It’s the time of year for saving money!
Are we back on The Sunset Strip? Is it 1996? Did we just pull into the parking lot of Tower Records? Are we going to Spago for some salmon pizza with dill crème fraiche and caviar? OK, it was just a dream. I didn’t just spend $150 on Compact Discs, did I? According to a quick check of my Capital One business credit card, though, I did.
It’s Super Bowl Sunday as I write this, and while my Philadelphia Eagles were kind enough to make the playoffs, they didn’t make it very far, so I am left faintly rooting for our old coach Andy Reid and his Kansas City Chiefs in a game that I will watch on channel 105 on DirecTV just to see how good the 4K video looks. My level of interest in The Super Bowl is pretty low, but ripping CDs somehow has become relevant again. Talk about “everything old is new again.”
Today was a beautiful day in Southern California, a far cry from the fog fest that put us all in a very emotional place after losing one of our heroes recently. My wife, my son, and I drove up the coast a bit to Malibu for lunch and for my wife and I to get our fancy sunglasses worked on. Her Oliver People’s glasses literally came undone with a screw somehow falling out, while my glasses just needed an overall tightening, which the trendy retail store is more than happy to do. While we waited for the work to be done, I slipped on a nifty pair of Master and Dynamic wired headphones connected to an old iPad, as Oliver Peoples is well known for selling a curated collection of Compact Discs, mostly from the electronic-lounge genre.
What was compelling to me was the fact that they had maybe eight full-length CDs from artists that I’ve just never heard of. These discs range from soul-influenced to dub reggae to indie rock and beyond. I could have snapped a photo on my iPhone and just typed them into my Pandora playlist, but that somehow didn’t seem fair. I sampled as many of the albums as I could and bought all the rest before my sunglasses were repaired. The artists get paid. The retailer makes some money on their $20 Compact Discs. And I get some new artists to explore.
After returning from what proved to be a pretty fruitful Pokémon Go environment where my son and I scored a new Pokémon character via a raid battle, I had to sift through my pretty outdated electronics drawer to find my Apple USB Super Drive, which I have never gotten rid of despite the fact that literally zero of my software is installed via physical disc these days. This USB-A equipped drive exists only to rip Compact Discs to my internal hard drive and ultimately onto my RAID network drive, and then secondarily backed up to the cloud. Even though I have a new Sony ES-1100 UHD Blu-ray player, the silver disc is kinda dead to me at this point. My DVD-Audio, SACD, XRCD, DualDisc and music Blu-ray collection is up for sale on Audiogon.com as I type. Streaming is just as good sonically and much better in terms of cost and access.
The first thing I did when I got home from Oliver Peoples and our trip to Malibu was to rip the eight albums that I bought. They are from the likes of Rufus Du Sol, Black Pumas, Caravelle, Khrungbin, Kamasi Washington, Jungle, and more. No, I had never heard of any of these guys either, but I am digging on all of them for their dub/electronic/lounge/indie vibe. What I am going to do next is to type them into Pandora via Sonos to see how they change my loungy playlists.
I miss badly the days when I could go to places like Aaron’s Records in Hollywood and talk to someone who worked at the store (often with a bolt in his or her nose) who cared more about music than how much more money they could make doing something different than working at a record store. I would say, “I am listening a lot to acts like Zero 7” (remember: this is like 20 years ago) and they would say, “Are you listening to The Orb? Orbital? Hotel Costes compilations?” and just drop some new or somewhat familiar artists on me.
They might even go over to the Imports section and crack open a $30 Compact Disc and play it for you on the house system. They also took in trades, so all of the records that the labels sent me that we reviewed (or didn’t review) could go back for a few bucks towards something new and exciting. It was about the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon after golf. I’d head home to the Hollywood Hills above The Sunset Strip and decide if I wanted to have my Mark Levinson solid-state amp or my Audio Research tube mono blocks powering my Wilson Audio WATT Puppy speakers with Revel Subwoofer. I would terrorize my former next-door neighbor, Neil Sedaka, with my new, stylish tunes, with a glass of good chardonnay in my hand. These were simpler times. Good times, in fact.
I don’t know how much more physical media that I will buy beyond today’s stash, but if someone is going to go out of their way to curate a collection of artists and albums that I’ve never heard of, I am likely going to reward them. I am happy for the new acquisitions, as they have made my music collection better as well as expanding the artist data in my streaming playlists in a way that open new musical frontiers, kinda the way that the folks at the center desk at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard did. Those humans are long gone and replaced with fancy algorithms, but their memories are not forgotten. I honor their musical insights with my purchase today, even if it is one of my last in the physical domain.
Where do you buy your physical media today, assuming that you buy any at this point? How has your spending on musical media changed in the last 10 years? Comment below, as we love to hear from you.
Hello Jerry. FYI, after the Band I played lead guitar in broke up, ” Killer Kane Band ” To make a long story short, worked for W.E.A. Corp, then after my 5 years there, Just happened to work for one of the largest Import Music Distributors in the USA. I was that Sales Guy that Sold Lp’s , CD’s, DVD,s etc.. to Aron’s Records, Rhino Westwood, Tower Sunset, Platterpus, Moby Disc AKA Now Freakbeat Records. Just finished writing my Book/Memoir after 4 years in the works. Just waiting for clearance on a few issues. After reading your article here’ i’ Know you would personally find it of great interest. In closing, as for where I purchase Vinyl, Box Sets etc. Everywhere from eBay to Music Direct, local thrift shops, The few Independent shops left & from my friends Still working in this Business. I’m Semi Retired now & Still Collect Gotta say, i’m Lucky as F…….that I can Blast my music without anyone bothering me in 5.1 DTS Surround Sound with 8 Speakers & 3 Subwoofers. Reside in Palm Desert now . Many Iconic Musicians live near me as well. Cheers! Ajay..😉
Yes ,I know most of the places I bought cds and albums have bit the dust .But i still buy lots of cds and albums from a number of on line souces.I still have to own it ,read the cd or album and l listen to that form of music source.
I use Amazon mainly but if that isn’t a option..I go directly to the artist’s website..I’ll be buying CDs until it’s no longer a option!
Amoeba Music !
Hey Hello. Never been to this site before, a bit unsure exactly why. Seems pretty informative, likely I’ll be by again, maybe even become a “regular”.
I’ve got a question, somewhat off topic, rather than a comment.
My entire CD collection, somewhere beyond 450 of them, plus maybe 60 music DVDS, and my entire set of audio equipment, I stopped counting once I hit 4 grand, burned to the ground, along with approximately 98% of the rest of my property. Replacing all the CDs I can remember having will cost just shy of gazillion dollars.
Is there a site where I can download onto my hard drive, rather than the actual site (i.e. Google Play Music, Amazon Music), without my having to second mortgage my new place. Hoping someone will answer; if so thanks in advance.
I went through the same loss as well. My solution has been to rip the discs to multiple hard drives, and I keep at least one copy at another location. On the video side, I now ALWAYS register my Digital Code at Movies Anywhere – I didn’t do that regularly before the fire, now I do.
Hi Pete. Thanks for the quick response. I might not have explained clearly. My entire library, all my CDs and DVDs, were consumed in the fire; everything is gone!
What I’m wanting to do is replace my music, as best I can, and I’m thinking the only way to do it is to find it on a music site where I can d/l it, but onto my hard drive and not onto the site. If that’s correct, which site would I do that from, spending the least cash as possible. Some of my stuff is saved on Google Play, some on Amazon Music, but stored there and not separate on my drive..
Thoughts?
Discogs.com is your friend. Get a free account, log everything you own and wait for deals on what you want to rebuy. Then rip everything physical as flac files and keep them on two servers including one cloud or offsite. Personally I got a bluesound vault2, a Roon subscription, and a backup drive to store and catalig my huge music library. No digging for records or cds this way.
I have close to 200 cds and I purchase them online. Second Spin,Ebay,Amazon are my go to sites. I have always preferred buying physical copies of music. Downloading music doesn’t appeal to me. I recently bought over $100 in cds. All of my cds get played over and over, I’m a real music lover. That’s the difference between people who only collect cds and us who actually listen to their cds.
Still have somewhere in the region of 20,000 CDs and Vinyl. I love physical media. Decades of this and I know I need to slow it down…
Impressive
Hello,
I enjoyed reading your article. I will say that one remark I disagree with is the streaming sounding or looking as good as physical media. It doesn’t… Especially movies. Use your Sony 1100ES. It’s a good player. I buy my physical media at Amoeba, Amazon and thrift stores.
I disagree that the sound and picture is even close to a physical dvd or Blu Ray disc. And as far as music , neither Tidal or Qobuz can beat a silver disc on my system. So yes convenience comes with a loss in quality. I don’t buy as much physical media as I used to but with digital steaming it opens up the larger world to listen to artists and see movies that were not as easily accessible which is a great thing. .
Really good article. I still buy CDs and Vinyl. I prefer vinyl as long as it’s AAA and buy the CDs if not. I never spend over 3 bucks on CDs (only buy used). If a used CD is over 3 bucks, I pass because one for 3 or less will pop up somewhere.
Most of my CDs have cost 1 or 2 bucks. Not bad. Thanks to the big vinyl kick, CDs are dirt cheap.
I buy vinyl. I stream about 12hours a day from spotify…I have discovered more music from spotify than any other streaming app. Far more intuitive and revealing of new music than pandora was. Both premium versions. But i love pandoras radio algorithm. That being said, whenever I discover a truly remarkbale album ir artist I HAVE to own physical of….its viny. For the collectability, tactile, visual and sonic joy. Yes…not all vinyl sounds better than digital…but good vinyl rewards your ears when its done right. And things are getting good sounding in the vinyl industry. And nothing compares to owning a musical trophy like a colored vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with posters and free hi rez download.
I am italian (46 years old)and still continue to buy cd an Lp. I wish cd player returning in the cars!!!
Right, just ordered 60$ from secondspin.
Listen to underground black metal. Still buy plenty of tapes, cds, and vinyl. Streaming is great for discovering new music. If it’s something I really enjoy I always buy a physical copy in some format.
“Streaming is just as good sonically…” 🙄 #nonsense
I’ve been buying a bit more (cds) lately, having tapered off quite a bit from a decade or so ago. Catching up with some favorite artists that I’d neglected since tapering off, dabbling with some others once in a while when I see something that’s come out recently. Buy online mostly, not much available nearby, and a road trip to the nearest store that might have interesting things is probably an hour away. deepdiscount, squidco, amazon (I refer new). Ebay is usually a pretty good place to look also, some deals there from time to time. Physical media most of the time, youtube once in a while, especially when I’m sitting here at the computer.
Hey loved this! I still buy cds and love to. I mix with them and getting a Jiffy bag in the post is one of the highlights of my life. I can buy cds where sometimes you cannot get an album anywhere else or a mix anywhere else – so I adore it. And I still have so much on my list. Great read! Thanks! P.s I was always the guy who suggested music just like the guy talking about the Orb etc! Amazing! Cheers Greg 🙂
I have a friend that ownes a record store. I borrow albums, and tape them. Yup tape cassette. When I cook supper I drop a cassette in and the whole album plays 90 minutes at a time. The sound quality is unbelievably good.
The sound quality on a cassette tape is noticeably better than that of a streamed song.
I buy CDs on eBay, Cream, Jimi, Dirtbombs, Elvis Costello, James Chance and the Contortions, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, the Bob’s, the Roche’s, Superchunk, the Thermals, the Minutemen etc.
I got lots CDs, too many. And lots LPs, not enough. I don’t mind downloading occasionally but I just the whole thing of putting a record on, and enjoying that fabulous analogue sound. Seemed old fashioned but I hear LP sales are overtaking CDs. Everything old is new.