Today, our Tech and Audio Editor Tucker Bowe talks with Managing editor Jack Seemer about why physical media - including Vinyl, and even CDs - is regaining popularity among music fans.
Welcome to Know Your Stuff, a podcast where we unbox trends in consumer culture, one topic at a time.
Today, our Tech and Audio Editor Tucker Bowe talks with Managing editor Jack Seemer about why physical media - including Vinyl, and even CDs - is regaining popularity among music fans.
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Jack Seemer: You recently wrote a story about buying CDs in 2024. What's up with that?
Tucker Bowe: Yeah, it's, a little bit crazy. I mean, you and I are both 90s kids and grew up buying CDs. I don't know about you, but I think there was two decades where I didn't listen to CDs and to buy CDs. Now we're adults, and people are buying them again.
Jack Seemer: Who is buying cities like? Is it people like you and I that grew up in the 90s and grew up with CDs? Or is it younger generations?
Tucker Bowe: Mostly people who are really into CDs - they like the sound quality of CDs and they have extensive CD collections. They've got good players, so probably people considerably older than us, audio files and people who have the equipment to play it. But also, I think there's just kind of been an interest from people younger than us, people who didn't grow up with CDs, who kind of grew up on this streaming age band that they want, like a sense of attachment or ownership to their music, that streaming doesn't get you. I mean, I don't know about you, but growing up, there is a sense of pride that when you had like a Lord of the rings like DVD or like a kind of Eminem kind of CD or something like that, you felt like it was yours, and you can look at it and hang it on the shelf, or open it up and flip through the materials inside it. And yeah, you felt a little bit more personal, and it felt a little more like you had some ownership of it.
Jack Seemer: I mean, how much of that do you think is just coming off of the popularity of vinyl? And is it because vinyl has become this super expensive hobby that people are turning to CDs? I mean, what's the relationship there for you?
Tucker Bowe: You know, when you play a vinyl record, you have less flexibility. It's harder to skip songs. You have to listen to the whole album. It forces you to, like, pay more attention to each individual song. So I think there's definitely an element of that in relation to vinyl, just given that Vinyl's popularity has boomed and kind of vinyl records are, quite frankly, very expensive, CDs are a more affordable alternative. You can buy older CD's for a couple bucks, or new albums are still and they're not cheap, like 12 or 13 bucks or something like that, where like vinyl, if you buy a new record, it's like 40 bucks. It's definitely insane. So the cost factor, the want of physical media. And then there's also the audio quality is vastly better audio quality than most of today's streaming services.
Jack Seemer: What about vinyl like? How does it compare to the sound quality vinyl?
Tucker Bowe: Vinyl is - it's more nostalgic. It's a little scratchy or a little less perfect. CDs are generally more clean and a little warmer sounding, meaning there's more of the midrange and lows rather than high highs, so it's just a warmer, more comfortable sound. Generally, CDs and vinyl are pretty similar. If you get a good pressed record or a good quality recording, it's going to sound very similar.
Jack Seemer: How often are new artists releasing their work on CDs?
Tucker Bowe: So it's quite similar to vinyl. I mean, pretty much every new album you can buy on vinyl, you can buy on cassette, you can buy on CD, so they're readily available. The same problem with cassette tapes and maybe vinyl is a little more expensive. So I think if you're buying the vinyl record, you're also kind of you have the means to play it. But I think with Gen Z's they're buying cassette tapes, CDs more as keepsakes and memorabilia to show off rather than play some of them might have key players at home. Well, or I've inherited an old Walkman, but I'm guessing most just want that sense of ownership.
I went to college in Baltimore and I went to so many concerts down there, you saw whatever show, and then you bought the CDs at the end, and then you would go and rip the CD to your computer so you can listen to it over and over again. And I think people still want that ability to show their support to people and then kind of have that in their possession, even if they're not listening to it. Every artist pretty much is releasing the option to buy CDs of their newest albums, so it's out there if you want it.
Jack Seemer: What about vintage CDs? I mean, you brought up your dad's collection. You know, my dad has a fair collection of old CDs. I mean, are they worth anything like. Or are people buying them online?
Tucker Bowe: You can buy them online. They're wicked cheap. I think it depends on the album and how in-demand it is and how popular it is. But like, you can buy or you can go to the record shop or you can buy CDs online for, I mean, if they're used or older, they're a couple bucks. I'm not sure that you're going to find many one of these, unless they're just going out of business or they're out of a place, but yeah, like 3 or 5 bucks and then new albums will cost probably like in between 10 and 15 bucks.
Jack Seemer: I'm actually a shocked that CD's haven't picked up earlier. You know, when you think about the form factor of them, I mean, CDs used to be the portable medium, right? Like before iPods came around. I don't think cars are coming with CD players these days. But when you think about listeners today, there is an argument that CDs could be as popular as vinyl if it's just easier to listen to.
Tucker Bowe: I think there's an element to that. But also like when you think about it, CDs are a portable form factor. Everyone had Walkmans back in the day. He took the sound with you, and that's kind of. So it's entering like a more crowded market because everyone's streaming music from their iPhone these days. How many times did you listen to his CD? And then it was just like, scratch sitting there like you like half the song was just like a little warped. You don't really have that problem with vinyl, because you're not bringing it places that you want to listen to it at home, because it forces you to pay attention to each song. Whereas with CDs it's more of a portable medium and usually doing something else. Hi-Fi companies are still releasing new CD players like Cambridge Audio, Sony. But generally, I think if you're looking to buy a portable CD player these days, you're going to go to eBay, or are you going to pick one up from your parents or some friends, or some kind of off market kind of site and get one that's refurbished or really old and like, you can get them for pretty cheap these days. But, I mean, I guess that's part of a nostalgic appeal to if you're going to dive back into CDs. Part of me thinks you should want like a real old school kind of CD player that takes double AA batteries
Jack Seemer: Or just something in your car. I mean, I think I probably listen to cities in my car more than any other place, but I actually have a funny story for you. So after you published that story about CDs, I was at a thrift store and there was a, you know, belt cartridge full of CDs with a sign that said every CD, a dollar. And I started flipping through it, and I found a CD that my daddy sat on and that I remember, you know, we used to listen to you in the car all the time, so I bought it cause a dollar and brought it back into my car, ready to play it. And then I realized that my car doesn't have a CD player. I think the limitation with all of this physical media stuff. Right? Because it's one thing to have the media itself, but then it's another to be able to express it right or play it. You know, I've thought about that with Blu rays, which is like another physical media format that obviously, you know, there is a pretty enthusiastic collector community for it. And I've thought about dabbling into that and picking up some of my favorite movies that I revisit every year or so, but I just don't have… One I don't have a player that would be capable of expressing that media format. And then secondly, I also just don't have a TV good enough to justify it. So it's not just the CD's needing to make a resurgence, it's also the players that really need to kind of come back, I think for the CDs to make a significant splash. I mean, you've said that sales have picked up any idea how much that actually compares to like in terms of total sales to something like vinyl?
Tucker Bowe: So the latest study I've read is that 84% of all music consumed is streaming, which is just a massive amount. And of the remaining little bit that physical media takes up, 70 or 71% is vinyl. The popularity of vinyl versus the popularity of CD's or cassette tapes or any other kind of physical media, it's way less so. Vinyl is still kind of by far and away like the more popular media. I mean, vinyl sales have grown every year for the last. I mean, it's coming up on I think it's three years since 2006 of 2007. So the sales of vinyl have kind of rising tide lifts all shifts. It's like it's kind of spurned this movement where all these audio manufacturers are releasing numerous new turntables and where CDs, it's a little bit of that. The popularity of CDs needs to continue to grow to encourage that movement, but it seems to be still a long ways away.
Jack Seemer: One of the benefits of vinyl is that there's so much gear around it to write, like there's so many different turntables, vintage gear, new gear. It's easy to upgrade a turntable with different cartridges and styluses. That's also a fun journey in and of itself, but CDs don’t really have that right?
Tucker Bowe: You know, Hi-Fi is kind of a it's always whenever I interview experts and people I know a hell of a lot more than I do about this stuff. They always say that, you know, Hi-Fi is like a tinkerers hobby. People like to like, mix and match different components, different speakers, different kind of upgrade their turntables, phono cartridge or tonearm or whatever. And that kind of lends itself to that a little more than than CDs where, yeah, it's a lot more technical reading because, I mean, vinyl's an analog medium where CDs are still kind of digital. So, yeah, there's less, less flexibility with them.
Jack Seemer: Do you have any CDs in your collection? Do you dabble with it at all?
Tucker Bowe: I've kind of inherited my parents. I’ve inherited my dad's vinyl collection, which I listen to a lot. We're CDs. I had to record a couple hundred CDs so I can upload them to my Hi-Fi player, which is my main use case of CDs. And now the CDs are back in their cases.
Jack Seemer: Did you write a story recently about the MacBook? Like losing that accessory like Apple discontinuing the external key drive?
Tucker Bowe: Yeah, they made it for over a decade, something called the USB Superdrive, which is a detachable CD drive that you can use and again, connected to your Mac, because Apple hasn't produced a mac that has a C drive since I think 2012. And then they stopped selling the one that they did in 2016. So they announced they were going to discontinue it like a month or two ago. And yeah, they sold out. Sony announced that their next PlayStation five Pro was going to come out, and it was going to omit the Blu ray player, which lives with Blu rays, but also CDs. There was the CD drive or Blu ray drive attachment. The accessory that you can attach to it kind of sold out. There's still a high demand for these. At least people want the option to play these physical formats. Even if you have these, you have vinyl. You're always going to listen to the music or Spotify, but you want that option.
Jack Seemer: I mean, you brought up the listening experience, too. I mean, I think it's worth acknowledging that, you know, with CDs, it's easier to skip songs than with vinyl, perhaps, but there is an element of the album as a whole, right? And having to really engage with the album as a whole, and I don't necessarily get that with streaming - playlist building and listening to the singles and songs that I really like, but I don't know, I find with streaming that I've like, found myself in this whole little bit where I'm just listening to the same songs over and over again and I guess I was always doing that a little bit with CDs, but like, you're forced to listen to songs that you don't necessarily love.
Tucker Bowe: Yeah, it forces you to listen to the album and you realize quickly which songs you do and do not like. Once a song ends and another begins, you know what's coming and going to hit the skip button or the fast forward button. It throws you off a little bit when you're streaming, you can mix match songs. It's like listening to a playlist and putting on shuffle, and you don't know what's going to come next, so you have less attachment to the artist's intended artwork. It's just different.
Jack Seemer: Do you think it's possible that CDs could ever catch vinyl in popularity?
Tucker Bowe: There's definitely a big gap. I think that same appeal that applies to CDs also applies to vinyl. They want that high resolution audio. They want that physical media that they can kind of store and show off. They want that sense of ownership. CDs are just a little more fragile. And that because they are mostly a portable, I still think of them as a portable medium. It's just there's more competition out there in terms of streaming it and whatnot whereas vinyl on your home, it lends itself a little more to that, more tedious, I guess, listening experience that people want and that people like. I don't think it's really possible, but I don't think these are going anywhere anytime soon or that or hopefully though, because there are fond memories around listening to CDs and worry about our first CDs and going to the record shops.
Jack Seemer: I guess with CDs where I played it is it's a nice to have, you know, like it's a nice thing to kind of keep around. It is a nostalgia thing for me growing up to the 90s and I don't know, I gotta find somewhere to play this one dollar CD I bought but but yeah.
Tucker Bowe: That's a modern day struggle.