CDs.... 

I realise that this is probably sacrelige on here and used to openly sneer at them, myself. But for the thrifty, canny music collector/ digger, they've become the new vinyl, haven't they?

Think about it. Obsolete format, churned out in their 100s of 1000s and lying about in quantity and available for pence literally anywhere that second hand goods are sold!

Barely a weekend goes by when I don't acquire a fabulous haul, just from knocking about with my other half while she looks at clothes - soul, jazz, disco,  jamaican,etc.. comps, artist albums, obscure releases from all around the world. You name it...Everything cheap enough to take a punt on. There's loads of unreleased or semi-known material to be found. It's all out there! 

Reminds me of how things used to be with records before they became 'vinyls'. There's fun to be had again here.

Bit of a ramble but anyone catch my drift?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So glad someone finally said it , music lovers the world is your oyster 👏👍🎶🎶🎶. PS, I've got thousands for sale if anyone is interested ?

 Nice try 

I've got thousands but I'm hanging on to them and accumulating more. With the reissues still coming (although apparently less than before) as well as new comps (feels like more than before), for music lovers it's a steal.

Disagree about the obsolete bit, though ... if true, it's a matter of fashion rather than technology.

Obsolete in a sense... young people don't tend to buy CD's... it's all downloading and streaming. Richer Sounds told me they have had massive drop in the sale of CD players whereas budget turntables seem to be flying out the door...

I'm not surprised, as it seems to be fashionable just now. Good if it leads people to buy more serious equipment to properly enjoy a growing collection, but we'll see how that goes in the next 2-3 years probably. Will we be tripping over stacks of novelty turntables in Oxfam in years to come?

No question the record  companies are loving it, but it's surely gonna feel strange to some people to be paying the same money for usually 2 tracks on a relatively faster degrading and more easily damaged medium than for many more tracks on a robust (if manufactured properly) and less easily damaged medium that is sonically superior  

Let battle commence! 

8 hours ago, Soulskate70 said:

Obsolete in a sense... young people don't tend to buy CD's... it's all downloading and streaming. Richer Sounds told me they have had massive drop in the sale of CD players whereas budget turntables seem to be flying out the door...

My other half's son is 19 and (unusually for his age group) a blues fanatic. He listens to music via computer, phone, etc. Although he doesn't even own a record player, he quite happily spends, £30, £40 quid on an original vinyl LP as he likes owning them as artefacts and likes looking at the graphics, artwork, etc!

Buying  too many soul 45s as well as my beloved ska and rocksteady 45s would bankrupt me so CDs are a good way of hearing as much soul as possible without breaking the bank.  Can't go wrong with 20 plus tracks for under a tenner if you know where to buy from.  Most recent purchase - Complete Tri-Phi Singles Vols 1&2 for THREE quid each!  Budget label (Hallmark) but surprisingly good sound quality.

As the original poster said, took a punt on hundreds of great CDs, most for less than the cost of a pizza.

Some CDs are very collectable......

Those Motown singles sets were deleted quickly and will become a future Soul CD grail I think.

After earlier threads saying there were less soul CDs being issued - there are loads right now from Kent, Soul.com, BBR and dozens of others.  The new Outta Sight Soul on the Real Side set just arrived and is good.

Are there any OCDO (original cd only) events happening ?  

No, but I've seen adverts for OMO events.  Apparently these allow the use washing powder instead of talc on the dancefloor. 

2 hours ago, sunnysoul said:

Are there any OCDO (original cd only) events happening ?  

Used to be loads in my gaff but now there just o t n o events ,  on tinternet only events  ,that's cause  l can't afford every piece of vinyl l   frigging desire.   more compilations. Please !?🎶🎶🎶😂

The only cd's I buy are those 100 hits type compilations to play for the kids in the car.  I have maybe 1500 cd's in the shed boxed up.  No need for cd's once mp3's and itunes came along.  They'll be obsolete in 10 years time.

I don't play the CDs other than to create a lossless copy, I keep many quality ones as a master or resell those I don't need which helps cover the costs of keeping it going.  

CDs probably will be obsolete at some point as you say, but we will miss their convenience when they are gone.  Nobody is or will issue FLAC/MP3 decently collated sets, so CD may be the last mass hardware medium possibly.  Vinyl is good but no good for compiling lots of music and even worse to store.   Increasingly it seems some albums and tracks will never get any kind of reissue or remaster and be lost to anything other than the original vinyl.  Not just obscure artists but ones like Jerry Butler who has not had a fair amount of his catalogue reissued.

I have a Pioneer XDP100 music player that has 2x200GB cards in it to play music on the go taken from the CDs, plus a Google Cloud with 50,000 there to stream (the Pioneer also streams, it's an amazing bit of kit).  I still value the CD though, receiving it, reading the notes, ripping it myself at the right quality level I want.

When CDs do go, the long term implications for many decent reissue labels will be foremost in their minds I'm sure.

Soul CD's have little resale value, save for the odd few that are in demand, believe me - I spent nearly 30 years amassing a very hefty collection of new releases, many rare indie ones which can be seen for crazy money from chancers on the likes of Amazon or Discogs or wherever, but honestly, nobody wants them.  I sold mine because of both storage space (not having a garage in the new house to put them) and never actually playing or looking at them any more.

I put a load of discogs, tried to get hefty prices on a few I thought I could and failed miserably on most of them, I sold them eventually in a couple of jobs lots, at a fraction of what they cost me.

I've also been doing CD cover designs for 20 years now and have seen it all decline to the point where I rarely do a cover for an artist album, and even the compilation/reissues are struggling miserably with sales these days unfortunately, though the resurgence of vinyl has seen a bit of an upturn in fortunes, though no to the extent people are going to get rich off it.

Sadly I think the end of the CD, as much as I've tried to kid myself for years now, is definitely in sight and if you're hanging onto a CD collection in the hope of making a good few quid, honestly, think again!

Cheers

Roger

Edited July 5, 20177 yr by Roger Williams

Cds "  Sonically Superior "   Really ????

Hi Roger - I do look to see if it is your cover on every soul release I get.  A habit I've had since the old days of the KTF group.

Unfortunately there has been over-saturation of the same tracks on NS compilations and the whole area is now a bit discredited with endless out of copyright pre-1962 R&B (and pop) being issued as NS and confusing listeners who become wary.   It's not just NS, the same is happening in Mod, Jazz, Blues and others - but NS has more crossover.

I note that some of the credible compilers aren't doing them now - Richard Searling for example did magnificant 1970s Modern Soul compilations series. 

I've probably kept 25% of the CDs I bought and every year I move some more onwards.   I don't keep them in the brittle plastic cases anymore, which reduces the room they take considerably.

I'm keen though to support the work of those putting in the effort - Ralph Tee, David Nathan, Outta Sight, Ady and all at Ace/Kent/BGP/Westbound etc - there's loads more but you get my point.  I'll be there to the end of CDs.

I realise they may not have the rights to the masters now but Kent should certainly do a hurrah of reissuing their LPs, with the same covers as CDs.  It may be too late now, but it was such an obvious idea that was only barely done at all.

 

 

Edited July 5, 20177 yr by ThinkSmart