Let’s talk collections and listening habits!
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A sweet and somewhat nostalgic look at the CD.
CDs sales are growing. How I wish I hadn’t given my beloved collection away
Cute article, from a relative “normie” (in terms of how he treated and interacted with his collection…rather haphazardly; I’m definitely in his “archive” category, although more laidback than the biggest ‘moths’ out there). He’s also younger than me, it stung a little when he said “a clear advance on the cassette tapes cherished by older siblings and cousins”, because that was me.
I’ve always been more or less immune to the changes in the music industry. I eventually did latch on to streaming and files, but at no point did I consider selling off my entire CD collection (only individual titles in trades and the like). Nor did I get rid of my cassettes when I moved into CDs.
I would love it if CDs became more popular, because that would probably – and ironically – mean lower prices too (more on the market). Less need for the “deluxe” editions they churn out now, to $30 and beyond, and back to simple things. But I doubt that’s gonna happen.
Indeed nice article. Nice how he makes categoriess. We are of course mostly at “archive” level 😉
at no point did I consider selling off my entire CD collection (only individual titles in trades and the like). Nor did I get rid of my cassettes when I moved into CDs.
Me too excapt a bunch of CDs 15+ years ago which (as stated several times) I regret now. The “space win” and the “money win” even back then was neglectable 😉 expect most of my own recorded MCs just didn’t survive technically.
I gave up Vinyl and Cassettes when CDs came along, and I gave up CDs when digital FLAC came along.
I was always a HiFi buf, so I went through stages of having NAD 3020/Dual turntable to now having a Linn Akurate/B&W setup.
I ripped all my CDs and replace those versions as remasters come out. The remasters are usually the same 16/44 resolution but are able to push that to the max when remastered. Initial masters from the 80s/90s were often very poor. Especially for some film music, though varies enormously.
For instance, I have 4 versions of the Captain Scarlet music, for instance, each one better than the last. The restoration of old tapes is also much improved. I have multiple versions of the first three Star Wars scores, too. They did not improve as much as other things, and the latest 192/24 sampling is just silly. It’s no better than a 16 bit remaster, because there simply isn’t more information in the tapes.
We should all celebrate the fans orgs/companies who restore old soundtracks. They do a fantastic job, even though it’s annoying that they won’t sell digital FLAC instead of having to buy a CD.
I never listened to MP3 (ugh). I did buy a couple of iTunes albums that were out of print elsewhere in Apple’s awful proprietary format, but now I have a subscription to Qobuz, which I am very happy with. They serve max resolution digital quite reliably (bar a recent bug in CDN replication), and I like that they pay musicians better than the other platforms do. I’m happy to support them.
I listen on loudspeakers mostly. Only use headphones if travelling or listening to something specific. Speakers have far superior dynamic range (at least with a good amp).
Btw, do you have a folder system for your files? The Apple Music app formerly iTunes by default handles that but I disabled it to have my own structure. Of course Apple Music handles it but I am somehow a file system guy that often accesses directly for quick listening via finder or VLC…
So I have separate folders for general each main genre poprock, jazz/worldmusic, classical and scores. Most are just by band with the albums within. Since scores are the majority it is divided into compilations, and a rough A-Z folders (for surnames, sometimes combined if there are only few names) with composer folders containing the albums. SOmetimes however like with Williams his classical works are within scores, too (At some time I probably will all join to one A-Z as the separation does not make that much sense for some).
Pretty nerdy but how is yours? Do you care at all?
in Apple’s awful proprietary format,
Just to correct, AAC which the iTunes stores uses is not a proprietary format. It is the successor of MP3 and actually technically the better codec. Although at 320kbps they are basically the same quality (and I don’t hear a difference to lossless which I still prefer to buy if reasonable priced).
We should all celebrate the fans orgs/companies who restore old soundtracks. They do a fantastic job, even though it’s annoying that they won’t sell digital FLAC instead of having to buy a CD.
Well, since as often stated the often don’t have the rights and they would of course “kill” their own niche, too… Gladly several of these old scores or expansions are available, although except by Varese from the film company’s labels mostly (which our labels don’t benefit from).
I listen on loudspeakers mostly. Only use headphones if travelling or listening to something specific. Speakers have far superior dynamic range (at least with a good amp).
Interesstingly I love to listen via headphones since I feel to be more focussed and able to hear/dive into more details. But I don’t have any high end equipment or ever had…
Btw, do you have a folder system for your files?
I have a filesystem that keeps track of files by composer/artist and then album (I never collect anything that isn’t a complete album). When it comes to searching, I’m stuck with whatever the renderer permits, which varies. Qobuz search is quite good. My home files are served on a Twonky server, which could be better, but it sort of works.
Interesstingly I love to listen via headphones since I feel to be more focussed and able to hear/dive into more details. But I don’t have any high end equipment or ever had…
Yes, Hifi is the one expensive thing I bought in my life (after convincing myself I could/should finally afford it). I chose my apartments for proper sund insulation too, so I could play at a good level. For orchestra music, the dynamic range is really big (esp at 24 bits) and when the sound is pure you have no idea how loud it actually is (until someone tries to talk to you). Loudspeakers can generate sounds/frequencies that headphones can’t, so there’s no comparison, but you need to have decent acoustics otherwise it doesn’t help.
Loudspeakers can generate sounds/frequencies that headphones can’t, so there’s no comparison, but you need to have decent acoustics otherwise it doesn’t help.
Yeah, for sure it is a different sound since on headphones the space is missing. I don’t have that proper acoustics and there is not that good sound isolation, too. So full blast would’t make me and my neighbours happy 😉
I have a filesystem that keeps track of files by composer/artist and then album (I never collect anything that isn’t a complete album).
I have lots of single files but if by composers I group them in a compilation album.
Cute article, from a relative “normie” (in terms of how he treated and interacted with his collection…rather haphazardly; I’m definitely in his “archive” category,
I like how the author groups CD collections of the 1990s into basically four types: the Pile, the Rack, the Cabinet and the Archive.
And, yeah, I think we’re mostly all in the “archive” group. And I’ve never had the problem the author describes of misplaced CDs or scuffed booklets etc… the first CDs I ever bought still play just fine and are generally free of scuffs and scratches.I’ve always been someone open to new technology, and have always been “future oriented”. When I first heard of CDs I just knew that that would be the future format of music, even though at that time it would still take a while for me to even get my first LP and turntable, let a alone my first CDs. I knew CDs are the format that you only need to buy “once” (not considering all the re-issues and remasterings of course).
Likewise with movies… I never liked VHS (except of course, that it was cool to have any format to watch any movies on at home at all), and DVD (which had serious shortcomings), but with Bluray, buying some movies became really interesting.So it is with streaming and digital files. When, as the author described, MP3 and Napster etc. came along, I was pretty much imune to it. I would never trade sound quality for convenience large scale, and MP3 was anything but good sound quality. Nowadays, of course, sound quality is no longer the issue, with streaming services like Deezer, Tidal, Qobuz, etc. delivering CD quality and high-res all the way up to 24bit/192kHz (completely irrelevant whether anyone can “hear” differences, it’s just nice that it’s now common technology).
So when the world turned to Napster and MP3, I continued to listen CDs on my (then Technics) HiFi system. It was in 2013 though that I started to convert some of my CDs to digital, originally to AAC for my phone and car, but after I ripped a few dozen CDs or so (on almost all of which I had to manually adjust tagging for consistency), I re-did the whole thing in lossless (ALAC), so I’d never have to do this again. So eventually (took me a while, I did it at my leisure) I had a bit-perfect ALAC copy of my entire CD collection, a few thousand CDs, perfectly tagged, easy to back up. And I could easily buy digital downloads and add them to the collection.
Perfect. I still have my CDs and did not get rid of (most of) them (I did give certain CDs away, usually doubled up items etc.), but I could do without my CDs more than without my files, because all I basically “need” is the digital part of the collection, that’s the core.
Nowadays, all my music listening is done from files. Every new CD I get is added as a lossless rip to my collection. My music is on a NAS, all of it, and I usually listen to it on my home stereo via loudspeakers, though I can now listen to my entire music collection from anywhere in the world. Plus I also use Qobuz for streaming (and occasionally buying, if I want to add something to my collection). I use headphones only “on the go”, in the gym or when I am (business-) travelling.
Btw, do you have a folder system for your files? The Apple Music app formerly iTunes by default handles that but I disabled it to have my own structure. Of course Apple Music handles it but I am somehow a file system guy that often accesses directly for quick listening via finder or VLC…
Yes, and ironically I still use iTunes as my primary (though not exclusive) tool for music curation because it gives me out of the box the exact file structure I want and need anyway:
Album Artist/Album/Tracks.That’s how the CDs on my shelf are sorted, that’s how I want my files sorted… so on my CD shelf, when you browse “M” you’ll find Madonna, Mahler, Mancini. So that’s basically how I would sort my digital files even if I had to do it manually, Album Artist/Album, but I’m happy software does that job for me.
When, as the author described, MP3 and Napster etc. came along, I was pretty much imune to it. I would never trade sound quality for convenience large scale, and MP3 was anything but good sound quality.
Yeah, 128er and lower MP3s were/are bad back then (with 320er I have no issue as said previously). During Napster times we here still had mostly dialup connections except universities and even lowe quality took forever. And I was not immun I fear…
I re-did the whole thing in lossless (ALAC), so I’d never have to do this again.
That is exactly my way when I slowley/occasionally work on my CDs.
I never know how many soundtracks I have, because I file them by genre. So, an outer space soundtrack goes in the outer space section (with both soundtracks and non-soundtracks), a jazz soundtrack typically goes in the private eye/spy section (with both soundtracks and non-soundtracks), etc. I may have a specific composer or artist filed in 5 or 6 different places, depending on the music. We have thousands of LPs and CDs.
Interesting concept! As we already dicussed that would not really a problem with files if only iTuness/Apple Music would allow multiple genres per item…
Of course, now I’m curious what you’ll find in the “outer space” section. Knowing Dr. Jacoby, I’m guessing it’s not STAR WARS.
Yeah, multiple genres would be nice. Of course, in principle, it’s no problem to correctly tag ALAC files with multiple genres, but iTunes just shows them as a sub genre. I always have some “test files” to see how the software reacts. For example, I have tagged Dave Grusin’s film score for THE FIRM with the genres “score” and “piano”. On my music server I find THE FIRM under the genre tags “score” and also under “piano”.
(I have also have Max Richter’s HOSTILES both as FLAC and ALAC in my collection, just to see immediately if and when any software/music sever would treat a FLAC any different from an ALAC.)
Yeah, multiple genres would be nice.
It’s really weird it isn’t supported since this is a base organising principle with digital database. Well, niche problem possibly 😉
Of course, now I’m curious what you’ll find in the “outer space” section. Knowing Dr. Jacoby, I’m guessing it’s not STAR WARS.
There were several postwar instrumental outer space concept albums. I file all of those in this section, along with things like The Day the Earth Stood Still. While I am admittedly not a fan of Star Wars, Williams’s Lost in Space scores greatly shaped my aesthtics in outer space music (along with Herrmann cues used on that show).
Well, I’ve been expecting this (increased CD sales, that is). After the resurgence of the LP, I suspected it would only be a matter of time before the same thing would happen with the CD.
And I welcome it. CDs is my favourite way of listening to music.
Multiple genres are also allowed in the ALAC specification, which, ironically, came from Apple. 🙂
Guess the overall demand is pretty low so we likely never get this…
Well, I’ve been expecting this (increased CD sales, that is). After the resurgence of the LP, I suspected it would only be a matter of time before the same thing would happen with the CD.
Would not really count on it large scale but who knows. Did I already mention that my soon 13 year old nephew is totally into BluRay currently? We’ll see how long that will last…
If anyone is interested here are some stats and diagrams about the German music market 2025 (I think those are new but not sure if we had them already…):
https://www.musikindustrie.de/wie-musik-zur-karriere-werden-kann/markt-bestseller/musikindustrie-in-zahlen-2025There was also a FB post about spending for music changed within the last ten years:
- Music products in total +64%
- Physical media +49%
- Downloads -32%
- Streaming +73%
Wow, thanks for the link, Malte, very interesting! I’m always interested in statistics (I’m a fact and numbers guy), so this is right up my alley.
So there is no misunderstanding: the numbers Malte quoted are not indicative of any rise in physical media sales, they are still “shrinking”. However, as they shrink, the average spending per paying person for physical media increased by +49% from 2015 to 2025.
This doesn’t mean the market or the revenue grew by 49% (the full statistics clearly show the opposite), but that the people who still buy physical media today spend significantly more money per person on average than they did ten years ago.
Which of of course typical for a niche market. When CDs were a mass product, they were there right and left, and while our specialty label releases had pretty much stable prices through all the decades (ignoring shipping/customs), I’ve bought a lot of cheap CDs over the years in bulk, even new shrink-wrapped CDs were often on sale or priced in stores at times for €5.-. Not to mention that used-CD stores had full bins. That’s all gone.
Now CDs occupy the same kind of niche vinyl occupied two decades ago and has ever since. A small but dedicated group of collectors, who cherish their releases and want their music on physical media. And like vinyl, that leads to an increase in price.
All I need to to is scroll through my Amazon list for some of the classical recordings I’ve bought over the years there, and compare the price I paid then to what the same release would cost me now. It’s often tripled or quadrupled in price, sometimes even more. Sometimes, there are offers of used CDs way more expensive than they were when I bought them new.
Just an example from my own Amazon orders:
I bought this album on November 9th 2020 via Amazon for €7.25. A perfectly “normal” mainstream classical music release by a big label that I bought “on sale”.
Now I just took a look at what that same release would cost me today, not even six years later:
I could mention quite a few such examples. Of course, I also find some CDs that cost more or less the same, and you can still find good deals, but chances are, in a few years those good deals will cost a lot more or will be hard to find as well.
So there is no misunderstanding: the numbers Malte quoted are not indicative of any rise in physical media sales, they are still “shrinking”.
Thanks and good summary! I didn’t meant to indicate that physical media was rasing!
All I need to to is scroll through my Amazon list for some of the classical recordings I’ve bought over the years there, and compare the price I paid then to what the same release would cost me now. It’s often tripled or quadrupled in price, sometimes even more. Sometimes, there are offers of used CDs way more expensive than they were when I bought them new.
And of course everything involved from postage to materials got more expensive additionally as well which the nice cannot compensate anymore by numbers. Yeah, the curse of the niche…
I could mention quite a few such examples. Of course, I also find some CDs that cost more or less the same, and you can still find good deals, but chances are, in a few years those good deals will cost a lot more or will be hard to find as well.
Wow, that example got really expensive!!
Yes. I mean, you can currently still find that very album cheaper elsewhere (I just looked), and of course I bought it for a “sale” price (€7.25 is of course a “deal”), but it’s just an example that demonstrates a clear tendency.
Thanks and good summary! I didn’t meant to indicate that physical media was rasing!
I know you didn’t, it was me who just read the numbers at first glance and thought WTF!, so at first they threw me off. So I just clarified that for the rest of us.
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