Everyone in this thread completely misses thr point of media like this: you own it, you can sell or trade it later, and the community building aspect is really fun. You dont get any of that with files.

Same with games. Look at the 2and hand market. Growing up, everything i got was 2nd hand. Sad that poorer folks won't have that anymore.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Its also a pretty high quality version as well. Streaming gives you lossy mp3, you can make a decent flac out of a CD. Not 24 bit, but much much better than streaming. Oh yeah and I own it forever.

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Streaming also only works with solid internet connections.

[–] BigBananaDealer@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

you can download it to listen to offline

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

In bandcamps case yes. Streaming platforms its still DRM even if you download. Unless you mean purchasing the file.

[–] Takapapatapaka@tarte.nuage-libre.fr 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You do get most of those with files : owning it, trading it, and you can build a community around file sharing. The problem is not in the file concept but in the capitalistic ecosystem built on top of it, where they try to prevent you from easily accessing or using the files.

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I can see that viewpoint. The issue there is of the ~40 IRL people I know and regularly talk to, not a single one of them has a clue what you just said. Normie's understand "CD have media. CD go in player and worky".

Files are great for us super nerds. But here's the issue. Now you have a storage medium that then needs to be plugged into a PC of some sort, now you have an os of some sort and possibly internet on said device, Now you need a media player, now you need a DAC to send it to your stereo/headphones etc.

For me, CD go in and worky is peak.

[–] Takapapatapaka@tarte.nuage-libre.fr 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Good point, CD are easier to use. But to be honest, people around me all know how to install a program or put mp3 in the music folder, from my grandparents to my younger brother, and they're not nerds. I can see how it could be a problem if there was a little less tech literacy though.

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 weeks ago

Maybe you aren't american. The tech literacy where I am is so utterly low I'm baffled people can sustain day to day life.

[–] sexy_peach@feddit.org 2 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah also you don't need complicated backup etc

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

the community building aspect is really fun. You dont get any of that with files.

Back in the day I was huge into music communities on Soulseek. Files can build just as much community, just saying.

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Sure but theyre a lot more underground, and illegal if your ISP sees what youre doing, so people are scared of that.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Illegal depending on your jurisdiction. In the US it's still a civil matter unless you're facilitating.

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

They can still ruin your life if they want to. Not worth it.

[–] zipfelwurster@feddit.org 16 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (10 children)

Having grown up with cassette tapes and CDs later on, I just want digital.

Yes, it is nice to hold a physical thing, but it's also nice to just play any song on your phone that you have on you 24/7 anyway.

Owning more things really doesn't sound appealing to me personally. Also, CDs were never very portable, they scratch and these little tabs on their plastic cases break.

Sorry for sounding so negative, I'm glad they are having fun with their music. I just think the current CD trend could be 2nd hand nostalgia for today's teens and young adults who just didn't learn to loathe them yet 😅

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

Nah. Give me both. Thats why a CD is the best. You get physical, and it can be ripped. I prefer records but the expense is too high for a lot of them now.

CDs never got old man. Still the best.

load more comments (6 replies)

[–] BruisedMoose@piefed.social 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I am of a similar vintage, but I never gave up my CDs. For a while there, I did just go digital because of the convenience and depth. Then Covid came along and I got into records. That tapered off in the last couple of years and I've been buying CDs again because they take less room.

I still mostly listen to my music digitally, but now I'm hosting my own server and keeping a curated collection.

[–] zipfelwurster@feddit.org 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Self-hosting makes a ton of sense.

I do like the variety that comes with streaming. Getting notified about new releases from your favorite artists and then just being able to listen to them right away is a joy.

But one day, when my music streaming service will invariably get enshittified, I will self-host, too :)

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Getting notified about new releases from your favorite artists and then just being able to listen to them right away is a joy.

There's a whole stack of self hosting services that allow you to do exactly this. The *arr stack.

Mine automatically grabs the new releases, downloads them to my plex server and I can stream anywhere with Plexamp anytime I want.

To be fair I bought a lifetime Plex Pass back when they were $45.

[–] dmtalon@infosec.pub 4 points 2 weeks ago

Clearly the driver here is to own your stuff, not excitement of carrying 100 CDs around with you

We need more clarity for what digital ownership is or isn't with laws to back it up.

I'd guess audio CDs are a tie in to games on physical media which is an obvious hot topic today. Corporations don't want you owning anything, and it gets a lot easier when you don't have something you can hold in your hand!

[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Pure digital these days means streaming. Rightholders don’t want to give you a file you can copy or store indefinitely, they want you to rent

[–] ryper@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago

You can still buy DRM-free music you can download and keep. And not just from places like Bandcamp; Apple hasn't stopped selling music, and Qobuz even has FLAC downloads.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 weeks ago

Which means they don't understand how files work and spend a lot off wasted effort on DRM. They give us a file whether they intend to or not.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Physical you can make digital, and stream it, put it on your phone. I have many cars, that doesn't mean I pack them with me. I make them digital and then stream them to my own devices.

Its the exact same thing, just I don't have a subscription that could end or a corporation license that expires. Unless you buy your music DRM free, I can respect that.

[–] blargh513@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah I used to do all that stuff. Get a CD, stick it in computer, rip contents to files. Make sure files and directories are in good order and named properly.

Now don't forget to copy what you want to some storage device that you need to take with you. I guess you could dump the files on your phone, but you could also use a streaming service. Same output, a lot fewer steps.

Did all this ages ago, I have no need to do it again. I'm OK to pay for a service that does it for me.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 1 points 2 weeks ago

I mean, I use jellyfin and stream it to my devices for free. I pay $10 once for the CD, and then I have the same convenience but no monthly fees.

load more comments (5 replies)

[–] vane@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago

Might be people are not dumb and will go back to cd and dvd to escape the slop from subscription services.

[–] gusgalarnyk@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

If CD quality is less than ideal, is there a world where we sell like... Game cartridge sized USB drives with lossless audio files instead? Wouldn't it be cool to have a new form factor that allows for the feeling of physical ownership but is modern and more universal.

[–] WesternInfidels@feddit.online 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

CDs are considered lossless.

"Lossy" and "lossless" are descriptors applied to data compression systems. So no one referred to CDs as "lossless" until MP3 (which is lossy) became popular, because there was nothing to contrast it with. CDs are not compressed at all.

If you buy music on BandCamp, FLAC (lossless) is often (always?) one of the download format options. FLAC is decompressed into a bitstream that matches the original exactly. You can put those files wherever you like.

[–] gusgalarnyk@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Sorry, I should have said a Hi-Res format (which tbh means lossless compared to the best recording to me or colloquially lossless).

[–] Asetru@feddit.org 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Who said that cd quality is "less than ideal"?

Game cartridge sized USB drives with lossless audio

Lossless is a weird term here. Digitised audio is lossy by definition but CDs have been designed to be as good as our hearing, so their quality is usually considered to be the baseline of "lossless" that other media compare against.

Wouldn't it be cool to have a new form factor that allows for the feeling of physical ownership but is modern and more universal.

No, because CDs are widely adopted and are a good form factor. MiniDiscs have already tried and failed to establish a new, better medium. What do you need that CDs can't deliver that would have significant advantages over the convenience of streaming?

[–] gusgalarnyk@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I guess I've always heard that CD quality wasn't the "best" and upon Kagi'ing it, that seems to be correct as there's a tier above it called Hi-Res formats. Now, you make a point that CD's are as good as we can hear, but I'm not exactly sure that's true in all senses (assuming perfect audio equipment). Either way, wouldn't it be cool to have the ideal (best) format in a form factor that our audio players can actually play (phones).

I would much rather carry around a Nintendo style game cartridge case that carries mini USB-c drives that stored an album or an artist's collection. That to me is pretty cool. At least to me, the combination of CD's being not Hi-Res audio, a format that's hard to play in my main music devices (phone or home theater, which in this case does not contain a CD player (although it does contain a vinyl player, go figure)), and that subjectively isn't a cool form factor in the same way Vinyl or Game cartridges are makes me long for a more retro-scifi form with modern transfer mechanisms.

[–] Asetru@feddit.org 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Obviously you can be better than CDs. The signal is sampled 44100 times per second, each sample being stored as 16 bits (twice, to have stereo). Increase either of these numbers and you're immediately better than CDs. Increase the former and you'll be able to store higher frequencies, increase the latter and you'll have a higher dynamic range.

None of that answers why you would want to carry around a case of physical media though. With today's tech it'd be easy to put high res audio on sd cards or create a new medium (and yes, please use the minidisc form factor for that). But with the storage capacities of rewritable memory being easily in the terabyte range even for consumers and broadband connections being widely available, why would you want to create the distribution network this would require instead of just letting people stream and download the music? Especially as you'd be limited to releasing new music that has been mastered in high res (as you obviously can't get higher resolution data from CDs), so you'd only have a few artists on board and a few albums available.

[–] gusgalarnyk@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You're conflating my intentions with wanting to replace streaming or what you carry on the go. I do not want to replace streaming with CD's. I want to replace owning my own music with streaming and I don't like that the most prevalent option for purchasing physical copies of music is CD's and vinyls - both of which have drawbacks in my eyes.

So I'm day dreaming about a new format that is essentially a cool SD or thumb drive in disguise that could host an album or an artist and be accessible via my phone in a way that vinyl and CDs are not.

You're writing a lot about a topic I'm not talking about. CD's are coming back, I don't love CD's, wouldn't it be cool if there was a better version of physical music we could buy. That's the whole Convo.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] BooBees@fedinsfw.app 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I don’t miss carrying around or worrying about having stolen my cd collection, so smaller definitely would be better imo. I really liked the size of mini discs but they were too thick. Maybe about a quarter of that size and thinner cartridges made with solid state technology, made bigger than current tech allows in exchange for longer lifespans.

[–] uniquethrowagay@feddit.org 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'd bet quite a lot of money that nobody here could consistently tell the difference between raw uncompressed audio and CDs in a blind test.
I'm not entirely sure anybody could.

[–] blargh513@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality

Try the quiz, see how well you do. I have tried it several times and i rarely get but a handful right.

Ever since this humbling experience, I have stopped worrying about top-tier digital audio quality.

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] kepix@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

interesting to see cds booming after how much it failed cause of the crap drm. i guess its realitely easy to get a player, and it doesnt take up too much space per disc, and you get 1411kbit/s.

[–] Nyadia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 weeks ago

Nice, but I just hope this doesn't do to CDs what happened to vinyl records in the 2010s. If in 5 years from now I go to a record store and see CDs going for upwards of $40, I'm just gonna kill myself right then and there.

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

ITT: lemmings hate CDs.

[–] Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

In the late 90 I was the one buying those vinyls you didn't want anymore for a few bucks, and I still hage them.

In the past 15 years I've been adding hundreds of your old CDs to my collection, plus a couple of tapes.

I get my digital album from bandcamp and download the flac version.

load more comments