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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
#323
LBS-bass said:
I've been having some discussions about recording for the purposes of providing merchandise. Five out of five bandmates, when asked, said they have no way to listen to a CD. My sense is maybe that's true for most of us.

My husband still has a CD slot in his car, but that's the only way I'd be able to listen if I really wanted to.

How about you? Would you be able to listen to a CD if you bought it from a band you liked? Or would it just be a mercy-purchase for support, that you'd never be able to hear (I do lots of those).
Click to expand...

Are you not aware that BluRay players can play audio CD?
 
#325
I have a USB CD/DVD drive, bought it a couple of years ago after a decade not having any optic drives.

how it happenned: my cat had a CT scan and the results were provided only on an optical media. neither I, nor the vet had any equipment to read it, but I was better motivated, so I went and bought one. it's collecting dust since then.
 
#326
Only on my home PC (internal CD/DVD drive) or my work laptop (external CD/DVD drive). These days if I come across a CD I am not likely to do anything with it other than potentially rip it to my PC with all my other mp3s and other files, although it's relatively rare at the moment that I listen to music from my files versus streaming services.
 
#330
Got one in my car (still use it), I have Sony and Nakamichi decks at home, and have a portable one hanging around too. I still listen to them all the time, I also buy CDs for bands I really like whenever possible. Last one I bought was from these folks:

 
#331
I can listen through my home stereo system and in two of my three cars. I'm probably going to sell the two old cars for one new one without a cd though. My 2007 Highlander actually has a tape deck with the cd player!
 
#335
2 5 disc CD players, on the left. Also an eq, a must have. CD sounds better to me.
 

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#337
I voted that I could listen at home, but it would take a little work. I have a dvd player in the garage somewhere that I used to play CDs in, I know it’s out there, but I haven’t seen it in a few years.

Up until a week ago, I could listen in my Ford Escape, but we just traded it in on a new vehicle, so I’m driving a 2019 F150 with no cd player, and my wifes new car has nothing that even resembles a traditional radio! Just a big touch screen.
 
#338
LBS-bass said:
For context, here is the post that gave me the thought to create this poll:

The Mediocre Bassist Club

It was discovered a couple of weeks earlier that five out of five of us do not have a way to play a CD. We wanted to do that because the keyboard player has been asked to record a song for her pastor that he has on CD; they want a female vocalist to do it and we all said we'd do it for him. But nobody is able to listen to the song. The drummer says he can rip one with a special device, but that hasn't happened yet.

Then, this week, the discussion in the post above occurred with the same band. I'm right there with you on the fence about whether producing a recording has any sort of merchandise value. People I've asked about it say that they give their CDs away at shows because people don't buy them. Does that make a difference? Does anybody listen to them or do they end up in the dusty pile? I don't know. I know that's where they end up at my house. I also know I can produce and sell T-shirts with a lot less effort.

There are lots of reasons to record and produce music, and there are lots of reasons it winds up being a waste of time. I'm not sure where I want to go with this at this point, because mostly I feel used when people assume that being a part of their band means I'll provide free session work. But if it's clearly beneficial to all of us to do this, and if the production process doesn't turn out to be a massive PIA, it can be fun. I just don't really know what the end game is.
Click to expand...
I read the linked post and this one and i am completely on board with your perspective. And i also know the feels when you're the only one making sense and everyone else just thinks you're being negative. (But don't dare say "i told you so" when you're proven correct.) :angel:;):laugh:

To your point on "even free CDs collecting dust", a personal anecdote:
As mentioned in one of my previous replies, I have all of my and my wive's DVDs on a hard drive. We never watch them. Even if we want to specifically watch a movie or show that we know is on that HDD, we look for it streaming first. And if it's not streaming, we usually don't bother to hook up the HDD to watch it. We'll watch something else. The HDD is literally on the bookshelf in the living room, next to where we watch movies on the laptop, but we can't be arsed to grab it and plug it in.

I'd posit a guess that most people walking away from a show with a CD will probably put it down somewhere, occasionally look at it go, "oh yeah, i need to import that into my library somehow sometime". Some may eventually follow through. Others might have every intention on doing it and will put the CD in a safe place but never actually import it as the CD collects dust. Others will get tired of having the clutter of something they can't import/listen to, or can't be bothered to go through the hassle of importing/listening.

To your other points (all of which i think you're right on):
- Having something to sell at gigs is nice, if people are buying, but who's buying CDs? Nobody (and a very small number of people still counts as nobody.) What's the smallest number of CDs most pressers will run? In the early 2000s it was about 300. How much would the band sell CDs for? Spread out over how many months/years before all 300 are sold? Minus the cost of pressing + recording + musician's time? Is it really worth it, even if it's in the black? Even giving them away for free will probably take months of shows. (Also, most people don't buy merch anymore, even of big touring bands.)
- CDs aren't promotion. Not only will nobody listen to them, the people you'd be giving them to are already at your show. So what are the CDs promoting? Something nobody uses anymore that nobody wants the hassle of dealing with isn't promoting the band.

So yeah, 100% everything you said. Being right all the time is tough.:cool::roflmao:
 
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#339
Katoosie said:
Not a single person that I know has a vinyl player. Never heard anyone mention it either.

I don't have a vinyl player but when I move to a bigger place, I want to buy vinyls of the music that I like. And a vinyl player, of course.

I play most of my music on YouTube, usually when doing something. Do not use any paid services for music.
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Forget vinyl, how old are you, 80?!

As for not paying anything to the artists, I can’t say I agree with that.

If you only listen to music from YouTube, don’t pay for high quality streaming, never heard a high quality cd, it’s natural that the only reason that occurs to you for buying physical formats of music is the age thing.
 

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