15 reasons why I STILL BUY CDs

PLEASE READ *before commenting*!
1) All comments here are moderated by a third party
2) Polite comments that advance the conversation are most welcome
3) No URLs, racist/sexist remarks or conspiracy theories, please

I still buy CD's. You can't beat having a physical copy of an album.

Reason #11 really needs to be reason no. 1
I make sure to have a physical copy of anything I love. Albums, movies, books. The digital version can go away at any time. Chapters considered "problematic" cannot be excised from my book shelf. A copyright dispute won't cause a song to disappear from a CD. Nobody can ruin my CD collection with their awful remaster.

I'm switching back to CD's after a 3 year affair with vinyl. I just can't deal with these ridiculous vinyl prices. Great video....

Two more reasons: when you go to a live show, the performers will have a table set up where they sell CDs and merch. If you buy a CD, you can support the artist directly and get their autograph on the CD. That's a lot of fun and you can't do that with streaming. Plus, CDs make great gifts that you can give your musically enlightened friends.

One of my favorite pass times is going to a store and looking at cd’s.

I buy CDs. I rip them to flac files, to play back. It is so great to have a tangible thing. And it is great to support artists at gigs, by buying albums from the merch stand

One of the reasons why I still buy CDs is because an artist can remove their music from Spotify, but they can't come into my house and remove my CDs.

Heres the first and only reason. You actually OWN the music.

I still love buying CD’s and always will! It’s more than just the music… it’s the lyrics, the artwork the entire concept of an album as a complete package. It’s all about the art of it all. ✌️🖤🤘

I will always buy cds. I love having physical copies of my favorite artist's music.

Nothing's like buying a CD and jumping from excitement to hear it at home. You feel it as your own, as well as a closer connection to the artist, and it genuinely sounds better, cause it was mastered with CD players in mind, so you hear everything the producer wanted you to hear clearly!

I buy cds for the same primary reason I buy physical copies of movies and games - I want something tangible for my money, and not having my entertainment intruded upon by the online gatekeepers is invaluable to me. Here in the states, pawn shops are lousy with cds, with my local one selling them for $1 apiece. Good luck getting an entire album for that price anywhere else.

There is 1 main reason I love CDs: you can stay disconnected from internet / PCs, no FANs noise or shitty adverts in the browser or streaming services. Only you and music... brilliant experience.

Thanks. I agree. I love the privacy. As Orwell might say, listening to CDs is almost a political act.
Great video

One thing you forgot to mention is that there's no geo-restriction with CD'S... for example; back when I was a kid Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness wasn't released in Colombia for a year or so, but it was already played on MTV. I wanted that album badly, went to a store, the owner told me to come back a week later and voila!!! It was imported and I was the coolest dude of my class owning that before anybody else. Spotify is VERY strict with geo-restrictions and a bunch of the albums that I love are not available in Latin America. Point for CD!

CD's are my favorite music format next to streaming, was never a big fan of Vinyl or Cassettes. CD's sound the best, are usually the least expensive format to use, & easy to store as well.

The reason why I still buy and prefer CDs is that the CDs that I bought 25 years ago still sound exactly the same after countless plays. Talk me about that when it comes to vinyl or tapes

I collect and listen to both CDs and vinyl records! I presently have around 1600 CDs and around 1100 vinyl records. I also collect movies on DVD and Blu-ray. I have around 1300 movies and out to those 121 are Rock concerts and documentaries. I also started collecting reel to reel tape.

The industry is killing vinyl with their ridiculous asking prices. People who prefer a physical format and were into vinyl for the last few years are simply shifting back to CD. 💿

My mom had loads of CDs and I definitely took after her. I have 6 or 7 full show boxes of CDs. All deluxe editions if it's available, for the extra content and exclusive tracks. Every reason mentioned in this video is why I still buy CDs. I only buy CDs if I like over half of an album, so it has more replay value. I mostly listen to Spotify these days but I still play CDs in my car when I'm in the mood.

Fantastic content! As a music lover, I still collect CDs because they are dirt cheap. I have just bought 10 CDs online, Japan-pressed for about $4 and that already includes shipping! Some people's garbage is simply another man's treasure.

Speaking generally here - As a member of "gen z" records and CDs really fascinate me and many others my age. Being a part of a generation where we have every avenue of music streaming available to us I think it speaks volume (no pun intended) that we still come back to records/CDs.

I bought CDs from the day they were introduced. I still buy them. There's a lot of snobbery value in vinyl - it isn't neccessarily the better sounding format. I have a few guys who won't buy anything but vinyl and I've played the same trick on half a dozen of them where they've all remarked 'that sounds great' when I've shown them a vinyl copy, moved to appear to play it and played the CD instead - they had no idea.

One reason he didn’t mention is the shortening of songs due to streaming services cutting down songs with a fade out. I have noticed this with Purple Rain Soundtrack by Prince & the Revolution & various songs by The Smiths (on their original albums). I’ve found that remastered versions criminally kill long outros or guitar solos towards the end of songs.

If I'm going off my own reasoning, I just find owning physical copies of music to be a lot more satisfying than just having a bunch of digital downloads on my devices. And I just find CDs to be a lot more convenient than more vintage formats like vinyls and cassettes because they're often a lot cheaper, I don't have to rewind them after every use, and I can skip to whatever track I want without ruining them

This was a BIG improvement over your previous CD glowup. Loved! Big CD guy. Thanks, TJ

I download thousands of high resolution albums, then convert to WAV and burn all the tunes I want in the order I want. I print out the album cover and store everything in transparent plastic sleeves. Just Beautiful!

CD’s have and always will be the best format for music . I still listen to mine in my car

CDs sound better than Bluetooth streaming in the car or anywhere else, frankly. Plus, I don’t have to worry about connectivity. CDs are a physical, tangible thing that I carry with me through life.

Yep, I like to have a physical copy which I can look at and read while listening to the Disc. Also a big believer in supporting the artist, it is criminal what the streaming services pay the artist.
.

I have been collecting, buying records since 1978.
I started, and switched to collecting CD's in 1987.
I love owning physical copies.
This will never change.
I use streaming services reference new artists, bands to see if I like , then buy later when I can afford.

I'd like to add a possible reason why CD sales are back on the rise: K-pop. This music genre has been becoming more popular all around the world for the last couple of years, and with it comes a huge market for CD's. For a lot of K-pop fans the CD isn't simply a source of music, it's also a collectable, and not simply in the same way that CD's are in the rest of the world. K-pop albums don't necessarily come in jewel cases, most of them actually don't, but more likely they'll come in the format of a photobook, that has a slot for the CD in the back. Alongside it, most of them come with photocards (little pictures of the artists), postcards, posters and more. These types of albums don't just target K-pop fans who love CD's, but also those who want to collect these other inclusions, and of course also those who want to support their favourite groups and soloists. A lot of my friends and l, we have had no interest in buying CD's at all (accept for during our childhood, when there weren't any streaming services yet), but that changed when we got into K-pop.

Here a CD-buyer as well. Hunting for cheap, second hand albums is great fun. And I really like a physical collection. Flipping through my albums and surprising myself. From pop to jazz and from soul to dance. A digital experience is completely different. One more reason: I listen much more thoughtfully. When the CD is on, I listen to it all the way through.

Agree with most of the 15 reasons, now I shall add one more to the list which I find important enough that we CD buyers and supporters should not discount it.
16. Creation of digital catalogs that is easily transferable from your personal laptop/computer to your non-iphone mobile devices.
Because you own the actual physical CDs, you are free to choose any songs or albums to transfer to your personal devices which can allow you to listen to them on the go with a pair of good headphones + portable DAC.
Also, there are so many advances in technology in the past 10 years that you can literally copy the songs from a CD with higher bitrate than ever before (and the explosion of terabyte storages helps in this regard as the file sizes increases with higher bitrate copies).
I am a big supporter of CDs because mainly the physical ownership as well as the privacy which it provides the listener. Thank you for your video.

I buy a metric tonne of CDs, but I never listen to them. I just download them. I buy them to feel entitled to listen to them. I like the feeling of owning the music I buy, and if it isn't worth buying it isn't worth listening to.

I buy CDs because it supports the artists. And if I have a CD in my hand, I own it. I can move the music to any device and still have the original file if my devices go down.

One point in addition: you can gift CD’s. You can’t do that with streaming. Music can be a gift to somebody who you like :)

Two more reasons.....1. Shopping for them....the thousands and thousands of great hours spent shopping for CDs......The hunt, the random finds, finding old gems you have been looking for for years.....a reason to go into town on a Saturday afternoon....for many there is now no reason at all to leave the house and go downtown..

Another 2 reasons I like CDs is that 1) I don't get stuck with listening to MP3 and 2) I don't get the frustration of a slow internet connection causing delays...

I'm a huge Classical music fan. CD is the only way to listen to this beautiful music. Great video.

Interesting historical fact - when Sony was developing the new compact disc format in the 1980's, they asked conductor Herbert von Karajan how long the CD playback should be. He told them 74 minutes because that's the length of Beethoven's Ninth.

i still sure buy album and cds because it feels more authentic..like u actually 'own' it

One idea that I don't think anyone has mentioned is, when we are no longer alive, our cd's can be given to our friends and family, you can't really do that with streaming music. Even those cd's that none of our friends or family like can either be sold online or given to one of the many charity shops in the UK. Love the updated video you've made @Darkoaudio and have just subscribed.

I adore this video. This is everything I feel about physical media. I wish I could help my friends understand this...

Proud owner of about 2,500 CDs. I shall never stop buying them all the while they're still being made.

Yep. If I want to own music, I immediately buy the CD.

The only time I listen to an album start to finish is when I have a physical version! Glad CD’s are getting some love. I adore my collection, and have trying to think of a cool way to display them! Looks like it’s cool again! 👌🏻

I love CDs. I really have nothing against any audio format in particular. CDs have become such a bargain for many reasons and it's so easy to pick up some great special editions for dirt cheap these days.

Not only do I still listen to CDs, I still sell my own new music on CDs! I will never give up CDs until we can no longer get them. 💿💯

Folks who don't buy CD's, such as the young, are missing soooo much. I once knew a girl who went and saw Roger Water's The Wall. She knew the songs via streaming, but had NO CLUE they all were from the same album and told a story!

I listen to them because of feeling of ownership, giving support to the band, album art, album playthrough and appreciation of all the songs on it, and slightly better sound quality. Still use spotify premium daily but cds hit different

I love the CD format. My only resentment is that very often, current music is released on very poor-quality packaging. I will order a CD online, and my heart sinks when a thin cardboard envelope with a CD in arrives.

Same thing happens here, I still buy CDs as well as games because personally I like collecting them and of course, I also listen to music via streaming services and when not possible I buy digital games but again, I will always love having the physical media. Like they say, "Nothing beats the original".

I'm almost 60 years old and still buy cd's and have all my vinyl albums from the past.
No streaming for me...and with this video it gives me another 15 reasons to follow Darko Audio.
Greetzzzz from The Netherlands.

I absolutely love the CD. I have close to 10,000 in my collection and continue to purchase them on a weekly basis. There is nothing like physical media!

I like having a CD play in the car so I don't have to have my phone out, plus at home, I can rip the CD to loseless audio, and then listen to the digital ripped versions most of the time, and then CDs either in the car, or sometimes, in my personal CD player since it sounds so clear
plus yeah, the idea of physical items you can touch amuses me.

As regards reason 9, it is not so simple. You are right that in streaming services artist gets tiny bit of money while in case of buying CD this "percentage" is higher. But you have also take into account that in streaming services artist gets his bit of money every time you listen his album while in case of CD you buy it just once. So, in case of your the most loved artists, if you listen their albums over and over, streaming service might in the end pay them more money then just they got from selling single CD ;)

I love CDs as well as records. But for me a big drowback of modern CDs is that many of them come in cardboard boxes instead of plastic, and they deteriorate quickly and aren't as aesthethic as the plastic boxes or the vinyls.

Not many artists have done this as far as I'm aware but I have CDs with hidden content that, when played, makes the time counter go in reverse. These portions cannot be skipped to and cannot be ripped. You literally have to listen to the whole track before it comes on. So CDs have the ability to deliver some really interesting hidden or exclusive content. And as an extension of that, you can get the mixed content CDs that have content only accessible from a PC.

I pretty much agree with John on all counts. Regarding CDs not requiring an internet connection, I'd add that it's not just about those times when your internet goes out and you can't stream - it's also about the fact that with physical media, your "device" never goes "Ding!" because you got a notification, nor does it ring because you got a phone call. Like John, I use streaming, CDs and vinyl - they all have their advantages and situations - but there are definitely times when I want to shut out the world while I listen to my tunes.

Cds are still big in Japan. We still have several Tower Records and HMVs in Tokyo. Both are always busy and most of the customers are young.

The fullness and sound quality on a CD is unmatched by a compressed Mp3. In my car and in my home, MUST HAVE CDs!

The number 1 reason I buy CDs is the sleeve notes. I just love reading through the lyrics as I'm listening, skimming through the credits and special thanks sections for Easter eggs. My favourite band Blind Guardian have the most beautiful sleeve note artwork imaginable - on At The Edge of Time for example, every song has a piece of artwork to go with it. They also almost always a 'thank you to you the listener' at the end of the sleeve notes of each album.

Hello, I too am never giving up my CD or DVD/Blu-Ray collection. I don’t like and have no need for streaming services. You hit the nail on the head with every reason! I started listening to music at about 6 years old with 8-track tapes, then migrated to the cassette, and then the CD. That’s where I’m staying. I do have a lot of playlists on Clip-Share and Applemusic/iTunes on my iPad, but I still have the CDs of that music also. Great video! Thanks for your analysis of why we shouldn’t give up our physical media music collections. I sincerely believe the same reasons should apply to DVDs and Blu-Rays. I even still have some VHS tapes left in my movie collection. Thanks again and I subbed while watching this!

when you pick up a cd from your shelf and you put it in your cd-player, you turn on your amplifier and you lay down on your couch then you are setting your mind to listening to music !

I stopped streaming 3 months ago and went back to my CD collection. I miss the instant access to unlimited library of music but knowing I own the music I’m listening to and will never lose it makes me happy

I have never stopped buying CDs. I never got into the vinyl craze, plus you can't play a vinyl on a vehicle. Long live CDs.

I really like your point about the dedicated listening. I often find my self skipping around on Apple Music while different songs pop into my head but when listening to CDs, I have no problem sitting back and enjoying the music. I also appreciate that CDs don't send me a text or email notification that interrupts the song:)

I think you forgot one good (in my opinion) reason as to why CDs are still relevant-they’re the perfect medium between digital and physical. I like them because like you said I get that physical feel, but I also like to rip my CDs to my mac and have them in my iTunes library. From there it gets synced to my phone and my iPod in the car, so even when I’m not at home with my CDs I can still enjoy the album, while supporting the artist more and also getting that physical aspect when I’m at home. However you covered many other great points and I really enjoyed this video !

Give me the CD any day of the week over downloads. You cannot beat having a physical, tangible object to hold in your hands. Vinyl is , for me, prohibitively expensive so is not an option.And what can be better than visiting a record store and having a good ferret through the CD racks? My last 3 selections were Carpe Diem by Saxon, Moonmadness by Camel and Deep Black by Black Sabbath. All hail CDs!

The only thing I miss about vinyl is the full size sleeve artwork and lyrics you can read without a magnifying glass.

Being the proud and happy owner of a 12,000+ CD collection that is a 30+ year labor of collecting love, I agree with everything you've said. An LP is worn out a bit and degraded every single time you play it (simple laws of physics). That's not the case with CDs, so investing money and time in a medium with a higher degree of permanence makes sense.

This reminds of why I like DVDs. DVDs have extra content like commentary, bloopers, the making of, behind the scenes, interviews, and so on.

I have one extra reason I like CDs: Because of their digital nature they're perfect for archival. When you rip a CD (to a lossless format) you are making a bit-for-bit perfect replication of the audio on the disc. With vinyl, making digital backups will always include some variance because of their analog nature. Different turntables spin slightly differently, needles aren't all identical, even the act of putting the needle on the record alters the physical properties of it. Maybe not by a lot or even in a way that's humanly perceivable right away but those small changes add up over time.
On top of that, even if your CD is damaged there are online projects that can detect and even fix corrupted CD rips. AccurateRip and the CUETools Database (CTDB) contains millions of CDs fingerprints to compare against, and CUETools can fix some bad rips if the corruption is small enough.

I'm never giving up my CDs. Downloading and streaming are just not my thing.

I've ripped all my CDs to FLAC, put them on USB and a NAS. Now they're portable and available wherever I want them.
I only download nowadays, and only FLAC.

Another thing I missed about CDs was that sometimes you buy a deluxe version of an album, A DVD was included that contains all the music videos.

Thanks for pointing out the remastering vs. dynamic range issue. I wholeheartedly agree on that 🙂

I bought a Cambridge Audio CD player a few years ago because I wanted to start listening to my archived CD collection (I had ripped them about 15+yrs ago to a portable HD so I could listen to music at work thru winamp!) When I started purposely listening to my CDs and LPs again, I realized how much I had been missing from just sitting down and only listening to music. As you mention, it's about holding the physical element, reading the liner notes, the cover art, the portability, and the price point. Not to mention that the sound quality of CDs are still phenomenal.
There are CDs I have that aren't on streaming platforms and never will be. My love of collecting CDs and LPs came from my parents who ran a record store back in the early 80s. I'm passing that love of the physical element of music on to my kids, especially my oldest daughter who loves the physicality of CDs herself. They represent some kind of musical magic for her.

I only buy CDs now because it's still the best way to get lossless audio. And then I rip it into my library losslessly which makes it far easier to play. It's the only way to truly own lossless music anymore.

Sensational video! it simply portrayed my exact situation, I buy CDs, I don't use streaming, I still have a car with a CD player, etc. I thought I was the only one, but I see that someone else has the same happiness of having a physical collection of CDs and being able to be proud of listening to what they want and when they want without "getting into the bandwagon" of appealing to non-physical music. having a collection of CDs and listening only to streaming is the difference between going to McDonald's and going to a good restaurant. In both you will quench your hunger, but the difference...

I still buy CDs. The sound quality is just incomparable. Vinyl sounds wonderful but still doesn't come close to CDs and it deteriorates faster. Streaming services are generally far worse quality than both. I use Tidal for streaming and although it sounds pretty close to CD, it's still not as crisp and sharp. I love music and I want to hear my favourite music in the best quality sound possible, so it's still CDs for me!

I can't believe I stumbled upon this. I own several thousand CDs. I purchase several a week on eBay or discogs. I'm surrounded by them. One of the best inventions ever.

Great video!
I’m a Canadian music historian, most of the music I deal with is vinyl only, cassette only, or for the later stuff CD only. Most Canadian stuff doesn’t receive reissues so when it’s gone, the price gougers swoop in or overseas bootleggers.
My work is in digitizing the above mediums. CD’s are free to digitize if you have a computer with a disc drive (plus no surface noise means no post-editing), vinyl and cassette both require equipment, and a knowledge of editing software to remove imperfections. These latter methods are expensive to get into and take time to learn. The alternative is outsourcing, which typically costs around 10-15$ an album.
In summation, CD’s are the preferential format for all things archival related (cost, convenience, space, etc.). You also get the best of both worlds; with a sizeable collection and a smartphone with decent space, you can become your own streaming platform; uploading CD’s to your computer then to your phone.

As long as they make them, I'll buy cds. That said, I remember polling students back in 1999 and asking them:
"If cds were $9.99, would you use Napster and Limewire to steal music?" 95% of them said No.
Had the labels not be so _GREEDY,_ CDs would have had far more popularity to this day.

The thought of losing access to files that get lost or deleted by a streaming service is definitely not a plus. Streaming is good if there's only one song you like on an album or for music you don't care to have physically in your home when the internet goes out. You'll always be a CD person if most of the streaming services don't even carry the music you like.

As an independent musician I still manufacture CDs and they earn me more than my streaming. A huge asset for sure.

Physical media is the only way I purchase music, video games and movies. Just the artwork and liner notes of a music CD is worth the price.

Another reason for CDs is that in streaming services the streaming platform/artist can replace a song with another version of it. Manic Focus did an album that I liked. A few years later the songs in my library had all been replaced with "better" versions that I really disliked. Nothing beats physical media.

I grew up in the 2000s, I love CDs for that reason. The 2000s gave me a lot of awesome childhood memories. CDs were more popular back then than they are nowadays. I was honestly pleased CDs had gone up in 2021! (1:53) Just incredible!

Reason #8 for me is the most important one. I'm a prog guy and the majority of my favorite albums have tracks seguing into one another. I cannot even imagine listening to "Abbey Road" or "The Wall" or "Scenes from a Memory" through a streaming service.

In practice, I use streaming services to listen to music; but I'm still buying CDs for several reasons:
- There are excellent albums that I want to collect.
- I like to support new bands when they sell CDs in concerts.
- Due to legal issues, some albums aren't available for my country on streaming services.
- It's a nice item to be autographed.
- If I have issues with internet connection, I am still able to enjoy music.
- I love booklets.

One thing that I HATE about the digital age of music - Charts are irrelevant.
Going to sound old now, but in the mid to late 90s here in the UK, our weekly music charts were incredibly diverse. It wouldn't be odd to see Britpop, boy/girl bands, hip hop, indie, and dance acts all in the top 20.
Top of The Pops on a Friday night used to be THE way to get the weekend started, and was such a great show.
Nowadays, due to the rules on what classes as a sale, you get acts like Ed Sheeran with 7 songs in the top 10 when he releases a new album. The variety of music is non-existent too...

I still buy CDs, as i'm a hoarder - I don't even listen to my music via CD, instead ripping the audio to iTunes and then subscribing to iTunes Match to listen to my library on the go wherever I am.
I've never been a fan of buying digital products, and wouldn't steal music, so CDs is always the way to go for me.
Not to mention, I love the tangible aspect - having old albums from the 90s and compilations and seeing the artwork (front, back and booklet) and the CD art acts as a time portal for me and can take me back to simpler, happier times..

the experience of buy a brand new sealed cd, open it, play the cd, and check the booklet, has no price

A big reason I prefer physical media of any kind is gifting. All my life, either my wife and I or extended family and us will exchange gifts for Christmas and birthdays. Or just for no reason at all. Sending a gift card for the music takes all the fun out of it. Sending a specific gift on physical media shows the other person that you are in tune with their interests and/or have something you enjoy that you hope they will enjoy too. Sending a generic gift card or code doesn't grant that satisfaction.

The single biggest reason that's missing here is economic value. When you buy a CD you own it as opposed to just having a right to listen to it for a definite period of time. Streaming is great on the go or to discover new artists but realistically you generally end up listening over and over to the same songs or artists that you like most.
If you pay £10pm for a streaming service that's as much £2500 after 20 years and the minute you terminate your subscription you lose every right to listen to any of your tracks while you could have bought 300 CDs or more in the meantime that you actually like and own.
It's a bit like renting your home vs owning it. You may think you're better off spending less cash on a monthly basis but at the end of the day, if you've paid for your house then you have an asset while if you rent you have nothing.

I love my CD collection. I usually buy them 2nd hand and transfer music from my PC onto my phone to use in the car. That saves a lot of cash paying for streaming services and it's also nice to read the covers for the lyrics etc. Buying 2nd hand is also fairly environmentally friendly too. Nice video

Only people with a really mainstream taste in music can be sure of finding their favorite bands and songs on streaming services in the future. As time goes on, the more obscure recordings are going to be even harder to find. I will continue to buy CDs to ensure my access to the music that is important to me.