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How many here can still play a CD?

Do you own a CD player?

  • Yes - I can listen in my home

    Votes: 539 72.6%

  • No

    Votes: 79 10.6%

  • Yes - but it's in my car

    Votes: 124 16.7%
  • Total voters
    742
#221
turf3 said:
Well, I've avoided streaming services so far. As I noted above, part of my philosophy of constantly reducing fixed costs is not to pay subscriptions. If I buy three CDs a month and money gets tight I can stop buying CDs instantly. Ever try to stop an online subscription that's automatically billed to your credit card (which they all require)? How many days do you want to wait on the phone?

I plan to avoid streaming services the rest of my life unless I'm forced into it for fundamental needs like medical care or something. For entertainment, ain't happening.

Like I always say, first principle of financial independence is to avoid fixed costs.
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I agree philosophically. Have to say though, I've bounced back and forth between Spotify and Apple Music over the last ten years and both are exceedingly easy to turn on and off. Just for the record.
 
#223
In my earlier post, I neglected to mention that I do have a CD player in one of my cars, a 2009 Camry. It's not a changer, though...I miss the 6-CD changer in my 2007 Sienna :help: I only play mp3 CDs that I've burned using iTunes/Music.

My new car, a 2022 Subaru, lacks a CD player but I could have added one as a $650 option :wideyed:. The car has Apple Car Play which I use for both Spotify and iTunes/Music (for mp3s).

The Spotify interface is buggy as hell. I've had it unable to load a downloaded playlist, show a track as playing but there's no sound, forgets where it was when I get in the car again, etc. The Subaru touch interface is the size of an iPad but it's hazardous to use for music playback compared to knobs and switches as on older cars. To get to a particular track on Spotify requires one press to select Spotify, a second press to choose my library, a third press to choose a playlist, a fourth press to start the playlist. By that time I'm in the opposite lane heading straight into a school bus. If I want to start mid-playlist, forget it...it's safer to use the up/down buttons on the steering wheel controls. Ironically, once I've started playback, moving from the CarPlay screen to the "media" screen I have better control of playback but I can't change the playlist or album from there.

When I start the car at home, Spotify can still access my Wi-Fi so it's few more presses to get it to show me only the downloaded playlists and albums. If I don't launch Spotify before I pull out of the garage, it's too dangerous to launch it and start playback while driving.

This is progress?

tlc1976 said:
IMO nothing beats cassettes for learning songs. You can rewind just a bit, pause, and especially you can keep it where you left off. Without hitting a wrong button and losing your place.
Click to expand...

You have to be kidding! I was so happy to start using digital transcribing software when it became available. I can slow recordings down, shift pitch to another key, set markers and loops, isolate the bass with EQ, etc.

I don't miss using tapes to learn at all.
 
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#228
hieronymous said:
I still have a CD player in my car (2013 Honda Civic) and a portable Phillips CD player that also plays mp3 discs at home. I use Spotify a lot of the time because of the convenience, but I like to listen to CDs when possible - it can be nice not to mess around with my iPhone.

Speaking of mp3s, for the people that rip their CD collections, what format do you do? Are you storing a crazy amount of AIFF files? Or do you convert them to mp3 or some other format? When I first got an iPod around 2002, I ripped a bunch of AIFF files to my computer - and took up too much space!
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Back when the iPod was only 80 GB, I settled on MP3 at 192k. It still sounds good and saved some space. Now that I've upgraded the iPod to 120 GB, I've considered re-ripping the CDs at 256k, but that would take months since I have over 700. :confused: I chose MP3 since I can play them on my PC outside of iTunes, and load them into Audacity to slice up for samples if I want.

And those who rip CDs, don't toss 'em! Hard drives WILL fail. It's inevitable. Keep the CDs as a high quality backup (and for the album art and liner notes, too).
 
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#231
I voted "No CD", but technically I could play a CD if I hooked up my PS4 (haven't found a PS5 yet and refuse to pay inflated prices) or if I found my superdrive for my Mac. But I haven't done that for years, it's a pain to do so, therfore I voted "No".
 
#234
Katoosie said:
There is not a single person IRL that I know who is able to play a CD.

TB is inherently biased since it's full of old people AND musicians to boot.
Click to expand...
Well, I THINK I'm alive in real life.

You know, those of us with "accumulated experience" understand you perfectly, but you don't understand us. Reliance on volatile media rather than non-volatile media; we understand that perfectly. Have some stuff stored on volatile media evaporate when you most need it; repeat a few dozen times; and you'll start to understand us a bit better, at least with regard to this one matter.

Similarly, find yourself having to choose between food and continuing subscription services and you'll maybe start to understand the importance of controlling fixed costs. Remember Mr. Micawber: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six , result happiness.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”

Oh, but I forgot: "old people" don't know anything, especially not how THIS time it's different. yep. right. move along, nothing to see here.
 
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#235
I checked "yes", though to be honest I don't listen to music that way. I have an optical drive, but it's really just for ripping things and uploading them (or watching the occasional DVD from my local library). And most of the time I won't even bother with ripping, because if you've gone to the trouble of print CDs to sell at your shows, you've probably also uploaded your album to a streaming service I already subscribe to.

So I'm buying your CD as a backup, for the cover art and liner notes, and as a souvenir. It's not how I used to buy CDs, though I wouldn't quite call it a "pity purchase" either.
 
#238
I didn’t have a CD player for the longest time and recently bought one second hand to listen to some local artist CD’s.
I was buying CD’s from local bands for monetary support but listening online. It’s nice to be able to actually play the CD now though.
PS, I am going through a bit of a physical media nostalgia after getting a record player. I actually bought a tape deck recently too
 
#239
FullumMusic said:
I voted yes. It’s factual but not accurate.

About 8+ years ago I had no way to play a CD or DVD. When I upgraded NI Komplete, instead of an installer, they sent me 10 DVDs. I was so annoyed. I had to go out and buy a cheap external DVD drive for the install. I also took the opportunity to transfer all our DVDs to a hard drive and toss those. (I had already imported all my CDs to my HDD about 2007.)

If I absolutely had to play a CD, I could dig around my drawer of outdated computer stuff and probably find the DVD drive. I should still have it, if it survived getting culled in all my moves. But i would be incredibly aggravated that I had to use a CD, and if it wasn’t for something absolutely necessary, I wouldn’t do it.

I absolutely wouldn’t buy a CD and haven’t since I imported them all to my computer in 2007.
Click to expand...
Changed my vote to "No". Got curious and looked for the DVD drive. It's gone.
 

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