The Rapid Rise (& Fall) of the CD

I was at the AES Convention in NY at the Javitz Center when SONY first showed there CD player. The line to there Demo booth was long. The player was $700.00.

They had a Distro system set up with 5 headphones so you could listen to the Player. We all thought this was the bomb...!!

Now ...DAC's are popping up to go back to analog..LMAO.

We need to be careful about selling all our CDs and vinyl just because these streaming services have taken over. There are several scenarios that could happen like musicians taking their music off the streaming services or the streaming services raising their rates to exorbitant levels. Once the streaming services think they have a monopoly, that's when rates might start to rise. Also, I couldn't listen to Neil Young for a long time except for what I had purchased because he wasn't on Spotify. 

Granted, one of the best things about CDs was the ability to listen in the car and most new cars don't even have an option for a CD player anymore but remember, when you have a streaming service you own nothing but when you purchase a CD or vinyl, you own that music. Just stuff to keep in mind.

70% of what I buy on vinyl is not available on streaming. That said, if only streaming was available from tomorrow on, I would still survive and still be happy listening to music.

Why can't we just argue about cables not making a difference like normal people?

Well, when I made the post I sincerely thought people might enjoy learning some of the details about how the CD was developed....like The physical reasons for different specifications and the collaboration and competition between Philips and Sony. 

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when a war of what source is best broke out... LOL.

We all listen to our music in a way that suits us the best and that's all that matters.

Cheers

Growing up, I owned a couple LP's, then got a cassette deck, stopped with LP's. Then CD's came out, think it was my 12-13th B-day got a Realistic CD player, then just got CD's. In the mid 80's Lp were like $8, Cassettes were $8, and CD's were $14. As a kid, cd's were just the easiest to use, and you can just skip to the song you want. It was a game changer. But no cars has Cd's, would dub Cd's to cassette. 

Then as I got older, purchased less CD's, listened to the radio more.... Apple came out with the iPod. All my music purchases were though iTunes, didn't buy any physical media for a long time.  Dubbed ALL my Cd's to iTunes. Sold my 200 CD changer, all my disc when into the basement. You could download an entire album with digital artwork for $10!

Just discovered Spotify a couple years ago, like it, get to listen to anything I want anytime. Sound quality is all over the place. Late last year moved over to Tidal, much better in every way, except it needs a lot more bandwidth. Kind of sucks when traveling with low signal. 

Almost 2 years ago now, got back into vinyl. Have no idea what happened to all my old stuff, but starting over from 0. Even buying a lot used, prices are $25-50 per album! CD's are now $10, and cassettes are making a comeback! 

For me LP's sound best, there is just something magical about how they sound. They are also the most work! You got to keep everything clean, things wear out. New albums tend to be shorter, so now a lot of albums are 2-4 LP's, lots of flipping disk. My main rig doesn't even have a Cd player. But all my discs are stored on a HDD attached to my streamer.

My kid 13yo is heavy into Cd's, my wallet can testify of it. We also get a few things on LP, but my kid has a CD player in their room, and doesn't want a record player.  

Was reading a report on how LP sales have been on a steady incline. The highest since the decline in the 70's . This report also said that 1 in 4 LP's is Taylor Swift and almost 50% DO NOT own a record player!!