I haven’t bothered with CDs for a good 10 years or so. I remember visiting a friend working for a music magazine in about 2001 and he gave me a pile of promo CDs and I was just looking at them puzzled – what possible use are these in the days of Napster?
But recently I’ve been experimenting with CDs again. I’m not claiming that this is better than iTunes/Spotify – but it’s been a fun quirky thing to do for a few weeks and there are definite differences about the formats which are interesting to think about in this era where we’re saying goodbye to physical media. No more physical media – this is no longer crazy futurism.
Just to be clear – I’m no technophobe – I’ve been downloading music via the internet since the mid 90s (first track I got was a KLF track called K Cera Cera that wasn’t available in the shops) – I even was sticking up my own music online in (blimey!) 1993 in formats that pre-dated MP3s.
Anyway, in my month or so of CDs here’s what I’ve learnt:
CDs end – this is a good thing. Say you type your favourite act into Spotify chances are it’ll keep playing until you’re sick of it. This is quite a negative emotion to be associated with your favourite music. “Get it off, my brain is going to explode.”
CDs are cheap. My local charity shop sells them for £1. Playing pot luck is a fun cheap hobby. Amazon has amazing deals on with 5 for about £10.
CDs are like buying MP3s with a physical back up.
CDs are higher audio quality than your average (not all) MP3. I used to think I couldn’t tell but then I got some better speakers, and blimey, I own some crappy MP3s that literally sound like the speaker is torn.
Put a CD in a player and it’ll still be in the player when you next enter the room. This encourages repeat listening. Repeat listening makes music familiar – and that’s how it becomes your favourite music.
Every single CD case – I can take them off the shelf and associate a memory with it. The Bjork single I bought in Mike Lloyds in Wolverhampton for £1 in 1994 – I used to buy singles as I had very little money. The Sisters of Mercy CD I accidentaly stole from the library (I took back the cover and didn’t realise I had the disk until years later).
If you pile up the CDs on your shelf the spines are readable and they say “listen to me.” They remind you of what they are and ask you to play them.
CDs don’t pause between tracks like your iPod/Spotify. This matters on albums that are meant to run together. Say Dark Side of the Moon. These records are BROKEN by this tech. If I was Roger Waters I’d take a shit in Apple’s office and refuse to stop shitting until this was fixed.
The medium is the message. The CD says “I covet this precious artifact”. The computer file says “this is disposable data”.
