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CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

consequence.net

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Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#61

Post by ColdStream »

jedbrooke wrote: post #30
mrpippy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason, the PS4 and PS5 actually cannot play audio CDs

audio CDs use a different wavelength for the laser (infra red) while PS game disks are BluRay (blue laser). Of course, 99.9% of other BluRay players will also support DVD/CD, so yeah it still does seem silly. I also remember my Dad’s disappointment when he put a standard DVD in our Wii back in the day. Those are literally the same physical format as wii disks.

That was the unfortunate side of licensing fees. The Wii has all the hardware to play DVD, there is homebrew of it, but if you want to do it the legal way Nintendo would have to pay.

Also I don't think Nintendo wanted to turn the Wii into a cheap commodity DVD player, they make most of their money on the games. It is a shame because the Wii was one of the most TV friendly interfaces and inputs, at least when the Wiimote wasn't being throw at the screen.

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#62

Post by tangenter »

ColdStream wrote: post #20
tangenter wrote: post #9

Personally, I haven’t stopped buying CDs or in certain cases DVDs and Blu-Rays - not of movies but of music. I find it interesting these “went away” but I can see why: nobody I know has a cd player to begin with. A lot of laptops nowadays don’t come with disc trays, and nobody buys a dvd bluray player. Yes, the PS or Xbox can play it but everyone just streams movies or music. So somewhere along the way it disappeared…

The one thing I hope happens with a revival of CDs/DVDs is that hopefully we get a new generation of players. I still buy movies on DVD but the players are a bit hit and miss. That said, I do frequently see Sony bluray players in second hand stores for a few dollars and that is how I have my collection of players, but that is not a sustainable system. I just wish my PC case had a slot for the drive bay, that was a fo…

I have a pile of my own so I know what you are talking about. I love how even today DVD and Blu Ray players look, long after they were released. They are compact and chic, looking a tad futuristic but not at all the sort of stuff that screams attention-seeking, gaudy design. The kind that you could put unassumingly on a shelf next to a pile of books and wouldn’t even know it’s there without a closer look, or take up to a cottage and leave with a pile of old movies to watch on a dark, gloomy day, like in the old days. One looks at, say, LLMs nowadays and is amazed but, to me personally, we haven’t stopped living in the future for a very long time now. This message was typed on a device with a touch screen no larger than my hand.

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#63

Post by ColdStream »

justsomehnguy wrote: post #36
sperr11 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also what pushed me to get a PS3 later in its lifetime : getting a game console, CD player and DVD + Blu-Ray player all in one box was pretty convenient.

And killed HD-DVD in the process, hehe.

To be fair on a technical scale, Blu-ray was the superior format so losing HD-DVD wasn't the biggest loss. I appreciate what Toshiba was trying to do but it also felt like they were trying to cut-off the competition with a lower quality but cheaper product.

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#65

Post by mc3301 »

ryandrake wrote: post #48
throwway120385 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My truck will actually play MP3s off of a data CD. Maybe I should try that.

Nearly every automobile MP3 player (USB-based or CD-based) I've used was defective in some way. Usually something stupid like only playing tracks in alphabetical order, or inserting audible gaps between tracks that are meant to flow into one another, or not supporting tags correctly, or not handling UTF-8 text... Car companies don't know how to do consumer software.

Mine would cut the last few second and first few seconds of each song with some terrible "meld together" business, like the world's worst DJ.

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#66

Post by Kirby64 »

999900000999 wrote: post #57
TacticalCoder wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... stream it over the Internet to my phone, that's connected to Android Auto. That's how to play a CD on a modern car! Sadly when you stream music over Bluetooth there is lossy compression taking place. People can bitch all they want about "320 kbps mp3 using a modern encoder being indistinguishable from the lossless source" , the fact is: mp3 were nice 30 years ago in the Napster day (when I had my ADSL Internet…

Apple has ruined audio for a generation. I have a budget android phone with a jack and it's miles more convenient than a dongle or Bluetooth headphones which are never comfortable to me. Nothing could sell a phone with a jack, but then you don't need to pay 300$ for some crappy Bluetooth headphones

> Nothing could sell a phone with a jack, but then you don't need to pay 300$ for some crappy Bluetooth headphones

Have you looked at the price of actually mediocre Bluetooth headphones recently? They’re like… $20 for a distinct fine set of true wireless headphones, including the case, even from a real brand. Certainly comparable to $20 wired headphones.

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#67

Post by mc3301 »

q7xvh97o2pDhNrh wrote: post #39
throw0101d wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The real problem was almost no one had a CD player not even in their car! And here I am driving a 2003 Golf with a tape deck (and CD player).

> And here I am driving a 2003 Golf with a tape deck (and CD player). That sounds wonderful. There was a brief, magical moment in history when cars would come with AM/FM radio, a tape deck, a CD player, and an aux port so that you could plug in audio from every other device that humanity would invent for the rest of time. It feels like the most fleeting of moments, and it was so long ago. Maybe it was just one summer…

I had that PLUS a mini-disc player, all stock on a dirt-cheap car.

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#68

Post by shimman »

l72 wrote: post #16

A friend in his 40s had a 90s birthday party so I burned some mix CDs as party favors. Those CDrs were 20 years old and have been sitting in a hot, humid attic for the last 10+ years, but still recorded fine. The real problem was almost no one had a CD player not even in their car! Also, I don’t think k3b or any of the other software i tried has been updated since 2005, but it all still worked great! Most importantly…

Funny because the CD player in my car has been dead for like 16 years but the cassette player has never been better. Wonder why the cassette player lasted much longer, guessing the optical drive in the car is damaged because CDs will fail to read after like 10 second.

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#69

Post by shimman »

piskov wrote: post #38
l72 wrote: post #16

A friend in his 40s had a 90s birthday party so I burned some mix CDs as party favors. Those CDrs were 20 years old and have been sitting in a hot, humid attic for the last 10+ years, but still recorded fine. The real problem was almost no one had a CD player not even in their car! Also, I don’t think k3b or any of the other software i tried has been updated since 2005, but it all still worked great! Most importantly…

However if you’ve tried to read those cd-rw after 20-30 years, they would most likely be corrupted. Factory stampted cds are better in this regard

Is there a reason why or is it just the quality of the materials?

Re: CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

#70

Post by mypalmike »

criddell wrote: post #12
aduty wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This won't affect the price of vinyl. Most CD buyers just don't want a bunch of lawyers ruining their collection as happens on the different services from time to time. Ripping a CD to mp3s and sticking them on a thumb drive is easier than with vinyl, but vinyl has its own tactile experience. The types of nostalgia are not the same. Which is really unfortunate since I would also like more affordable vinyl records.

The tactile experience is one thing, but if you are bothered by the heavy use of compression on CDs (the loudness wars), then vinyl might sound better to you. Now that people aren't listening to CDs in the car, it would be amazing to see some remasters of CDs with the dynamic compression dialed back a bit.

This type of remastering (and remixing) has been happening for a while now. Lots of newer releases of classic albums of the CD era have remasters with less compression. Pretty Hate Machine, American Idiot, Absolution (Muse)…
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