[itommac]

If CDs are out why do so many people take their purchased downloaded music and put in them on disk? I said "so many " because, individuals use their downloads in make many different ways. Most of the music I listen to is from a purchased CD with some being downloads to make a "best of a best" CD.

[SLEAZOID]

I'll definitely always purchase the CD; I can rip it in whatever quality I want (I usu. rip in AAC or MP3 V0) and have a physical copy of the album. Also, I'm probably one of the few remaining people who actually appreciate the artwork that some bands include in their album's packaging. I love having the booklet with the liner notes and whatnot, and I know I'm not the only one who tends to read the "Thank Yous" in the back to see what bands I recognize among the thanked ones, lol.

[spiderbat]

Maybe download will become, if it isn't already, the main method to purchase "songs", but the CD has still better appeal for those like me, who are mainly interested in classical music.
If you listen attentively to music played thru studio monitors, you cannot fail to appreciate the quality difference between CD's and lossy-compressed formats.
The difference is less appreciable for rock and other contemporary forms, since in many cases the artists and the producers took into account from the beginning that the recordings would be played on lower quality gear and tried to convey an enjoyable sound within these limits.
Stradivari, on the other hand, did not know about mp3 (fortunately!).

[natmusak]

bdiament said:

Hi rab77hp,

You said:
"Cds get scratched, fact of life. They arr also physical objects, theycan get damaged destoryed and stolen."

I guess I'm lucky. I handle them carefully and they're all okay.

By the way, hard drives can fail too.

iPods only carry what is synced to them via the user's computer. If the iPod fails, all the music is still safe. If you scratch, warp, or break a CD, or have it stolen from you, you're going to be buying a new one, which can be tricky depending on how rare the CD is. A CD is much more susceptible to damage compared to a hard drive's disk.

We're also moving away from hard drives altogether and Apple has a head start there. All iPods (and iPhones), save for the iPod classic, have moved to solid state flash. No more moving parts and read speeds that decrease as space is used up.

[bdiament]

Hi natmusak,

I think iPods are wonderful, especially when fed non-lossy files.

Anything can be destroyed or lost if one isn't careful enough.
As I said earlier, I must be lucky. I've never had a CD fail, had one stolen, lost one or scratched it up. My oldest CDs (from 1983) are all in the same condition they were on the day I first got them.

The main issue for me - the subject of the article I responded to questioning the future of CD - is that downloads, as they currently exist, are not for me. I think MP3s are fine for samples of tunes to see if you like them but for serious listening on a decent system, they are sonically broken. On a very good system, they are worse.

As to CD, I prefer a higher resolution medium myself but the trend has been toward lower resolution instead.
Having mastered CDs for the past 26 years, I am fortunate to have the opportunity to compare these with the original mixes from which they are created. From my point of view, CD is a severely compromised medium for listening to music.

With that in mind, consider that a typical mp3 represents about 10% of the data on the CD. 90% is thrown away.
To create an mp3, 90% of the information is removed from a medium that itself does not carry nearly enough information.
Even a 320 kbps mp3 still throws away a significant amount of the information that was inadequate to begin with.
Aside from the information loss, there is the degradation of what remains, sounding like a host studio special effects has been globally applied.

I won't argue with anything that gives folks pleasure in listening to music. But having heard the "whole" thing, hearing little pieces of it just isn't for me.

Just my perspective.
So far, quite lucky with thousands of CDs.

Best regards,
Barry
http://www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
http://www.barrydiamentaudio.com

[natmusak]

@bdiament,

That's all well and good. I doubt I'd be listening to MP3s if I had bought hundreds of CDs (let alone masted some), rather than acquiring only a handful in my entire life. My problem was with the assertion that hard drives can fail too.

Obviously they can, but the likelihood of a user's iPod and computer having their hard drives crash is pretty slim, especially at the same time. Now that most people are using flash-based iPods, that possibility is microscopic.

CDs sound great, but they don't encourage backups while iPods require them by their nature. Many people aren't as careful/lucky as you.

[SGP_MacUser]

I would be motivated to buy CD if packaged ...
1. It comes with printed lyrics;
2. It comes with pictures of singers and its performances;
3. It comes with an article of the singers and the makings of that album.
4. It comes packaged with a high-quality MP3 version for easy loading into MP3 player.
5. It may comes with other promotions. eg: a ticket to a concert, voucher for your next album, discount to a movie, discount to buy music related products, fan club membership.
6. I do not wish to see the demise of CD because it makes a tangible asset for my music collection instead of near "intangible" bundle in the hard disk. Tangible CDs are for keeps and management while those in hard disk are for regular/current uses. I know that I have a safe backup without having to backup when I buy a CD.

[Dan Frakes]

oluf said:

The explanation is that most people do downloading for their ipods, and with headphones there is not a big difference between lossy and lossless quality.

If you're talking about the iPod's stock headphones, sure. But comparing apples to apples?a high-end headphone rig to a high-end speaker rig?headphones are just as capable of revealing the differences. In some cases, even more so.

As for the overall topic of discussion, my opinion is that the CD is indeed dying, but for those who care about audio quality, the CD will be replaced by full-quality (uncompressed or lossless) downloads, hopefully with downloadable liner notes, etc.

(I currently buy CDs for music I care about or that I know was recorded well, while I download "throwaway" songs, poorly-recorded content, and stuff I want right this moment ;))

[Dan Frakes]

sdaniela said:

I think that's the real issue here: people's listening habits have changed, so that even if they buy a CD, they still don't benefit from the added quality given the sonic limits of headphones, car acoustics and computer speakers.

I think this is a very good point that applies even to people who care about sound quality. I used to spend a good chunk of each day listening to CDs on a good stereo. These days, even though I have a very good stereo and a very good headphone rig, I spend more time listening to music on my computer, iPod, and iPhone. Not because I like the sound better, but because my life has changed quite a bit over the past decade or so.

[Dan Frakes]

natmusak said:

That's all well and good. I doubt I'd be listening to MP3s if I had bought hundreds of CDs (let alone masted some), rather than acquiring only a handful in my entire life. My problem was with the assertion that hard drives can fail too.

Obviously they can, but the likelihood of a user's iPod and computer having their hard drives crash is pretty slim, especially at the same time. Now that most people are using flash-based iPods, that possibility is microscopic.

Of course, you're assuming that a person's iPod contains all their music. Given that the best-selling iPods are the nanos and shuffles, that's not the case for many people. If you care about the media stored on your computer, you'll do a proper backup of your computer.

[Frost7]

Problem is if you're a serious audiophile, almost all compressed music sounds like ass. That doesn't mean I won't regularly use it, but for the music I REALLY like, it's nice to have a super high quality master around. I don't mind digital downloads for stuff I just like, but for stuff I love, CDs are the only way.

[natmusak]

[quote name='Dan Frakes']
>

natmusak said:

> That's all well and good. I doubt I'd be listening to MP3s if I had bought hundreds of CDs (let alone masted some), rather than acquiring only a handful in my entire life. My problem was with the assertion that hard drives can fail too.
>
> Obviously they can, but the likelihood of a user's iPod and computer having their hard drives crash is pretty slim, especially at the same time. Now that most people are using flash-based iPods, that possibility is microscopic.

Of course, you're assuming that a person's iPod contains all their music. Given that the best-selling iPods are the nanos and shuffles, that's not the case for many people. If you care about the media stored on your computer, you'll do a proper backup of your computer.

How do you know people aren't buying iPods in accordance to the size of their music libraries?

Seems more likely to me that many people have modest digital libraries and thus, buy iPods of slightly greater capacity to fit their entire collection; the iPod classic would be overkill for them. An iPod nano or iPod touch would provide more than enough space.

I'd also wager that many people buy shuffles in addition to their full-size iPod, for recreation and yard work as the shuffle is more resistant to damage (no screen to scratch, no need to pull it out of a pocket or buy special headphones with wired remotes to change songs or volume).

Lastly, I wasn't suggesting an iPod (and the computer it syncs with) was the ideal backup method, but that it's better than the CD which doesn't encourage (nor require) any backup at all.

[thinkingcrowd]

Although I can appreciate the audio purist perspective that CDs offer both higher quality audio as well as listening to entire albums rather than singles I find purchasing online has become my preference. There are songs from artists whose albums I would never buy. How often have you bought a CD to find that half or more of the songs don't "grow on you" and you end up hitting the FF button every time the album plays? Buying online has broadened my ability to fill my songs from yesteryear (re: classic rock, 80's rock) and I've bought singles from new artists from whom I'd never buy an album. Plus, I'd say album rock is mostly dead as few artists these days put the time and effort into an entire album as it's just about a few catchy singles sandwiched with some pretty mediocre filler. Long live the iTMS!

[mrbach]

It may be a sore spot for iTune store devotees, but if I plug my iPod into my car or home stereo and crank it, it sounds like crap. At 320, I am finding it almost perfect, but I still get the occasional squishy sounds at the high end.
I'm sorry this offends people and that they think I am wrong and that my opinion doesn't matter, but I hear what I hear. I have a very nice Panasonic system in my car and very good speakers. The same is true for my home setup. I like music a lot. I like it to sound great. Using buds on an iPhone is great, but I think buying downloaded music is rubbish and a waste. Still, there are people that buy wine in a box, so who am I to judge?
I'll stick to lossless, CD masters thank you very much. It IS the same price or better, plus you get notes, lyrics and the ability to crank it up.