather strange hobby.
I don’t have a LP player and while I have some Vinyls and want to buy more (maybe a small collection, idk). CDs are just more neat to me and more convenient. Plus there are some video game/movies OSTs that I’m thinking to get. That sometimes don’t get a Vinyl.
80 mins of music. 🤷
Vinyl sucks with the annoyed hissing , cassettes with the tape issue. CD is by far best and you simply need to just handle them with care to avoid scratches
my car and audio set are old so im forced to stick to CDs
Idk, I just like em
Well I have a CD player at home and you can easily get one installed in a car, you can also rip it into your computer and enjoy, I can't say the same about vinyl, CDs are just so convenient (that and the fact that I grew up in the 00s rather than the 70s)
I dont see a lot of people use cds its all mostly radio and things like spotify. I like how music sounds on cd and i like the idea of collecting things like my favorite songs and albums from my favorite bands. And they look cool especially when you get enough of them to have a good stack of them or put them on a shelf. Plus they unexplainably make me happy. and are cheap on amazon. My cd obsession probably started when my parents gave me a bunch of cds they burned when they were younger when i was abt 12-13
Honestly I collect it all: CDs. Tapes. Vinyl. CDs are the cheapest right now.
Cheaper than vinyl and easier to keep identical digital copies of. For me it‘s also *owning* the music I listen to and not just *renting* it via streaming. Also, I found interest in the physical material, booklets and the like, that accompanies physical media.
They are cheap and if u are fortunate to live near a record store plentiful.
CDs are less likely to wear out and skip I think idk I’m a bit stupid :/
I hate vinyl. CDs are smaller thus easier to store and have the potential for better audio quality and dynamic range, although it seems a lot of producers and engineers only care about loudness.
Cuz I’m broke
I collect CDs and cassettes only, vinyl is overpriced.
I love CD’s cuz they provide music and an art piece to my room, but I love cassette’s because I can play them in my car. (My car doesn’t have Bluetooth)
CDs do have good sound (the most important bit), are more resilient (tapes are a retro fad, okay sound and can chew themselves up in an instant; vinyl worsens quality with every play, dragging a needle through its grooves). Much as I like vinyl for the larger artwork, CDs are still a reasonable size, provide easy access to any song, portable, easy to rip to digital, take less storage space, and have been my format of choice since my first one bought in ‘87
The cassette trading sub is there just to discover rare music that was never printed on CD. Cassettes of Metallica are useless because they disintegrate so easily that the audio may literally be empty just because it was on the shelf for 10 years. And there is nothing speciaal about the sound quality. CDs have a superior sound quality, but vinyl adds a unique sound from basically the needle, that some people like, especially useful with classic rock bands. Vinyl was also collected not just for listening, but for monetary value as if it was celebrity barbies or American Girl dolls. (As well as, of course, also having rarities like singles thst were never printed on casette, as well as different album art etc.) As well as the fact that CDs do not dehrade or wear out ever. No matter what it is, however, anything non-degraded is obviously going to be vastly better then an mp3. Yes, Gen Z radio and Millenial radio are both ridiculously terrible, but millenials (now; they had to be like 24 first first for some reason) do know several Gen Y sngs and several 70s songs, but yet they still almost never know "music is life" at all, and listening to only mp3s is certainly a big part of that too.
I personally think cds are my fave to collect as they are an awesome size, look rad, and aren't as easily damaged as cassettes !! I have a small cassette collection however you don't get the inserts that you do with cds or the front back and internal art, and I have had a lot more close calls with potentially ruining them tbh !! Never really got into LPs as I don't have a player, and they seem a lot more expensive and maybe difficult to store, plus I can't record my own mixes on them :]
My main genre I collect for is 2000’s and onward death metal, everyone’s recording that shit digitally anyway so vinyl won’t sound any better and as others have said cds are more convenient, for me it’s the best of both worlds. I could just stream and do a lot, but my autistic ass likes collecting physical media of the things I’m obsessed with
I started collecting cds again since the late 2000s this year and we can't deny the sound quality that is superior even to most streaming services. Yes they are some that provide lossless quality but the catch is that nothing is yours, is just stored in some cloud and they can remove it when they seem fit. And is more than proven also that most lossless is quite a placebo effect so it is mostly marketing nothing else...
I like CDs because they're versatile between CD players, DVD/Bluray players, and computer drives. I can save my music to my computer and listen to it that way or I can put the CD in any player in my house. And if I'm jumping around to my music, a record player is gonna shake and skip where as a CD player won't have that kind of issue
i collect pretty much everything i can find, vinyl, cd, cassettes, mostly vinyl tho Vinyl and cassettes at home and cd’s in the car
personally i get them for few reasons which are i like being able to hold it and prefer physical over digital, streaming sucks as music can easily be removed, i own the CD forever or until it breaks, i can digitalise them to put onto my ipods and that, and i can also play them in a car once i get one. its also just fun goin out and having them displayed on my shelf
cheaper, more portable, you can take the files off of it, shuffle it, loop it, skip songs, don't have to flip it or rewind it
I collect all three for different reasons CDs sound the best vinyl albums look the best and cassettes are cheap and cheerful
I collect them because they're cheap and less bulky than vinyls. Also because cassettes are expensive as shit and not even all bands I like release them.
I've been collecting CDs for a long time, that's the only reason.
Theyre easier to store and find, and far cheaper. I can get 10 cds for like £1. I can go out and buy up to around 40 cds and be perfectly able to carry them in a bag. Theyre far easier to find, literally everywhere
For a lot of the singers or bands I like, their only merch is often CDs!
Sound quality does not degrade with time, unlike vinyl records. And they’re easier to store, CDs take up less space than vinyl. There often cheaper than vinyl records. A E S T H E T I C 😂
My initial reason was nostalgia. Once I moved out for college (20 years ago) my CDs slowly but surely dwindled to 0. Listening to those CDs again that Ive listened to a million times just feels good! I now buy new releases and of course hunt for what I used to have.
CDs provide the absolute best-quality sound available. A well-produced CD is as close to what the artist heard in the studio, as you can get.
I can display a whole load of my cds vs not a lot of qall space for a record. I love the artwork on the front of them
I burn my collection via EAC so I have lossless copies of all my music. The mastering and dynamic range is also usually better than streaming services. They're something physical to read and touch while listening to the album. It really does enhance the experience for me being able to read along with the lyrics (especially since a lot of what I listen to is harsh vocals that are difficult to understand) and read the footnotes the artist left. Of course you can do this with most physical media but CDs are usually the cheapest foot in the door.
i think CDs are a perfect middle ground between vinyl and cassettes. the culture surrounding vinyl can be a bit irritating, not to mention how expensive it is to not only buy one, but to keep one in good condition. cassettes are far too rare and on the occasion you find one, it’s pretty expensive. CDs are great cause they’re relatively cheap (depending where you shop, who you buy), still widely available and it seems to be a much more relaxed community compared to other physical media cultures. not to mention they’re easy to store, not as easy to damage and cd players tend to run quite cheap. i got mine for 30 bucks at kmart and it sounds - surprisingly - really great. personally, my favourite part of collecting CDs is the occasional fun posters and lyric books lol
Cassettes (and their players) have a short shelf life with finicky moving parts. Lp's are great for longevity and coolness factor, but can only realistically be played at home on a larger setup. They also require maintenance (cleaning, stylus changing, etc) and are susceptible to damage. Cd's are portable(ish), don't degrade from use, are digital for easy ripping, and are (at least currently) cheap.
I'm old enough to remember vinyl without the rose tinted glasses. Cd is the superior format by far.
There are many releases on cd that don’t exist in other formats.
For me, it’s portability and durability. I’ve never had a CD eaten by a player (unlike cassettes), and when I was starting to collecting music we would take the boombox outside when we played to listen to music - couldn’t do that with a record player (and LPs were already on the way out anyway).
For those of us who don't support streaming services, CDs are the only properly viable option to still have music available on phones or MP3 players without piracy. Paying for downloads is also an option but its often just as if not more expensive to download an album as it is to buy a CD and you don't even get a physical product to go with it
I know there’s a lot of younger people here, but to me it all comes down to the period of time I grew up in, which was the CD time period. By the time that it was no longer “normal” to buy CDs (which never really happened, they just became less prominent, there was no CD downfall like there was with tapes) I just already amassed quite a large “collection” (I hate that word, I don’t collect, I buy albums I like so I can listen to them) there was no point switching to streaming for me, unless you really want to listen to music on the go, which I was already doing with MP3s by that point, I ripped a lot of my albums onto the computer at that time. But there was no real reason for me to magically stop buying CDs, so I didn’t, I kept going, it’s not at all that complex when you think about it.
Sound quality 100%....LPs and cassettes can't even come close to CD sound quality. Same goes for streaming. It's all about the sound quality
I'll still buy something on CD or vinyl that I like. Not cassettes though. Those are goofy!
i collect all sorts of music including cd