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

CDs been over for a decade and yet new players are still being made.

The difference with that and the other formats like DAT, VHS and 8 track is that nothing better has come along, just a more convenient one (streaming).
CDs are still being released. CD stores certainly do enough business, there are just fewer of such stores.

New CDs are also sold every day online. I know, I buy some of them, and no one's ever told me they can't get what I'm asking for, unless what I want went out of production years ago. Even then, I find them online somewhere.

And I own my music.
 
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?;)
What "hardware upgrade"? I have had one CD playback (which also plays DVDs) for some years, and I have no inclination or need to "upgrade". Upgrade to what?
 
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?;)
I’m referring to the ripping of large CD collections in this day and age. I understand that over ten years ago before streaming was prevalent that ripping was a way to keep up with technology, but now I think the primary motivator for someone to do it is either, as you say, a allergy to streaming (for whatever reason), or simply to cling onto the investment made in the CD collection. Psychologically I can see how some people would feel that streaming online content from that they also own physically own is tantamount to throwing away their slowly built up, cherished, and expensive investment.

In the flip side, I totally get playing the actual physical media be it CD, LP, tape, etc. in fact I might even buy an old CD player and get all my old CDs out of the garage. Could be find to show the kids!
 
I don't know any young people who own a single record, and I know a lot of them. When the immediate post-war generation disappears, this whole entertainment industry will follow it.
Probally not, i know enough youth that has a vinyl collection of thousands of records, and they are still buying a lot.

But that is vinyl, not cd. Cd's is an obsolete medium for them, but digital not. You just don't need that plastic disk to get digital files, you can also buy them online from Bandcamp, beatport and likes... plastics disk are only popular there for analog music (aka vinyl)
 
You have to realize that your circumstances and locales are fairly specialized, right? Most of us do watch some TV and subscribe to various content streams for great programs, and with regard to music, also find a place for physical media as well as streaming. And enjoy the benefits of a smartphone. Everyone is different... For me, streaming is easy and inexpensive and gives me constant access to both old and new music.
Perhaps if you live in a city. But even 5 people that I know that live in Reno, NV, do not do these things.
And a very successful mega millionaire family that I know in Orlando, Fl does not, as well as several other successful (but not millionaire class) families in the Orlando, area that don't. (and one that does). In Charleston, SC (the city that I am closest to) I know 3 that don't & 3 that do.
So, I think that I am not unique with this.
 
Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, etc…
View attachment 398753
Also Sprach Zarathustra is one of the worlds most popular pieces of music, so yes, you will likely find many various ones done by many people (I will say: NOT a good example of the average ability to find different recordings of something)
Life of a Song

Also sprach Zarathustra — a fanfare that has echoed down the years​

Kubrick and Copland are among those who have felt the force of Richard Strauss’s piece
12cdc340-e2f7-47e2-8260-0baa8c3edd5c.jpg
Also sprach Zarathustra’ plays during the scene in ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ when the apes make a great leap forward
David Cheal September 28 2020
It is of course not actually a song. And the bit that everyone knows — the opening section — is only a small part of a half-hour tone poem by German composer Richard Strauss. But, thanks in particular to its use in Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the fanfare from Also sprach Zarathustra has become a self-contained piece of music, in Kubrick’s film heralding The Dawn of Man, and widely used in popular culture as a signifier of impending glories.
Strauss wrote Also sprach Zarathustra (“Thus Spake Zarathustra”) in 1896, a musical response to the philosophical treatise of the same title by Friedrich Nietzsche, which was in turn a response to a crisis in European thought — the rise of science, the demise of religion. In Nietzsche’s work, Zarathustra — a fictionalised version of the Persian prophet Zoroaster — journeys in search of meaning and enlightenment, spending 10 years up a mountain, urging humanity to progress to become an “Übermensch” (superman). (It was the first work in which Nietzsche declared that “God is dead.”) Strauss’s work is not an attempt to trace the narrative of Nietzsche’s work, rather to reflect its competing forces — nature, mankind, chaos, life, joy.
In the opening fanfare, low-humming organ pedal, cellos and double basses create a sense of potentiality, before the trumpets sound out those first octave-spanning three notes (sometimes called the “nature” motif, repeated throughout the piece), then joined by the rest of the orchestra in a burst of ecstasy. Conductor Marin Alsop (in an essay cleverly titled Alsop Sprach Zarathustra) points to Strauss’s use of the key of C major: “the universal key”. It’s a “song” in the key of everything, employing a musical form — the fanfare — that has been traced back to the 14th century, when it was used to signal the start of a hunt.
The piece was hugely influential: Alsop points to similarities with later works such as Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, which uses the same triad of notes. There are echoes, too, in the film music of John Williams, especially — and appropriately — his Superman fanfare.
When Kubrick was making 2001, he initially planned to use specially composed music by Alex North, who had worked on Kubrick’s Spartacus and wrote a “sunrise” sequence for 2001 that was suitably epic. But Kubrick, being Kubrick, scrapped the score (without telling North, who only discovered what had happened at the premiere), sent a studio employee out to scour the record shops for classical music, and eventually settled on pre-written music by Johann Strauss, Gyorgy Ligeti and Richard Strauss, with Also sprach Zarathustra appearing at crucial moments of the film’s (and mankind’s) progress. (2001 uses a recording by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan.) Strauss’s piece — or at least the first two minutes of it — entered popular consciousness. (The work of Nietzsche made a further inroad into popular culture in David Bowie’s 1971 song “Oh! You Pretty Things”, with its lyric about making way for the “Homo superior”.)
In 1974, the piece was subjected to a rather more eccentric treatment. Formed in 1970 as an art school project by lecturer and composer Gavin Bryars in response to classical music’s “tuxedo Nazis”, the Portsmouth Sinfonia was made up of players who either couldn’t play their instruments very well, or could barely play at all (its founders have denied the suggestion that total musical inability was an essential qualification. They just weren’t interested in perfection).
They tackled popular classics, including Rossini’s William Tell Overture (with Brian Eno on clarinet) and, most famously (or infamously), Also sprach Zarathustra. Their version isn’t just imperfect: it is gloriously, uninhibitedly and liberatingly ragged, the trumpets straining and failing to reach the high notes, coughing and lurching, the whole thing collapsing in a triumph of chaos. A cult classic was born. Would Nietzsche have liked it? Possibly. After all, he did write: “One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.”
Around the same time, the piece was given a radical but more technically adept treatment by Brazilian jazz-funk keyboardist and producer Eumir Deodato. With a top-notch band of international players that included Billy Cobham on drums, Stanley Clarke on electric bass and Ray Barretto on congas, in 1973 he recorded a version that seethes and broods, its horns syncopated, electric piano vamping. Many ham-fisted attempts have been made to fuse classical and popular music, but Deodato’s is a triumph. And a few years later it was used to extraordinary effect in Hal Ashby’s film Being There, in the sequence where Peter Sellers’s Chance ventures outside his house for the first time in decades and marvels at the scenes that greet him: deprivation, squalor, destruction — and life. The music reflects his astonishment; this is the dawn of a man.
Popular culture has seized on Also sprach Zarathustra as an instantly recognisable theme and meme. Elvis Presley used it as the intro music for his shows. It’s been used many times in The Simpsons: it plays when Homer drifts through space as an adult version of Kubrick’s “star child”, and when Homer, dreaming that he is one of Kubrick’s apes, uses the 2001 monolith as a back-scratcher while apes around him discover tools and fire. As Nietzsche might have written: “Ecce Homer.”
What are your memories of ‘Also sprach Zarathustra’? Let us know in the comments section below.
The Life of a Song Volume 2: The fascinating stories behind 50 more of the world’s best-loved songs’, edited by David Cheal and Jan Dalley, is published by Brewer’s.
Music credits: MGM; Naxos; Warner Brothers; JIP Records; Sony Music Jazz
Picture credit: Getty
 
I don't think any CD can last 40 years let alone 100 years. I think blu-rays can actually last 50+ years due to the way there made.
I have CDs I still play which are 40 years old. I have no physical deterioration in any of the ones I still play that I have seen.

I went back to CDs and LPs after streaming for 20 years because I was fed up wasting time with digital hardware and OS obsolescence, my CD transport is 30 years old and still going strong and I have 5 others 2 of which are in regular use but not as old as my main one. They all just work, every day, no waiting for a software update which does f*ck all to improve anything audio, no disappointment that the connected device can't connect securely to the internet any more - apparently - and so forth.

Largely giving up on streaming has been the best thing I have done for relaxed music listening in 20 years. Bliss.
 
I also prefer to stream from my own server or use vinyl, not the typical streaming services.

They first don't contain all the music i like. A lot of it is very underground, remixes that were never official released, mixtapes or music that is just to obscure to be on streaming media. Also a lot of artists don't see the need to put their music there as the market is so small that in best case they will earn a few pennies. They earn more by direct sales to fans over internet or on live shows or dj sets than they will ever will with streaming. Also the versions of a song (especially important for many styles i like) are very limited. Some tunes have dozens of remixes that are mostly not on streaming. Quet a few were also never official released, only a few selected dj's get them.

Second, I prefer to have my music offline, in my own possession. I often go offline on purpose, or go to zones where there is no internet coverage but still want to hear the music i love. And those services will go down one day (just like all services), and then you loose your music collection. I have enough backups of mine (at different locations) to be sure that i at least have a copy with most of it somewhere. I don't rely on a network connection, i relay on usb drives and nas servers that i own and manage to store my music. I got at lerast 6 copies of my collection on 3 different locations (not even in the same town) that weekly sync over internet, and i make a montly backup on an external drive that is store (and i have 6 monthly backups stored). It the net goes down, i only loose the autosync possibilities, not the media itself

And then i also got a vinyl collection of a few tenthousand records, collected over the +30 years that i collect vinyl records. That collection have a lot of tracks that even don't exist in digital format (at least not publicly availeble). I used to be a dj and a lot of those old bootleg remixes that i play were only a very limited white label vinyl release. I never heared them played digital or so...
 
Hello Folks.

Everything becomes obsolete sooner or later. Our universe is going to become obsolete (most likely).

Now, I do believe that LPs are going to become obsolete sooner than CDs, and here are some reasons:

1) Not played, CDs can last a bit longer than LPs because of different materials used;
2) CDs can be played many times without physical degradation. LPs under best conditions can be played a few hundred times (after about 100 the sound is unusable);
3) CDs can be easily and perfectly ripped, LPs cannot;
4) CDs are smaller and easier to store both in respect to space and conditions of storage than LPs are;
5) CD players are actually simpler to repair (unless in some apocalyptic scenarios) than LP players;
6) CDs offer much higher (objectively) sound quality than LPs;
7) Price difference between CD and LP technology in the future can realistically only rise in the favour of CD tech (it is digital and needs less raw materials).
8) LP mania is pushed by audio companies and music industry to sell pricier, shorter-lived and difficult to copy media. CD is more democratic, environmentally friendly and progressive format.

Here is my half-subjective reason: I like LPs, I think LPs are cool. But shiny objects and lasers are cooler. Just ask any nerd and nerds are the future of physical media, not hipsters.

Cheers.:)
 
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Hello Folks.

Everything becomes obsolete sooner or later. Our universe is going to become obsolete (most likely).

Now, I do believe that LPs are going to become obsolete sooner than CDs, and here are some reasons:

1) Not played, CDs can last a bit longer than LPs because of different materials used;
2) CDs can be played many times without physical degradation. LPs under best conditions can be played a few hundred times (after about 100 the sound is unusable);
3) CDs can be easily and perfectly ripped, LPs cannot;
4) CDs are smaller and easier to store both in respect to space and conditions of storage than LPs are;
5) CD players are actually simpler to repair (unless in some apocalyptic scenarios) than LP players;
6) CDs offer much higher (objectively) sound quality than LPs;
7) Price difference between CD and LP technology in the future can realistically only rise in the favour of CD tech (it is digital and need less raw materials).
8) Most of the LP mania is pushed by audio companies and music industry in order to sell more expensive, less long lived and more difficult to copy media. CD is more democratic, environmentally friendly and progressive format.

Here is my half-subjective reason: I like LPs, I think LPs are cool. But shiny objects and lasers are cooler. Just ask any nerd and nerds are the future of physical media, not hipsters.

Cheers.:)
The one piece of equipment I continue to wait for is a simple, reliable, compact coax out/optical out CD transport for about $200-250. Nothing on the market is spot on. I enjoy using all my older decks, but now having a variety of DACs, I long for a simple, good looking transport that is reasonably priced. I think such an item would sell very well. I keep hoping that Fosi will come through with such a device that isn't horribly bloated with unnecessary features...
 
Although it might be cheaper to buy a readymade product, I've thought to build my own CD transport around a IDE CD-ROM or DVD drive with the aid of this controller by Josaudio. Readily available via a number of AliExpress and eBay sellers using "cd controller" as a search term. Advantage to this approach is that the optical drive is a commodity type product, and spares may be as close as your box of junk.
cd controller.jpg

And I'm super interested in more compact storage solutions for physical media, such as this one, which preserves all of the artwork:
 
What "hardware upgrade"? I have had one CD playback (which also plays DVDs) for some years, and I have no inclination or need to "upgrade". Upgrade to what?
Hi @jsrtheta,
In case you decide otherwise; I have this
202410_ToshibaDVR670KU.jpg

Toshiba DVR670KU DVD/VHS Recorder that you could make-yours, if you are willing to pay for the S/H!
I am sure it will play CDs but since my purchase (circa 2010), all it had done was to flash that 00:00 blue display, for years.
 
here in Europe you can find the Denon DCD-600NE or the Yamaha CD-303 for under 250 if you search a bit. And there are quiet a few others who are decent under 500€ also with coax or opitical out. But it's not a hyped product anymore, they are mostly found in brick & mortar hifi stores. Not your fancy audio saloon full of "high end"
 
It's the persistence of vinyl purchases that makes me worry about people's choices, not the persistence of CD purchases (which I am guilty of as well).

I’m referring to the ripping of large CD collections in this day and age. I understand that over ten years ago before streaming was prevalent that ripping was a way to keep up with technology, but now I think the primary motivator for someone to do it is either, as you say, a allergy to streaming (for whatever reason), or simply to cling onto the investment made in the CD collection. Psychologically I can see how some people would feel that streaming online content from that they also own physically own is tantamount to throwing away their slowly built up, cherished, and expensive investment.

In the flip side, I totally get playing the actual physical media be it CD, LP, tape, etc. in fact I might even buy an old CD player and get all my old CDs out of the garage. Could be find to show the kids!
Go to Amazon. Plenty of new CD players there.
 
It's the persistence of vinyl purchases that makes me worry about people's choices, not the persistence of CD purchases (which I am guilty of as well).
Why do you worry?:oops:
I did that persistence thingie for vinyl, cassette and CD... then, I got the t-shirt for all and each a decade apart.
I find them (=the t-shirts) to take much less space and I don't worry anymore!;)
 
Why do you worry?:oops:
I did that persistence thingie for vinyl, cassette and CD... then, I got the t-shirt for all and each a decade apart.
I find them (=the t-shirts) to take much less space and I don't worry anymore!;)
There's no reason to get rid of CDs - they represent musical value equivalent to streaming.

It's the vinyl and cassettes that I can't see. I grew up with those media, and they were horrible. Truly horrible.
 
It's the vinyl and cassettes that I can't see. I grew up with those media, and they were horrible. Truly horrible.
"Horrible" compared to what?
Truly?
They were era correct and quite good!
Our baselines - for comparisons - have changed, along with the technology.
 
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