Happy 25th Birthday, Compact Discs!
The tangible, physical representation of one of the great obsessions of my life turns 25. That’s right, the Compact Disc has been with us for a quarter of a century.
Most of the stories about the CD’s 25th birthday are all spelling doom and gloom for the once popular media, but I’m not going to pile on. The CD still accounts for the majority of music sales regardless of its steady decline in recent years. It is also the best format we have for experiencing music.
The CD combines portability and sonic precision better than any other media. Vinyl has great sound — particularly for analog recordings – but makes a lousy travel companion. Besides, there are instances where CD and digital technology improve upon the analog methods of old. On the flipside, iPods – which I love – make music significantly more portable but don’t deliver the same sound. The CD is a marvelous middle ground.
Right now, the main gripes I have with solely digital music is the loss of sonic fidelity and the lack of the tangible artifact.
Digital files, like those sold at the iTunes Music Store, are sold in a “lossy” format. The music is compressed and to shrink the file size and in the process, some of the sound is lost in translation. There are lossless digital formats but lossless files are significantly larger than the “lossies,” making them much less popular in the marketplace. Maybe someday, brilliant engineers will find a way to shrink the file without the sound. Maybe brilliant engineers will find a way to store more and more information on smaller and smaller devices, allowing audiophiles to carry their 15,000 songs in lossless format on a single iPod.
The one thing digital files will never be is tangible. Apparently, the kids today don’t care about owning a disc, a cover, artwork, and a booklet with their music. There’s something unsatisfying about buying “air.” Downloading songs just isn’t as satisfying as buying a CD. There’s something missing. I can’t imagine being a kid and not having a present to open or getting cash in hand. It doesn’t feel real if there’s not something to see, hold, and touch.
All these years I thought I was just a music fan. I’ve learned that I’m also a fan of the CD as an institution just as I love albums and music as artforms. Happy Birthday, CD. May the pronouncements of your demise be greatly exaggerated.
Filed under: Fanboy Manifesto
I’m still partial to LPs, even though I haven’t had a working turntable in my house in ages and have given away most of my records over the years. A lot of the LPs I wish I still had. Tons has old stuff has never come out on CD and might never be released in any digital form. Not to mention the superior sound… but you’re right that CDs are the happy medium. I’ll be very sad when we’re just buying and downloading electrons.
That’s a point I hadn’t considered, Jon, the vast amount of music that still hasn’t made its way from LPs to CDs. That’s something that needs to be corrected.
As for the superior sound, I know there are a lot of albums that sound better on vinyl than they do on CD. I think some genres and some of the more modern records probably work better in this digital era of recording. I wish we didn’t have to choose between the two and hate that we’re about to lose even those CD to computer files. There just doesn’t seem to be artistry in computer files, even if they’re music files.
I know there are a lot of albums that sound better on vinyl than they do on CD.
that would be: the vast majority of albums.
and yea, sadly, a lot of music that has never made the transfer probably never will. that’s one of the things that keeps me in the vinyl game.
Sir Saleski, I knew without reservation this topic would get your attention. I don’t what the ratio is. I don’t miss the hiss and grooves of the needle making physical contact with the vinyl, but the warmth in the grooves are nearly impossible to capture on disc.
i don’t miss the hiss and pop either, mostly because i don’t hear that often on my setup….but i digress.
in all honesty, it’s probably a 50/50 mix of why i’m still into vinyl: half because the sound is for the most part better than digital and half because there so many more recordings to check out.
All good reasons. I’ve never listened to vinyl where there was no “vinyl noise” whatsoever, although not all setups are equal. Fair enough.
I’ve got zero beef with vinyl. I’ll probably take the plunge one of these days.