Physical format CD's anyone still buy them?

[HeavyMetalMerchant]

I can certainly appreciate what your saying there but..

I am a metal merchandise shop, i don't sell new release Cds or DVDs, Video Games generally and i don't sell TVS or hi fi equipment etc or top 40. I don't really know what the competition is there with the retailer you mentioned we don't even sell any of the same things. I ship to Israel, Norway, Germany wherever, virtual staff and don't have a physical retail store I don't see any similarity or competition aspect. I would consider competitors to JB Hi Fi to be Harvey Norman or even Ebay etc not a niche market online seller like myself who sells Behemoth shirts, cannibal corpse patches, Opeth flags and Motorhead fridge magnets or Dimebag Darrel Statues to rock and metal fans..

My comment were coming purly from a 'consumer' aspect, i much prefer to shop online these days, i am over waiting in line at checkouts and haven't bought retail for a long time, prefering online experience out of personal preference..

I really didn't start this post with the intention to plug my shit or knock any competition - just curios to see the buying habits and who still bought CDs and in what formats, why and where from.  I reckon online is the winner, due to economic factors I pointed out,  and is only going to get bigger but thats for the consumer to decide not me, you don't get ahead by dragging others down thats for sure.

Thanks for your comments though I will be more humble in the future.

[Tasmaniak]

I still buy many cds.
I never download underground DM, BM, etc albums still in print
I like having it physically, the sound is better, and the artist and underground labels are supported. Illegal d/ling is killing stuff, a lot.

I don't have a problem with evolving beyond cds, but whilst it is still a decent way (imo, the best - although vinyl has a certain magic) of listening to and supporting metal, i will keep on keeping on.
Fuck ripping off bands who spend hours and weeks and months writing, practising and recording, many of whom invest their own money into their recordings and releases.
Metal has always been about supporting the underground, and i think this is still a relevant and vital angle, based on where we are currently at.

[nihilist]

Haydz you disappoint me.

This thread is Nazi Germany all over again.

[Damo]

The threadstarter (whom I know) speaks the truth and is ahead of his time in my opinion.
CD's like any other format, are going to be made redundant at some pooint, and probably sooner than we think!

9% of the population move to internet sales every year and the suggestion is that 30% of the global population will buy online gear regularly within the next 10 years. Thats a HUGE amount of people.

If bands can make more money this way, then those profits go back to tours and more albums, so its a win-win.

Buying in an underground market does not necessarily mean NOT using the internet.
Its new to me, but I intend to look into digital-only release once we have the material to go.

[Mago_Haydz]

While Im pretty certain your intentions are good, its still a subtle and very clever method of spamming. But hey, free advertising - nothing wrong with that.

Oh, and you sell CD's... so do JB hifi. It means you are in competition with them, no matter how you look at it. 

[SchizoDeluxe]

I will always buys cds I like the physical product in my hand, the trip down the store, the drive back home cranking it loud, reading the liner notes and the artwork and having it sitting on my shelf on display along with all my other CD's plus it supports the band even if it's financially small. I even still have a lot of my old cassette tapes as well, original and recorded stuff. I don't like the idea that the digital age is now making these things obsolete, in a way I now understand what vinyl collectors feel like and while I never got into old records as it was just before my time, I definitely understand the importance and feeling of having those albums in your collection. Having downloads of mp3 files on a computer to me is completely lifeless and while I do have copies of my albums on my hard drive, they are only copies. I just prefer to have the actual album in my collection.

That being said, what some bands are trying to do like Lamb Of God and the cigarette flash disk boxset is pretty fucking cool but I still prefer the cd package.

[cdtBEAST]

I don't download as mp3 is an inferior product. Therefore if I like the band I by a cd.

I don't have a problem paying for an album in digital format. As long as the cost of the cd pressing is removed from the price & it is @ the same audio quality as their cd or higher.

Whilst video has gone up in quality, ie: dvd to blue ray, audio has dropped in quality from cd to mp3, RIDICULOUS. What makes this even more ridiculous is this. Most albums are recorded @ 24bit or even 32bit & are converted down to 16bit for cd.
So why the hell are the digital versions of these albums @ a LOWER bit rate than cd, when they can actually save time & $ & sell them @ the bit rate that they were recorded @.
Until this is the case I WILL NOT be buying my music digitally.

Also the next album I record I will be getting mastered @ it's FULL bitrate & offering for sale digitally. So if you buy digitally it will be a superior quality to cd.
This in my opinion is the direction that music should be heading. It would make for a good sales pitch for the labels as well.
 

[HeavyMetalMerchant]

Looks like that is already on the cards - from the apple insider:

Consumers desire for mobile content drove the explosion in digital music and the growth of iPods. However, consumers became enamored with the quantity of music that the iPod enabled them to access, and sacrificed quality, in our view," he wrote in the report. "Going forward, we believe that consumers will expect mobility and will increasingly look for higher quality as the next step in improving their music experiences, particularly as consumers increasingly use iPods and iTunes as a source of content for home and car stereos."

Hargreaves cited sources who suggest that the economic split between EMI and Apple is likely to remain constant for the higher-quality, DRM-free songs that begin to crop up on iTunes starting next month. Since the songs will retail for $1.29 rather than $0.99, he estimates Apple to receive $0.09 of incremental gross profit per song. While delivery fees should double due to the larger file size of higher-quality songs, the analyst has assessed those network costs at $0.02 or less per song.

Assuming that half of EMI tracks purchased through iTunes will be of the higher-quality DRM-free tracks, Hargreaves estimates the move could generate approximately $24 million of incremental revenue, and just under $6 million of incremental profit for Apple in a year. In his note to clients, the analyst acknowledged that those numbers may seem insignificant, but said they would grow quickly if other labels followed suit in offering the DRM-free tracks.

[cdtBEAST]

I should look into starting an independent label  host site for high resolution music downloads, for unsigned & minor label bands to give away & sell their albums on @ full recorded resolution.
Then supply a link to a freeware program so that it can be burnt @ 16bit for cd or converted to mp3 for the ipod  etc.

I have just read up on how to produce a full surround mix that will work perfectly as normal in stereo for those that don't have surround. This is the direction that music should be headed.

[Funeral Tormentor]

i bought the Dimmu Borgir album "Death Cult Armagedon" and its in 5.1 and sounds fucking insain in that format...

more music SHOULD be done this way...

[cdtBEAST]

Fucking oath man.