CD vs Downloads, promise to love & cherish till the day you die?

[CuteStudio]

I prefer CDs because:

a) I cant see a way of downloading lossless tracks outside of Tidal, and JayZ is rich enough.
b) I can buy older CDs which are mastered better.

I do however research online and use youtube a lot to see if a CD is worth a punt, then I get it secondhand if cheaper, rip it and add it to the pile.
The advantage of having my music locally instead of streaming is also one of speed as my LAN is a lot faster than the internet.
I always listen to the music after declipping so the loudness wars do matter, but not as much as they did.

 

[Cosmik]

I can't even conceive of what I would do if I lost all of my music which has been ripped. I have my entire collection of over 15,000 albums in my office and at home and I have a third, back up copy which I take with me on road trips/vacations. If I had to start over, I don't think I would. I think I'd just go to more concerts.

It does occur to me that the monthly fee for a streaming service is the same as paying for cloud backup of all your albums, but with the added bonus of being able to listen to most of the missing albums from your collection, too! And almost all other music ever recorded as a bonus.

 

[Sal1950]

It does occur to me that the monthly fee for a streaming service is the same as paying for cloud backup of all your albums, but with the added bonus of being able to listen to most of the missing albums from your collection, too! And almost all other music ever recorded as a bonus.

Main issues with a total reliance on streaming is,
No or limited access off-line
Limited access to the extensive mastering/remastering of album X that are available.

a) I cant see a way of downloading lossless tracks outside of Tidal, and JayZ is rich enough.

Me either, cold day in hell I send money to that gangster and his crew.

 

[amirm]

I haven't got to my CD's yet. Maybe in the next life. Digitizing my heavy as hell LP collection is how I got into this whole mess. I've moved on an average every 9 years. My CD collection is still manageable. Before starting to digitize my LP's I had only 1 set of speakers, 1 turntable, 1 CD player and one Stereo receiver. Also nothing connected to my computer.

I don't envy anyone having to digitize analog collection! Must be a lot of work to deal with not only slow real-time capture, but the time and care for the LP, setting levels and such.

 

[amirm]

BTW one cure to "having to rip" is to have a lossless service like Tidal. To the extent they already have your music there, you don't need to rip them!

My offline problem is solved with Amazon. They have most of my purchased CDs available to me as they do Prime Music. When I go on a trip where I need offline access I just download a few gigabytes and I am good. I don't need my entire library there. They are in lossy format but perfectly fine for that application.

Also, mobile phone network performance is so excellent that in the car I can stream Tidal, Amazon, etc. with our unlimited account and be good to that way too.

 

[bobhol]

I don't envy anyone having to digitize analog collection! Must be a lot of work to deal with not only slow real-time capture, but the time and care for the LP, setting levels and such.

I hear you. Luckily I don't "have to" . The main benefit of doing it was that I listened to LP's that I had been ignoring for decades and if I really had no interest in them they go to the discard pile. I've digitized 90% of the records that I want to keep. I've got a couple of boxes full of odds and ends that I picked up cheap that may or may not get digitized.

 

[Soniclife]

Limited access to the extensive mastering/remastering of album X that are available.

That one of the pluses for me, they often have multiple version of the same album, and I get to try them all if I want.

 

[Frank Dernie]

I ripped CDs when I travelled all the time for work and wanted to listen whilst away. The problem is/was 85% of my listening is classical and the standard tagging system (tracks are "songs" in iTunes ffs) doesn't lend itself well to finding what you want to listen to on a computerised system. In the end I just put each album in a playlist named to be in the same order I would file it in a physical rack but as iTunes got worse and worse that got less and less easy/convenient.
Now I have retired I have nearly gone back to physical media altogether. I am too grumpy and lazy to go to the trouble of re-tagging every classical rip. I bought a program called SongKong which is supposed to help but I am too stupid to get anything useful out of it.
I still rip any pop music I get because that is easy and tags fine.
I still have the playlists I ripped years ago and so as far as computer music is concerned that is about it other than music I have bought from qobuz, for example. I am considering giving up on them too since whilst they have an excellent classical choice it is still a pita to search because of the tagging standards.

Recently one of Amazon's mail shots recommended a classical boxed set. I thought I would listen to a few of their samples to see if I liked the interpretation, but since Amazon music uses the standard type of tagging I couldn't tell anything about any of the tracks. "iii andante" with no work and no composer is about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

Probably I should advise you to try it out, but since you are mainly a classical listener if you are anything like me I wouldn't bother.

 

[Vincent Kars]

I bought a program called SongKong which is supposed to help but I am too stupid to get anything useful out of it.

Nothing wrong with Songkong.
It does a good job.
The “problem” are the databases (MusicBrainz and Discogs).
Pop music is called Pop because it is popular.
Classical music is not pop music because it is not popular.
Hence these databases in general return no usable results in case of classical.


For tagging classical I use MusiChi
It has a extensive data base with composers, performers and work (major composers only)
I use it to populate tags as composer, composition, opus/catalogue and year(composition)
The developer obvious understand the needs: http://blog.musichi.eu/post/2874852211/the-zen-of-classical-music-tagging-part1-the

http://www.musichi.eu/

 

[watchnerd]

I cut the physical digital umbilical cord 5+ years ago.

I don't even own a physical disc player of any kind (audio or video).

No regrets.

I still have my LPs for when I want to touch something and go through a ritual.

 

[BentonF]

I might go digital only, see how it goes and if I feel the need for physical format I might pop down to the library to touch up some CDs. Have been using Roon and despite it being the most beautiful and well constructed music software it’s still not the same. I just can’t put my finger on it. The whole scrolling thing on an iPad is bit cold and clinical. Reminds me of plastic fruit sat in bowls at IKEA.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Nothing wrong with Songkong.
It does a good job.
The “problem” are the databases (MusicBrainz and Discogs).
Pop music is called Pop because it is popular.
Classical music is not pop music because it is not popular.
Hence these databases in general return no usable results in case of classical.


For tagging classical I use MusiChi
It has a extensive data base with composers, performers and work (major composers only)
I use it to populate tags as composer, composition, opus/catalogue and year(composition)
The developer obvious understand the needs: http://blog.musichi.eu/post/2874852211/the-zen-of-classical-music-tagging-part1-the

http://www.musichi.eu/

I gave away my PC when I retired and no longer needed one so that is a no-go.
Classical music being unpopular is a schoolboy thing.
I am happy with my choice of only using streaming with pop, and unlike your suggestion I never get so drunk I put the CD back in the wrong place
As a matter of interest I actually have a Meridian Control 15 which uses Sooloos. Roon's predecessor. It got rave reviews I found it probably a bit worse than others I tried and my Control 15 has been collecting dust for years. I should sell it.
For me the biggest "strength" of these bits of software is that some suggests something for you to listen to next that you may like.

 

[Sal1950]

I don't envy anyone having to digitize analog collection! Must be a lot of work to deal with not only slow real-time capture, but the time and care for the LP, setting levels and such.

I was a bit of a pain, I did it the old fashion way with audacity, getting the levels set was the main PITA. I just ripped em the way I listened for 40 years, each side making one big file. There is a lot of hardware/software stuff out there now that make it much easier now.

The main benefit of doing it was that I listened to LP's that I had been ignoring for decades and if I really had no interest in them they go to the discard pile. I've digitized 90% of the records that I want to keep

Yep, can't tell how much forgotten great music I was able (forced) to revisit while playing them for ripping.
It's music, never, ever discard any. LOL

 

[Dismayed]

I prefer CDs because:

a) I cant see a way of downloading lossless tracks outside of Tidal, and JayZ is rich enough.
b) I can buy older CDs which are mastered better.

I do however research online and use youtube a lot to see if a CD is worth a punt, then I get it secondhand if cheaper, rip it and add it to the pile.
The advantage of having my music locally instead of streaming is also one of speed as my LAN is a lot faster than the internet.
I always listen to the music after declipping so the loudness wars do matter, but not as much as they did.

Tidal has made JayZ less rich. And the company is projected to run out of cash in 2018.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/9to5mac.com/2017/12/13/tidal-out-of-cash-may-close/amp/

 

[RayDunzl]

Tidal has made JayZ less rich.

"In 2017, Forbes estimated his net worth at $810 million, making him the second-richest hip hop artist in the U.S."

"Rapper Shawn “Jay Z” Carter has an estimated net worth of $610 million as of 2016, according to Forbes."

"Jay Z's Net Worth In 2015: $550 Million - Forbes"

"Jay Z's Net Worth: $520 Million in 2014 - Forbes"

---

If only I too could become so less-rich.

 

[Dismayed]

"In 2017, Forbes estimated his net worth at $810 million, making him the second-richest hip hop artist in the U.S."

"Rapper Shawn “Jay Z” Carter has an estimated net worth of $610 million as of 2016, according to Forbes."

"Jay Z's Net Worth In 2015: $550 Million - Forbes"

"Jay Z's Net Worth: $520 Million in 2014 - Forbes"

---

If only I too could become so less-rich.

Tidal clearly isn’t JayZ’s only source of income. I assumed that that point was obvious. The point is that Tidal may not survive 2018. Was that not obvious?

 

[Thomas savage]

Old J’ zed runs a spectacularly unsuccessful boxing promotional company too..

 

[Sal1950]

Old J’ zed runs a spectacularly unsuccessful boxing promotional company too..

I can only hope for his early demise in all financial endeavors.

 

[JBNY]

I digitized my CD years ago to FLAC and removed my CD player from my system entirely back in 2007. I don't get any of the reasoning for keeping CDs in the system. Once you have ripped you CDs to a lossless codec, they are so much easier to manage, play, transfer and enjoy. I stream (spodify, tidal, napster) most new music I want to listen to, if I really like it and want to buy it I will search online for a Hires or redbook version if I can't find it I will buy a CD, but even then I just use the DVD drive in my PC to rip it immediately.

 

[Dismayed]

I’ll buy the file if it is lossless and less expensive than the CD. Otherwise I’ll by the CD and rip it myself.