The Death of the Compact Disc

The CD seemed to be on an unmitigated ascent since 1990 but has slowed dramatically since 2010. I have a few ideas as to why:

Streaming: I feel as though we are becoming a minimalist society. The excess of the 1980's and '90's bigger is better mentality is long gone. People want everything housed on an Apple watch on their wrist. Plus, it's cheaper to pay for a monthly/ yearly subscription than spending $10-15 a week on discs.

Collections: It seems like people don't want to build a music collection anymore. We here at HoM are a dying breed. The public has already upgraded from cassette to CD and for most a greatest hits package in a budget price point works well.

Price Point: I recall going into an FYE around 2006 and looking at Metal Church's Light in the Dark disc and putting it back cuz the price tag was $21.99! Eventually, a few weeks later, I got it on line far cheaper. I remember thinking that the technology had been around for well over two decades at this point, so why are discs still super expensive.

Vinyl Resurgence: With the advent of Record Store Day in 2008, vinyl started it's comeback and took dollars away from the sale of CD's. Also, the few cassette new releases took additional money away from the CD.

Other: Ancillary factors that I feel contributed to a small degree would be the poor re releasing of things like the VH, JP, and Megadeth remasters being brick walled and terrible sounding as well as the cheapness of digi packs. An excuse by the greedy record companies to get cheap and hide behind the mantra of going green.

Anywhoo, just a few of my theories. What do you think?

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slowed dramatically since 2010

It was slowing WAY before 2010. In the U.S., Sam Goody and Tower Records both went out of business in 2006. Canada's "Sam the Record Man" chain was gone in 2007.  

FYE has scaled back its music offerings big time in favor of Funko Pop figures, t-shirts, and other pop-culture tchotchke bullshit. The entire "music" department at most Wal-Mart and Target stores is a six-foot rack of mostly Greatest Hits CDs with a couple of token new releases on the end cap. Best Buy got out of the CD business entirely.

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What do you think?

I think you can have my CDs when you pry'em from my cold dead fingers, dammit!

But seriously: I think you nailed all the major reasons for their decline. I really can't think of anything to add except to say it was all downhill for the CD (and the music industry in general) once the MP3 file format was developed in the early/mid 90s. This, of course, led to widespread downloading/file sharing, which begat the famed Metallica/Napster debacle, and so on.

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I recall going into an FYE around 2006 and looking at Metal Church's Light in the Dark disc and putting it back cuz the price tag was $21.99!

I had a similar experience a while back in an FYE, except it was a copy of Metallica's Kill'Em All. I was like "Who the f*** is gonna pay twenty bucks for this album after all these years?"

Streaming: you get the same benefits if you just rip your CD's, which I always do. Google Play Music is free for streaming your own music. And I can put everything in my Apple Watch just fine.

Collection: true. If you own zero physical copies, it's daunting to start even thinking of collecting everything you want. For the most part, "we" of course started with a collection before downloads/streams were even available. I agree that people don't want "things" in their houses as much anymore.

Price Point: Spotify is $120 a year. I wouldn't pay that much to rent music I already own. Maybe if there truly is an interesting new release every week, but what if there is one every two months only? What if Spotify doesn't carry what I want? Again, if I own nothing, Spotify makes sense. But even then... what if you cancel after 10 years? What if Spotify ceases to exist after 20 years? That money would have bought you a real nice collection. With covers and booklets and artwork. I don't find CD's to be expensive. I order online usually and am price aware. Especially older releases and second hand copies.

Vinyl resurgence: undeniably it affects some. But I understand vinyl is still not a major seller. 99% of people don't even have vinyl players.

Other: brickwalling affected digital copies just the same. In fact, CD's are digital and they just use the same files for streaming. I also feel people who actually care about sound quality are the last ones to let go of physical copies. Even if they nowadays stream at relatively high quality (?), having the original source is better and you can use dedicated hi-fi instead of computers.

By the way, isn't it weird that with all this technology available nowadays, people seem to care less and less about sound quality? Those 90's speakers and amps were a lot better than what people have in their homes nowadays.

Lari wrote:

By the way, isn't it weird that with all this technology available nowadays, people seem to care less and less about sound quality? Those 90's speakers and amps were a lot better than what people have in their homes nowadays.

Which is why I still have 90's speakers and amps in my house!

Most of my friends could care less about sound quality. I'm always fiddling with the eq. They're fine with music through a phone speaker. It completely baffles me.

Streaming is what is completely dissolving the physical market, and it goes for movies as well. Several disc plants have closed throughout the years (five last year iirc), the hardware is seeing less in terms of models and marketing, and demand is still dipping. Streaming's just too easy, pure and simple, Brave New World et al.

But, tragic as this all is, I defend streaming. I believe that there is a correct way to use it as a dynamic tool of musical exploration. I've learned to embrace it, I suppose, while still retaining my interest in physical formats. Trust me, I still buy what I stream when I'm able.

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Streaming is what is completely dissolving the physical market, and it goes for movies as well.

Weirdly enough, even though I continue to obsessively buy/collect music on CDs, I jumped on the streaming habit for movies almost immediately.

I can listen to the same CDs over and over again but most movies are a one-watch-and-done thing for me, esp. as I get older. So aside from having copies of certain personal favorites that I like to revisit every year or two, I don't need to have a pile DVDs or Blu-Rays around.
With the # of streaming services that are available now (Netflix, Prime, Tubi, etc.), I can watch a different movie every night for the rest of my life without any repeats, and they won't take up any shelf space.

Yeah, I know you could probably make that same exact argument about music, but I've been collecting tapes/CDs since I was a kid, it's my "thing," and I refuse to give it up. (digs in heels, crosses arms, glares menacingly)

Fat Freddy wrote:

Weirdly enough, even though I continue to obsessively buy/collect music on CDs, I jumped on the streaming habit for movies almost immediately.

I can listen to the same CDs over and over again but most movies are a one-watch-and-done thing for me, esp. as I get older. So aside from having copies of certain personal favorites that I like to revisit every year or two, I don't need to have a pile DVDs or Blu-Rays around.
With the # of streaming services that are available now (Netflix, Prime, Tubi, etc.), I can watch a different movie every night for the rest of my life without any repeats, and they won't take up any shelf space.

Yeah, I know you could probably make that same exact argument about music, but I've been collecting tapes/CDs since I was a kid, it's my "thing," and I refuse to give it up. (digs in heels, crosses arms, glares menacingly)

I too stopped collecting movies. I still buy the occasional title of importance, of course, but it's rare. Streaming quality sort of bothers me, but I've learned to get over it. I only wish we could have every title available to us like with streaming music. But there's more than enough available anyway, so why should I complain?

EDIT: hey anyone else notice that quoting is kinda going bonkers around here?

The answer is the internet. Record sales collapsed in 2005 due to downloading and that accelerated due to streaming. The CD sowed the seeds of its own destruction by being digital which would eventually allow music to be easily spread online.

Why buy a CD when I can pay a small monthly fee to stream virtually the entirety of the history of recorded music on my phone?

Also, whether we want to believe it or not, nobody cares about sound quality or collecting. Those demographics are tiny. Frankly, younger people don't care about music much at all. They have many more things to occupy their time than we did - again the internet looms over everything.

Young people have no allegiance to anything except their phones and iPads - to criticize things !

I see heavy metal going away before CDs do, frankly.

Both are inevitable.

P.S. Why pay anything for Spotify, etc. when you can probably create a YouTube playlist for most everything you want for free?

If I'm being honest, I'm tired of clutter! My physical collection (Records, CD'S, DVD's, books) takes up all available space in my house and I'm just not keen to add to it.

I have tried to remember that it's the music or film that I love and I am losing the need to 'own' everything I like.

However, the fact is that streaming is not sustainable under the current model.

So in short, CD's are dead and I feel fine!

Lot's of great, intelligent responses as always. Thank you, brothers.

Keith, I only picked 2010 as an arbitrary date cuz it seemed like there were still plenty of CD's being stocked at my local chains and Wally's, Target, and BBuy still had some selection.

Shay, you are right about most of the world being okay with listening to music through phone speakers. I get it, it's portable and easy. My home rack system for CD and Cassette is quality, but my turntable is not. I will upgrade someday as the vinyl collection gets bigger.

Boris, I hear ya on the clutter, but, after a 10 hour day I love heading down to the man cave with a glass of something and just being "there" while the Metal washes over me. Maybe it's where I grew up? My family has always been Catholic, so the house I grew up in literally has more religious ephemera than most churches. And I have always romanticized the record stores of my youth, so I kind of want to create that atmosphere.

ToB, I would have to think more on that one. I know there are lots of newer metal bands, but I am not sure how long they will be around? I can't think of a reason for the CD to stick around or make a comeback of sorts to where it was in 2000 or so.

Glower, you are correct about the younger generation having no allegiance. When we were their age, we would have fought tooth and nail to the death for Metal.

Witchfinder, agreed on the internet looming over all. For some, like those of us here, it was a boon that introduced us to long lost or forgotten gems and helped us find new (old) albums. The auction and online sites helped us buy music cheaper and by extension hurt the brick and mortar locations. I won't bang the drum slowly for the big box retail giants, but I am happy to see the small Mom and Pop shop survive and hopefully thrive.

Lari said: By the way, isn't it weird that with all this technology available nowadays, people seem to care less and less about sound quality? Those 90's speakers and amps were a lot better than what people have in their homes nowadays. Yeah, I miss my old DMX 12's. They were seemingly just made for the crunch of '80's guitars!

The disc has definitely declined, but they still haven’t killed it off. They predicted it would’ve been gone by now...

Lots of old school music fans like the physical product. They should have made a compromise and used the slimline cd cases for better storage space (while maintaining the artwork inside). The only thin packaging seems to be some of the digipaks. They can fall apart and rip.

I think I'm at least partly responsible for the decline of CDs.  Several years ago I was spending between $200 and $500 a month on CDs; not quite Eyesore standards but still substantial.  But then I just lost interest.  I don't think I bought a dozen new albums last year (in any form, downloads included).  I don't even have a stereo in the house to play music on anymore.  I have all the equipment except speakers because my ancient 4 foot tall Infinity speakers literally crumbled into dust after all this time (at least the rubber surrounding the woofers did).  But I really don't feel the need to buy new speakers because honestly I wasn't listening to them much anyway.

So I think I bear a small portion of responsibility for CDs declining sales.  And if Eyesore ever falls into this same music malaise, well, that will really be the DEATH of the compact disc.

I was never a big fan of CD's . Most of the ones I had I either sold out or they got "corroded" with time , which was a big deception , since many where rare and OOP , but since they got "corroded" they can only be used as frisbee discs now .


I don´t need CD's anymore . If I want to buy music to support artist there are many ways , but I basically stopped buying CD's around 2005 .

In my part of the world, the cd has been long dead. There is only one shop left, which mostly carries classic rock/prog cd's as well as some vinyl.

Surprisingly however, i notice that the cd is still doing very well in some parts of Europe. I often go to Paris, Frankfurt and Athens for work and usually like to take some time off to buy some music. And I am surprised at the number of music shops that still carry huge selections of metal music.

Hell, in Athens alone, there are over 10 shops where you can always find some amazing material, and thank God, they are still going strong.

I do agree that Internet has considerably affected the sales of physical music, but i tend to use it positively, precisely as to:

- Discovering old and new bands i was never familiar with, and eventually buying their music.

- Shopping online: just received the new Annihilator in the mail last night.

- Locating record shops selling metal everytime i am about to travel somewhere.

I recently posted a topic - that said : Why are Heavy Metal CDs still so expensive ?
Everything is 15 to 20 bucks a pop. etc etc etc
With the 'decline of music CDs' = you'd think everything would be cheaper in price. Not yet.
I still love getting a metal CD in the mail. Lol. Christmas / Birthday gift vibe !
If I had major cash - I'd love a quality music system .
My car is the genuine blaster place ! On wheels !

I am of two minds. I love CDs and vinyl, but I also hate having too much stuff.

Those two aspects are constantly at battle.

To make up, I try and really really only buy something if I really love it and want it. I don't spend $2 at Goodwill on a CD that is okay and has a couple good songs and hey it's only $2. Not really worth it to me. I'd rather spend $20 on one CD I really want than $20 on 10 CDs that are just there.

I will never ever stop buying CDs as long as they make them.

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I don't spend $2 at Goodwill on a CD that is okay and has a couple good songs and hey it's only $2.

I did that for quite a few years, haha. I found some gems and filled in a few holes in the collection, but there were also quite a few that I would look at three months later and go, "Why the hell did I buy this?"

Glower wrote:

I recently posted a topic - that said : Why are Heavy Metal CDs still so expensive ?
Everything is 15 to 20 bucks a pop. etc etc etc
With the 'decline of music CDs' = you'd think everything would be cheaper in price. Not yet.
I still love getting a metal CD in the mail. Lol. Christmas / Birthday gift vibe !
If I had major cash - I'd love a quality music system .
My car is the genuine blaster place ! On wheels !

The less produced something is, the more expensive it becomes. Just look at the prices for VCRs on Amazon for example.

scottmitchell74 wrote:

I will never ever stop buying CDs as long as they make them.

Same here!

I used to buy A TON of CDs but I bought most everything I wanted from established bands and I haven't found all that many new bands that excite me. Also I have kids now so I can't just spend willy-nilly on whatever I feel like just to enjoy only 1 song on the album.

Temple of Blood wrote:

I used to buy A TON of CDs but I bought most everything I wanted from established bands and I haven't found all that many new bands that excite me.  Also I have kids now so I can't just spend willy-nilly on whatever I feel like just to enjoy only 1 song on the album.

So none of the bands you like have any recent albums you enjoy?

Glower wrote:

I recently posted a topic - that said : Why are Heavy Metal CDs still so expensive ?
Everything is 15 to 20 bucks a pop. etc etc etc
With the 'decline of music CDs' = you'd think everything would be cheaper in price. Not yet.
I still love getting a metal CD in the mail. Lol. Christmas / Birthday gift vibe !
If I had major cash - I'd love a quality music system .
My car is the genuine blaster place ! On wheels !

I think if there is going to be a comeback, they (the music industry) have to do some drastic changes like a serious price drop to renew interest and show value through quality like vinyl does with the "180 gram remaster" hype. Hey vinyl was dead for a long time and then made comeback; so maybe the CD will experience a similar life cycle?