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On the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth, John Piper writes about the Reformer's impact on America. 
Movies & Music: CDs aren’t a relic, yet
The results of a new Pew survey looking at how the Internet influences consumer purchases found that 82 percent of music buyers still prefer old-fashioned CDs over digital-download venues like iTunes. Furthermore, only 12 percent said all or most of their purchases were via digital download.
While those percents have likely already changed, at least we know that CDs haven’t entered relic status–yet. I typically prefer using iTunes to purchase new music–it’s fast, easy, and I only have to purchase the songs I like rather than getting stuck with all the songs on a CD. How about you: Are you among the 82 percent who still prefer old-fashioned CDs, or is digital downloading more your style?
back to top25 Comments to “Movies & Music: CDs aren’t a relic, yet”
I just downloaded a Jimmie Davis album, and some other (Anita Anderson, Hank Williams, Nancy Griffith, and others) songs last night. I also convert my LP’s and tapes to CD. I don’t have facilities to play anything but CD, tape, LP & 54’s.
I don’t know how to handle those other devices.
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Our latest CD purchase was a Sons of The Day CD which we bought at the end of their live performance. See http://www.sonsoftheday.com
I transferred the songs to my ipod and listen to it all the time.
I doubt if we would have ever found it on iTunes even if it were there. However, there are times when I will purchase one song from iTunes if it is something we’re performing in the choir and I need something to practice with.
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We still use cds. We aren’t very tech savvy and don’t own an ipod, although we are big music lovers. We are also on dial-up and the wait for any kind of song to download is very, very, very, very long.
Chas: I know you like country music. You might find it fun to check out an old cd my husband and daughter made when she was still home. She was 16, I believe, when it was recorded here in a small studio. The name of the album is “Don’t Stop the Music” and can be found at cdbaby.com. It is named after a song my daughter had written. She probably shutters at it today, since her writing has improved so much. Nevertheless, there are some nice songs on there.
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CDs are the preferred medium for purchasing music. The reason is that digital formats are too volatile. Potential disk crashes and copy protection mean your hard earned cash is at risk.
Backing up data to CDs isn’t the answer, because writable CDs only last a few years. And copy protection means you don’t really own the songs. You can only copy them a few times. So if you upgrade your iPod a couple of times, your songs can’t be transferred any more.
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I buy used CD’s–got two just last night for less than $9 or I download singles. If I buy a CD, especially at full-price, it’s either a Greatest Hits version and/or I like at least half of the songs on it to make it financially reasonable.
Xion,
Most of my digital/ripped music is on an SD card, so transferring isn’t a problem–Sansa isn’t Ipod, but it isn’t nearly as proprietary, either!
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AWSTAR, I bought my last CD (not downloaded) at a Chuck Wagon Gang concert in April.
My problem is different from all of you. I can’t buy what I want in the music store. Also, when you buy an album, you get lots of stuff you don’t want.
KI: I will look for the album.
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At present, the problem with Mp3 files is that they are not as rich acoustically. So for music that depends on a rich or nuanced sound, they can come up short. From my audio geek types, I hear that they are working on more complex algorithms for the Mp3 files so maybe one day… but until then, it remains CDs. At least for classical music.
Of course, the Real Audio types know that analog vinyl is even better.
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KI: Is your daughter Sara Isaacson?
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Chas,
If you can master how to convert LPs to CDs, you can definitely get the hang of an MP3 (digital) player, if you’re so inclined. You lose some quality (but so do the LPs!), but you gain portability.
Once you had the player’s software installed, the only difference would be which drive you told the music to copy to.
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Chas, Yes, that was her maiden name.
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Chas: I am not asking you to buy it–Just thought you might find it interesting.
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KI: I may, may not, but I will check it out.
Last night, I downloaded a song called The Nickel, by Michael Reno Harrell. It’s a folk song, and I’m probably the only one who likes it, but I like the story.
Cameron, I probably could work a MP3, but it never occurred to me to get one. I’m not sure what I could do with one. I see some walking around with phones in their ears.
You should be in Hendersonville today. They have “Farm City Day” with Main Street loaded with plants & crafts. (And food of course)
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I am a recent adopter of an iPod – and find it to be one of the greatest toys ever invented (I have 6988 items in the music/audio portion and a hundred or so sermon podcasts).
I still like to buy my music on CD (for archival purposes). But the iPod lets me carry several hundred CDs in my pocket at once.
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Chas,
They should move it to June! 
What KRM said. I hate that I missed Farm City Day!
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I miss my 8-track tape of Deep Purple’s Machine Head. I still can’t listen to ‘Maybe I’m a Leo’ without hearing the infamous 8-track ‘click’ that occurs mid-song to denote a track change.
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I’ll only buy music online if it comes in a fully lossless format (FLAC is good). There’s no reason to buy something with DRM (as has been seen recently, if the provider goes under your DRM is gone and so are your purchased music files). It’s also a waste to buy lower-quality MP3 versions – if you’re paying, get the real thing!
The plus side is that online music can be higher quality than CD audio (CDs are stuck at 44.1khz, 16-bit while some music is available at up to 192KHz, 24-bit now).
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I’m still trying to replace my vinyl with CDs! I have an iPod, but the rest of the family has Sansa. They love Napster to Go where they can make huge playlists for a monthly fee. I download my CDs to my iPod, then purchase individual tracks here and there of things I only have on albums. Bottom line- still mostly CDs.
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KI- Where (online) might on find Sara Isaacson music (it didn’t come up on Amazon or iTunes)?
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KRM: It’s at http://www.cdbaby.com
It’s a nice album, I plan to get it and another on their site. iTunes and Real player are different, so, I’ve never heard of “cdbaby” before and need to work out how they do it before I start working with them.
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I prefer CDs and use itunes for those “One Song”s that I just have to have. (They are usuually oldies of some kind.)
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Thanks, Chas. I don’t think you can download it, since my husband didn’t do whatever he needed to for that. When originally made, it was on a cassette tape. Enough people wanted a copy that it was transferred to cds. My husband and daughter used to perform together at a local country show. That was why they decided to put one together. I’m glad they did, since they don’t get to perform together too much anymore. They would love to do one with their own originals some day. Living a thousand miles from each other doesn’t make that really easy!
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KI, My mind was in the download mode and I couldn’t figure why they didn’t have a “my Library” option, then I decided to follow the process through and soon figured they were going to send me a real CD. So I ordered it. They say they shipped it; I didn’t expect that on a Sunday.
I appreciate that we get more than 30 seconds to audition the music. I like all the songs on the disk except “Ashokan Farewell”. I have that by someone else. It has a haunting melody, and some probably think it’s beautiful. But I find it depressing and skip past it when it starts. But evidently lots of people like it.
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“Ashokan Farewell” is a popular song. So many people heard it on the PBS civil war series. The author, Jay Unger, was feeling melancholy when his music camp was over for the season. It is a lament and he says it brought him to tears before he finished composing it. I suppose you have grounds for finding it depressing. I have heard many different versions of it and find it beautiful.
Thanks for checking it out and ordering it. I hope you will enjoy it. A coworker of my husband kept after him to put a few on the cd baby site. We had never heard of it before then. We found we knew quite a few of the musicians who had albums on it, so he decided it might be fun to try it out. Again–thanks.
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KI – The samples on Cdbaby were very impressive. She is quite talented, and the sound is entirely professional.
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Thanks, KRM. This is just a little home town cd done for family and friends. I do believe she has a gift from God in that realm. She has written some beautiful music and has her foot in that field, while working in another, rearing her two beautiful boys and helping her husband with a business. I am most proud of her, because,like my other daughters she loves the Lord and has a kind heart.
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