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Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

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Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#2
I buy CDs occasionally and rip them, but it's 2019, there's no real need to amass a CD collection (unless you want to).

For most of my needs, spotify works out. I don't mind paying $10/mo since I use the offline listening so much. I only buy and rip CDs for my own collection if I -really- like that album or a song on it, and a web download isn't available. Occasionally spotify doesn't have a very specific version of a song–Legend of a Mind by the Moody Blues from the 1967? BBC recording sessions comes to mind. Or artists like King Crimson.

I don't buy through itunes because of drm and the lack flac/alac options–why would I buy an mp3/m4a/aac file that I'm stuck with and can't transcode if needed? Bandcamp is a great alternative if the band you want happens to be on there. The app isn't too bad either if you forgot to download and sync an album.

Other benefits of ripping a CD or downloading a flac/alac file include having a perfect lossless copy. I can then transcode to any format that I want, whenever I want, however I want, from now until forever (or at least until the storage goes bad/breaks), without losing any quality.

With spotify pro + ublock origin, I never see ads on spotify or youtube anyway.

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#4
post #2

I buy CDs occasionally and rip them, but it's 2019, there's no real need to amass a CD collection (unless you want to). For most of my needs, spotify works out. I don't mind paying $10/mo since I use the offline listening so much. I only buy and rip CDs for my own collection if I -really- like that album or a song on it, and a web download isn't available. Occasionally spotify doesn't have a very specific version of…

I think CDs are still a very good option when you think about how you intend to maintain your digital collection in the next 30 years.

CDs I bought in the early 90s are there, in a box. I'd like to see people's iTunes collections in 30 years...

Yes, I know that CDs have a shelf-life and that real long term storage would involve backing them up. But CDs still seem a better option than the current alternatives.

Edit:

The issue even with a DRM-free local iTunes library is: how are people going to keep that over 30 years?

If you have a CD you only need to have a CD/DVD/Bluray player, which are still ubiquitous, and to push a button.

But for a local iTunes library you need IT admin skills to manage it, to back it up, to transfer it from one machine to the next, perhaps to understand that you can access the music without iTunes, etc. The vast majority of the public don't know how to do that.

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#5
post #2

I buy CDs occasionally and rip them, but it's 2019, there's no real need to amass a CD collection (unless you want to). For most of my needs, spotify works out. I don't mind paying $10/mo since I use the offline listening so much. I only buy and rip CDs for my own collection if I -really- like that album or a song on it, and a web download isn't available. Occasionally spotify doesn't have a very specific version of…

I think CDs are still a very good option when you think about how you intend to maintain your digital collection in the next 30 years. CDs I bought in the early 90s are there, in a box. I'd like to see people's iTunes collections in 30 years... Yes, I know that CDs have a shelf-life and that real long term storage would involve backing them up. But CDs still seem a better option than the current alternatives. Edit: T…

"I'd like to see people's iTunes collection in 30 years"

Might look different and be called different, but I bet there is some service offering most music in existence in 2050.

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#6
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think CDs are still a very good option when you think about how you intend to maintain your digital collection in the next 30 years. CDs I bought in the early 90s are there, in a box. I'd like to see people's iTunes collections in 30 years... Yes, I know that CDs have a shelf-life and that real long term storage would involve backing them up. But CDs still seem a better option than the current alternatives. Edit: T…

"I'd like to see people's iTunes collection in 30 years" Might look different and be called different, but I bet there is some service offering most music in existence in 2050.

Are you saying that they will be lost and people will keep buying it again and again?

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#7
post #2

I buy CDs occasionally and rip them, but it's 2019, there's no real need to amass a CD collection (unless you want to). For most of my needs, spotify works out. I don't mind paying $10/mo since I use the offline listening so much. I only buy and rip CDs for my own collection if I -really- like that album or a song on it, and a web download isn't available. Occasionally spotify doesn't have a very specific version of…

> I don't buy through itunes because of drm

iTunes does not have DRM and is the only reason i buy albums through them: after i download the album, i have a bunch of m4a files i can play with any player i want, in any device i want and store on my own external drive.

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#8
post #2

I buy CDs occasionally and rip them, but it's 2019, there's no real need to amass a CD collection (unless you want to). For most of my needs, spotify works out. I don't mind paying $10/mo since I use the offline listening so much. I only buy and rip CDs for my own collection if I -really- like that album or a song on it, and a web download isn't available. Occasionally spotify doesn't have a very specific version of…

Just wondering how you manage Spotify + your own music collection. Is there an app that can play both Spotify and imported files and present them in a single UI?

At the moment I can’t enjoy anything that’s not on Spotify simply because I wouldn’t be able to listen to them really. I have hours of music on Spotify playlists and I would only need maybe a dozen of songs that aren’t on there, so manually switching apps for those few times would be annoying.

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#9
post #2

I buy CDs occasionally and rip them, but it's 2019, there's no real need to amass a CD collection (unless you want to). For most of my needs, spotify works out. I don't mind paying $10/mo since I use the offline listening so much. I only buy and rip CDs for my own collection if I -really- like that album or a song on it, and a web download isn't available. Occasionally spotify doesn't have a very specific version of…

For most casual music listening I use Spotify; one thing that annoys me there though is that there are some songs which have clear compression issues, the kinda wavy, watery sound from early low bitrate MP3s. I can only notice it in one or two songs with a lot of guitar distortion / wall of sound though.

Its recommendations, daily mix and automatic playlist generated after listening to a full album are getting VERY predictable though. That is, same bands and often the same song. I'm not saying Spotify needs to improve their algorithm per se, it just needs to add a bit more variety - switch up algorithms from time to time, shuffle, start way down on the list of matched songs, something like that. It's getting annoying to the point where I'm considering switching to Apple Music for a while.

Anyway, for physical music I buy vinyl nowadays. I don't even have a vinyl player (yet), just a box of collectables / memorable albums. I don't like CDs, the boxes feel far too flimsy; I've never owned any.

Re: Why play a music CD? No ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms

#10
post #2

I buy CDs occasionally and rip them, but it's 2019, there's no real need to amass a CD collection (unless you want to). For most of my needs, spotify works out. I don't mind paying $10/mo since I use the offline listening so much. I only buy and rip CDs for my own collection if I -really- like that album or a song on it, and a web download isn't available. Occasionally spotify doesn't have a very specific version of…

I think CDs are still a very good option when you think about how you intend to maintain your digital collection in the next 30 years. CDs I bought in the early 90s are there, in a box. I'd like to see people's iTunes collections in 30 years... Yes, I know that CDs have a shelf-life and that real long term storage would involve backing them up. But CDs still seem a better option than the current alternatives. Edit: T…

> I'd like to see people's iTunes collections in 30 years...

I bought my first album from iTunes 10 years ago and it is right there in my external HDD since iTunes does not have any sort of DRM anymore (it was removed years ago). Unless computers in 20 years do not allow people to have local data and force them to use The Cloud (at which point i'd probably stop using computers altogether outside of necessity), i do not see them disappear.

If fact i rebought several albums i had in CD format because i lost some of the CDs after moving and a bunch of M4A files in a folder are more convenient than a bunch of CDs in a box (although TBH i do get the nice feeling of having something to look at that is physical... but only for things i really like and for me that is usually games not music).

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