Will CDs go obsolete?

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I dunno, didn't they bring back vinyl records?

*sigh* The older you get, the harder it is to keep up with all the rapid changes in technology. I still have music cassette tapes and a Sony Walk man to play them on, although I use my CD player a lot more since I can skip to my favorite songs without fast-forwarding.

And my phone still has a flip-top and it wasn't replaced all that long ago. I once heard Jerry Seinfeld say on his show that the problem with such phones is that they have no receiver to slam down if you're angry with whoever's on the other end. Closing the phone just isn't the same. Soon you won't be able to do that, either.

I would not define myself as any kind of purist...I just think the sound is better but I don't care to convince people of that, if someone thinks cd's/mp3s sound better I don't really care and maybe for some kind of music they do. I mostly listen to metal, psychedelic rock and just general harder rock kind of stuff which seems to sound a wee bit more satisfying in vinyl format. I think though I did see a device to convert vinyl to MP3 or something but I did not get a close look at it and not sure how well it works I was too busy looking for other things.

Of course I remember the dreaded twisted mess of tape and having to try to get it back in, I did grow up in the 90's and for a while cassettes where much more common than CDs, CDs didn't really seem to catch on till the later 90's, either that or my family was just too poor to get them. Though I don't see CDs as having much better album artwork than cassettes, just more room for more of it and multiple pages if it has a book with the lyrics and such whereas cassettes just had the one cardboard sleeve thing, though some if you take them out do include all the song lyrics and have significant album artwork.

Also though guess it is kind of irrelevant with the mp3 players and ipods now...but one advantage to cassattes over CDs is they work better on the go. Those portable CD players even the ones that said they where 'shock resistant' sucked cause the music would skip the portable cassette players from 80's/early 90's didn't have that issue. Of course MP3/Ipod is easier and more practical than both those anymore.

Yeah they did, but for a while the only place you could find them would be thrift stores or from a relative that had some from back when they where commonplace..now not only can you find lots in independent record stores, but I've seen them at Hot Topic, they probably have a small selection at places like Borders/Barnes & Noble, though at the record stores I go to it seems the vinyl they carry far outweighs their CD collection.

and even physical keyboards are becoming obsolete I guess, but the touch screen dialpad/keyboard on smart phones isn't that bad actually though that could also depend on the phone.

I absolutely hate CD's and DVD's. They get scratched, they get lost, they cause a clutter etc. They are 90's technology that I think should have gone the way of the LP, the cassette and the 8 track a long time ago.

For most people, they're already obsolete. For collectors and lossless audio enthusiasts however, they're still one of the best options we have. I have a huge CD collection, and I quite enjoy the thrill of going through a random pile of used CDs and finding quality albums. When it comes to actually listening to them, I generally prefer to rip them to FLAC or WAV so I can easily access them on my PC. It can also be argued that giving someone a CD as a gift is much more genuine and sincere than just handing them an iTunes gift card.

I enjoy collecting music in other formats as well; vinyl records tend to have really awesome looking cover art, as well as an indescribably sublime sound, while cassettes are great just for their nostalgic appeal. My parents were somewhat slow on the intake when it came to audio technology, so for a long time they mainly listened to cassettes whenever they drove. I still remember dubbing mixtapes for family trips back when I was a kid.

You know, this is true to an extent; I have VHS tapes which are as old as I am and they still play perfectly with decent-to-fine picture quality, and yet I also have some DVDs which skip and stall because of minor surface scratches. And mind you, I take good care of my 3000+ DVDs.

Many argue that, though I think it really depends on the release. In my experience, many CDs are not made with care. So I can buy a 70s album for $4 on vinyl in great condition, and it may sound a lot better because the CD wasn't made using the master tapes but a safety copy. I have a Virgin Records 45 of "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistols from 1977 and it sounds great. I also have the 1980s Warner Bros. CD of Never Mind the Bollocks and it sounds like a decent cassette copy because the CD was sourced from a safety copy of the album, not the master tape (like the 45). It lacks some detail.

I think many CDs sound as good as vinyl, though. I have several albums by The Fall on CD, such as the Beggars Banquet box sets for (The Wonderful and Frightening World of . . ., This Nation's Saving Grace, and Five Albums, and they sound great at least partly because they used the master tapes. I definitely have some weak vinyl pressings, too; or maybe there never were great pressings (I'm thinking of Ram by Paul McCartney).

Yep, it seems like CDs are going obsolete. Stores that sell CDs have gotten rid of the devices you put the CD up to to listen to samples with an attached headset.

That has nothing to do with the sales of CDs. Listening stations were only relevant before the days of the internet; nowadays you can go on YouTube or Spotify and watch videos and stream tracks and read reviews and know what's being released when and everything, so the need to listen to a CD in-store is pretty much unnecessary.

I work in a bookstore that sells CDs and our listening devices were not removed by choice of the store; I don't know the specific details, but from what I understand, the company which manufactured the devices simply went out of business. Why bother to replace them?

I think that CDs will be around for another good numbers. People will have to increasingly buy their music on the Internet if it's CDs that they're looking for.

I hope it doesn't happen before I kick the bucket, I am somewhat sensitive to compression artifacts in MP3s.

There are artists who release music in lossless FLAC format now. Have you tried Bandcamp?

I am stuck in the 20th century as far as music goes, so thank you but nothing on sites like bandcamp will have the music I listen to. I have a voluminous collection of old recordings [in LP/45/78 rpm formats] as well as boxes and boxes of CDs and old cassette tapes. for the last 20 years or so I have been digitizing the phonograph and cassette recordings onto CD. one of these days I'd like to find an indestructible archival format to put them on, as I have found hard drives are anything but hard, and solid state drives are anything but solid state, as well.

Have you thought of using M-Disc? It needs a special writer, but it can be read on any normal DVD drive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC

thank you mr. big I had not heard of M-DISC before, I will have to investigate further.

No problem. Long term archival is exactly what M-DISC is designed for.