Today is exactly 40th anniversary of CD in EU/US. Is that a reason to celebrate? How many have you collected? And how do you store your treasures?

[JaccoW]

The very notion of a "rare CD" doesn't exist in the realm of 1s and 0s, which is in part why I feel that the Internet is a much more useful resource for music discovery in today's world.

You are right but accesibility is an issue. And there is a lot of music that was only released on CD and never shared online or available on streaming services. I have one CD from Alice Phoebe Lou that I get contacted about on Discogs quite often. People are willing to pay €100 for this CD I bought for €10 only 10 years ago. I told the artist over Insta she should re-release it but haven't heard from her.

I have a couple of rarer SACDs as well that I wouldn't mind sharing but my previous place for that (RipRequest on Reddit) was taken down last year. That was a great place for finding new music as well. Besides the really big hoarders people generally don't go throught the trouble of uploading things unless it is good music.

 

[Mnyb]

I have some CD’s signed by the artist that I bought on the venue after a concert . Of course I don’t exactly remember which ones when I was younger there was a very active outdoors jazz and blues festival in Stockholm I often went to .
I went to see Chick Corea in Göteborg ( Gothenburg) and got a signed cd by him . And Wictor Bailey and Eric Bibb are people i truly remember the occasion geting signed CD’s from

 

[UltraNearFieldJock]

I also have about 1000 CD's mostly ripped to FLAC's - like most of you, as the reports here indicate. I also listen to CD's only a few times a month in the living room where I really withdraw and just listen to the music - I try to make it an event for me. In contrast to the majority here, I like my CD's very much, so I store them comfortably but very space-saving in shelves specially designed and made by me for this purpose (aluminium/HPL/weighted rods):

 

[jsrtheta]

That is one thing I miss: browsing through new releases in a place like Tower Records... also miss book stores. Yeah, they still exist, but they feel obsolete and the selection is super limited...

But it was great to just check out what's new, then you'd recognize the name of the producer or a musician, sometimes you could even listen to it (in hindsight, those headphones were yuck :-D)...

Now you do it all from home, and then at the end of the day you wonder "hmm i am kinda bored, haven't been out all day"..

I can't even imagine being a kid these days, spending the day playing computer games, and have your parents drive you to soccer or to a playdate... I just rode my bicycle over to where my friends were and our parents were lucky to not know (prolly they suspected) what we were up to... except when they treated our wounds. :-D

Just saw this post, sorry.

Yeah, to me days spent at Tower and then at the bookstore were like expeditions. Getting home with bags of goodies meant days of pure bliss reading and listening. I felt like a pirate.

 

[jsrtheta]

CDs (and accessory SA-CDs) are still my sole music format, apart from listening to the radio or streaming online on the computer when at the bureau.

I disagree. I think the Internet is perfectly capable of approximating the discovery process of a brick and mortar store. In the context of rare or back catalog content, the Internet is clearly superior to any venue which has to contend with limited physical space or regional availability constraints.

You know what a CD store had that the internet doesn't?

People.

 

[jsrtheta]

I can't unsee that chair. What happened? Did someone die in it? I'm happy to chip in for re-upholstering.

I'm thinking something really horrible happened, perhaps involving fire. And maybe a goat.

 

[jsrtheta]

Philips were one of the main companies involved in the Phoebus cartel...

Phoebus cartel - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I actually have some imagery showing flat screen products/techology from the very early 1970s. Whether it was buried for commercial or practical reasons, I have no idea.

And to think I might have learned this had I finished Gravity's Rainbow.

 

[Hayabusa]

Hardly. Their system was not remotely ready for prime time in any way.

Philips love to re-write the narrative to suit themselves. Their 'system' didn't work, was grossly inadequate and had no hope of commercialization. In fact, even after all the help from the Japanese, they still couldn't bring a product to market that hit the working group's standards. So much so, the world wide release of the actual compact disc system was delayed by SIX months to enable philips to get their house in order.

Sony released the CDP-101 in October 1982. Philips had nothing to sell until March 1983. Japanese manufacturers had 1st gen machines being peddled to OEMs while Philips screwed around trying to get even one machine capable of working enough to actually sell.

Philips let the entire side down. They were an embarrasment from day one and Sony ( and the other CD working group members) should have cut them loose in 1978.

Wow, what happened that you hate Philips so much? I have worked for Philips from 1983 for almost 40 years.. its not nice to read this..