Pros of buying cd's?

[MrAnarchy]

Cd collectors on this forum I ask you why do you collect CD's?

Im a student and well, I live in Serbia so my financial state isnt so great and I was wondering if it would be worth it for me to start a collection? There are a few albums that I love and would like to own. Or should I just stick to promo videos on youtube?

 

Also I am asking because I am afraid these CDs wont be for sale by the time I start earning my own money (which wont be anytime soon).

[Starkraver]

It's always worth it. Especially those albums which you are saying won't be available in the future. If you plan to digital, you can always sell them.

 

And we need to have what we love! Simple as that.

 

Why do you collect?

 

These days I buy mostly Vinyls - need I say why?

As there are hardly any vinyl releases in Goa. It's CD's. Tangibility and pretty as fuck digipacks postcards and whatnot.

 

But the most important thing which "compelled" me to collect or buy CD's was lack of Internet!! (Yes! That's right)

 

Also the fact that it's tough to find WAV/FLAC

And later it was genuine intentions of supporting a label/artist. One can do that by buying digital too, but I couldn't, so I didn't.

 

The moment Etnica - live in Athens vinyl campaign was started , I just had to get myself a TT and related things. Glad I did. And now it's in the forefront.

 

So the pros are :

 

*it's yours. So need to worry about if someone takes their video down or some copyright issue

 

*no living in constant fear of your hard drive giving up on you. You have the cd now.

 

*Discmans? Haha!

 

(Strange! I was about to start a thread on "the jewels in your collection")

[Starkraver]

For inspiration check out:

 

Where do you keep your collection thread.

Facebook of Joske - he is posting pictures of his Goa collection alphabetically. reached till G now if I'm not wrong.

[MrAnarchy]

Are flac digital downloads quality-wise as good as cds? I think that digital is the way to go for me. A bit cheaper and I still get to support the artists

 

Yeah I follow Anoebis on facebook. His collection makes me drool!

[Paul Eye]

Are flac digital downloads quality-wise as good as cds?

16bit/44.1kHz and they're just as good as CD/WAV, as FLAC is lossless compression. Anything higher is obviously "better" than CD but it's always negotiable if you can hear the difference

[Starkraver]

Paul you never post pics of your collection. Do it. Let us see that sweet collection

[Goa-Head]

i still use a discman.

[Starkraver]

16bit/44.1kHz and they're just as good as CD/WAV, as FLAC is lossless compression. Anything higher is obviously "better" than CD but it's always negotiable if you can hear the difference

24bit remasters from Lyon, wonderful stuff is it?

[abasio]

24bit remasters from Lyon, wonderful stuff is it?

I think this is why done people say 24bit is better, the albums they've released are often remastered albums and sound better than the originals. I've got some 24bit Flac and after converting it to 16bit I cannot tell any difference at all.

 

Does anyone know if on bandcamp, when buying a CD and downloading the Flac, it often only has a 24bit option but I only want the 16bit as my portable music player has only about 250gb of space which quickly disappears using 24bit.

 

On topic

The main reason I bought CDs was a collector's passion. I love having the physical product in my collection. A digital collection doesn't compare.

Now money is tight I don't buy as much as I used to and as all my listening nowadays is digital I started buying the cheaper download version. Only a few still get the CD treatment, Ultimae and Sending Orbs are too beautiful to only get the Flac.

[Mergi]

I have a lot of CDs but I don't collect them. I simply buy the stuff I want and suddenly I simply have a lot of the CDs I want. Sometimes I try new stuff when finding bargain bins.

 

I think I have to go through my CDs and see if I can get rid of some of them... haven't listened to CDs in awhile now though...

 

I started buying CDs so I'm completely lost when it comes to digital. For those that missed out on the CDs and got introduced to digital the first thing with music must have easier to get into it rather than start buying CDs. Actually I'm a bit confused CDs still exists, must be the artwork then, hmmm?

 

M/

[Purple Sunray]

Does anyone know if on bandcamp, when buying a CD and downloading the Flac, it often only has a 24bit option but I only want the 16bit as my portable music player has only about 250gb of space which quickly disappears using 24bit.

 

Huh? Just convert it (instead of buying 'lower quality' file)

If you don't know how:

1) Get ffmpeg https://ffmpeg.org/download.html

2) run

ffmpeg -i <yourfile> -sample_fmt s16 -ar 44100 -c:a flac audio.flac

 

This will convert <yourfile> (can be any audio format) to signed 16bit 44.1kHz flac.

 

About the topic:

I personally prefer flac over CDs, because they are sooooooo much easier to handle.

All my flacs are indexed on my Media server, where I can search for tracks/artists/ect. by simply entering the name. I can sort it, rate it, mark it as "played on party y.x. already" . I can save my DJ-edits of a track right aside with the original one, I can .........

So much more possibility over having a cabinet full of CD boxes.

Also my server has automatic regular backups.. so in case by house burns down, it is not that critical at all, my music collection backup is save unless the "the cloud" burns down too

[Purple Sunray]

Im a student and well, I live in Serbia so my financial state isnt so great and I was wondering if it would be worth it for me to start a collection? There are a few albums that I love and would like to own. Or should I just stick to promo videos on youtube?

Well.. at the end you need to decide

I maintain my (purchased) flacs collection mainly because I do want to support the artists, not really because I'm after filling my HDDs with flacs.

I know some of the artists and I also know that they are NOT like pop-starts.. they are happy for every dollar they can get because it enables them to continue making music (it's not about getting 'rich' at all ). I do want them to continue making music, so I buy their stuff on bandcamp & co instead of getting via "some other" channel 4 free... But I'm in a pretty decent financial position.. Spending money for music is no big deal for me, so at the end you need to decide.. If it is about buying food vs buying music.. there shouldn't be a question about what to buy first..

[abasio]

 

Huh? Just convert it (instead of buying 'lower quality' file)

If you don't know how:

1) Get ffmpeg https://ffmpeg.org/download.html

2) run

ffmpeg -i <yourfile> -sample_fmt s16 -ar 44100 -c:a flac audio.flac

 

This will convert <yourfile> (can be any audio format) to signed 16bit 44.1kHz flac.

 

 

Thanks, but that doesn't satiate my need to be lazy. An extra step? Might as well just have less space

[Purple Sunray]

Thanks, but that doesn't satiate my need to be lazy. An extra step? Might as well just have less space

ahaha, that's why there is a toFlac.bat file on desktop, with:

ffmpeg -i "%1" -sample_fmt s16 -ar 44100 -c:a flac "%1.flac"

in it

I'm too lazy to write that command as well.. with that bat file you can drag&drop files into to convert it xD

[abasio]

Something easy I can do? I'll give it a try if I can't find anything easier

[Starkraver]

Convertors

[Penzoline]

I liked the feeling of owning it, but I guess the fact my collection hasn't been with me for a year has affected my purchasing habits.

 

That and I don't have the money anymore..

[abasio]

I liked the feeling of owning it, but I guess the fact my collection hasn't been with me for a year has affected my purchasing habits.

 

That and I don't have the money anymore..

 

This is a kicker isn't it?

Five years ago I could buy hundreds of CDs a year. Now I was really debating if I should buy the IFO rerelease or not. 16Euros for 3CDs of Pleiadians and I was debating it. Oh how I have fallen.

 

I ended up buying it and the Doof rerelease and Analog Dreams but the fact that I had to think twice was a worry. and now not having that money for food is a bit of a pain but one I can live with

[Starkraver]

Not having money is a bitch, before March 2015 I used to earn good money and could have bought any cd/vinyl I liked but was not into it. But now that I am, I've to sell one to buy one or charge it on the Credit card which is always on the edge of maxing out.

[abasio]

But you seem to buy so much. I thought you must be flushed with cash.

 

One reason I still buy CDs is because of the price of a lot of downloads. Buying the Flac is the same price as the CD a lot of the time, the only saving is shipping. That's not right. But with more and more people going digital only why charge less when it's the preferred medium?

[Purple Sunray]

Call me digital-genetarion-pseudo-eco.. but prefering to spend the money on a piece of plastic and to burn some oil to ship that to you, rather then giving it the artist/label is just... idiotic.

(I can understand if someone wants to collect that boxes.. but your point of buying CDs over flacs is just.. -.- )

[abasio]

This is it ↑☝

Most of us with collections of CDs started collected when there was no digital downloads. Once it's become a collection, it's hard to change.

 

Can I ask if you have a digital collection of downloaded files on your PC, phone or DAP? What do you think of those that say you collect files and using a streaming service is the way to go?

[Purple Sunray]

Most of us with collections of CDs started collected when there was no digital downloads. Once it's become a collection, it's hard to change.

I get that.. I can understand if one want to collect CDs, same like with stamps or .. your point of not buying flacs was jut a very weird one..

 

Can I ask if you have a digital collection of downloaded files on your PC, phone or DAP? What do you think of those that say you collect files and using a streaming service is the way to go?

That's what I do.. so I think it's good

If have about 2k flacs (still growing.. xD) stored on a HDD, attached to a raspberry pi zero (small 5$ 'PC' which runs a Linux).

There is MediaServer software running on the raspberry (a piece of software to search for tracks and stream it via http).

The raspberry pi is attached to my internet router, which is online 24/7 anyhow.

So at home I have my local flac collation on a network drive, or I can stream via the MediaServer to PC, mobile or whatever device that has a web browser

[Ormion]

When I started bying cds there wasn't any internet around, so cds were a necessity to listen to music. Then more cds led to more cds and eventually I have a big collection.

And like Abasio said it's hard to stop. Another thing I like is that many of the pre-internet cds are linked with specific cd hunting memories.

As for money...I'm Greek. At least when I will go completelly broke and spend my entire life in my room without money for internet I will have lots of music to enjoy.

[abasio]

I get that.. I can understand if one want to collect CDs, same like with stamps or .. your point of not buying flacs was jut a very weird one..

 

 

I do buy Flac sometimes but if it's the same price as the CD of which I am an avid collector, I'm not going to just get the Flac, especially when I can download the Flac instantly with the CD purchase anyway

 

Your set ups sounds futuristic. I guess this means I am just old.