Well this is really fucked. I live in a town of about 20,000 people. Around three months ago we lost our downtown record store which was a mom and pop sortof thing that amazingly lasted for over ten years. That left Sam Goody, which features whatever the fuck is popular, and they also carry some decent metal CD's. They closed the other day as well leaving us with no record stores at all, unless you count Walmart. Are we seeing the end of music as we know it? Will it be digital shit from now on?

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You could just order from online distros there is a ton of them out there depending on your taste. And buying in bulk means you end up cheaper in the long run. For example: one I use is Willowtip, I am a fan of several bands on that label (circle of dead children etc) and they charge like $10 per cd and order $40 or more you get free shipping. Besides Sam Goody charges like $18/disc which is absurd.

Or just go to a nearby city and find some shops.

Oh yeah, that's what I do anyway, but what I'm saying is that this is a sign of things to come.

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I don't think so. People would something real, something they can hold on too...not just something on their computer screen. At least I'd hope so.

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Dude, go to a high school and look everywhere, and see if you still feel the same way. Yeah, I like albums, but I think it's dying.

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of course this is the fall of cds you guys i mean look - records, tapes, cd's. soon ipods will be replaced with a chip in your brain and all you have to do is think about what you want to hear and you will instantly hear it, as well as a NOW PLAYING: DEICIDE - DEAD BY DAWN message appearing in neon colours above yr head.

Think of it like vinyl I guess - vinyl is still around even though it is technically obsolete because a lot of people still like the large albums sleeves and smoother sound response of a vinyl record over a digital CD. I think CDs will gradually give way to digital music as most people really see music as just a 'thing' that's entertaining and usually don't dig too much into it, thus no need to dish out lots of cash for a CD. Hopefully this brings about a massive slowdown in the corporate record industry.

That's just a fact of life with big corporations. Of course they're gonna put the mom and pop stores out of business.

I always buy my CD's from record label websites/mailorders, ebay, or directly from the band's site if available. Way much cheaper than any other music store, on line or in person. I've bought a ton o shit from Earache, Relapse, Willowtip, Unique Leader, etc... If I could even find half the records I own at a regular music store at a reasonable price it may have been a different story.

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Yes CD's will become obsolete soon, the record industry will phase them out and force everyone to use digital and downloads. They did it with vinyl and tapes and they will continue to force the music buying public to buy formats they'd rather not.
Shops and outlets will close as more and more people buy on line. And this is a good thing for the UK because CD's are expensive and it's mostly shop mark-up that adds the extra coinage.

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whaaa whaaa whaaa, stop crying.....


I live in SC, im forced to order most of my CDS online.(Anything dealing with Thrash or Hair/Glam Metal). If i do get to go buy a New CD i have to drive to the nearest big city (30-40 miles away not too bad). I dont recommend buying anything from Sam Goody or Wal Mart..Edited Shit ...I hate the way some stores feel they have to "Make Choices For You".....

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Dude vinyl and tapes are obsolete thats why they got phased out.......i would much rather buy a CD than a vinyl or tape any day.....

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They are obsolete because the record industry dictated to us that we should buy CD's. CD's we were told would be indestructible (they aren't) CD’s would give better sound quality (this is also not true as they released vinyl albums on poorer and poorer quality plastic, albums became thinner so that they wore out quicker and sound quality would dip hence people would be dumb enough to think CD's are better) They released the CD version of an album with bonus material and a booklet with lyrics, the vinyl version would have neither.
They said albums were getting longer and they wouldn't fit on a 12" vinyl, you can actually get 60 minutes of music on one side of a record without any loss in sound quality.
The record industry wanted people to buy this new technology and did all they could to 'persuade us' If that's not pushing a product on people I don't know what is.
CD's will suffer the same fate. Already popular music is being correlated in 'down load' charts, records are even getting to number one purely from downloads. Soon we will be told that 'download' is the way to go, bonus material, extra goodies that aren't on the CD version.......history repeats.

Pr0az, you are bound to prefer CD to vinyl you were born in 1987 and have probably only really known CD's.

If CD's are so great why do the dance DJ's still use vinyl????

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Because you can manipulate a vinyl record in ways you can't with a CD. Also, because they're old school and virtually obsolete, records have a certain cache.

I remember watching a movie from the late 80s/early 90s where one of the characters talks about listening to a scratched old record where you have to fill in the gaps where the needle skips from your own familiarity with the song. He then compares it with a CD, saying 'You can't scratch a CD! You can't damage the surface of a CD!' Seems laughable now, but, as Dahmers just said, that was the line at the time.

In any case, it would be foolish to believe that the technology with which we're most familiar is the best imaginable.

I think the potential of CD to give better sound quality is higher than with vinyl ie. flexibility, although I guess it's not really possible to fully get the rounder vinyl sound.
I don't know about the plastic having anything to do with it, but there was a little trend on the net a while ago about how cds are mastered louder and louder so that they seem louder on the radio.... if you look at the sound wave of your average CD, it's close to just a long rectangle with little or no dynamics (good example of this is early vs recent Napalm Death - the recent stuff hurts my ears because it's mixed and mastered like complete crap - ignoring the music itself). Before you would mix the record more quietly and with stronger dynamics, and then you would simply TURN UP THE VOLUME on your stereo.

And also I've heard from small-scale indie label people that space on a vinyl IS limited if you want to preserve a certain sound quality, so I guess we won't agree on that one unless I get better evidence.

I read a while ago that radio use heavy compression on songs when they broadcast them. It was in a music making magazine that recommended using heavy compression on a final mix of your song if you intended it for radio airplay. Heavy compression gives that flat, no peaks, no troughs rectangle block wave you mentioned above.

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what, exactly, did you mean here?

anyway, i dont know what is coming, but i know im going to keep on buying cds. i really enjoy buying and collecting cds. downloading albums is not for me at all.

I can already do that. It's called playing the song in your head.

Yeah fuck paying 400$ for the latest model, just use your imagination!

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Oh yeah? Well I live in SE Massachusetts. I can't find anything good around here. Just kidding. We're packed in like sardines here and you can find pretty much whatever you're looking for unless you're chronically broke. Man, it feels great to not live in South Carolina.

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You totally missed what I was saying, prison meat.

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I dont think that there is any ground for argument comparing the sound quality of a cd to a record. Rather whether you prefer the smooth analogous sounds of a record to the [supposedly] cold and clinical feel of a cd. I also think the durability of each format is pretty much similar, same risks, same strengths.

"I can already do that. It's called playing the song in your head."
Someone missed the joke! But can you put a scrolling flashing neon display above your head with the song you are thinking of? No.

Either way, I think this will be somewhat of a cool experience - I wasn't around to enjoy the scnadalous dealings of the entire DIY scene when it was at its strongest, with tape tradings and self produced demos with nothing but a punk or metal hand drawn logo on the front and something else like [we are metal/punk fuck you! support the underground!] in the early to mid 80's. So if this brings around something like that id welcome it just so i could be in that sorta scene [call me a scene kid but it just sounds so cool and badasss$$$] and as ridiculous as that is because i dont buy over the internet which means heavy heavy restrictions on the amount of music i can get, which is alread heavily restricted

The record industry hates digital. Digital formats last on average about 5 days before someone busts even the best copy protection systems that can be designed. It's almost uncontrollable as a format. They'll hang on to three-dimensional products for as long as humanly possible.

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Manufacturing costs are heavily lowered though, which means they save money on atwork, booklets/sleeves, the cd production itself, cases, ink, etc. versus one mp3 format for everyone.

Yes.

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though canada doesnt have sam goodys, i like some of their cds. i was having a hard time finding bathory cds, and found bunch of em when i came to new jersey last year.

but yeah, everything is being taken over by wal-mart and costco who sell mainstream shit for less.

but if you dont trust the online system of ordering stuff, then HMV is your best bet. though they are expensive, but they have a decent selection. if they dont have a certain CD sitting on their shelves, just go up to the counter and ask em to order it in. most of the times, they will be able to order them in. but if they are out of print, or imports, then yeah, you wont get your cds.

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In response to lack of local/specialty stores -

Places like big w in australia are killing ALL other business with their prices. the thing is that they can actually [believe it or not] afford to sell thier cd's and shit for LOWER than what they bought them. i have 1 single local record stor, whom goes to the farthest reaches of the earth to get anything i ask for. he has a very small and dedicated following, but do you think the general public care about that? no of course they dont. so while big w is selling their cd's for less and gaining an audience, and while sanity on top of that is just very slightly more expensive, but will order for you, the local store is gonna fold because he has the highest prices.

places like sanity which is a franchise like store do specialty orders but only within certain limits which means basically anything i want you can rule out. they also sell dvds and shit aswell. but they have a hard enough time themselves competing with superstores like big w because of the lower price thing, let alone local yokels.

i mean it all seems fair because you know, retail is a war. but when the war claims lives of civilians [the local record store!] i believe something is wrong. obviously, big w can afford to do this for 2 reasons- to kill the business for every other store [why go to X when big w has it cheaper] and to obviously in hopes of upselling on top of the cds.

another thing, i know local stores are often founded by peeps like us that feel like they are music terrorists... you know, [ill create a record store and do custom orders and everything, fuck sanity and fuck big w, we need to keep it old school] etc. or some sort of other ideal. property and business investment costs money. most local stores i see aren't in supermalls because the property is waaay over their heads in terms of price. but you;ll find a sanity, a virgin, and a big w record store in every single one. so peeps will start at sanity, oo thats a low price, continue to virgin, ooo even lower, and then big w, HOLY FUCK THATS CHEAP! so they buy the cd there and maybe do a little impulse shopping. in big cities local record stores get shunned to the side because noone wants to park on the highway outside the super mall where it is located and then - noone wants to walk across that highway to go to the store because [a] they have to walk [b] the have to walk across a highway and [c] they just spent their money in a super store.

my local record store is located away from the superstores. this means that it doesn't receive any impulse shopping like the places in the malls [sanity, big w, virgin, big star] so already its lost grounds on something by being there, but then, peeps know its there and being in a smaller town anyone that actually wants to travel there will usually have something in mind and you have a slightly higher chance of selling. thats the tiny tiny advantage of being a small town local record store in oppose to the city above, as well as in rural towns like this there is a high sense of [locality?] and keeps economy within local business. but theres a big w here and a sanity right next to big w, both places get impuls shopping both have lower prices so who cares.

so IMO next to go will be local stores, phased out by commercial and seemingly to the retarded person 'specialty stores' and superstores.

everyon these days has an ipod [except me] and everyone has the internet [yes me too]. slowly but surely, the idea of shopping on the internet is hitting home. its cheaper. it IS cheaper. IT IS CHEAPER. you save on fuel for travel [and for green heads gas emissions], you save time from travel, browsing and customer service, and you also save on retail markup. transferring money via internet doesnt seem as scarey as it used to and at the same time methods are getting safer etc. this may seem quite extreme and ridiculous but hasn't/doesn't everything thats revolutionised the world at some point [records < cds OMG!]

so heres where it comes into theory and seems less like reality and more like a nightmare and seems quite unrealistic [at the same time easily possible and etching closer to this!]. while the consumer can save time and money not travelling and not putting up with customer service eg. long queues and shitty staff, and saving on retail mark up pricing, i think soon, to the average consumer, internet buying is gonna be the way to go. i dont know anyone that doesnt buy from ebay [except me]. ebays just the start. all my friends, since age 13, have been buying from ebay. this could just be a precursor of things to come. first ebay... then amazon... then IGA online, groceries delivered right to your door.

IF and i say IF that happened it would bring along the condemnation of record stores altogether. but at the moment, they are quite happy to sell ipod credit cards to buy shit from apple stores online. maybe soon in record stores all you will see is a whole heap of advertising space, 20 terminals to plug you ipod into to hear samples of what you wanna buy, a front desk with 3 cashiers handling ipods and downloading peoples purchases instantly, and a rack behind them filled with ipod credit cards.


YES ITS A SCAREY FUTURE ISNT IT w00t.

of course this is all quite unrealistic and taken completely to the extreme and no i dont actually take myself seriously.