For financial reasons I rarely buy vinyl (new or second hand) these days. Have found myself buying more CD’s though, especially second hand ones, as shops like Flashback and charity shops seem to have 1000’s of them on the shelves (which often went for £15-20 quid a time when new). Can usually pick up several for a tenner. and feels like a cost effective way of taking a punt on something you don’t know much about.
One the rare occasions I head into the West End as well. Fopp in Covent Garden seem to have a selection of new ones that can be bought for far less than the increasingly expensive vinyl versions. Especially in genres such as reggae and jazz that I am still digging into
Can anybody see a time when this unloved format will become “cool” again? Although it will never replace vinyl in my affections, I much prefer this physical format over streaming and downloads.
Yes I do and weirdly I never even had a CD player during the peak CD years and it’s only in the last 10 years that I bought one. It’s insane how cheap most second hand CDs are now. My local recycling centre sells 10 for a quid! There must be tonnes of them in landfill now. I saw a bloke at the same tip chuck about 200 away a couple of weeks ago before I could say “stop …”
I’ve found loads of jazz and modern classical CDs at car boots for next to nothing. I’ve sold a few rare ones too (Beatles Japanese CDs etc). Charity shops seem to usually have the same old pop and indie garbage though. Makes you realise how many millions of CDs Robbie Williams and Oasis sold.
I don’t think there will ever be a “CD revival” because they don’t really have the same aesthetic appeal as a record. But who knows?
Found myself buying a few recently. I don’t have a CD player and just rip them to digital files. Have bought some compilations and a few CD singles. Especially the promo singles as they often have interesting mixes on that are super expensive on a 12” single.
Maybe we need a thread on cheap/interesting CDs?
I’ve been buying them steadily over the years. Usually get the cheapest I can find on Discogs or the odd one from the chazza shop. Their time is coming, again.
I buy loads of CDs, new and old. Major sources are eBay and Discogs. I live miles and a ferry ride away from any even halfway decent record shop, hardly ever go to the mainland - and, frankly, Seattle is a pretty crap place for the music I’m interested in. Still infested by grunge.
Far as I’m concerned it really doesn’t matter if CDs are “cool” or not - I like ‘em and that’s good enough for me. I very occasionally still buy vinyl and have bought a very few tracks from Bandcamp. Spotify has a presence in the house but I only use it sporadically. My wife likes to let it get its algorithmic tentacles going on a “playlist,” but I’m generally more directed and particular in my listening desires. Occasionally I like a bit of randomness. We own five CD players that are out and used regularly plus a few spares stashed away. I think our future is clear!
I am repeatedly either amused or annoyed by sellers claiming their CDs are MINT and unplayed. Huh? My usual experience is that they’re either lying or are clueless idiots. Best investment is to buy a case of new jewel cases. Won’t help you with a digicase of course, but can definitely raise the aesthetic experience of handling an older release. Generally I find that the sleeve notes are pretty clean, which is pleasant.
I’m still a big fan of CDs. Also got a couple of hifi CD players in the house, the car is old enough to still have a CD player and my DJ setup at home still utilises a paid of CDJ 1000 mk3’s (never went fully digital)
I used to buy a lot of second hand CDs off Amazon around 10 years ago. There was clearly some algorithmic nonsense going on where every second hand seller would try and undercut the other by 1p…which inevitably resulted in a race to the bottom and lots of 1p CDs ! Happy days 
However noticed the bargains are fewer and far between.
These days, records are just so f*king expensive and take up so much space…so I still get quite a few CDs, usually via Bandcamp, discogs and new via Piccadilly Records.
I also still buy blank CDs, to burn my downloads onto. Think I bought up the remaining stock of UDG CD cases off Amazon 
Yep, I still buy ( well bought) CDs, mainly because they’re much cheaper than Vinyl (which is ridiculously priced in the main imo), most of my album collection is on CD and I like the convenience of just sticking a CD in and letting the album play through without having to get up and turn the record over.
At the moment i’m just buying digital thru Bandcamp because the cost of living crisis is killing me financially, but I was regularly buying from Fopp and ebay a year or 2 back, ebay was great for getting some good stuff for cheap, I remember paying only a few quid for the Weatherall Masterpiece 3 CD set.
Yep, eBay you can often find promo CDs for next to nothing. Have started selling a few on Discogs too lately (the few that hold any kind of value)
I can definitely see CDs making a big comeback at some point in the next ten years, especially with a younger generation who have maybe never used them before.
I could imagine people saying the same things that were said around the time of the “vinyl revival”, claims of better sound quality, a way to “physically own” something which is a “lossless” copy and not compressed for streaming. I’m not saying I see those benefits myself, just that I can imagine the reasons people will see.
Especially if the streaming rights situation gets fragmented and things start being removed from Spotify onto another platform, there’s another potential drive to “physically owning digital” which could kick off. Plenty of things I could imagine people saying about CDs that could start a revival, there would be a novelty factor for them in using an older format too.
Definitely a comeback will start at some stage, but not right now.
My new car doesn’t have a CD player which is a right pain the arse. They think it’s more “convenient” to connect with bluetooth and play spotify and that we all want this but no, not really. I used to have albums on the go in the car, it gave me a chance to appreciate an album rather than a playlist. For instance, I would hammer Blue Valentine by Tom Waits for abut six weeks and totally get into its world. It’s not the kind of record you listen to once; it deserves your attention. Countless other examples too. Now, I like a playlist as much as the next man but I also loved listening to albums in the car, especiallly if I was driving to the tip or the supermarket or picking the kids up from somewhere. Anyway, off topic. But yes, I do still buy second hand CDs even if I don’t get much to chance to play them now (how pointless is that?)
I installed a cd player for this reason. I want to immerse myself in an album when I want, as often as I want.
Kids seem to love obi strips / sleeve notes / different variants / something tangible etc. CD’s will definitely be making a comeback.
I still buy some but not as many as in the past decade. I like listening to a whole album. Also got some afro jazz, dub and all sorts of compilations on CD. Running low on space now so not sure if I can buy any more. I used to have a cd player setup in multiple rooms, I always liked listening to albums in the bedroom when going to sleep, now it’s just in the lounge, which I can’t ever use because of kids. Our car still has a CD player which is fantastic and I will miss it when we have to change the car. Need a process to get music from CD onto phone and then play it that way I suppose.
Not currently buying CDs, but I like the style where you ditch the jewel case and re-sleeve the disc and all the printed matter (booklets, inserts, etc) in a clear plastic sleeve. Form factor like a record, you can store have them in boxes, flick through them, take up less space, etc. Jewel cases don’t even count as part of the graded item on Discogs (unless they’re special ones somehow).
Jewel cases have to be the worst packaging design of all time.
All one can say in their favour is that they’re replaceable. I just bit the bullet and bought a case of new ones. I’m picky enough that at a guess I replace about half the used cases that come my way and a smallish portion of new CDs that get cracked up somewhere on their way to me. I’m not a fan of putting CDs in slim plastic sleeves ‘cos I like to be able to read the spines when they’re shelved.
What I really hate are the sticky plastic strips with UPC etc. across the top of older CDs! They hardly ever come off clean. The major record companies have mangled the packaging of CDs since Day One. Longboxes!?! All the innovations and better designs have come from indie labels or because of public pressure.
Look for something with a cassette deck when you replace your car! Old school and trendy all at once.
I have a cassette player in my truck, which is now getting on for 25 years old. Had it since 2007. Love the cassette ‘cos it works unlike the CD player which rapidly died on me. And I have hundreds of cassettes which just wouldn’t get played otherwise. But I only drive about one or two days a week for a total of 30-40 miles so that’s still sort of peripheral. My retrofit to be able to play from iPod or phone also failed pretty fast.
absolutely not opposed to CDs (or cassettes for that matter - never for DJing but for listening).
but the mechanics of both disc and tape players are getting up in years - i went from having fully functioning CD players/burners, quality cassette decks and even two lovely sounding DAT players to useless black boxes over the last few years due to decayed belts and wonky transport system gears. it wasn’t use, it was probably the lack of use that rendered them unworkable upon startup. the only functioning CD player i have in the house in in my ancient mac laptop and i doubt that thing lasts much longer.
“disc rot” used to be a real thing, does anyone worry about that anymore?
I have far more CDs that won’t play than I ever had Scratched records.
I’m not sure on CD,s coming back. The cases break, the discs scratch and you can get better quality on a 24 bit studio master stream if that’s your thing.
My main beef with streaming is lack of sleeve notes, credits, etc. that’s a whole thing there that we have lost, and I’m not sure anyone cares anymore. My daughter just bought a TV girl album on vinyl, which had nothing on it other than track names, I asked who produced it and received a very blank stare.
Out of the approximately upwards of 5,000 CDs I seem to have accumulated perhaps less than a dozen have failed for any reason at all. There’s been a few manufacturing failures, some unexplainable refusals to play - often solved by putting them in another player, but the rate of success is pretty good.
But I have gone through a number of CD players over the years. The Apple SuperDrive disc player has been one of the longest lasting. Mind you it doesn’t get quite the workout the others have.
Hopefully not a result of this thread alone but I’ve just ordered a little CD player for my home office. Want to listen to things from start to finish while working, not keep checking in here to find the next track to play.