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CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026

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

#161

Post by Kirby64 »

prmoustache wrote: post #135
Kirby64 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

All <$100 bluetooth headphones sound like shit though while you can somehow get, not hifi quality but decent cabled ones for less than $50

Either your standards are much higher than mine or you haven’t been exposed to current gen Bluetooth gear. Decent picks sound perfectly fine even in the sub $100 category. Anker, Nothing, or even Sony have some decent stuff in that price range.

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

#162

Post by kevincox »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #160
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…

It's hard to buy people media now. You can't really gift people CDs, DVDs, or Blu-Rays because nobody has players anymore.

A USB drive with FLAC files works pretty well. It doesn't have the same feel as a CD with art though.

For movies there isn't a legal way to acquire proper files unfortunately.

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

#164

Post by tiborsaas »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #160
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…

It's hard to buy people media now. You can't really gift people CDs, DVDs, or Blu-Rays because nobody has players anymore.

It's safe to assume to buy them a player device too with the CD :)

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

#165

Post by kalleboo »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #74
kalleboo wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CD-Rs use an organic dye which fades (or in the worst case the bonds holding it on can delaminate). They hold up much better if stored in a dark place. A spindle on a shelf that sees sunlight is the worst case and they can become unreadable in years.

But the above comment said CD-RW? Those are a crystal.

I assumed it was a typo since the topic was burning mixtape discs for folks and I've never heard of anyone giving out CD-RWs like that

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

#166

Post by voncheese »

msftgreed wrote: post #96

> CD sales surged 16% to 16.3 million units, soundly outpacing vinyl’s comparatively modest 2.4% growth. Ok, but the lack of a unit on vinyl makes it very hard to have an apples to apples comparison here. If cds are selling 1000 units and vinyl is selling 1,000,000 units, those 16% and 2.4% numbers are pretty wildly different things. Also, the huge increase is primarily driven by KPOP (in particular, BTS). CD sales g…

Yeah came here to say the same thing on the lack of absolute units.

Speaking as an older vinyl collector myself, with kids who have also gotten into it...it would surprise me if the total unit numbers were even within 2 orders of magnitude.

Vinyl just feels different. The feeling of holding the cardboard cover and the weight of the album on a turntable can't be replicated at all with CDs.

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

#167

Post by FacelessJim »

21asdffdsa12 wrote: post #128
herrh wrote: post #107

In order to make my kids (2 and 4) be able to play music on their own without having to use a smart device or screen i bought an old boombox for like 10 dollars a couple of years ago. We buy a lot of records, though exclusively in goodwill-like stores, and they love it. They have a lot of audiobooks for kids but also cd:s with music. A favourite right now is Aquas debut album Aquarium (the one with Barbie Girl) I thi…

Anyone else remember the superb manuals that used to come with games? The starcrat and warcraft manuals. Drawings and lore. Diablo. Those old games came with books.

I remember the smell of a freshly opened game, damn still gives me shivers of excitement

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

#168

Post by CalRobert »

21asdffdsa12 wrote: post #128
herrh wrote: post #107

In order to make my kids (2 and 4) be able to play music on their own without having to use a smart device or screen i bought an old boombox for like 10 dollars a couple of years ago. We buy a lot of records, though exclusively in goodwill-like stores, and they love it. They have a lot of audiobooks for kids but also cd:s with music. A favourite right now is Aquas debut album Aquarium (the one with Barbie Girl) I thi…

Anyone else remember the superb manuals that used to come with games? The starcrat and warcraft manuals. Drawings and lore. Diablo. Those old games came with books.

TIE Fighter even had a novella that worked in-came commands in to the story.

I recall SimEarth having a multi-hundred page spiral-bound manual (though my memory is hazy)

I pored over them obsessively.

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

#169

Post by tayo42 »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #160
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…

It's hard to buy people media now. You can't really gift people CDs, DVDs, or Blu-Rays because nobody has players anymore.

Game consoles play all of those.

For now I guess lol

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

#170

Post by Gecko4072 »

I was also about to go back to CDs but realized it’s a pain, and streaming is a completely different, fluid experience. CDs are expensive, if you listen to new artists, it’s a whole process just to buy one. On the other hand, streaming apps now have recommendation algorithms and top charts and paid promotions, etc. My solution has been using Apple Music’s web player with uBlock origin tweaks. Yes I know it’s not lossless, but it’s the best I’ve come up with.
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