Younger people of Lemmy. Would you buy a CD at a concert?

Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 175 points –

I'm 40, and when I was a teenager, EVERY band had CDs. And I know a lot of music has shifted to digital. So much so that I heard Best buy stopped selling CDs. Presumably because nobody buys them.

So I wonder what musicians sell besides t-shirts and posters at concerts. Do the kids have ANY CDs? Do they buy mp3's? Do they just use pandora and spotify? Do they even own their own music?

I've given up on trying to understand the lingo. Other generations lingo sounds stupid to me, but still understandable based on context.

I have NO idea what a skibifibi toilet is....sounds like a toilet after some taco bell and untalented jazz, but maybe I can try to understand their thought process on media consumption.

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I've gotten a free CD at a concert recently. I don't have anything to play it on.

I dug out my Wii for it once... Which probably proves im not a young person anymore

Could the Wii even play audio cd's???

Get an external drive, it's useful to have lying around for those rare occasions where you have something on an optical disc.

The weirdest one that we had recently that comes to mind is when my wife has an MRI recently, they gave us the scans on a DVD. We had no external drive or any other way to view it / transfer it to a USB.

Omg come to my house! I have a computer dvd-drive and a 4k drive for ripping. I have 3 gaming consoles with disc drives. And I have 9 portable CD players and 3 portable DVD players.

I am a collector. I have a hobby of making my own CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays.

I'll bring the pizza and some two liters! Who wants what?

What 4K drive do you have, and how do you like it?

It's an Archgon Md-8107-U3. I got specifically because the firmware could be updated to allow ripping with programs like Make-MKV. Works great.

Yeah, I don't own anything that can play optical media. When downloading MP3s became a thing I just stopped using CDs.

Yep, last time I owned a CD drive was two laptops ago, around 2016 or so...

Do you have a game console? Uhhhh......besides Switch I guess.

I have a switch emulator on my pc. Ones for other consoles too. Don't see much added value in a physical console, since I need a reasonably powerful PC for work anyway.

Also, to touch on the other questions in the post, I have an Apple Music Subscription, but do have about 50 GB of flac files of my favourite music mirrored to most of my devices, in case I'm holed up somewhere without Internet access.

This was my first thought as well, but disc drives are an option on them now, not a standard.

Sometimes I buy CDs and rip to flac so that really obscure shit doesn't get lost forever.

Upvoted. Because my favorite music comes from bands that I've been in tiny concert venues, where I'm 1 of 13 people in the crowd.

I'll admit that even though she's not my style, Taylor Swift has some....as the kids would say....bangers.

But my favorite music is with bands that I 100% can say you've never heard of, and is so obscure I doubt you could even find it.

But people like you are helping make obscure music easier to find. Awesome!

I had to fix my ratio on redacted. I found I had so many CDs of random local bands that were handed out at shows that weren't online. It was weird to basically be the only person that had some music online.

I did the same thing at the same place a few years ago!

It's crazy, because I know a lot of those bands aren't together anymore. They never made it and are effectively forgotten to the internet. I feel like a custodian of music history. If I didn't put them online, they'd have disappeared entirely.

I've definitely had that feeling before. I was really into Chinese rock bands and bought a bunch of CDs. I've been slowly uploading them. I mean China is a big country with lots of people, so it's not like these bands are completely unknown, but when I used to go to concerts in China some of the groups that I thought rocked the hardest didn't tend to pull big crowds. And when you look on Chinese Internet for this stuff, you usually find crappy MP3s, not rips following proper procedures.

I still think about the band where I showed up late because the train to Beijing was delayed and then the taxi driver couldn't find the venue address, so I just barely caught their last song. Then afterwards I was hanging out chatting with people and they were like, since you only got to hear one song you deserve to meet the singer. And they were friends with the singer so they called her to come out. It seemed like she was blown away that any foreign fans at all are into her music, and when she found out I didn't yet have a place to stay for the night and was planning to find a last minute hostel or hotel she said "no, you're not doing that, you're staying with my friends who have a spare room".

Whenever I rip & upload Chinese rock, I think about those people who were so friendly and gracious towards me. Like who tf invites some random stranger at a rock concert over like that. And none of those bands, even the ones that made it "big" really got the attention that I thought they deserved. They were pouring their heart and soul into their music.

Man, I started answering you and realized I am also 40 and...yeah.

But, were I to go to a show, a CD? Nah. But a sticker or socks or something, certainly.

I would buy their vinyl though! I'm also in my 40s, never listened to records before 2023. I jumped on the bandwagon and haven't looked back. Something about all that effort to listen to 22 minutes of music and getting to enjoy an entire album is just fun.

What’s your setup, and do you find that the sound quality is superior to streaming or physical media?

I'm in my 40s too. I usually look for vinyl, if I'm inclined to buy music at a show.

I just turned 40. For my birthday I went to go see a small disco funk band. They run their own merch table, tour around the country in a van, have day jobs, etc. I wanted to support them so I was gonna buy a T-shirt, but it was $25, I only had $20 on me, and they didn't take card. So I got a $15 CD. They also didn't have any change, so I had to wait 5 minutes for them to go to the bar and get them to break a 20.

Then I got home and realized I didn't even have a CD player. So I dug out an old DVD drive and installed in my desktop, ripped the CD to FLAC, pulled the drive out, and threw the CD into my old box of CDs I haven't opened in 10+ years...

I was gonna say "only $25 for a concert t-shirt?" because they wanted like $50 for one at a Pantera concert about 6 months ago...then I saw this was over a decade ago.

Yeah, but that's Pantera. Any time you go to an old head concert they're going to charge you fuck you prices. My wife went to see Motley Crue a few years ago, and they were charging about the same, and a bit less for Jett's merch. As she so eloquently put it, "the main reason old bands go on tour is they need money".

Going to smaller/newer bands' shows has much more reasonably priced merch. But for those old heads, you're paying for the well known name and so they can supplement their social security payment while trying not to break a hip on stage.

The tickets were only like $100 a piece for second level seats and that was mostly because of the ticket pricing bullshit. It was like $60 for the ticket and $40 of "fuck you, pay me" money and then the taxes on top of that. I saw Metallica back in 2018 and it was $100 for pit tickets. I was like 30 feet from James.

No, this was 2 months ago

Its an independent band that runs their own merch table after the show. Its not a band with 3+ decades of content that can charge $50 for a shirt.

Ah, I misread the last part. Of course if it's a small Indie band they're not going to charge out of the ass for stuff, that'd be dumb on their part.

Not a younger person, but last concert I attended, the artist was selling bandcamp codes for their albums (I got two for €5 each). On top of that CDs and vinyls, each would include a bandcamp code too, so I assume people without CD players or turntables can get the physical item and still enjoy the music digitally

Teenager here, I regularly buy CDs at bagpipe concerts* because there's no unique bagpipe music on streaming services.

*Bagpipe concerts here means renn faire performances

This comment made me day. Bagpipe music at a Ren faire. What a homie.

Thanks for the clarification. I'm 43 and have never seen a bagpipe concert and thought I was missing out. I don't consider renn faire or highland games to be bagpipe concerts since that's just a small part of the larger experience.

This comment makes me extremely happy that a teenager is going to bagpipe concerts.

I have seen people purchase vinyls instead of CDs.

Do the kids have ANY CDs? Do they buy mp3's? Do they just use pandora and spotify? Do they even own their own music?

Yeah, from what I tend to hear from teenagers, I don't think most of them own their music.
The thing with CDs or MP3s is that it takes time for you to build up a collection. If you got started on that before streaming services took off, it's probably worth listening to.

But if you're starting from scratch today, you're basically deciding between listening to one or two albums in your collection vs. all the music you can imagine for a monthly fee. The value proposition of the latter is then just hard to beat.

I believe, streaming services generally don't allow you to add your own MP3s into the mix either, so even if you get a cool CD/MP3s from a local band that's not on these streaming services, then there's still not much you can do with that.

Spotify at least does allow you to add local files on a computer, and they even sync tracks to your phone when they are on an offline playlist when the devices are on the same network. I've done that myself to get some otherwise unavailable songs into my catalogue, and am thinking of starting the move to owning all my music that way

Apple Music allows you to add arbitrary audio files to your cloud-synced library. I believe it will even generate streaming revenue for the artist if the file is recognized to also be in the catalog of iTunes Match (but I'm not sure on that one).

No? I don't have any way to play it. If I wanna listen to a song, I just do it on Spotify or I pirate the FLAC if I really like it...

E: I really don't know why you associate younger generations with a "lingo" or "skibidi toilet"... Sure there are chronically online people who use it unironically but like... Cmon.

I still buy CDs. I have a player in my car and in my hifi. My desktop has a BR drive which I use to rip the disc and then I use it how I want when want. They also sound fantastic. Streaming is great, but you give up a lot compared to owning physical media.

I'm probably too old (29), but I do tend to buy CDs of artists I like. 2 weeks ago I was at a festival and bought 3 CDs (as well as some other stuff). Today I'm expecting another CD to arrive in my letterbox.

I'm 32, I bought a cassette at the last concert I went to. (I generally prefer vinyl, but I don't wanna buy a vinyl before a show starts cuz then I have to awkwardly hold it for the whole show)

My car still plays CD's, so if the price was right and the band actually got a solid cut of it, then yeah I would buy one.

I'm 29 and 13mo's

I'm not much younger & I'm not going to read the comments. They're either ignorant, or they don't care, or they'll reflect my opinion. You need to stop & think -- how do I get money from my hand directly to the artist(s)?

The artists receive very little from streaming revenue or CD sales (unless onsite at concert, maybe). The recording label eats up a lot of profits. So honestly I'd buy tickets, I'd buy merch at concert, I'd put cash money directly into their hand.

Anything else might be stolen by the venue, the recording label, the third parties, the goddamn United States government, etc etc etc.

I dont know why but this post feels like a teenager trying to sound like a boomer on the internet. (boomers arent 40 anymore btw)

I'm 38 and man, you sound like you're 75 🀣

I'm assuming you haven't been to a concert in a few decades? I went to see Pantera and Lamb of God about 6 months ago and the only merch being sold was overpriced t-shirts, like $45-50 USD.

That's probably just because those are old acts that have the benefit of charging fuck you prices for a shirt. The last time I saw disturbed, their shirts were priced like that.

Other I saw alestorm and gloryhammer last year and the shirts were like 35, CDs were 20, and I got a rubber duck captain thing for like 15. mc chris had similar prices, but he also had a full discog flashdrive for like 100, and as much as I'd love to support mc on that, I have all but like 2-3 albums so it's just not worth it to me.

I am literally importing them from japan and other countries on discogs because I prefer that over downloading from soulseek.
Last resort if either physical costs 100% more than MSRP or not as much sentimental value I will just pirate the flac or sometimes I buy digitally.

After I aquired the media I rip it and put it on my Jellyfin server.

Age: 25 y/o

TBH I (23) have gone backwards. I love collecting signed vynals of my favorite bands

Can second this. Not only has it personal and collector value, you actually own it in contrast to the digital age where everything can be taken away by the host service even if you payed for it before. And no, "you only bought the license to stream it not the media content" is only legal rubbish these companies spout to justify the morally questionable bs they push to be the norm.

Pins, patches, vinyl, tapes and very rarely CDs.

My band is planning out our merch for the fall and we're planning on two shirts, four larger patches, 2 to 6 pin designs, logo patches and a 7-inch (TBR). It's a street punk band.

My death metal band has a slightly different table, but it's those things in general.

A band we play shows with often has hot sauce they produce for sale as merch.

Yo, the Elder hot sauce is great, though. I went online to buy more a few months after I saw them, lol

CD? No, I can get mostly the same sound quality, if not better via streaming. Vinyl? Yeah because it's a set piece. It's a great conversation starter to have a cool collection.

And Vinyl is also kind of a ritual. With taking it out of the sleeve and putting it on.

Is a CD collection any different from a vinyl collection?

I definitely do. Supports the band in question, and I get to rip the audio off the CD for my digital collection. Best part, if I lose my digital music collection and can't access a backup, I still have the disc to rip from again.

I like CDs, but I guess I can't really call myself a kid anynore though, being in my mid twenties. I typically use Spotify for discovery/casual listening but but an album on CD or digitally through Bandcamp when the option is presented to me. I went out of my way to buy a 25 disc CD changer.

Vinyl have definitely become way more popular for physical music purchases, but I like the smaller footprint of a CD.

I do think the vast majority of people use Youtube Music, Spotify or a similar service though. It's inexpensive, has family plans and optical media players just aren't common anymore.

I remember being in high school about 15 years ago and going to a show where a band was selling music on a flash drive. That felt so clever, since the world was just starting to ditch CDs at the time.

I didn’t really answer your question at all though, sorry lol. I don’t think many people buy. Some people collect stuff but it’s probably analog/vinyl, not CDs. Everything is just streaming over buying now.

I like to buy vinyl for my favourite artists, but I wouldn't do it at a concert because I'd have to carry it around for the whole show. I do also like to buy t-shirts at concerts

Usually the merch stand is still open after the show, so I buy mine just before leaving.

I'm 22 and 240 months... And I wonder why not small USB sticks with m4a files on them... Maybe some behind the scenes footage and a digital poster or message/manifesto?

A) it's a horrible idea from a security standpoint

B) all the anti-piracy groups would probably have a heart attack and attempt to shut it down in any way possible

C) it's a lot more expensive for the band to pay for this type of distribution compared to CDs

D) it will most likely end up as e-waste

For point c, it's actually cheaper depending on how they do it. One of my favorite artists, mc chris, has done USB discog sales for over a decade. He charges like 100 for it last I saw, but it's also a custom USB along with having like 10-20 albums and Eps.

It would be much more expensive to press, bundle and package/ship that many CDs in comparison to a single USB drive. And since it's also merch, point 4 is unlikely. He's never cared about his music being pirated (and even has lyrics about his music being 'forever free for the poor kids', so B isn't an issue either.

Option a is basically do you trust the artist, which one would hope they're trustworthy, but they could also Sony you if they weren't...

For point c, it’s actually cheaper depending on how they do it. One of my favorite artists, mc chris, has done USB discog sales for over a decade. He charges like 100 for it last I saw, but it’s also a custom USB along with having like 10-20 albums and Eps.

That's pretty cool, but at what quality? MP3? AAC? M4A? FLAC? You don't know until you buy it and plug it in, you know that a CD is going to be WAV files which is uncompressed audio mastered at the best quality possible, which you can then rip to your desired format. If whats on the USB drive isn't FLAC, you're limited to what they gave you.

It would be much more expensive to press, bundle and package/ship that many CDs in comparison to a single USB drive

It all depends on if you're doing it yourself or if you have someone that's already setup to do it as a business. After a quick search, I found a site that will do 100 CDs with inserts and jewel cases for $255, I'm sure the price goes down with the more you order. The same site offers custom USB drives with silkscreen printing (how else are you going to know what's on it amongst all your other flash drives assuming you intend to keep it?) is $330 for 100, so if the artist is actually putting multiple CDs onto a single USB drive than it definitely is cheaper for them, but I'm not sure how many bands would actually do that.

And since it’s also merch, point 4 is unlikely. He’s never cared about his music being pirated (and even has lyrics about his music being β€˜forever free for the poor kids’, so B isn’t an issue either.

That's one artist, lots of artists care about their music being pirated because it cuts into their revenue, which they get very little of in the first place (referring to CDs, not streaming which is a lot better for them in terms of revenue). IDK how old you are, but I'm guessing you don't remember Napster/Limewire/Kazaa. Also, a lot of the time it's the companies that own the rights to the music that care the most because they're the ones that get like 70% of the profits.

Option a is basically do you trust the artist, which one would hope they’re trustworthy, but they could also Sony you if they weren’t…

Ah, yes, the good old Sony rootkit.

Nah, CDs don't make sense for me anymore. Nowadays I stream from Apple Music.

You buy stuff at a concert to support the band.

People go to the concert to support and see the band. Not everyone is able to double down when prices are the way they are.

Okay, I'm sorry. Please allow me to rephrase.

When one buys stuff at a concert, the intention is to support the band.

jfc

I'm not trying to be obtuse and I'm not against supporting artists. I'm just pointing out that a lot of people don't want stuff they won't use even if it does offer support. That's why everyone will typically offer wearable merch. If you bought it based on how it looks chances are you'll wear it. The reality is cds don't get much use anymore, vinyls don't travel and most people can't tell the difference in quality or haven't taken the time to notice it and will never unless taught.

Oldest guy at the punk show here. The merch tables I see have vinyl records and occasionally cassette tapes. I'm waiting for 8 tracks and Edison cylinders LOL. I always try to support the bands so I'll buy a sticker and occasionally a t-shirt. I think they should give away a code for a free Bandcamp download with every t-shirt sale but nobody listens to me

Yes, that's a great idea but hard to implement safely, unfortunately.

I'm gutted one of my favourite bands just got something remastered but I'll almost certainly rebuy it

As someone about your age, you are more likely to buy vinyl at a concert instead of a CD nowadays. I've even been to two concerts where I got a CD mailed to me as part of buying a ticket to the event.

It is mostly T-shirts now, with some stickers, pins, and buttons.

Last fall I went to a local event where a bunch of food stalls/stands/trucks gather in the downtown park to sell food. Near an area selling beer they had a local band playing. Someone who had CDs on sale, besides the usual shirt merch. If my debit card was working back then, I would have definitely bought one right away. Not gonna say the event or band because that would immediately tell you where I live with some basic searching.

Granted, I'm not that young considering I'm in my mid-twenties, but I've been recently into CDs. That CD would have made my small collection move up from 3-4 to 4-5 total CDs, even though I'm pretty sure one is just the shittiest reprint from some random company in Florida. Definitely looking into buying more in the future, too.

Granted, I’m not that young considering I’m in my mid-twenties,

Laughs in grey hair

I’ve seen CDs, vinyls, and sometimes digital options for sale at concerts.

I went to a small concert and you could buy their music on a flash drive. That was awesome. I like that option

At a anime convention there was a table with various CDs of the band playing that night. I couldn't go to concert, but bought a CD to support them even though it was going to be a slight inconvenience to rip it. I still have all my old CDs (I don't really have that much so haven't gotten rid of them. I keep them in a plastic container) so just put it with the rest.

I’m not a younger person but I used to collect vinyl and had to quit because the younger crowd got really into it and the ensuing popularity led to prices going nuts. 10 years ago it was crate digging for $1 records and new releases for $10-15 and now it’s crate digging for $5-10 and new releases for $40-60. Fuck that.

That said before I bowed out I saw plenty of artists also release on cassette and cd as well as vinyl. Those formats weren’t as popular as vinyl but still were popular, likely for one of the reasons I originally got into collecting physical media for cheap. The vinyl releases would be $40 but the cd would be $15 and the cassette would be $9.

Of course, you lose the other main reason which is the vinyl often has superior mastering to cd/web sources but I honestly don’t think a lot of the new releases are being listened to anyway. But that starts the whole diatribe about the new generation buying up vinyl to either never listen to it or to spin it on a shitty $40 record player that will wreck the disc over time. And people always looooove hearing about that lmao

The whole thing got really scummy too. The price rises were initially because the popularity caught labels off guard and pressing plants couldn’t keep up, especially during covid. But more have opened since then and they can press crazy amounts. They have just recognized they can gouge fans for $50+ dollars plus shipping for a single disc LP because they got away with it for a brief period. Plus then they quickly learned the hype tricks and now that shit is everywhere. Every album is β€œlimited edition, only 1/3000” except then you look on discogs and there are 4800 registered. And then there’s 20 variants of the album for you to collect, show your support to Taylor or king gizzard and buy them all. It’s like funko pops except music. Don’t forget that there’s a limited run of 1000 signed copies! They’re not actually signed, they come with a little art card that’s signed and it’s probably signed by an intern but whatever, $75 for the album that’s normally $40 because you believe Olivia Rodrigo touched it for 3 seconds.

Totally gross consumerism but that seems to be what zoomers get shoved down their throats at all times. I thought us millennials got it bad because we had like constant product placement and advertising everywhere and boy bands and shit but man, they really fucked the zoomers even worse

Discogs keep pinging me new listing updates, only 111€ for a CD, last chance to buy!!!

What's a CD?

It's a way banks help you grow your money.

"Grow"

Story time! Back in the year of 1999 I took out a student loan for $5000. I didn't actually need the money for that semester so I put the money directly into a CD that had like 4-5% interest on it. When I finally needed the money like 2 years later for my senior year of college, the interest on the CD had paid for the interest of the loan. More surprising I was able to fill out the loan paperwork and the CD paperwork at the same time with the help of a bank representative. These days I've had $4000 sitting in a rolling ladder CD for almost 8 years and barely made $200 back in interest. It's pathetic and not really a mystery as to why people don't bother to save money anymore.

Certificate of Deposit? gotcha did not knew concerts sell this stuff.

I went to a small concert while on a road trip a couple months ago and the artists had CDs for sale. I figured cool, I'll have some music to listen to if I hit no cell service areas. But it turned out that my CD changer in my car hadn't been used in so long that the motor wasn't strong enough to ingest the CD. I was sad.

I've bought usb drives with music and pictures and tabs. I don't trust usbs anymore, but I would be open to buy a code for downloads.

I am currently still buying CDs for my Plex collection off of eBay, so for sure I would.

They sell tee shirts stickers vinyl and sometimes drum heads or tour eps.

Said the 43 year old guy

Nkt exactly young anymore, but I would and I do. Music you don't own can disappear any day on the whims of a company. I don't like that.

Not me but I know KPop stans will pay exorbitant amounts of money on albums not really for the CDs they come with but for the added art books, photo cards, etc. I know one young person who bought multiple copies of physical albums with CDs so that they can get access to earlier ticket sales and stuff. Also apparently some songs are CD exclusive and people get really upset when you suggest they just look for pirated rips online.

So yeah, art books, photo cards, light sticks, key chains, lots of stuff that young fans are buying from artists they follow, and some of those things still come with CDs

if I respect the artist and their work and they give me the option to, I almost always do. (even if I still use the pirated version for convenience). they almost always have a CD available on their website and they look pretty cool together displayed on a shelf

I almost never purchase a piece of media if they only allow me to buy a license for it, so I have a lot of respect for the people who give me the option to actually pay for it and own it and will support them for that

Im 25 so slowly leaving the young person sphere, but I do have CDs and I did buy some at concerts.

Im a metalhead, so it was mostly for metal bands, and maybe this is specific for this genre, but every show i went to, I saw CDs being sold. I think out of 20-25 concerts, i bought 5-6 CDs, that i mostly listen to in my car. Two of them were signed by the band, so this was one more reason to buy it.

When I don't listen to metal, im into folk, rap or electro. I do have some folk CDs, that i listen to with my parents. But for rap and electro, everything happens online. My brother released a first rap EP, and printing on a CD was a very distant option for him and his crew, like 'this would be cool but that' s too much for now'. On the opposite, my friend who have a metal band immediatly started a crowdfunding to get their first EP printed on a small scale

https://www.ebay.com/itm/150478626420?epid=6046060318&itmmeta=01J4BEEDDDVR7PM9ZQKBTT66D7&hash=item2309399e74:g:r-sAAOxyk99Ry05S&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAAwO75lM3OMfsgXpjNOMhfJfnyIhmM7wrOLQxXLghZGAiBSTYoUSzIafhCCEYGgVHk8339HiLVzCKl1icFCoJdOVH8wWZWyc9euasHf58KXrtcTh6OlqA6JNPWnVByN0S1uahyTmdgsUBHkjVZXpdXeo0weg9iCTliPIlSlbEVXjiR5VcQWVHSeMz9UBSDqdja4me6B7aDhGIledJiS7Mqg0P5D%2Bh9li%2BtWtimssbNbS%2FVnHisXQ6Cv3NYl7DMJdLB4A%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-TWue6iZA

I can't say for fact you'll like this band, buuuuuuut.........you'll like this band.

Haha you're right I do Thx for sharing this :D

Just know, the reason Johney Knoxville opens the album is because

  1. this was released in 2004, and it's very of its time,

And

  1. One of the official band members, and the guy holding this whole band together was Ryan Dunn. Who's official role in the band was drink onstage the whole show, and sing for like 3 lines. But he's the one who was friends with everyone. The band kind of silently went their own seperate ways after he died.

I never really liked physical media. But I also don't have a Spotify subscription. So I guess my music is downloaded from YouTube and other sources.

I've bought one CD, but that's because it was signed

All the CDs I own are signed! I haven't owned a CD player since I sold my PS3!

22 here, the only device in my apparent rn featuring a CD or DVD drive is an old ass iMac my gf intends to gut and put a mac mini inside just for fun, aka, likely disabling the DVD drive :(

We also probably have an external DVD reader in some drawer...

Considering we have like 5+ laptops and 2 desktops here, I'd say that says it all.

I predominantly download my music from bandcamp and my gf mainly uses Spotify.

No, definitely not. I buy music off of bandcamp occasionally, to support the artist and get the cool swag that comes with the album, but I don't physically have a way to play cds.

I'm 27 and regularly atttlend concerts in the 80s goth/postpunk/arkwave/synthpop scene. Every band has a CD and I always get one, though if they have MCs, which they sometimes have, I preffer those. As a profesional poser, listening to MCs on a walkman just has this unique feel CDs can't replicate, while also helping with my attnention span since I can't just easily skip songs midway and stick to the few ones I like, instead forcing me to enjoy the whole album which eventually grows on me.

However, I'm probably not a good reference, since I also regularly host parties, DJ and help the local scene promoter with events, so music is pretty big part of my life.

Also, I don't really listen to them much. I have my own NAS with music, and instead of paying for spotify I download what I need from a private torrent tracker (which I need mostly for DJing, which I never get paid for and always volunteer, just like we do the events with free entry, yo no income from that). That's why I make sure to buy the CDs, while also having a budget that's in the same range as I'd spend on Spotify, that I make sure to use every month to buy an album I liked on Bandcamp, slowly replacing everything I've pirated with either CDs or bought digital albums. I feel like that way a lot more of my money end up at the hands of the artists, than if I just payed for a streaming service I don't want to support, while also not limiting me just to the few albums I can afford (and also giving me offline backup if they ever pull the songs from spotify). Pirating is not ideal and I generaly don't endorse it, but I feel like my approach is kind of morally ok-ish in the long run. Still not excusable, but I'd say better than just paying for Spotify.

I’m 27 and regularly atttlend concerts in the 80s

does the math

Holy shit! A time traveler!!!

Please take me back to the 90s!!! PLEASE!!! I don't want to be HERE anymore!!!

I call the goth scene/genre 80s goth mostly because in the last decade, saying you listen to goth music would for most people mean Nightwish and gothic metal, which has exactly zero things in common with the 80s goth bands like The Cure or Sisters of Mercy. Calling it a trad goth may have been less confusing, though.

What are MCs? Do you mean cassettes? No body ever really called them micro-cassettes, (those were the thing you used to record messages on an answering machine or dictation) so that doesn't really fit. Certainly not mini discs?

I though that MC means magnetic cassete, every time I shopped for them on our local version of ebay, they had MC in the name. Might be local thing, though.

That makes sense, but it's going to confuse anyone that grew up with the many varieties of magnetic tape available. Look on YouTube for Techmoan if you want to go on a charming deep dive into archaic and niche media formats.

I always thought that MC stood for music cassette (as opposed to the videocassette tapes back in the day), but I never looked it up and you make a very good point...

My zoomer sis and her bf are big time concert goers and collecting vinyl is huge. No cds.

I'm not even a younger person, but when I got a new computer case a couple of years ago I moved my blu-ray drive from the old one and ended up using a dodgy sata cable or something because it doesn't show up

I told myself I'd fix it when I needed to read a disk.

That day has not yet come

I don't usually go to concerts but if i did, I'd rather buy a cd then use spotify or whatever digital thing there is where you don't own anything and get your content randomly taken away.

I go to small venues, small bands. I've bought cassette tapes, vinyls, and CDs. Last cassette I bought was like early 2023. So it's definitely not phased out completely

I almost always buy a vinyl. Great artwork, lasts forever, makes putting a great album on a special occassion.

Some bands I see sell cassette tapes and vinyl records at their shows. These tend to be heavy metal bands. There's a niche interest in physical media in music, and it's mostly for analog mediums.

I like it when they do that and also give you a free digital download code so you get both.

Usually t-shirts and hoodies, vinyls, armbands and autographed drum skins are the essentials, I feel like. And then every band has some assorted rotation of merch on top of this, but that's not universal for every band: beanies, mugs, CDs, keyrings, baseball caps, posters, ashtrays, weed pipes and bongs... These fall into the two categories of merch that caters to the target audience, and merch that is bought in bulk from www.weprintyourcrap.com.

For what it is worth, CDs are definitely pretty rare, because it's just an obsolete media. The CD was convenient before phones became even more convenient. Vinyls, on the other hand, are very popular and often occur because they're decorative and playing them is considered an experience.

For reference, I mainly go to pop punk/rock/indie/metal shows

I have a teenager and they seem to track with their parents.

My son is into digital, but he thinks vinyl is cool to collect as art.

One of his friends is into the sound of vinyl, her parents are vinyl people.

I still go to tons of concerts and I’m seeing cassettes and vinyl being sold, I don’t see cds as much but I’m sure they’re selling them.

The last time I bought a CD, I got excited to listen to it at home, then realized I didn't have a disc drive anywhere lol. I guess sweatshirts is the way to go. I'd buy a flashdrive with the lossless music for the same price though.

Edit: oh crap I'm not younger

CD without download code is a rip off.

Wait......do people not rip mp3s from cds anymore?

well we do because we r old and know that Audio CD quality is superior to MP3’s. But young people don’t even have a CD drive. TBH this is the best way to build your music collection on a budget. Buy original CDs off discogs for like 1$ and rip them.

I think most are inclined to buy something like a t-shirt, but my girlfriend does collect CDs in the same way I collect records

I want to see a pic where you both lay out your whole cds/records collection out on a queen bed, or a king bed if you're rich and fancy.....but just lay all your music out on a bed and take a pic.

Younger person in my 20s. Most of my friends use Spotify. I grew up buying music on iTunes and will continue to do that. I also have little interest in discovering new music and a preference for straight-up owning instead of streaming something I do not own. (Yes, I am aware I should probably go reread the TOS to see if I actually own or if Apple can remotely take my "ownership" away and back up the files like mad.) But I know my approach is uncommon amongst my social group.

I do not have CDs and will not buy one. I know of their use for backing things up. I keep external hard drives but otherwise do not really like physical media and want to keep the count of physical things I have down. Another thing to collect dust, to have to try to keep nice because I like things to look nice, and to be heartbroken about when I inevitably spill something on it/scratch it/otherwise break or damage it, whether in a "it will lose functionality" way or just a superficial way. I'll avoid the pain and just go digital.

I am also just not much of a merch person. I might donate money to support musicians but please don't give me a T-shirt I'll never want to wear (they are not my style, I might buy clothing if it actually fits my style but merch clothing almost always doesn't) or a poster I'll never hang up. If I like your music I might buy sheet music to play it myself. Better be accurate though, not a simplification, or I'll turn up my nose and transcribe it myself. Can't guarantee I'll have perfect results, but I will be closer to the original than the simplified piano/vocal/maybe guitar scores that are often put out.

I also don't know what skibidi toilet is, besides a meme that really belongs to people a decade younger than me. I don't care to find out but I am happy to let them have their fun.

Younger person in my 20s. Most of my friends use Spotify. I grew up buying music on iTunes and will continue to do that.

Allow me to introduce you to iTunes father......Napster.

Buckle up, because it's about to be a bumpy ride!

Is that still good? I heard about some old music piracy sites now being flooded with viruses and the like. I don't feel like having to be careful with what I download so I'll probably resort to a YouTube to mp3 downloader since most of what I have is probably posted on YouTube, and I am not one of those people who can detect a difference in audio quality with different file types. I appreciate the help!

I'm pretty sure the virus thing is music industry propaganda. I never had any problems like that.

STILL good? Uhhhh.....no. Napster got shut down in 2001, but it's existence is what led to the creation of iTunes.

Good alternatives to buying music on iTunes include 7Digital, HDtracks, and Qobuz.

They offer 16-bit and 24-bit flac files.

The last couple of concerts I went to were more EDM and aside from T-shirts, hats, pins, and patches, etc they had vinyl records.

Yeah they still sell CDs and vinyl. If you're punk enough they sell tapes too. The analogue media comes with download codes most often (or is already name your price on bandcamp, depending). And of course clothing and such.

Nope. I wouldn't have a use for it, even if I was a super fan. I listen to my music with my jellyfin server, or stream from the commercial platforms. I think I still have some CDs somewhere, and could play then if I really wanted, but it's just a pretty dead format for me.

As far as I know, the money is from selling additional stuff, like merchandise. Some people like vinyl, but I personally don't care.

Skibidi toilet is a animated series with actually pretty good quality where people with cctv cams for heads are at war with people who's bodies are toilets. Haven't watched a lot of it but I can kinda see why the kids like it, hits similar as star wars the clone wars but without a mega Corp behind it.

i wouldn't even go to a concert but if i did probably not. i mean there's no cd players left in my life so what can you even do with it? play frisbee?

Iβ€˜m not young but at almost all shows that I go to, the artists sell vinyl, some sell tapes and CDs as well. I like to buy vinyl directly from the artists so that I know where the money goes. There are also younger folks who buy vinyl but it’s mostly older people who buy CDs

Am a data hoarder with a shitton of flac yet I still buy cds. (And blue ray/dvds). It's really about owning things and not losing acess on the whim of some random contracts between copyright holders.

If they did, it would likely be a collector thing.

What would they even put them in?

It still blows my mind that CD players aren't something young people have.

And don't even get me STARTED on dvd players!

I'm 19 and made it a point to include a CD/DVD read/write in my PC! Mostly as a mΓͺme but it comes in useful the one time my dad needs to digitalize something lol (also I got it for free from a friend who had some laying around for some reason)

Age is such a strange thing to me. While I was waking up, and seeing some strange news report on tv that some government building had been blown up or something, you were still a few years away from being born.

I was all of 17, about to be 18 in 2 weeks, and I yelled down the stairs like a smartass "MOM!!!! THE PENTAGON IS ON FIRE!!!"

As if she was going to personally do something about it. Usually, me being a smartass would warrent something being yelled back at me. Something like "LOST_MY_MIND!!!! QUIT BEING A SMARTASS!!!"

Except on this day......silence. I could hear the TV on downstairs, and she ALWAYS yelled at me for leaving lights and tvs on if I wasn't in the room. So it would be highly hypocritical of her to leave the TV on, and leave the house. Very out of character for her. She wasn't yelling at my dumbass dubachery, but also the tv was on. Was she ok?

Mom??? You down there???

Silence besides the talking news report of the TV.

Hmmmm, maybe I should go check if she's home. What would make her leave the tv on, but leave the house in such a hurry?

Thats when I saw her. Wrapped like a burrito in a blanket in her favorite chair, tears running down her face. Openly weeping.

You have to keep in mind for context, the ONLY time in my 17 years I'd EVER seen her cry was 2 years earlier at her dads funeral.

Oh shit.......something is real. It was at that moment I knew to shut the fuck up, sit on the floor next to her, and watch this news report. Don't say one god damned word until you know 100% whats going on. Mom is crying. Why is mom crying???

And thats when the tv changed from the pentagon, which was on fire, to the world trade center towers, which had massive smoke pumes coming out the sides.

Oh fuck. What the hell??? The pentagon is on fire, two different world trade center towers are both seperately on fire???

Now they're talking about a plane crash in PA.

I have zero clue what the fuck is happening. I only know two things for fact. Number 1, our country is under attack. And number 2, I'm getting drafted to war in 2 weeks when I'm 18.

Turns out I was wrong about the second point. No mandatory draft for my generation ever took place. Though I stand by my reasoning for why I thought that at the time.

Local news in Cleveland was showing bus shelters that had been spray painted to say "Death to America". All of this shown to me in a 15 minute period around 9:30am.

Despite the fact that I was living in Elyria Ohio, a city I'm sure terrorists couldn't find on the map, much less pronounce, our mall was shut down for the day at 10am. Which is when it was scheduled to open on a Tuesday.

This affected me, because at noon I was set to start my shift at McDonalds in the food court of the mall. I got the call at about 9:50am. I remember feeling angry, and wanting to argue that I didn't deserve to miss my 2nd ever day of work. However the only words I spoke were "Hello? .......yes........Oh.....ok........yeah, no I understand. You keep safe, ya hear me? Ok......ok, yeah, ok bye"

I'm not sure I can put into words a way to fully articulate the emotion in the air that day. Even though I knew I was so far from any place that would recieve danger, I knew my place was watching tv, next to my mom, knife in my hand. My mom tried convincing me I was being silly, but in that house was just her, me, and 2 cats. In my mind I was protecting the family. From what? I didn't know. And that was the scary part. You DIDN'T know whats next. It's easy to look back, and say I was safe. However the news reported that san fransisco, seattle, and miami were also hit.....and then later retracted those reports as false. You didn't know WHAT was next. Or WHERE.

So I sat on the couch, knife in hand, no gun in the house, protecting the family.

The next day I worked my McDonalds shift. People were zombies. We all just shuffled from one place to the next in erie silence. Northeast Ohio is a friendly place. I often get slightly annoyed at how friendly we are. You can't walk 15 feet without some stranger saying hello. Yet the day after.......nothing.

I worked the counter at McDonalds, and I was going through the motions just like everybody else. It was the most grim feeling of nobody knowing how to socialize. Instead of my cheerful chipper self, I just said "Welcome to mcdonalds. I'll take your order". And every person saying the least amount of words possible.

"A big mac meal"

"Large?"

"Yeah."

"Coke?"

"Thats fine."

"5.87"

"Here. Keep the change"

And NOBODY was offended by others speaking like that. Everybody knew we were all just trying to exist. And thats all it was. Just existing in a public space. Nothing more.

Our manager came in slightly late, and said "Anyone that wants a flag pin, give them a flag pin. Would you like a flag pin?" And NOBODY turned down a flag pin on Sept 12th. I still have mine.

At one point our line was several people deep, which was the norm in the days before uber eats. And as this woman is 2nd in line, she snspped. Fell to her knees crying. 4 lines wide, maybe 6 people deep in each line, and she falls to her knees crying.

All 4 lines check on her, almost in a football huddle formation. Helping her up. Eventually, the 4 lines formed one massive hug. I couldn't get to join in, because I was behind the counter. Then I notice the 2 people on grill passing behind me. All other 3 register workers, and our manager were hugging, and now our 2 grill guys. I was completely wrapped up in the moment that I didn't notice the employee hug. But once I did, I joined in. Eventually someone started a U-S-A chant, and now the whole food court was chanting it. All 8 fast food resteraunts, and their customers, joined in INSTANTLY.

It goes down in my mind as one of the most surreal moments of my life.

If you weren't there, I don't know how else to describe the feeling of helplessness and unity, and total loss that everyone was feeling at the time. Right now may be the most divided this country has been since the civil war, but Sept 12th in my mind is the most unified we've EVER been.

And then you were born 2 years later. Long after that feeling had passed. And I share this story with you, with the knowledge that every Boomer knows where they were when JFK was killed. Every millennial knows where they were on 9/11. And I HOPE there is never a "Every Gen Z knows where they were when _____ happened".

That's why age is so strange to me. The idea of knowing first hand how events played out, and you reading about it in text books. The same way I read about JFK in text books. Then the scope of it changes when I think of my grandmother. My hero in life. Born in 1920, died in 2023. She was 103 years old. She was there to grow up in the great depression. She saw firsthznd the destruction of WWII. My grandfather left to go fight hitler.....and he came back. She saw the moon landing, and the civil rights movement of the 60s, and the JFK assasination, and watergate, and vietnam, and the cold war, and the iran hostage situation, and the iraq war, and 9/11, and the second iraq/middle east war, and the first black president, and covid, and finally at 103 she died.

And through all that, her message was only love. She loved you if even if she never met you. She didn't care your race, religion, gender, background. None of that mattered. All she cared about when you were in her kitchen was that you sit with her, and tell her how you're doing. She wanted you to do well. She just cared that you weren't racist. You weren't homophobic. You weren't hateful of any people. All people were welcome, except for those filled with hate in their heart. She had no tolerance for hate. She literally raised a whole city and family better than that.

And I may have lost track of my original point, but I stand by my retelling of my story, and telling of the good Gram did for the world. One more person blessed, and hopefully inspired by tales of Gram, I say. So I'll leave you with that, and zero regrets.

Man, I have no words after that. Thanks for sharing your story. Definitely not what I was expecting on a post about CD drives haha

It does feel surreal to watch videos of news reports from the attacks. At school we get taught a lot about WWII, but there is very little video from that time, compared to 2001. The outside reporting near the twin towers makes me emotional, even though I was born in 2004 on another continent. It just gives such a strong feeling of connection for some reason. Something which we do not really have in the NL.

Times are trying currently, with multiple wars close to NATO borders. I'm somewhat anxious about a World War 3 starting in the near future. I hope it doesn't come that far, but at least we would all probably feel a sense of not national, but international connection to each other. Which is the only comforting thing around the idea of WWIII I have.

This made me cry! Thank you for sharing your story. I was 19 when 9/11 happened. I was driving to work, it was a gloriously beautiful morning, and I threw on the radio. I wanted to hear some happy oldies music. Oldies 98.1 had on a news report. The words didn't even penetrate into my mind, I just tried another station. Then another. All news.

And here's what a naive young idiot I was: it did not even occur to me that something was really wrong. I didn't listen to one word of the news reports to find out what the big deal was - I just figured it was some boring government stuff like a new trade agreement or whatever, so I gave up on the radio and played a CD instead.

I didn't know what was happening until I got to work and a coworker told me "dude, a plane just hit the World Trade Center!" And the first thing out of my idiot mouth was "did the pilot eject?" because 1) clearly I've watched too many movies and 2) I was picturing some little prop plane, not a passenger jet. So fucking naive.

So we all just turned on Stern and listened to his show. It was mostly stream of consciousness live coverage of what was happening in New York. And my asshole boss wasn't having it. The company I worked for was a little retailer that sold used VHS on ebay, and our boss said "ebay's still up, so we're still working!" (And here I'd like to say a very belated FUCK YOU, Mike!) But nobody could concentrate.

My boyfriend at the time was a student at Temple University. Back then, Temple never canceled classes for anything. So he called to tell me he was headed to the train station to go down to campus. And I'd just heard that the plane came down in Pennsylvania, and I'm scared to death that Philly is next. Because you're right, nobody knew how big this was going to get. So I'm crying, asking him to please skip class (luckily they did eventually cancel classes!), and I don't know. Everything felt helpless and chaotic. I just wanted to gather everyone I loved close and not let go.

Eventually most of us just went home. Our boss was angry but we just started filling out to the parking lot. And it was so surreal - that numb, but also on-the-verge-of-tears, bleak, almost dreamlike headspace. Your post expressed that so clearly.

I hugged my boyfriend so hard when I got home. I knew he was fine but I was so glad to actually touch him and know he was OK. That something was normal.

Well this turned into a novel... but I guess it's almost that time of year when we all recount our 9/11 story!

I knew he was fine but I was so glad to actually touch him and know he was OK.

Theres something different between knowing logically someone is ok in a time of crisis, and KNOWING someone is ok in a time of crisis because you're there with them to experience their presence. Its that little extra bit of confirmation that drives the human experience, and irrationally drives emotion.

Logically, you could be talking to them on the phone, and know they aren't near the attacks. But humans aren't logical. Emotions aren't logical, but emotions are human. So I totally get what you're saying.

Dang. Wasn't expecting that many feels this morning. I was a sophomore in college on 9/11 not far from where you were. Actually, we might have listened to the same radio station. I was a fan of 107.9 The End! Maybe this is what they call a mid life crisis, but I've been thinking a lot about generations lately too. Thanks for the tale, it really hit home.

I know some people who will buy vinyls but that's as far as it goes for physical media in music. Music CDs are pretty much foreign objects in 2024 and people just stream instead.

A CD would be cool, but where am I ever going to use it? I don't have a CD player at all...but I do have an Apple Music subscription. A vinyl at least is large and works better as a decoration. Don't really see the point in using a CD.

If I want to support the artist I'm seeing, I just buy clothing instead.

P.S. we don't know what a skibidi toilet is either. Ask gen alpha.

A CD would be cool, but where am I ever going to use it?

I'm still mad at the lack of available disk drives to the average individual these days, and now they're taking my fucking 3.5mm jacks!

High School teachers I know comment on the number of portable CD players they see these days... So, maybe?

I'm old but ages ago, venues changed their contracts around so they get all the money from cd's sold at concerts. Until I found that out, I did sometimes buy them to support the band. I also sometimes bought downloads from Bandcamp, which apparently went evil a year or so ago. Idr the specifics though, except a lot of staff got sacked.

The artists I like don't put out CDs with their music so no.

I'm not a "younger person" but I do still buy a lot of music within a specific genre. Although most of it is digital as that is what I prefer I have bought music in the past few years on vinyl, cassette, CD and USB. So artists are still producing physical media all be it in smaller quantities.

The last gig I went to earlier this year the merch stand was mainly t-shirts but there were some CDs to be seen, these were bands of "our era" though that I went to see in my teens (early 00s) so maybe they are just holding on to the way things used to be done, I can't speak for any newer bands.

They sell vinyl pretty often. CDs are a dead end tech though. They might be romanticized in the future like laserdisc and cassette but not nearly as much as vinyl.

Yeah, every concert I go to I try to get at least a CD, maybe a vinyl or T-shirt if they were sold out.

If it's one of my favourite artists; I'd prefer a vinyl. If it's not; it's easy finding flacs online both legally (bandcamp/iTunes) and illegally (piracy); so I'd prefer a different merchandise even if I wanted their merch.

https://youtu.be/1bZ0OSEViyo

This might answer some of your questions. Music isn’t the same. It’s mass produced entertainment that we can browse at our fingertips with infinite options. Music devalued itself by being so accessible and throwaway.

I mean......it didn't answer my question per se, but it was a great insight into where an industry is, and how they got there.

I saw a 12 minute run time on the video, and thought "I'm not going to watch this whole thing....."

But the man makes great points.

In the 90s, if you played video games, and you played an SNES RPG, those were typically very text heavy, story driven games. The memory on an SNES cartridge was very data limited. So you couldn't have a 9,000 page script. It simply wouldn't fit on the memory allowed.

So developers would write a first draft, and find out they were over limit. So they'd cut it down by 30%. Find out they're STILL over the limit. Cut it down by 5% and NOW it fits. Just barely.

And what you ended up with was a direct, straight to the point story that hits its plot points in a very matter of fact way. You get an oversaterated story that makes sense, and is pure plot. They cut the fat.

What I'm saying here is that limitations are frustrating, and require more effort to work around, but they also breed creativity. And that seems to be the main point this guy is making now with music. Sinatra is dead, his music three quarters of a century old, and still feel timeless. He had barrels of creative limitations, and he overcame them.

Or, not discussed here is Bethoven. I'm not even sure he was ever able to record any of his music himself, but he recorded the sheet music. Which means anytime you hear Bethovens work, you're technically hearing a cover song. Yet despite not having a way to distribute his music, his works are still timeless centuries later.

But this video discussed more about music production from the manufacturers viewpoint. Fascinating stuff for sure, but I'm more interested in knowing from a young consumers viewpoint.

Although, I will admit, his video reminded me of Green Day. Simply because my sister bought me my first CD in 1994. I was 10. It was Green Days Dookie. I can remember listening to that cd over and over and over, studying the box art and booklette, just like this guy said.