Continuing with CDs?

1. Oh, sure. I keep trying to reduce using the rule of 'if I get another CD I sell at least one back if not more.' It helps that I always get some credit at Amoeba, sometimes a surprising amount.

2. I guess? A lot of stuff that would serve as a very honest record is long since purged.

3. Yup, but via taking advantage of their nearly-flat value. Amoeba again is very good for this -- their clearance section is always stuffed with good finds amid the crud, I can pick up an armload for a song (almost literally in some cases).

1) Nope or at least not more than I ever did.

2) Uh not exactly.

3) I don't download very much and I still buy CDs and the occassional piece of vinyl.

am getting it down to about 150 left which i guess i'll keep on shelves for a while before just donating them. they never get played once ripped.

I picture Ned strolling into Amoeba, reciting a few bars of "Englande" and the guys behind the counter just give him a shopping cart and say "go for it."

Selling them all seems like a daunting and infuriating task, so I'll probably keep them, but only out of laziness.

yeah, i've got a few boxes of old stuff in the closet that i can't bear to sell for pennies, yet i'm sick of taking them somewhere to have them cherry pick a couple good ones and refuse the rest.

i'm keeping mine just in case a neutron bomb comes along and fries everyone's hard drives. (but, uh, not the cd players)

also, it's good to have cds around to loan to friends. it's easier than zipping up and uploading an entire album, and while sharing entire hard drives is in theory the best thing to do, it doesn't happen that often

i've never sold cds, so i won't be starting now.

i still buy cds.

(a) Too much trouble.
(b) I suppose, but they serve more of a function than that.
(c) Yes.

While downloading is invariably simpler, quicker, cheaper, etc., I'm still a sucker for the tactile artifact. I like liner notes, lyrics, cover art, all that. I'll download stuff I'm curious about, but if I really like it, I'll still buy the disc.

i'd love to get rid of everything, but i'm just not good enough at backing shit up to trust it.

i wouldn't really part with them unless i had one of those fancy things that lets you use your mp3s on a good stereo, but it's like i just picked u a real nice old NAD cd player for only $30 off craigslist so why bother.

plus yeah like ned said it's gonna be sweet in the next few years, lots of crewsh older stuff for dirt cheap.

although...it is weird seems like some CDs are really picking up in value on ebay, out of print stuff...

Yeah I don't see anything that indicates that rare CDs are any less valuable then they ever were.

I am keeping my cds because I want backups in case I have hard drive failure. Even with two hard drive copies of my music, I prefer to have the backup. Also, I may want to rip at a higher bitrate later once hd prices come down.

I'm going to keep my CD's in case I ever need to build a fortress of solitude out of them, Jor-El stylee

a) no, except for ones i get sick of.
b) no
c) i download tracks and sometimes albums, but if i really like what i'm hearing i'll buy it in CD or vinyl form. artwork, liner notes, etc.

i'll never say never though, because maybe someday in the distant future i'll sell everything and have it all digitized.

I'm keeping my CDs.

I'm too lazy to sell and also I have a suspicion that some kind of new digital format will emerge (MP5?) that will make MP3s sound tinny and useless, and that I'll want to re-rip my CDs.

I still buy cds and vinyl. I will keep them all unless I needed the money.
I barely download now, but like always, I still try to buy what I downloaded as long as I liked it.

im continuing! cd's are beautiful

1. No, never.
2. I will keep them as the art objects/media that they are.
3. Until I can buy whole albums from iTunes or Amazon as .wav files, I will continue buying essential CDs.

A lot of good reasons to hang onto CDs in this thread. I still enjoy cases and liner notes and having a good thing around to throw my disposable income at. In a lot of ways, I also find them easier to store and maintain than digital music, where you need at least two forms of backup and need to keep an organized file/folder structure together if you're going to find stuff easily. Finally, I still can hear the difference between reasonably good-quality CDs and mp3s, and with formats, storage methods, etc. changing frequently keeping CDs around seems like less of a long-term headache.

I'll still buy a lot, taking advantage of the lower cost and because I like having the little cardboard boxes from Caiman in the post to look forward to after returning from work.

I keep the price stickers on my CDs, and it amazes me just how much I was paying for music in the 90s. £15 - £16 for some CDs was not unusual.

ridic

its like 12 bux tops for me now. unless its brand new and too good

I'll continue keeping 100s of cds in a sock drawer which I occasionally pull out for a car ride. I wont sell them. But I oughta clean them all. I hate when a cd skips and I hate how I lost some of my cds even though I dont listen to any of my cds much. But I did lose Roxy Music - The Early Years and Tangerine Dream - Rubycon. I broke Thrakattak. And I can't remember what else at the moment. Kinda sucks. Kinda not.

Those of you who sell off your CDs, someday your hard drive is gonna fail. If you're lucky, you'll have it backed up to another drive. But then that one could fail as you're trying to dump it to your new hard drive. Then I will point and laugh.

i hate that too, captain -- i'm actually making a list of CD's i have that are too scratched up/missing. i replace a few ever year

it's like i just realized how to properly take care of a cd.

Fastnbulbous accurate enough, which is why the CDs I sell back are the ones I never listen to, or have only heard once and thought, "Nice" and never went back to at all. Ergo, why keep 'em around?

I moved into a new place two months ago and never bothered taking my CDs out of their boxes. I have a few lying around that I've bought recently, but there's no real reason for me to have them out, since the majority are on my iTunes/iPod, anyway.

Back when I started to download albums, I told myself that if I really liked something I downloaded I'd buy it on CD. But then it just seemed silly to go to the trouble of buying it, only to put it on a shelf and forget about it as soon as it was out of its shrink wrap.

Now the albums I buy are the ones I simply can't find online. I don't use p2p, but I can find most major new indie releases on a couple of choice websites or through friends. So what I buy ends up being not necessarily indicative of what I'm really excited about. A lot of times this amounts to used CDs I stumble across and take a chance on.

Those of you who sell off your CDs, someday your hard drive is gonna fail.
This is exactly right — CDs have become nothing more than backup.

http://www.sevenoaksart.co.uk/images/record1.gif

1) nah, I'm the kind of person who saves everything
2) ???
3) I never exclusively bought CDs, it was always a mix of vinyl, cassette (back in the day), or mp3 formats. I see no reason why this will change for me in the near future.

1) too lazy really - and they're not worth that much anyway
2) never completely stopped buying vinyl, so it's not even an accurate record
3) I''ve bought maybe 6 cds this year and maybe 300 LPs (and some cassettes, second hand for the car)

Also, I may want to rip at a higher bitrate later once hd prices come down.

yeah i thought about that. A couple weeks ago I embarked on digitizing my collection, starting with albums I didn't like that much; I ripped ~ 30 cds @ 320 which is fine for those but my main collection I'm probably gonna want to do in flac or whatever for posterity but i haven't done the math on what i'll need for space. I got 2 500G drives on black friday and I was gonna send one back but maybe I won't. than again i've been latched to rhapsody pretty hard lately and soon even the mp3s might be ancillary to how i'm listening to music. so much up in the air.

soon as I'm satisfied with backing up, and keeping the habit, I'm selling all my CDs. I need the space and I need the money.

i've sold all of my cds. still buy vinyl, which i also sell sometimes. while it's impractical, it retains its value better (and escalates in value far more often) and is more 'fun'. sue me

I keep the price stickers on my CDs, and it amazes me just how much I was paying for music in the 90s. £15 - £16 for some CDs was not unusual.

We still quite frequently pay $25-$35 AUD for some CD albums in this country. And they wonder why ppl use torrents.

resolved, did you just rip your CDs into FLAC format and keep them on your hard drive or something?

i ripped the ones that deserved it to FLAC + mp3 (for ipod), most of them just to variable rate mp3. and then a lot i just sold without bothering.

Will you bother trying now to sell off your existing CDs?

maybe. next year I might be compelled to "monetize" my vinyl collection.

Will you leave them as a record of 80s/90s to early 00s buying?

hate to say it but after sitting there unplayed for awhile they just take up space.

Will you continuing buying CDs selectively alongside downloading, for reasons of completing certain artists or genres?

Barely. I stream music on my computer, listen to old CDs less & less often. CDs/itunes I buy as gifts.

First off, CDs are still the primary way i listen to music, and I don't download very often.

1.) I'll hang onto my CDs for a long, long time, until they rot away (none of them have). I stopped selling back CDs a few years ago, because I tend to regret it later on. I used to regularly purge my collection of stuff if I hadn't played it in awhile, but there are too many CDs that I'm kicking myself now for selling then.

Plus, it always killed me when I tried to sell stuff that I knew was of really high musical quality or that someone would love to have, and the clerk would offer a pathetic couple of bucks (usually less!) for it. Most used stores never offer very much for CDs, and now when I think about it, the best offer I've ever received (about $3 for a CD, not common at all) is just not worth it to me. I'd rather hang on to the album, sorry, then take your 50 cents.

2. I'll keep my CDs as much more than just a record of this particular time, as they have fucking music on them!!

3. I'll probably buy CDs for quite a while. As others have mentioned, there are so many good finds on used CDs right now, it's great. So much stuff that I would never expect to find in used shops. It's only going to get better over the next few years, too.

Newbury Comics usually gives about $3 per CD.

1) No - mainly because CDs are not worth much now, particularly when trying to trade them in at a record store.

2) Most of the CDs I listen to regularly have been ripped now, but I'll keep them as a backup and also because of the possibilty of ripping in higher quality formats/higher bitrates later.

3) I still buy CDs sometimes but nowhere near as often as I used to - I've gone from half a dozen a week in 2001 to a couple a month now. But if I see a box set at a cheap price I'll probably buy it.

Those of you who sell off your CDs, someday your hard drive is gonna fail. If you're lucky, you'll have it backed up to another drive. But then that one could fail as you're trying to dump it to your new hard drive. Then I will point and laugh.

I've never had a hard drive die on me ever before. Meanwhile in that time a lot of my records and CDs got damaged in a flood. Life's funneee.

I wonder how homeowner's insurance would cover a hard drive filled with burned FLACs. Are you just screwed or could you reasonably claim the full value of replacing them on iTunes or whatever?

i sold them on amazon btw, the run of the mill ones at least. you get a lot more money that way if you're prepared to go to spend an hour going packing/going to the post office every few days.

x-post
but when your hd dies it's all gone. and the probability is much higher than all your cds being destroyed at once...

word. i'm still reeling from getting over £30 for a tatty Sasha & Digweed CD. xp

what is with you hd-failure doomsayers? you have to fuck a hd up pretty bad before the data on it is completely irretrievable.

Oh I'm just curious from an insurance standpoint. Like what if someone broke into your house and stole your HD. Can you only claim the HD or could you reasonably claim the cost of replacing the MP3s (I just talked to my boss-a former underwriter--and he's gonna find out for me)?

once i had a hd which seemed perfectly ok. but suddenly it crashed. it had been formatted a couple of megabytes too high. when i reached the limit it was all over.

i think i’m going with SACD jewel cases. firms won’t do a short run of digibook hardbacks, sadly.

i bought a Peter Rehberg EP the other week, standard jewel case. when i got in the car and opened it, i found that the disc was a 3” CD. i was too afraid to put it in the slot loading car drive. my wife is a nervous enough driver as it is, i don’t think she’d be best pleased with her volvo only playing extreme computer music

yeah you can only play them on home players with those little recessed spots, you can't use the plastic adapters because car/computer drives spin too fast (I have heard, not gonna try it)

(n.b. you can use the plastic adapters on a home player w/o the recess, of course)

I have a couple here and what pisses me off is that I can't rip them to my laptop.

Radio Khartoum released exclusively on 3" CDs for a while... I've got like half a dozen just from them!

Metamkine did a whole series of 3" CDs - https://www.discogs.com/label/236981-Cin%C3%A9ma-Pour-LOreille

Some great stuff in there, including Walter Ruttmann, Luc Ferrari, Eliane Radigue and a bunch more. Perfect format for experimental miniatures, although not the easiest things to file in their dinky little card digipaks.

yep I have four of those!

the Lionel Marchetti and Christian Groult ones are also good

and Michel Chion

I have a big soft spot in my heart for 3" CDs

Me too! I have a few (Stereolab, Noveller) - also Ms. Telecom's solo release from 1996 is on a 3" CD

3” ones are fun, no lie.

I only have a few of those, which were chucked in with my orders at the counter of some record store or another, as a promo. And I've never once played them! Probably should remedy that. One of them is "Frontier Psychiatrist" by the Avalanches, which seems like an apt choice for that format. Also I think I have a Violent Femmes w/ Sun Ra thing, which I bet is collectible to somebody.

https://i.discogs.com/0gRx57b3JkZrzRljDMMqiXiZctwBOgbEKlGuRXTcjQQ/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:591/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE4NTEx/NTgtMTY1NTIyNDc5/NC0xOTYyLmpwZWc.jpeg
I happened upon this sampler in the early nineties — had to be driven elsewhere to find an adapter to be able to play it — and it did its work, as I eventually acquired all of the parent albums (and much of the bands' other output) despite only being familiar with '80s Genesis at the time. Later I tracked down some of the other samplers in the series as well, but for some reason this one actually coheres.

Man, there are some great affordable CD box sets out there. I just bought a gargantuan Steve Reich box for under a hundred bucks. I will probably never listen to the thing but who knows!

The Avant-Garde box set sits on the top shelf, looking down at me, disappointed.

Working our way through the Nilsson RCA box with the kids going back and forth to school.

Yeah I picked up that new Reich box as well, loads of great music on there and the booklets are excellent.

I have the DG Avantgarde box too, took me a while to work my way through it but there were some gems on it as well as a lot of inessential stuff. You did well to pick it up though, it's rare now and goes for silly prices on discogs.

I made my way through the first five or six discs of Avant Garde and... it sounded so samey? And irritating? I'm rubbing my temples while a horn is skronking thinking "yeah, I guess this is what I asked for...."

Disc 4: all trombones, all the time.
(I see that this is the only Stockhausen in the box, as his estate didn't wish his other three '60s/'70s LPs reissued like this?)
Looks great anyway. Add it to the list of things I will hunt down online once my lottery numbers come up.

I have an Agoraphobic Nosebleed 3” CD with a ridiculous number of songs on it. If it’s on the shelf behind me, I might give it a spin when my new CD player arrives.

the mary chain put out several 3" cd singles, i have Sidewalking as a 3" and a 12". and the sunday's first single is 3".

they are a perfect format for singles but always felt like you were getting very little for your money because they are tiny and just came in card sleeves.

the sisters of mercy put out a couple too, floodlands era, but they came with an adapter in a normal 5" case (probably negating any savings)

RasterNoton did that 20’ to 2000 series, in transparent clamshell cases, which were full size but only silvered to 3” size. They’re all around here somewhere…

I also have a bunch of 3” avant / electroacoustic stuff (mostly bought from These Records in Kennington back in the day) and I know where those are cos I had to go looking for them to find… a 3” EP by a pair of erstwhile ILXors that I “engineered” in the dim and distant past. I was delighted to discover that my Samsung drive would actually rip it.

where can i get that new reich box for under $100, please

The Roland Kayn selection on the Avant Garde box is v much not the same old same old

i'm seeing the reich box on amazon for $97

Have we talked about the CD resurgence amongst Zoomers? My 18-year old godkids, nieces and nephews all want to come pillage my storage boxes, and on this most recent tour I was on (average age of the audience was around 23), CDs were selling like crazy

I made my way through the first five or six discs of Avant Garde and... it sounded so samey? And irritating? I'm rubbing my temples while a horn is skronking thinking "yeah, I guess this is what I asked for...."

― Cow_Art, Tuesday, May 13, 2025 6:28 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

One always has to sort through this kind of thing, it's the landfill indie of postwar music. I remember a Lindsay Cooper interview where she referred to this idiom as 'the pip squeak stuff'

Have we talked about the CD resurgence amongst Zoomers?

I am also hearing anecdotal evidence of this - bringing a couple hundred to the next record show for sure

Countdown to the launch of CeeDeeMePlease subscription service...

I have a big soft spot in my heart for 3" CDs
Me too! I have a few (Stereolab, Noveller) - also Ms. Telecom's solo release from 1996 is on a 3" CD

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 12 May 2025 22:27 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Just yesterday I was given about 15 3" CDs, among a pile of CDs in general. Need to sort through them but one of them is the same Danny Wilson single three times.

at the record store near me that actually takes the time to curate a decent section of cheap used CDs, theres always teens scouring the racks

I made my way through the first five or six discs of Avant Garde and... it sounded so samey? And irritating? I'm rubbing my temples while a horn is skronking thinking "yeah, I guess this is what I asked for...

Not as irritating as the fact I missed out on getting this boxset by a few hours.

The 3" CDs I've found so far (basically I've been given heaps of boxes to either keep or get rid of - I have no space but I'm also too curious about anything that I don't instantly earmark for the charity shop)

Richie Valens - La Bamba EP
Wendy & Lisa - Lolly Lolly
Pete Townshend - A Friend Is a Friend
T'Pau - Only the Lonely
Carly Simon - Let the River Run
The Triffids - Bury Me Deep in Love
Ten City - Devotion
Hue and Cry - Violently
Kirsty MacColl - Innocence
Camper van Beethoven - Pictures of Matchstick Men
Public Image Ltd - Disappointed
Blow featuring Belva – Change (Makes You Want To Hustle)
Wop Bop Torledo – Jungle Fever
Danny Wilson - Never Gonna Be the Same (x3, all in Virgin pouches)
The Indian Givers - Hatcheck Girl (x2, one in Virgin pouch)
Pandora's Box – It's All Coming Back To Me Now (in Virgin pouch)

Not the most pulse-quickening selection but there's some gems there. I was sort of hoping for In the Air Tonight 1988, as that was the first CD my mum ever bought.

oh and Will to Power - Freebaby, which has a great sleeve if nothing else

SST used to do 3" CD singles, I had a Grant Hart one

the mary chain put out several 3" cd singles, i have Sidewalking as a 3" and a 12". and the sunday's first single is 3".

they are a perfect format for singles but always felt like you were getting very little for your money because they are tiny and just came in card sleeves.

So back in 1989 I was on Melrose Ave in Hollywood where many of LA's best record stores were and I picked up the "Blues from a Gun" 3" CD single import at Vinyl Fetish which exclusively contained their cover of The Temptations "My Girl" (and of course the single itself from the forthcoming album). I remember I paid $10.99 for it which was not a good a value! I remember the exact price because as always I walked west down Melrose to Bleecker Bob's Records and then to Rene's All Ears Records where Jim and William Reid just happened to be shopping. I was completely star struck and borrowed a pen from the cashier and shakily handed it over to William who graciously signed the sleeve (Jim had already moved on to the next store). He asked how much I paid and shook his head and said it was too much.

Love those 3" CDs from Metamkine - Fractals by Bernard Font is all-time

My kid has gotten into CDs which isn’t surprising because of me, but she has several friends that actually have CD players. Blew my mind. Maybe it’s a reaction to parents listening to pain in the ass records?

Okay that's an amazing story, Spencer. (But also a classic celebs-on-Melrose moment from that era -- the first time I was wandering around there around that time with some friends, one of them said "You have to get used to seeing famous people and not freaking out." Literally five seconds later Ric Ocasek, accompanied by a camera operator under his direction, darted in front of me, pointed towards something, and the two of them immediate ran towards whatever it was.)

I could have sworn the final disc of Prurient's Rainbow Mirror was a 3" CD, but it's actually a 'minimax' CD with a 3.5" data section surrounded by a transparent border. it looks cool but it doesn't play in my tray loading CD player, only in my portable. it seems like they first started popping up in the mid '90s (like this Olivia Newton-John single from 1995) and peaked between 1997 and 2000, but I don't think they were ever much more than a novelty

https://www.discogs.com/search/?format_exact=Minimax

https://i.imgur.com/0S64xvh.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/LpJruUe.jpeg

I have that but I don't know if it'll play in my system. It probably will; my CD player has a slightly recessed "tray within a tray" that will hold 3" CDs, so it should be able to process that one.

yep those work great for 3" discs

DJ Food's Quadraplex was a minimax. I never thought to even learn the name for it.

https://i.discogs.com/Deo5t5tcuH5k4n-XTqHG9j8N5imQ6W6DJWH1JgYFeAA/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI5MTQ3/LTEyNTcwMDE5Mjgu/anBlZw.jpeg

I had a Zappa 3" mini CD, iirc. "G Spot Tornado"? I think I had one from Keith Levene, too. And I think I had (still have somewhere?) one from Elbow.

Well then, it's off to the "things you didn't learn until you were shockingly old" thread for me, with that tray-within-a-tray intel in hand...

The 'Borders Exclusive ' version of the first Caitlin Cary album came with a 3" bonus disc which (IIRC) was packed on top of the main album on a weird custom spindle.

I have one of the Broadcast Microtronics EPs on a 3" CD - and I think Ghost Box released a few as well.

PIL This is Not A Love Song / Blue Water was a favourite from back in the day!

Vinyl’s become a luxury item, expensive and difficult to play. Gen Z are in a cost of living crisis (like all of us but they’re younger and even more skint). I literally had a meeting on Monday about how students aren’t drinking enough anymore. Of course they’re getting their retro authentic cultural kicks from cheap as shit CDs. That they can actually play.

Jeffrey Lewis did a great commentary on this a few years back. The twist ending is relevant to the current conversation:

LPs

speaking of dj food, strictly kev did a whole series on his blog about these mini cds

https://www.djfood.org/category/mini-cds/

also, when you bought a ninjatune toy :

http://www.ireallylovemusic.co.uk/ninja_toy/ninja%20toy%201.jpg

it came with a steinski vs ninjatune megamix on 3" single :

https://www.discogs.com/release/946733-Various-Rolito-Mix

bugger. here is a link to the image of the toy :

http://www.ireallylovemusic.co.uk/ninja_toy/ninja%20toy%201.jpg

Sweet! Yeah, Kev has a love for unusual formats and packaging unsurpassed by anyone I've ever seen. I follow him on Instagram, but never remember to check out djfood.com.