Why Do ~You~ Still Play CDs?


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

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

Others? 

itanibro

I put off streaming for years.   In 2018 I bought a Vault 2i and it changed my life.   I had that for a few years and bought an Aurender.   

Qobuz and Tidal sound great,  the amount of awesome new (and old) music I've discovered is insane.   

I recently bought the Teac 701t transport.   My CDs have never sounded better.  I like playing CDs , in many cases they sound better than a remastered stream. . 

I still play LPs  too but streaming is so convenient and overall sounds so good I stream probably 70% of the time.  

Anyone firm on not streaming is missing a lot , for the price of a movie ticket or less.    

I like owning physical media, that will never change , but I only buy CDs that I like most tracks or you can't get on streaming platforms. 

 

Lots of the reasons why I still listen to CDs have been mentioned here before. 
 

The same goes for the argument that with buying physical media artists actually get paid. It bugs me that with streaming the people paying (so to speak) for my convenience are the artists. They generally earn a pittance and money goes to the owners and stockholders of streaming companies. Spotify’s Daniel Ek is quite outspoken about the fact, that musicians are just content providers to him (which keep the business running that makes him even more rich.) Most of the artists I like have low streaming numbers. There is a lot of music that people used to happily buy in significant numbers, music that they only play from time to time, music that does not go into heavy rotation anywhere. In physical media times you could still survive like that, with streaming not. On top the popularity of streaming and the way it works (popular playlists, suggestion of similar music etc) brings about a certain blandness. It‘s tougher than before to do something new and daring and make a living from it. It‘s literally calculated what many people listen to (and what they watch). It‘s a bigger discussion but I feel this all need to be pointed out because there‘s not only our consumer side to consider. Having said that, I do stream from time to time, mostly to listen to newly released songs or stuff I don‘t know. Then I gladly buy the CD.

Richardbrand I did not know classical is you say dreadful on streaming? I listen to classical 50%. I have not heard classical on streaming even at axpona..

Several reasons I listen to CD's; I have a ton of them. I get very little time to listen so I maximize the time by not "fussing" with LP's. I have an eclectic taste (a kind word!). Most of what I listen to isn't on ANY streaming channels. I'm not even on any service nor do I have a streamer. I play my CD's in my van (Yes, I bought a 2019 Ford Transit with a CD player!). Also, CD's sound fantastic. If the audio gods are kind to me I'll step up to a Mola Mola DAC in the new year. (It's supposed to be as good as analogue). My two cents. Joe