will CDs eventually become obsolete due to no CD transports surviving?

[EJ3]

On Record Store Day earlier this year, at 55 I was easily the eldest in the queue.

There is not much left to be entertained by in the mainstream anymore. Bands generally wrote their own songs. And did it their own way.
Now most (not all) are assigned songwriters and have to stay between the lines, like a child that is not allowed to draw their own thing but must only color between the lines:
Homogenized dribble.
Only a few manage to breakout and be more than that.

 

[Sokel]

Sorry but I didn't understand.
Are you saying that these works can only be found on CD or that they can ALSO be found on streaming services?

I suppose there are on streaming services too.
Funny story about it,in the bass thread it took @danadam to find the specific version of Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra I was trying to post as I couldn't find the one which contains a bit of lows.
It's a jungle out there when it comes to classical.

 

[EJ3]

I suppose there are on streaming services too.
Funny story about it,in the bass thread it took @danadam to find the specific version of Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra I was trying to post as I couldn't find the one which contains a bit of lows.
It's a jungle out there when it comes to classical.

There are many (versions) of things (or not at all) that are not streamed, cannot be found on CD (or the other way around).
And some on cassette or REEL to REEL (new as well as old) that are not available in any format.

 

[JeffS7444]

I don't think my music collection (in any format) has ever exceeded ~300 albums, because I'm no completist, and I periodically dispose of items which I feel I've "played out", or which never really captured my fancy in the first place. Jazz and classical works fare better, because their meaning is more subject to interpretation than your typical pop song. Meanwhile, pop music which once strongly resonated with me, don't always age well, and I'm inclined to let it go.

Streaming: I like internet radio the same way I like radio radio: It's free and content isn't custom-tailored for me, but that allows for more random chance. And sometimes I like to hear content not often heard in my region of the world.

Subscription services: They're okay if you're consistently getting good value from them. But I'm starting to think that about 2 months/year of Amazon Prime might be my best value. I don't care for music or videos playing nonstop in the background.

 

[AnalogSteph]

Sorry, I couldn't resist, I just had to find it. Here it is! My oldest CD. From 1983. 41 years old.

John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, Paco De Lucía – Passion, Grace and Fire

I don't think a CD that boldly states "REMASTERIZADO" is very likely to be from 1983. It's probably this issue from 1998.

It appears that out of 750ish CDs, I've had to repair about 4 or 5 rips with CUEtools as a last resort. Almost all from the '80s. (This included my Brothers in Arms which had a transfer error that made it to the disc, a nice click.) That being said, I once got a Dresden Dolls s/t album brand new that wouldn't read properly out of the box. I'm currently listening to another that gave me a bunch of trouble at the time, a copy of Lucio Battisti's Anima Latina (found it; I thought PD 74012 rang a bell - disc has what looks like a scuff mark on it, as well as two small dimples).

 

[pseudoid]

You may be surprised to learn what decent-quality tapes are going for these days, particularly chrome or even metal. Assuming they are in good condition (unaffected by heat or mold), chances are somebody would be willing to take them off your hands.

You???? Please!!!!

You do know that the usage rights are technically tied to the physical media, right?

I don't do the posted speed limit (if conditions permit), either.
Once a felon, always a felon!

 

[Esprit]

I suppose there are on streaming services too.

Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, etc…

 

[Esprit]

It's a jungle out there when it comes to classical.

‎Apple Music Classical

‎Ricevi l’app progettata per la musica classica, senza alcun costo aggiuntivo per gli abbonati a Apple Music. Trova qualsiasi registrazione nel catalogo di musica classica più ampio al mondo, il tutto in un attimo grazie alla funzione di ricerca creata appositamente per il genere. Goditi la...

apps.apple.com

 

[pseudoid]

When ATT was in the cableTV business in our area, their packaged-deal always included Sirius satellite music channels, free of charge.
About a fifteen years ago, and after I stopped doing business w/ATT; I lucked into a lifetime SXM subscription offer which cost me $100.
When we changed our cableTV provider to Adelphia/Charter/Spectrum; to our surprise they also include 50 music channels, with no DJs or commercials, also free of charge.
[at @Sokel: There are two (2) classical music channels with my cableTV provider.]

Neither SXM or cableTV music channels are of the highest quality but for piping daily background music in the house 24/7, both are acceptable choices.
Of course, having a supplemental and large digital music library (on a NAS) for those times when you want to soak in some critical listening, becomes essential.

What I really don't quite comprehend is the fact that I am not directly involved in paying royalties for listening freely to either cable-music or SXM-music.
Yet, I am totally ignorant of how the music that I daily listen to freely and legally is compensated, by these two providers... and I really don't care!

 

[Palmer]

My longest running HDD - spinning rust as they say, retired itself after only 22 years , I have a DEC Alpha that still works.
Running a dedicated Win98, the Alpha is NT, a Win XP Pro, a Win 7 Pro, two Win 8 Pro.
Will CD become obsolete? I don't know. Seems to me that the key to enjoying your media is to have multiple versions on different mediums.
And to keep legacy equipment alive, and around.
Treat all your music, video, writings, movies and so on as data, and make yourself the best sysadmin you could possibly be - for all that data.
You'll be fine, and perhaps leave a legacy for your loved ones. Regardless of what "the market" does. My opinion, of course.

 

[Sokel]

Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, etc…
View attachment 398753

See?There it is,the one you found is a different version (judging by the cover photo) .
I would have to type the whole "Fritz Reiner,Red Seal..." etc and if I'm lucky I would get the 2013 box set of 63 CD version of the particular one.

It was always like this and it won't change with classical.I don't blame them though (the streaming services) sometimes they have to come with literally thousands of versions,specially of the great works.

Edit:And let's not even mention Opera.Every performer ever existed since recordings could happen (at the start of the last century and sadly about the quality some of those are amongst the greater performers,even to this day but even so anyone can tell ) for the full gamut of plays.

 

[pseudoid]

It's a jungle out there when it comes to classical.

You got me going!
Having been forced to read/play music from 1st grade on, I revolted in HS and swore "never again!"
But I had to check the SXM line-up for classical music channels: Channel78 is the only one I came across in the list, yet they have hundreds of music channels.
More of a desert than a jungle!
I hadn't realized!

 

[Sokel]

You got me going!
Having been forced to read/play music from 1st grade on, I revolted in HS and swore "never again!"
But I had to check the SXM line-up for classical music channels: Channel78 is the only one I came across in the list, yet they have hundreds of music channels.
More of a desert than a jungle!
I hadn't realized!

Now,imagine that they would probably have to squeeze all plays and versions to the lone one.
Mini jungle!

 

[GXAlan]

Could someone explain what the point of backing up CDs is when we can access nearly all music via streaming services?

Because it seems that streaming services have potentially audible watermarks that aren’t on the physical media.

Sound of DSD vs. PCM? DeltaWave Comparison of La La Land Soundtrack

La La Land (2016) is a really fun movie that won a bunch of Academy Awards including Best Original Score and Best Original Song. The jazz songs were recorded at Conway Studios which features nice Genelec monitors and the final mixes were done with Neumann KH monitors...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[pseudoid]

Could someone explain what the point of backing up CDs is when we can access nearly all music via streaming services?

Not getting into the recurring-costs and inflationary issues of streaming, me thinx there are many reasons why someone may prefer to have a local music library (physical or digital).
Some of us music lovers started early-on with LP collections.
Then, and incrementally, we moved up to magnetic media storage for transport-ability (etc.)
When the digital-age gifted us with better technology; we continued to build our libraries.
Unfortunately, the very large physical libraries (made of LPs+Cassettes+CDs+DATs) we built over the decades confronted the WAF, we did not account for...
Some of those old-timer music lovers are not into being always 'connected' and breast-fed music through streaming.

See that I did not bring financials into the discussion, including the required cost of being forced to upgrade hardware used for music listening w/o streaming?

 

[ivanj]

I have a DEC Alpha that still works.

I was at DEC when a major video game platform came in to have Alpha chips made for them to put in their consoles. Many of us supported the move. It was going swimmingly until the DEC CEO, Ken Olsen, said (to paraphrase but not far off the mark), "I'm not going to have my Alpha chips in toys" and quashed the initiative.

I cashed in all my DEC options the next day.

 

[Palmer]

I was at DEC when a major video game platform came in to have Alpha chips made for them to put in their consoles. Many of us supported the move. It was going swimmingly until the DEC CEO, Ken Olsen, said (to paraphrase but not far off the mark), "I'm not going to have my Alpha chips in toys" and quashed the initiative.

I cashed in all my DEC options the next day.

I got the Alpha bequeathed from a former employer, was doing 3-D work on it, still has LightWave on it. Great machine back in the day.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

There has been a glut of CD/DVD drives harvested from off-lease business PeeCees for over a decade. I have 5-6 of them removed from otherwise obsolete systems in my stash of spares. I buy used CDs and rip them to FLAC, saving the physical CDs as the more or less eternal backups they are. I also do periodic backups of my entire music collection onto two physically separate hard drives every couple of months so I can be essentially worry free about this issue. Multiple 2-4 TB hard drives are cheap insurance if you're really concerned about it.

 

[pseudoid]

Sorry, I couldn't resist, I just had to find it. Here it is! My oldest CD. From 1983. 41 years old.

I have to stop reading the replies-to-the-replies; because I got suckered in again and took me some time to dig this information.
Let the 2 images (from screen captures) speak almost for them selves:

and

Top picture date column is not a typo. I guess that date is when I first started collecting those black vinyl thingies (list was alphabetical).
The bottom list collection is most definitely weird: You see this gal won a car CD player and 6CDs (circa March1985) and had no clue what to do with those small shiny discs. She had put in our company newspaper and I bought the player (around 1/2 price) sight unseen. Ended up going to some store in the boondocks to pick up the 6 CDs but their selection was minimal at the time... I don't have a record of the sixth CD I got for free but no matter.

 

[EJ3]

Not getting into the recurring-costs and inflationary issues of streaming, me thinx there are many reasons why someone may prefer to have a local music library (physical or digital).
Some of us music lovers started early-on with LP collections.
Then, and incrementally, we moved up to magnetic media storage for transport-ability (etc.)
When the digital-age gifted us with better technology; we continued to build our libraries.
Unfortunately, the very large physical libraries (made of LPs+Cassettes+CDs+DATs) we built over the decades confronted the WAF, we did not account for...
Some of those old-timer music lovers are not into being always 'connected' and breast-fed music through streaming.

See that I did not bring financials into the discussion, including the required cost of being forced to upgrade hardware used for music listening w/o streaming?

Good Job! Now we can add these to the other objections to show that we are being reasonable when we tell the WAF controller "No & here's why."