PPT mouthpieces

Does the public buy CDs now?

So you could consider yourself as "general public"? :)

Only on a good day :)

In terms of format, as someone who grew up in the 80's it's probably Cassette tapes that I'm most attached to. Not in a quality or ease of use sense. But because they were interactive. You could create your own mix tapes, attempt to record stuff off the radio, talk in a silly voice and listen back, pretend you're a spy and record your Brother next door, or a radio DJ. Carry them around and blast your eardrums from your Personal Stereo. CD's were just one way and as I never became a vinyl junkie, format was irrelevant to me.

Hi-Fi Gear, now that was a different story. However a very expensive story, so I had to knock that on the Head when the kids came along.
 
I still buy CD’s and then digitise them and load onto my phone. This is partly because I like having the physical object, but also because I didn’t (and still don’t) believe that any particular one of the “buy it online” services like Amazon or Apple would necessarily be around in a few years time and I might loose my collection.

It’s different with streaming services like Spotify - if they went bust then I could switch to a rival, but our home broadband (we live right in the centre of Bristol!!) has been so poor that streaming services are not very reliable. And last year I spent quite a lot of time hanging around in places where online streaming services didn’t work, so it was good to have my music downloaded on my phone.
 
So you could consider yourself as "general public"? :)

That's an excellent point, format. I have several DATs and no way to play them. I didn't get into mini-disc, but I know some people who did. I've already mentioned cassettes. I also have video tapes in two formats. I have the cameras to play them, too, but nothing worth playing, they were used mostly for work projects. When CD first came out, we already wondered how long they'd last. Does anyone think they'll be around in any significant way in 20 years? Would it be fair to say that most music is now played on phones or mp3 players? I'm not sure, but I would not be surprised. I do believe most music is heard through ear pods. (I have a little time, maybe I'll look those stats up?)

This is the best I could come up with on short notice, but it's from 5 years ago!
View attachment 14232

PS, "smart speakers" are growing in popularity and are predicted to become the #1 way to listen at home.

Rant ON:
Nice picture, is it for an artistic exhibition ?
I think there are only two percentages that are missing : one that would exceed 100% and another with a negative value... attach these values to whatever you want of course.
Rant OFF.

Pardon my ignorance, what do you call 'smart speakers' ?
 
Pardon my ignorance, what do you call 'smart speakers' ?
All the connected crap like Alexa, Google Home, Apple (whatever it's called).

Long story short, people who are the biggest consumers of music (the youth!) are out and about listening mostly on earbuds or headphones. Home stereos etc are being replaced by those smart devices, except in audiophile households.
 
I'm sure I am not the only person here old enough to remember playing live music 5 or 6 nights a week in clubs? And even in medium sized towns, there would be several clubs.
 
...also because I didn’t (and still don’t) believe that any particular one of the “buy it online” services like Amazon or Apple would necessarily be around in a few years time and I might loose my collection.
Sony had an "official" forum for their high end "Cinema" cameras to which I along with many others contributed. It contained a wealth of information about the operation of the cameras. One day I clicked on the link and it was just gone. I'll never buy another Sony product.

I may be long gone when it happens, but one day, much of the "cloud" will simply disappear. I'll still have music. I buy CD's.
 
Sony had an "official" forum for their high end "Cinema" cameras to which I along with many others contributed. It contained a wealth of information about the operation of the cameras. One day I clicked on the link and it was just gone. I'll never buy another Sony product.

I may be long gone when it happens, but one day, much of the "cloud" will simply disappear. I'll still have music. I buy CD's.
It may happen way sooner if the doomsters are correct and it's the "end of money." Who's going to be bothering about the servers when they are tilling the fields.
If my stuff gets wiped out it won't be the end of my world
 
Everyone who has posted here is a musician, right? So, I guess we're "people", too. But the "people" in the title referred more to the general potential audience. I changed it to "the public".
Yes, exactly. A lot of these answers were pointing out CD and vinyl sales made at live performances...or how a musician can use 'tangible' product sales to market themselves. And, while true that these ARE sales, and true that SOME fans will buy them at concerts/shows or perhaps as part of a promotion.....all in all, this would be a very, very small %age of recorded music purchases an individual would make, relatively speaking to online digital media sales.

My daughter (now 30 years old) and her pals were buying CD's somewhat regularly all the way into around 2012, but since then she reports that she and the majority of her friends no longer purchase the 'tangible' product.

Yes, vinyl has had a small resurrection, but again I'd say....relative to the 'new' delivery methods...quite small and a somewhat 'specialized' niche.

So for the most part I'd answer the initial query....."no, not really"...and the articles linked to in this thread seem to bear that out (again, relatively speaking).

 
What little music I buy is on CD and listen to it on the cd/ radio/ cassette player speakers. I virtually never use an earpiece I find it uncomfortable both physically and the way I hear the sound.
I did buy an ipod many years ago and put some albums on it but it doesn't have a mono setting, don't think any of them do. I did get a little in line plug to convert it so the sound only came out of one earpiece.
I sent emails to a few manufacturers pointing out the 'flaw' but only two replied with a response that translated as don't give a f... about partially deaf people.
 
I still buy CDs. maybe 3-4 /month. I then import into iTunes and sync with my mobile. I don't yet pay for streaming because I know how little artists get paid that way. I accept that one day my CD's won't be playable, but I'll keep buying them until then.
 
Regarding actually playing the stuff - I only use ear buds if I'm out walking or something. At home it's either the Tannoys in my music room or the floor standing Monitor Audio speakers in my living room (driven by a 40 year old Sansui AU215). The current playlist I'm listening to at this very moment has 36,000 tracks and there are others. I add to them very regularly (mostly from Bandcamp). I'm also 'looking after' a friend's cd collection - about 700 mostly European jazz. I'm not short of stuff to listen to so I don't really need Spotify or any of the other streaming services.
 
This post is very sad for an "hi fi" over like me, but we have to face the truth...
I personally have a good hi fi system and I buy cds. In the past I used to buy vynils too, but then my record player refused to work anymore! I buy them mainly because I think that music has to be a pleasure for my ears and I want to hear a good sound while sitting in front of my speaker. As musicians we all practice every day struggling for a better tone, so why do we have to listen to a bad compressed file? Of course this is just my opinion...
There are situations like crowded gigs or festivals where you could sell many cds. It is way easier to sell them at gigs then online on your website. It depends a lot on the bandleader whom you are playing with, if he/she is capable of catching the public you could sell your cds.
I hate that many computers and cars don't have cd reader.!!!
 
I think the most important music listening moment in my life, after initially hearing Jimi Hendrix' "Are You Experienced "was probably about ten years later when I heard bad quality bootleg tapes of Coltrane live in Europe. I transferred them to mono cassette, lowering the quality yet another notch. But that music, which I have listened to hundreds of times is still in my mind. I can still hear, in my head, that long first note of Naima, literally phase distorted and slightly fading in and out. I can hear McCoy's entry with those piano harmony clusters drifting down, like birds coming to land on a branch. I can feel the sense of wonder inspired by that heavy fall to the V chord, like huge waves crashing out at sea. That recording brought me to a place I had never been, even after having heard many great studio albums by the same four men. For me, the level of beauty and truth in that recording could not have been stronger, regardless of the quality of the codecs or DACs used to covert the sound to electric signals, or the number of tape copies. If you are listening to someone explain how to wake up your dead Nexus 7 on a YouTube with bad audio, you probably wish they'd understood that the audio was as important as the visuals. If you were getting a message from someone half way around the world on a bad connection, distorted and with echo and you heard "I love you, and I miss you.", the quality wouldn't matter at all.

All OT, as my internal Q&A was whether it's worth burning a CD now at all. And the reply came back like Coltrane's final phrases in Naima, a roller coaster ride over pretty notes over a pedal tone: "Not if you don't do concerts."

To be more positive, you could consider burning CDs at home to cover the demand if you do play out. Each one can be signed, too. Or you could make them up from recorded live performances. Or you can give away USB drives, the small ones with more than enough space for a whole CD worth of music are absurdly cheap. You can have them printed with your name and graphics, etc. Yesterday there was album art. Today you could do a whole website for each "album" you produce, or just one site with several pages of photos, notes, reviews. Oh, wait, that's pretty much what everyone does now.
 
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To be more positive, you could consider burning CDs at home to cover the demand if you do play out. Each one can be signed, too. Or you could make them up from recorded live performances. Or you can give away USB drives, the small ones with more than enough space for a whole CD worth of music are absurdly cheap. You can have them printed with your name and graphics, etc. Yesterday there was album art. Today you could do a whole website for each "album" you produce, or just one site with several pages of photos, notes, reviews. Oh, wait, that's pretty much what everyone does now.
I'm going to make a Rocksax compilation. (CD-R) to send along with the rocksax magzine ( some kind of fanzie). 4-5 songs, comments from the players, WAW not MP3 ..... . I could enclose a small USB, but that's not fun. I really like that there are many possibilities to share music and spread the good things.
 
I'm going to make a Rocksax compilation. (CD-R) to send along with the rocksax magzine ( some kind of fanzie). 4-5 songs, comments from the players, WAW not MP3 ..... . I could enclose a small USB, but that's not fun. I really like that there are many possibilities to share music and spread the good things.
Cool! I failed to mention the most important way to share your music, but we're all doing it already. This is just an additional level if you're not there yet:

1. Register a domain name that is easy to spell out and remember. My nickname 'randulo' wasn't common, so randulo.com was easy. But how about ambiguities like Bill Evans? I'm going to guess that may be BillEvansSax.com...
Yep. How about that, good guess.
billevanssax.jpg

Although Bill needs a little tech help on the site because "not secure" will inhibit certain browsers from seeing the site. Get the TLS certificate installed, brother Bill.

These are the tools of distribution today.

For the past few weeks, they gave become very important. Digital media carries no deadly biological virus to your door. Our current situation will push us further into this revolution whether we/you like it or not. The larger challenge is finding your audience and reaching them. Will the pay to download your recordings? You can package notes and graphics with these is you wish. Publishing has never been easier.

2. Find a way to host your content. Free stuff is always limited, but if you can live with those limits, sign up and point your domain to that. My domain has been pointed at various different areas, such as my fiction and non-fiction writing, my CD, now online with free downloads and a tip jar, and currently to my Soundcloud collection of 332 tunes, interviews and embarrassing alto practice recordings.

3. The hardest part: getting people to visit your content pages. Are you like Bill Evans? He has links to all the main social sites. This part, the marketing of your content is possibly the hardest part, made harder by the containment we are obliged to live with for now and the foreseeable future.

Personally, even if I thought people would pay for my music, I'm no longer trying to sell it. oh, it's out there in many forms on many sites, but I have no expectations.

In conclusion, no more CDs, pressed or bought for us.
 
Cool! I failed to mention the most important way to share your music, but we're all doing it already. This is just an additional level if you're not there yet:

1. Register a domain name that is easy to spell out and remember. My nickname 'randulo' wasn't common, so randulo.com was easy. But how about ambiguities like Bill Evans? I'm going to guess that may be BillEvansSax.com...
Yep. How about that, good guess.
View attachment 14269
Although Bill needs a little tech help on the site because "not secure" will inhibit certain browsers from seeing the site. Get the TLS certificate installed, brother Bill.

These are the tools of distribution today.

For the past few weeks, they gave become very important. Digital media carries no deadly biological virus to your door. Our current situation will push us further into this revolution whether we/you like it or not. The larger challenge is finding your audience and reaching them. Will the pay to download your recordings? You can package notes and graphics with these is you wish. Publishing has never been easier.

2. Find a way to host your content. Free stuff is always limited, but if you can live with those limits, sign up and point your domain to that. My domain has been pointed at various different areas, such as my fiction and non-fiction writing, my CD, now online with free downloads and a tip jar, and currently to my Soundcloud collection of 332 tunes, interviews and embarrassing alto practice recordings.

3. The hardest part: getting people to visit your content pages. Are you like Bill Evans? He has links to all the main social sites. This part, the marketing of your content is possibly the hardest part, made harder by the containment we are obliged to live with for now and the foreseeable future.

Personally, even if I thought people would pay for my music, I'm no longer trying to sell it. oh, it's out there in many forms on many sites, but I have no expectations.

In conclusion, no more CDs, pressed or bought for us.

Bill Evans is a great sax player...ironically he started his musical career as a piano player ( playing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a teenager) and then taking up the sax and studying with Dave Liebman and then playing with Miles...his debut album "Living In the Crest Of A Wave" is a stunner...:thumb:

Today went into town to buy some electric guitar strings...no good all two music stores closed...so ended up buying the latest CD by NZ folkie Nadia Reid...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc9xuBaMQRk


Greg S.
 

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