BestBuy to stop selling CDs... Target may be next

[Soniclife]

I was reading this new article yesterday (read it please):
• https://www.thestar.com/entertainme...e-price-of-vinyl-albums-at-a-record-high.html

I was late converting from vinyl to CD, so I have a lot of vinyl that was pressed in small quantities because most people were buying CDs, they used to be worth something, but not much, I wonder what it's all worth now.

 

[NorthSky]

The value of things, music formats, is reciprocal between what we cherish ourselves into our ears and soul, and to what others are willing to pay to acquire it. It's a superficial thing, to me. One human lifetime on Earth is not long enough to be stuck on material stuff. Music is in the air, everywhere, new music waiting to be discovered through the ultra fast high speed highway of the the cyber space...the internet.

Yesterday we were restricted by the stores around us. Today is no more, we have expanded beyond physicality, we are @ the edge of Artificial Intelligence with everything that it encompasses.

We are evolving, and revolving too.

My vision...

 

[NorthSky]

• When CDs were first introduced in the early 80s, they were hellishly expensive.
The MSRP of a disc averaged around $25, which when accounting for inflation, is more than $50 today.

Love vinyl, but why is it so expensive? Shouldn’t prices be coming DOWN?

Some's up.

 

[Palladium]

As somebody who lived through the "golden age" of CDs, I say good riddance to the format of inconvenient, unreliable and finicky media and players.

 

[Wombat]

• When CDs were first introduced in the early 80s, they were hellishly expensive.
The MSRP of a disc averaged around $25, which when accounting for inflation, is more than $50 today.

Love vinyl, but why is it so expensive? Shouldn’t prices be coming DOWN?

Some's up.

Low quantity production economics and inflation. LPs were ~$7 in 1978. Equiv. $27 in 2018.

If the $ values of sales were adjusted wrt to yearly prices the current number of items sold would appear to be trivial.

 

[milokinni]

I'm one of the dinosaurs...Still buying classical CDs nowadays. They are awfully cheap now, though packaged in multiple-CD sets.

 

[NorthSky]

As somebody who lived through the "golden age" of CDs, I say good riddance to the format of inconvenient, unreliable and finicky media and players.

My nearest Best Buy has no more CDs. But they sell turntables, no LPs though. I think they come with USB ports, for transfer, yes they do...Sony.

But other stores still have CDs though, and LPs too, and one store keeps getting more LPs. It feels like going back a half century ago when one of my pastimes was to buy couple LPs every weekend.

 

[NorthSky]

Low quantity production economics and inflation. LPs were ~$7 in 1978. Equiv. $27 in 2018.

If the $ values of sales were adjusted wrt to yearly prices the current number of items sold would appear to be trivial.

View attachment 11287

And from 2015 to 2018 it is on the upward move.
But this graph doesn't represent the second-hand market.

Anyway, all is good in the streaming music business, more than ever.

 

[NorthSky]

I'm one of the dinosaurs...Still buying classical CDs nowadays. They are awfully cheap now, though packaged in multiple-CD sets.

Brand new CDs cost roughly $10 each on average.
In 1985 I was paying $20 on average.

LPs: Back in 1969 I was paying $4 and $5 for a brand new LP.
The same LP today is $30 to $40.

Hi-res audio files are between $20 and $40, depending of the format and resolution.

The best value and the best sound is probably the LP from garage sales and thrift stores. You never get tired of shopping and of listening.
Next best would probably be the digital radio.

And if money is not a wall, then hi-res music files and SACDs and Blu-ray Audio.

Mono multichannel and stereo of course.
* I own quite a few SACDs in mono. For when I feel monotone.

 

[amirm]

I distinctly remember CDs costing $13 when I was buying them at the launch of the format. That compared to $7 for LPs then which created a loud cry that labels where ripping customers off.

 

[NorthSky]

In Canada they were costing more...CDs. And some were truly bad; with pinholes, excruciating sound, painful highs, no bass, total chaos, irritating digital chaos for more money than sweet, smooth, romantic analog LP.

 

[NorthSky]

Digital is much better today.

 

[Jimster480]

And from 2015 to 2018 it is on the upward move.
But this graph doesn't represent the second-hand market.

Anyway, all is good in the streaming music business, more than ever.

Streaming services are actually all losing money though.
But nobody has use for CD's anymore honestly.... as most computers don't have CD drives and most cars don't either.
Infact most cars just have USB for music on flash drives, hdd's or iPods/iPhones.
Sadly most cars cannot even play music from android phones directly via something like Spotify and can only use them as flash drives.

 

[NorthSky]

The CD changer in my car broke down many moons ago, but the radio still works. ...90% Classical, 10% Jazz...between silence and music...50/50...depending of my mood and the seasons.

If streaming music is losing money, why is that?

My computer and laptop have CD and DVD drives, I use them zero percent of the time. I never used the one from my laptop, not even once.

Your last paragraph sounds...alarming. ..."Sadly most cars ..."

 

[Jimster480]

The CD changer in my car broke down many moons ago, but the radio still works. ...90% Classical, 10% Jazz...between silence and music...50/50...depending of my mood and the seasons.

If streaming music is losing money, why is that?

My computer and laptop have CD and DVD drives, I use them zero percent of the time. I never used the one from my laptop, not even once.

Your last paragraph sounds...alarming. ..."Sadly most cars ..."

Spotify lost like 1.5BN last year and its the largest one.
The problem is that it takes alot of bandwidth, servers and staff to keep something as big as spotify going.
With licenses and paying artists / publishers nothing is cheap....
Their margin is $0 on $10/mo and thats assuming you aren't like me with a family plan with 5 people for $15.

They only make money on people who pay for premium and barely ever listen to music, people like me who listen all day make them nothing and many millions of people have only the free tier and advertisements don't make nearly enough money to cover this.

If every user paid $10/mo then it would be a different story and I think they would maybe be able to make some money. But internet bandwidth isn't cheap and neither are servers all over the place to support millions of concurrent clients streaming music at the same time.

 

[NorthSky]

That sounds totally ironic.

 

[Jimster480]

It is ironic but its true. They captured the market only to lose money, thats why Prime music also became a paid service on top of having prime.
You can only listen to specific stuff in the "free with prime" tier because it loses money for them too and their selection is quite small compared to Spotify which makes playlists and updates them all the time.

 

[Palladium]

Losing money as a business strategy is now a mainstream thing as long as is a endless source of investors who believe the marketshare will eventually lead to something big. Hell, there's already entire nation-states doing it.

 

[watchnerd]

while I do have a SONOS:Connect talking to my NAS with all my ripped CDs, I do not have any way to stream hi-res nor do I have any sort of online music service.

I'm curious as to why -- there are many solutions these days that can stream hi-rez at relatively modest prices. Heck, you can make a Raspberry Pi DIY box for ~$100 that will do it.

 

[watchnerd]

Who remembers the CD Stoplight pen? LOL

I had one back in college.

I also remember using Armor All on CDs because it was supposed to make them sound better. I think it just gunked them up....