How popular are CD's nowadays?

[D Bopp]

I use Spotify and Google music exclusively. Haven't bought a CD in years. I do have a nice old vinyl collection, but I'm on the go so much that I rarely spin the needle.
The only CD player I have is in my wife's car. My car is Bluetooth and aux only, and my computer is a newer Mac that doesn't have a place to insert discs.

I'm 39 btw.

 

[two fingers]

I'm 47 and haven't bought a CD in years. I don't know anyone who buys them anymore. My wife had over 300 when I met her 12 years ago and hasn't bought one since last Christmas.

A friend is trying to make it as a country singer. She records all the time. She does small tours and plays around Nashville all the time. She tries to sell CDs for almost a decade. She finally gave up. She takes merch with her, but no CDs.

I bought a truck with a CD player in it in 2014. As far as I know a CD has never been played in it. I know my wife loves the Kelly Clarkson Christmas album. So there is a chance that got played while we were going over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house one year.

WalMart is in the process of no longer selling them.

The demise of the CD is already here. There are a few hangers on. But it's basically over. Amd with the demise of the CD, so goes virtually any physical medium.

As for liner notes, the Google machine has more information about the recording if any album than any liner notes ever did. Heck, you can likely find a YouTube video made by the artists that cover the entire recording.

 

[ihaveaquestion]

our band will release our demo in both CD format & some sort of downloadable form. We don't know which form yet, or where, because we're old!

I think the best way is through bandcamp, you can have the cd/vinyl/tape sales, digital release, merch and list of places where you will gig all on the same place. Simpler than setting up a website.

You are also able to set the digital release to whatever the buyer can or want (including for free)

Here's an example:

Melvins

 

[MordBass]

I don't download ANY music. I want a CD, liner notes, a jewel case to put everything in, stuff I can hold in my hand! I never owned an mp3, & wouldn't know how to download using any other device since.

I'm mid-40's, I'm set in my ways about CD's, & will fight to the death or until I can't buy a physical form of music anymore. Then I will just enjoy what I've bought so far.







Having said that...our band will release our demo in both CD format & some sort of downloadable form. We don't know which form yet, or where, because we're old!

I was the same way until I realized that I could have pretty much every song ever recorded streaming with great quality out of my phone without any commercials and whenever/wherever I want it for like $10/mo.
I used to buy about 30-50cd's per year so this is a substantial savings.

 

[two fingers]

Keep in mind that the average age here is likely well over 40. So any data recorded should be viewed through that lens. If your potential customers are mostly in their 50s, go for it. If most of the people at your shows are 35 and under, forget it. You'll only sell a few CDs to a few drunks who won't realize what they bought until the next morning.

 

[bolophonic]

I have a lot of CDs in a bin. Hundreds. I pick a handful and rotate them in my truck until they are totally destroyed.

 

[packhowitzer]

In my car I have a CD book with about 50 CDs and an old iPod with about 700 songs on it. I will readily admit that the ipod is more convenient in terms of navigating through the playlist- certainly easier than fooling with the CDs at a red light. BUT, in almost every instance of the files that I have, the CDs sound better to my ears. I've even queued up some songs that I have both on CD and digital and A/B'd em back and forth. The CD version sounds better to me pretty much every time. That said, I'm willing to admit that I might not have the best digital files. There may be some out there that are CD quality or better, but the ones I have are kind of meh, so I typically choose to listen to CDs.

Incidentally, outside of my car- I'd say that about 99% of what I listen to is from a streaming service of some kind.

for demographics sake: I'm 41 and I drive a 2013 vehicle that definitely facilitates listening to CDs.

 

[Kro]

Thank you @Kro . What kind of music do you release on vinyl?

Rock. *Checks actual discography* Good lord, the last release I did on vinyl was apparently back in 2016 or so... definitely doesn't feel that long ago. Time flies. Haven't done any physical media since then though as it were, though my current project is discussing a CD based on the feedback I noted earlier.

 

[Spectrum]

My band released digitally, but we also had a batch of CDs made so we can bring them to shows, and for people who like to have a physical copy and look at cover art.

We'd like to do vinyl, but it's a lot more expensive for an unsigned band than CDs are.

 

[bolophonic]

I much preferred having a tape deck in my ride, but those are hard to come by nowadays.

 

[Spectrum]

I much preferred having a tape deck in my ride, but those are hard to come by nowadays.

Funny thing is I was in Best Buy earlier today and saw a cassette deck Bluetooth adaptor lol!

 

[Nephilymbass]

Moderators, feel free to move this post to where it belongs if I mis-posted.
I just viewed a nice thread of a bass player posting pics of his "CD Release Party" although the album is being distributed digitally.

That begged the question: How many bands are still releasing CD's? I had planned on doing one more CD before next year-- but nowadays I don't even know how to release a "digital album." You see, I'm an old fart!

My band still orders small quantities of CDs (100 at a time) . They do sell at shows, although nothing like they did 15 years ago. Some people still want a product they can hold in their hand especially the folks who’s want CDs signed by the band. We actually make more money from CD sales than all digital downloads and streaming combined. That said the music sales wether it’s iTunes or CDs or Spotify or pandora or whatever isn’t where the bulk of the money is anymore. In fact we make such a small profit of the music we said screw it and put all our albums on YouTube so people can listen to them for free. The money especially for original bands these days is in merchandise. T shirts still sell well particularly popular designs. What we’ve started doing is sort of polling our fanbase on social media when we are considering new T-shirt designs. And we only make the ones that people want. We even order the number of odd sizes like
Xxls and smalls based on that. Also in the last couple years we’ve discovered selling products with the bands name that also serve another purpose (koozies are a good example) are a great sellers. Also just having some backbone and playing for a minimum guarantee as opposed to splitting the door with 5 other bands and a soundguy has been hugely beneficial. If your band can draw a crowd and you’re still willing to play for nothing the bars will take advantage of you all day long.

 

[mikewalker]

I like to do a small run of individually serial-numbered CDs. But they are 'collector priced' accordingly. (the real money - what there is of it! - is in sync and streaming...)

 

[GreyMark]

o purchased a CD in 2018 (out of roughly 150 students). Spotify, Apple Music, and iTunes are where they claim to stream or purchase.

It’s finals week, but I’m down with asking them anything you need and making it part of the exam, provided they are your target demographic.

I can't imagine that there is a way for you to ask this question that would prompt accurate answers, but I would like to know if they would buy a CD if their favourite artist's next release was only available on CD. Are they shaping the market or are they shaped by it.

 

[Maxime1980]

I would say it might depend of the demographics you are aiming for?
Some very underground/niche musical styles may be more geared towards cd's or cassettes (noise, metal, black metal, classical, etc.), whereas some music style have more of a "history" or might feel better or more at home on some formats than others (particularly long pieces of music sounding best on cd than elsewhere because of no interuptions, etc., but then punk 7" work very good because of brievety and dub and reggae and dance music sound fabulous on 12" singles because that is how they were distrubuted, with a remix/instrumental B side, etc.)
I like cd's because of the object (and vinyls and cassettes), but i feel like mp3 and the whole downloading of music since 2000ish really changed things, esp. now with streaming services....
Seems that nowadays, cd's do not sell above 10$ (when new, or a touring band, or willing to pay because it is an independant label and not a major passing as a indie label), while vinyl is not so inexpensive (15$-25$ for lp or 2lp) to awful price-gouging (30$-40$+++++ for cheap material and ok sounding vinyl...) and online music is just so easy to obtain through blogspot's and mediafire's and napster's that it almost seems like it is expected for music to be free/awfully inexpensive...

Aside to this : when i like the artist i see in concert, i try to buy something if i can bc i know that helps put to eat, put gas in the van, lower that record company debt said band owe the record company......

 

[4001]

When a new album is released, I want the CD.

 

[backin82]

I can't imagine that there is a way for you to ask this question that would prompt accurate answers, but I would like to know if they would buy a CD if their favourite artist's next release was only available on CD. Are they shaping the market or are they shaped by it.

Depends on age range. Most people under 30 probably don't own a single device with a CD drive, including their laptop or tablet. So my guess is that they wouldn't order one from Amazon just so they could buy the CD and listen.

My most recent work computer build doesn't even have a CD drive :-/

 

[sharpiemarker]

Not going to lie. When friend bands give me cds I usually say thank you to be nice. Every time I move I seem to throw out a handful of cds that I have never opened.
I don’t take bands seriously if they aren’t on iTunes or Spotify. It’s not hard to get your music on a proper streaming platform.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

We don't have a CD player in the house, unless you count the PS4. My latest car doesn't have a CD player and I recently gave away 6-7 copier paper boxes full of CDs that I hadn't touched in at least ten years. And about a hundred BluRays and a BluRay player that hadn't been plugged in for at least two years. And I'm old. If I buy a CD, it's to support the band, but it usually gets tossed and I just listen to their stuff on Spotify or Apple Music. I'd rather buy a shirt.

 

[MordBass]

We don't have a CD player in the house, unless you count the PS4. My latest car doesn't have a CD player and I recently gave away 6-7 copier paper boxes full of CDs that I hadn't touched in at least ten years. And about a hundred BluRays and a BluRay player that hadn't been plugged in for at least two years. And I'm old. If I buy a CD, it's to support the band, but it usually gets tossed and I just listen to their stuff on Spotify or Apple Music. I'd rather buy a shirt.

Strangely enough, the PS4 doesn't play audio cds