Best Buy stores will stop selling music CDs, and Target could be next

[formulanone]

I then either burn it to disc or convert it to the format I need for a given use. But the point is, I make sure it's stored where I control my access to it, not someone else running a server somewhere.

Oh...fully agreed, except where downloading an album (or EP) is the only choice.

[vdeane]

I usually download mp3s from Amazon.  I don't really do anything with streaming (beyond songs and remixes uploaded to YouTube).  But while most everything mainstream allows that, you can't buy mp3s for everything.  For example, if I want to purchase any album from Marie-Mai, I need to buy the CD, because Amazon mp3 has virtually nothing (at least in the US).  When it comes to anything not in English, even if it's from Canada, CDs are still king.

[Avalanchez71]

When Best Buy first opened in Lexington, it was a CD buyer's haven. They carried all sorts of obscure titles, imports, etc. My future wife and I spent many a Saturday evening in Best Buy, browsing and buying.

I can't remember the last time I bought a new-release musical performance in any form, however. Pretty much everything that's being put out these days is awful. I'm not into pop, rap, or anything else that is "hip" these days. What's a metalhead going to do these days?

Target IS going to stop selling music CDs, according to the news report I heard last night.

The trouble with owning digital copies of entertainment (as opposed to owning copies on physical media) is that there isn't much stopping the company from providing the copy to me anymore (Apple yanking a copy of a movie or TV show or song from my iPhone, or Amazon suddenly deciding it's not going to let me stream the movie I purchased any more).  I don't have to worry about anyone from a movie studio or record label coming into my house and taking a handful of CDs or DVDs.

The solution, obviously, is to burn an audio CD of the digital tracks you download, and also burn a data CD of those files (AAC if you're buying from Apple). If you have them that way, physically, they're untouchable. Anytime I've bought something off iTunes or another digital source, which is rare, that's what I've done.

I agree that the music out today is awful.  Very little talent and high computer oversampling.

[Pete from Boston]

Don't need cds when things like itunes and spotify have so much music on them.

Sure, if it makes no difference to you that people work their whole lives to make something for you to take from them for free.  Those services give the artists basically nothing for their work–use other avenues and pay the musicians something for what they're giving you. They earned it.

I agree that the music out today is awful.  Very little talent and high computer oversampling.

Sure, if you rely on what big business hands to you.  On the weekends I look into the smaller local, regional, and national acts in town and I'm astonished how much talent there is out there.  Poke around Bandcamp, you'll be pleasantly surprised more than once, and when you buy there, artists get most of the money.

[Roadgeekteen]

Don't need cds when things like itunes and spotify have so much music on them.

Sure, if it makes no difference to you that people work their whole lives to make something for you to take from them for free.  Those services give the artists basically nothing for their work–use other avenues and pay the musicians something for what they're giving you. They earned it.

Hey, they choose to put their music on those programs. Some artists do, some don't. It's really up to them. It's like putting your valuables on your front lawn with a sign saying "free stuff" on them.

[vdeane]

Plus it's not like artists make a ton of money on CDs, either.  The real money is from concerts.

[Pete from Boston]

Don't need cds when things like itunes and spotify have so much music on them.

Sure, if it makes no difference to you that people work their whole lives to make something for you to take from them for free.  Those services give the artists basically nothing for their work–use other avenues and pay the musicians something for what they're giving you. They earned it.

Hey, they choose to put their music on those programs. Some artists do, some don't. It's really up to them. It's like putting your valuables on your front lawn with a sign saying "free stuff" on them.

They're also between a rock and a hard place as far as promotion is concerned.  These are the distribution, sales, and promotion channels that have taken over from the previous (and also very flawed) model of radio and physical media.  For many artists, the choice is take part in these rotten deals or resign themselves to complete obscurity.

You're responsible for how you take part.  There are other alternatives where instead of saying "not my problem they gave in to Apple and Spotify" you can toss a few bucks their way in acknowledgment of the fact that most musical careers now happen with no hope of earning a dime unless listeners voluntarily step up and meet them halfway.

Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, et al. are set up with one goal in mind–use artist labor and consumer complacency to make a few hedge-fund types even more rich.  If you didn't know this before, now you make informed choices.

[Pete from Boston]

Don't need cds when things like itunes and spotify have so much music on them.

Sure, if it makes no difference to you that people work their whole lives to make something for you to take from them for free.  Those services give the artists basically nothing for their work–use other avenues and pay the musicians something for what they're giving you. They earned it.

Hey, they choose to put their music on those programs. Some artists do, some don't. It's really up to them. It's like putting your valuables on your front lawn with a sign saying "free stuff" on them.

You will understand my point much better when you have worked underpaid at a job for many years, and then are asked to do it for free.

[ZLoth]

With some exceptions, I generally dislike the music from my own generation (1980s), and of American music, really prefer big band, 1940s, and some 1950s music. I also really like soundtracks from movies and television shows.

Now, what if you happen to like stuff that is wayyyyy non-mainstream. There is music from anime series and movies that are require import from Japan.... IF they are still available. The music from Vision of Escaflowne is all OOP.

[mgk920]

Don't need cds when things like itunes and spotify have so much music on them.

Sure, if it makes no difference to you that people work their whole lives to make something for you to take from them for free.  Those services give the artists basically nothing for their work–use other avenues and pay the musicians something for what they're giving you. They earned it.

Hey, they choose to put their music on those programs. Some artists do, some don't. It's really up to them. It's like putting your valuables on your front lawn with a sign saying "free stuff" on them.

They're also between a rock and a hard place as far as promotion is concerned.  These are the distribution, sales, and promotion channels that have taken over from the previous (and also very flawed) model of radio and physical media.  For many artists, the choice is take part in these rotten deals or resign themselves to complete obscurity.

You're responsible for how you take part.  There are other alternatives where instead of saying "not my problem they gave in to Apple and Spotify" you can toss a few bucks their way in acknowledgment of the fact that most musical careers now happen with no hope of earning a dime unless listeners voluntarily step up and meet them halfway.

Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, et al. are set up with one goal in mind–use artist labor and consumer complacency to make a few hedge-fund types even more rich.  If you didn't know this before, now you make informed choices.

Most musicians have made little or no money from recording, it's in performing.  Not only live shows, but this includes when recorded tunes are played in commercial businesses, most notably bars and nightclubs, but includes any others that are open to the public.  Performance rights licensing organizations (ie, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) continue reporting strong returns.

The subscription rates for the commercial accounts of these on-line services include these licenses.

Mike

[bing101]

CD's are horrible archiving discs. I had to convince a co-worker a few days ago that the music they had all saved to discs were going to degrade eventually. To illustrate the point, I brought in some CD's that I had archived photos on that had deteriorated to the point that the CD reader in the iMac had seized - and I had to do a hard reboot. The discs were always a crapshoot on build quality.

I have used streaming services - Spotify, and now Apple Music, for years. What I can't find I purchase and then add it to the respective service.

As for DVD's and other movie discs - the highest usage of RedBox and other rental services are in rural areas. I'm not able to find the paper, but the highest usage rates of RedBox were in Appalachia, which is not surprising.

I noticed RedBox tends to place their DVD vending machines at the supermarket but I have no clue how many people are actually going  to these places in my area given that there's more emphasis to get movies on a TV App in my area and newer TV's have to connect to the internet and or sell Roku, and appletv at a target or wal-mart in my area.   Also my Nieces and Nephews who grew up watching movies or get their music on Tablets, PC's and Newer TV's are not gonna miss the days when CD's are not mainstream and sold in stores. They are under 5. They may not understand their purpose though given how they grew up.

[Pete from Boston]

Don't need cds when things like itunes and spotify have so much music on them.

Sure, if it makes no difference to you that people work their whole lives to make something for you to take from them for free.  Those services give the artists basically nothing for their work–use other avenues and pay the musicians something for what they're giving you. They earned it.

Hey, they choose to put their music on those programs. Some artists do, some don't. It's really up to them. It's like putting your valuables on your front lawn with a sign saying "free stuff" on them.

They're also between a rock and a hard place as far as promotion is concerned.  These are the distribution, sales, and promotion channels that have taken over from the previous (and also very flawed) model of radio and physical media.  For many artists, the choice is take part in these rotten deals or resign themselves to complete obscurity.

You're responsible for how you take part.  There are other alternatives where instead of saying "not my problem they gave in to Apple and Spotify" you can toss a few bucks their way in acknowledgment of the fact that most musical careers now happen with no hope of earning a dime unless listeners voluntarily step up and meet them halfway.

Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, et al. are set up with one goal in mind–use artist labor and consumer complacency to make a few hedge-fund types even more rich.  If you didn't know this before, now you make informed choices.

Most musicians have made little or no money from recording, it's in performing.  Not only live shows, but this includes when recorded tunes are played in commercial businesses, most notably bars and nightclubs, but includes any others that are open to the public.  Performance rights licensing organizations (ie, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) continue reporting strong returns.

The subscription rates for the commercial accounts of these on-line services include these licenses.

Mike

There are more variables to this than it's likely any of us can either sum up or digest easily, but the payout per play is higher and more guaranteed for big organizations.  Independent artists get some fragment of what's left, divvied based on plays and how much the service made that month.  It's not nothing, otherwise these artists wouldn't be inspired to keep begging their family and friends to fund album production, as is commonplace at this point.

The consolation is that when the music industry collapsed, it simply returned most music to what it had been for most of time–personal, local, and not a source of much money to any but a very few.