The fall of the CD and the rise of steaming

[theluggage]

I suppose it was missing as it was never really a music distribution format. More for home recording.

I remember doing a project on MiniDiscs in year 11, thinking they were going to be huge.

...and then there was Video 8 (even Wikipedia seems to have forgotten that at one stage this was touted as a home video and audio format rather than just for cameras: a friend had a home Video 8 player and one of its party tricks was to digitally record several CDs on a tape) and DAT (which took off as a pro recording format, but was probably priced-out of the domestic market because - shock, horror - you could use it to make an exact clone of a CD with no loss of quality!) and even Digital Compact Cassette (backwards compatibility with analogue cassettes!)

I think the problems were that (a) MiniDisc and DCC were knobbled to stop you cloning CDs (original MiniDiscs couldn't hold a whole CD without compression) - the industry was stuck because they couldn't accept that that was what most people wanted recordable media for.

(b) Sony, in particular, were in competition with themselves (MiniDisc vs. DAT - also MiniDisc data vs. the floppy and Sony's HiFiD high-capacity floppies) and

(c) the humble cassette tape was really cheap, got the job done, you couldn't really hear the difference between a CD and a C90 if you were in a car, on a train, or walking beside the road, people had cassette players everywhere, and pre-recorded cassettes were (for a period) the biggest-selling music format (see the original poster's graph) and people had a shedload of tapes.

Of course, turns out that by the late 90s, if you wanted to clone a CD with no quality loss you could use... a CD! - but what people really wanted was to compress the hell out of the CDs so they could fit dozens of them in their pocket - which ISTR you could do with MiniDisc, but Sony daren't advertise that as a Selling Point.

In the UK it is (or was until recently - ISTR it was going to be changed a few years ago but got bogged down, but I haven't been following it) technically illegal to copy recordings even from pre-recorded media you "owned" for your own use, although nobody has ever, or is ever likely to be, prosecuted for making a mixtape (unless they run off 1000 copies and flog them). Never stopped Amstrad making a mint selling dual cassette players, or the Virgin Megastore happily selling you the latest CD and a six-pack of C90s - but it was a bit "don't ask - don't tell". If you want to make a device who's Unique Selling Point is the ability to copy CDs you have to be a bit cagey about it or the advert is likely to be banned.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

I had a MiniDisc player and lots of discs I put together and carried around with me while I was on active duty. I really loved that thing too. It went from the Mojave Desert where my base was to the hills of Korea, to the jungles of Okinawa and the Outback of Australia. It was durable and always worked.

Still used in radio as a safe back up! I loved MiniDisc - it was so damn reliable, easy to edit and didn't jump or stick like CDs did!
I've still got MiniDiscs in my house but no machine to play them on :'( Everything music & film I own I keep in iTunes since 2002. Just the other night I rediscovered a playlist that I made whilst at university in 2003

 

[macnewbie86]

I'm an older millennial that misses CDs too. I know they're still around. It's just that most people buy them for their cars and there's virtually no good portable CD players anymore, which is what I would use..you have to buy the premium ones that were sold years ago which could break. Occasionally I see a nice bookshelf system but then I remember the times I had to have mine fixed.

For $5 a month for Apple Music (student plan) you just can't get any better. I know I don't own the music, but if I really like something I hear on the Apple Music radio stations or any new music that comes out, I buy it on iTunes not just to support the artists, but I just like to know that I own it, in case I ever cancel my subscription.

I miss the art and lyrics book too. I know you can get the album artwork on Apple Music and iTunes but it's just a thumbnail basically. Just not the same as a CD booklet and definitely not the same as vinyl.

 

[Jws]

On the minidisc discussion, I remember wanting one so bad when I was 16. I don't know why; they just seemed cool, I guess. Probably a good thing I never got one because they never caught on here. I think they were pretty big in Asia though.

I miss being able to go to a store and buy CDs. I prefer having physical ownership of a product; be it books, CDs, vinyl, etc. I do have an Apple Music subscription, but I mainly use it for discovery. After my annual membership runs out, I'm going to try using the Spotify free tier for that. I'm sad that over the last 15 years, many of my favorite brick and mortar activities are gone, when I now have more disposable income to really enjoy them more.

Personally, I think streaming is great, but in my case it allows me to commoditize music instead of truly appreciating an album. An example: The Strokes' Room on Fire is one of my favorite albums, but I didn't care for it at all when I bought it. Because I was 18 and poor in 2003 when it came out, it was all I had new to listen to for that month, and it eventually grew on me heavily. Nowadays, I'd drop it before it had the chance.

So I buy vinyl for albums I really love, and CD for those where the vinyl isn't available or too expensive or albums that I like but don't care enough to spend extra for. Having digital copies is still important to me because I like having digital files on my phone for work and gym. I really like Amazon's auto rip feature for a lot of vinyl because not all come with download codes.

I hope that all formats are able to co-exist peacefully without disappearing. Cassettes are making a comeback too. That's pretty awesome, although I won't be engaging in that particular format.