Observation

This is just my paranoid speculation, but I am really starting to fear that there will be a day when the compact disc will be no more. I know this is going to happen simply because the industry demands it and is forcing it upon us with the inclusion of bonus tracks for digital and iTunes downloads not available on the physical formats. Also, the rising price of cd's is an indicator as well.

I base most of this on a local chain I frequent called Newbury Comics. They have about 2 dozen locations in MA, NH, RI and I have been a customer for over 20 years and have made the trek to about a dozen different stores. I find that in the last few years (since the resurgence of vinyl) the cd section is shrinking almost weekly, new releases are not being stocked, and the prices of said releases (when there) are rising. Also, there is a tendency for them to be shuttering the stand alone stores and moving into malls where they are pushing more clothing and other ephemera (pop culture memorabilia and entertainment trendy stuff) than actual music. And, even though "comics" is in their name, they have always been known for their music.

Is this the end for the compact disc? Maybe in 25 years or so it comes back around (kind of like vinyl) and original pressings of our fave Metal bands are high priced collectables? I fear that this is the final nail in the coffin for brick and mortar music stores and online sites are the future destination for purchases. I know that I have made more than half of my purchases since 2013 online due to price, but mainly because I can't find them in a store ( the few FYE's near me are awful and the Best Buys are more miss than hit nowadays; and Target and Walmart are fine for cheap back catalog stuff) and really have no choice.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. Just an old guy wishing for the halcyon days of yore.

If anything, I see the price of CDs falling, but I only order online. Most new releases can be had for $9.99 or cheaper.

CDs will always be around. Vinyl hasn't gone away and CDs won't either, but they will become a niche product. Also, all the people that are dumping their CDs are going to regret it in 10 years when even common releases are collectible. At least that's what I keep telling myself when I buy CDs.

Most laptops now dont even come with cd/dvd roms anymore I just saw a new laptop that didnt even have an ethernet port (cuz more and more are using wireless)

THEY KIN HAVE MAH CEE-DEES WHEN THEY PRY'EM FROM MAH COLD DEAD FINGERS!

MAH COLD! DEAD! FINGERS! AH SAY AH SAY!

Witchfinder wrote:

If anything, I see the price of CDs falling, but I only order online.  Most new releases can be had for $9.99 or cheaper.  

CDs will always be around.  Vinyl hasn't gone away and CDs won't either, but they will become a niche product.  Also, all the people that are dumping their CDs are going to regret it in 10 years when even common releases are collectible.  At least that's what I keep telling myself when I buy CDs.

Ditto all of this. I AAAALMOST came to selling my collection of early this year--and that latter thought stopped me. Besides, hell that would be a lot of work trying to cash out 700 CD's piecemeal haha.

But any music stores here in town, or what are left of them, are scaling back and raising prices. My local Rasputin's had Battle Cry on sale...on sale!...for 24.99 when it came out. I think it's 10 bucks on Amazon? Also I notice that used sections in these stores are shrinking. Our FYE is about as viable a shopping option as Best Buy.

Online shopping is where it's at.

Like others have said, I doubt they will go away entirely.

I've been buying these huge collections on eBay. People selling off their cds lock, stock, & barrel. These people are going to really regret letting them go in a few years. Even if they were able to rip all of them. Since January, I've added almost 3k to my collection just from these bulk lots.

I've seen CDs become cheaper, if anything. And they will be around for as long as there are people willing to pay for them. That's probably for at least all our lifetimes. The numbers they print just won't necessarily be that large.

We bought a 2016 VW Passat over the weekend. Fully loaded but NO CD player. They aren't even standard anymore. None of the new Passats on the lot had a CD player.

Cheap German imports !

The CD is going the way as cassettes did. Either a new format will replace it or not, but CD's aren't the future. The other day I stopped by a high end audio/video showcase. I was just curious, really. Going through some a/b comparisons, we came to CD players, and I talked about how I was more interested in turntables. The salesman said, just go ahead and listen to this CD player first. Sounded great, I was actually impressed. I got interested and started getting deeper into the players. Almost thinking maybe it was time to upgrade. He hit me with the price and I swear he said it like it was nothing. 12k for a single CD player. I was expecting somewhere around $350, so my jaw dropped. No kidding 12,000 dollars. I went home and did some research and yeah, there are some expensive CD players out there. Who knew.

007 wrote:

Cheap German imports !

I thought the same thing until my wife pointed out the sticker on the window said "VW Chattanooga, TN". Then it was "Cheap Tennessee Rednecks!"!


Note: I resemble that remark because my wife and I both are from Tennessee.

Great response (as always) one and all. I guess I am a bit spoiled as to the new releases being cheaper on new release day from my local haunts. To be fair though, a lot of the stuff we like is imports (to USA anyway) and they come from Frontiers Recs. so $18-$20 is I guess the norm now when it seemed like a few years back that stuff was always $10-$12. True, the auction house prices have gone down a bit, and the price of used. But I am glad I bought when I did b/c I would hate to have the want list of 1,000+ from a decade ago (when I returned to active music collecting) and trying to find all those titles now in a barren wasteland of nothingness. I waited out a lot of albums and saved myself some coin. I also think all things are cyclical, and those that are dumping collections (like WF and MC said) presumably for money to spend on vinyl are going to regret it.

Cds will always be around i think. It is just that they are turning into items that only collectors tend to buy.

the sentinel wrote:

Great response (as always) one and all. I guess I am a bit spoiled as to the new releases being cheaper on new release day from my local haunts. To be fair though, a lot of the stuff we like is imports (to USA anyway) and they come from Frontiers Recs. so $18-$20 is I guess the norm now when it seemed like a few years back that stuff was always $10-$12. True, the auction house prices have gone down a bit, and the price of used. But I am glad I bought when I did b/c I would hate to have the want list of 1,000+ from a decade ago (when I returned to active music collecting) and trying to find all those titles now in a barren wasteland of nothingness. I waited out a lot of albums and saved myself some coin. I also think all things are cyclical, and those that are dumping collections (like WF and MC said) presumably for money to spend on vinyl are going to regret it.

Frontiers puts out some great stuff. From time to time I see them for 12.99 or so on EBay. I ordered 2 (FM and Impellitteri). Each time I got hit in my bank account for a $5.00 "Foreign ACH" so it still ended up being 18 bucks. Maybe Amazon is the way to go when ordering next time.

I did notice that some CD's are cheaper than digital downloads. Rust In Peace is $5.99 on Amazon (plus free shipping with Prime) and the downloads are $9.99.

I still buy CD's from time to time. It used to be in the $5 bin at Walmart but now all the Walmarts around here no longer have the $5 bins. And Sam's Club, while not having a great selection, had them priced cheap too. Now our Sam's has gotten rid of ALL CD's and DVD's.

Yeah, the Walmart near me (which is only about 5 years old) has almost nothing left for the $5 back catalog stuff. It's all pretty much GH collections of best selling artists. I know I dug through that bin in the past and found some Hendrix stuff. The same goes for Best Buy.

the sentinel wrote:

The same goes for Best Buy.

I've been thinking about Best Buy for a little while so this seems as good a place and conversation as any to throw it out there, but it seems so weird to me that BB does so many BB exclusives.

That place's CD section has been rapidly dwindling, so they clearly are not that interested and are not making a ton of money off of our beloved media. So why do they invest in the exclusives? Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Megadeth, others I can't remember. I know Kiss' Monster had that holographic cover that was a BB exclusive.

Seems weird to me.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

the sentinel wrote:

The same goes for Best Buy.

I've been thinking about Best Buy for a little while so this seems as good a place and conversation as any to throw it out there, but it seems so weird to me that BB does so many BB exclusives.

That place's CD section has been rapidly dwindling, so they clearly are not that interested and are not making a ton of money off of our beloved media. So why do they invest in the exclusives? Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Megadeth, others I can't remember. I know Kiss' Monster had that holographic cover that was a BB exclusive.

Seems weird to me.

One word - sales. They'll get guaranteed sales in store and on their website. The other plus for them is the cd exclusive gets people into the store that might buy something else.

I've actually bought quite a few of the recent new releases through Best Buy (Ace Frehley, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, etc.) so they're actually good for that. As for in house stock, though, it's really bad in there.

I work in tv/broadcasting, so coming in from a different perspective, I know that the cd and dvd format is still a viable and useful format for storing and archiving, so companies will continue to manufacture physical cds and dvds for that reason.

I'm not sure how that translates in the music industry, but I can say with some certainty that cd manufacturing plants aren't closing-up shop anytime soon.

There are still bands who havent made the leap to digital distribution yet. For example, none of Tool's music is available for downloads, at least not on amazon.

Maybe the way artists are being screwed by the streaming services and whatnot, we'll see a turn around on their part to releasing stuff in a only in the physical format. Not likely, but stranger things have happened.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I work in tv/broadcasting, so

You're Corey Feldman, I knew it!

Lari wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I work in tv/broadcasting, so

You're Corey Feldman, I knew it!

I've had my suspicions that he was Corey Feldman as well, for other reasons, but out of curiosity, what do broadcasting and Feldman have to fo with each other?

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Maybe the way artists are being screwed by the streaming services and whatnot, we'll see a turn around on their part to releasing stuff in a only in the physical format. Not likely, but stranger things have happened.

Now that's thinking outside the box.

For the record, I think MG is the "real" Nikki Sixx.

Sentinel is right, at least concerning Newbury Comics. To survive, they've evolved into a kind of hipster clothing store, with toys and all kinds of other things. They survived the decline of comic sales way back in the day by evolving into music and stuff, so from a business standpoint I get it, and it's apparently working for them.

But it absolutely sucks to walk into one of their bigger stores and see that I own more CDs than they have stocked. And yes, the prices are increasing. If you don't get something on sale that first week, you can expect to pay $17.99 on average now. Some releases are $19.99 or more. If there's a DVD or bonus CD, it might be $23.99. I don't get it. =(

I don't think CDs will go away, but they will, I think, become more of a niche market.