Is the Compact Disc dead?

[Guest Spider Monkey]

Not if you're into serious car audio. CDs will always sound better than anything digital. Otherwise, yes, they are useless.

[KSpan]

How is a digital format less convenient? That's probably the main reason people make the switch. I have ~800 albums worth of music on an ipod that I take to work. It fits right there in my pocket. I'm not taking 800 CDs around with me.

You can rip music to lossless files and no sound quality is lost. Even if you rip at a 256kbps bitrate, the difference is almost nonexistent, even on high end systems.

 

I mentioned that the only way I listen to digital music is through lossless formats.  One more device to carry around and make sure it's charged, one more step in the signal chain, the time spent managing 800 albums worth of digital files, etc.  I've tried using my smartphone as a music player and just don't find it worth the trouble.  Also, in my last sentence I acknowledged that I'm in the minority on this topic. 

 

 

Not if you're into serious car audio. CDs will always sound better than anything digital. Otherwise, yes, they are useless.

 

Yep, and I'd extend that to any kind of high-end audio.  There are a couple of good lossless formats, but they take up as much space as a CD and eat up a hard drive in no time.

[Hawk]

the last CD I was going to buy was from someone I knew...he has a band and was going to send me an autographed CD for my collection.  Instead...I got a link to a website.  damn I hate that guy

[TheRed]

No, but they are becoming more and more useless that's for sure. I don't even listen to them on my CD/MP3 player in my car anymore. I just hook up my phone and play MP3's, sounds just as good if not better than a CD.

 

Most artists albums these days are 75% garbage anyways, so just download the MP3's you like and move on.

[Peppers90 NC]

vinyl pretty much disappeared for quite some time and is now more popular than cd's, and usually come with mp3 downloads

[Bronn]

I still buy CDs from just a very few bands... all metal...

 

Obviously - Between the Buried and Me

 

But I think I've got a couple other ones lately like Wretched, The Contortionist, and The Faceless.

Wretched mostly because they are another NC band and their music is epic.

The Contortionist because I feel their music speaks to my consciousness in some way.

 

The Faceless just because they are probably my other main favorite heavy band.

 

I download anything else I get. If it is good enough, though, I will buy a hard copy or pay for an official download.

It isn't really supporting the artists too much, because they don't get much of a cut of album sales. But, album sales do drive promotion and touring budgets and all that stuff that goes into helping the artists spread their music around the world.