there were no consumer-grade cd players at best buy

[solarbird]

A couple of years ago, I could still walk in to Best Buy and test mixes on an assortment of consumer-grade CD players. And while I’ve been calling CDs “concert souvenirs” for a while now – that’s what they are, people want them, people want you to sign them, they still have value – I haven’t entirely realised how true that is.

Part of that is because CD sales as of 2013 (iirc) were still the largest single sales segment. And they’re by far the largest sales segment in albums, despite vinyl’s resurgence.

But… a couple of years ago… I could still walk in to Best Buy and test a CD full of music tracks on an assortment of consumer-grade players. While it’s partly a ritual, it also serves a real purpose – does your mix survive all these different weird players?

And now I can’t. I couldn’t even test it one one, because there weren’t any. The only CD audio players were in the Magnolia HiFi audiophile ministore.

But that’s fine, right? I’m not stupid, I have exactly the same track mix on my phone, and for this exact reason. But then it got really annoying, because I couldn’t test-listen with my phone, either. Sometime in the last year, Best Buy tied all their display gear down to preset sample tracks, which no doubt hide their flaws and emphasise their strengths. Play your own music to see how that sounds? Nope.

Not cool, Best Buy. Not cool at all.

It’s a little surprising, to be honest, because of those sales numbers. Are all those CDs still being sold – a decent number – going into older, legacy players?

So I went poking around online – Best Buy is the midrange, let’s drop down market segments a little. Target’s page on audio brings up a turntable before a CD player, but they at least have a few – Crosley, the maker of retro-styled audio gear, and Jensen.

It took going to Walmart to find a bit of a selection – or Amazon, of course. But what you seem to have is audiophile and low-end, and not a whole lot in between. Just like the American economy. Aheh.

Which leaves home theatre as the last mass-market stop for physical media. But do people actually do this? Do people play CDs on home theatre systems? I don’t. Never have. Anna doesn’t either. We’ve had it set up for AirPlay for a while, along with all the other audio – we pipe mp3s over the LAN.

But most people aren’t going to do that until it’s a standard feature, or at very least, common. So maybe other people pop CDs into the BluRay player? Is that a thing?

Of course, the CD… it’s a concert souvenir, so it doesn’t really matter. Rip and put in the souvenir box, right? No big.

Until computers stop having optical drives in three years’ time. Then what’re we going to do for souvenirs?

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Comments

[angelwolfgeek]

A good reason for that is people either use a pc of some sort or a DVD player. We don't have any cd players, since its cheaper to just buy a DVD player (I used to know a place that sold 30 dollar players - and I have one hooked up to my parental's sound system). I ended up doing that, and its good enough. The low end is suprisingly useful, and the standalone, regular cd player is probably dead when you can get something for the same price that does a lot more. Its *nice* to be able to throw mp3 cds into a DVD player and have it just work. My parents find it useful when they don't need to think whether its a mp3 or regular cd, and basically anything I throw into the DVD player works. As a bonus It reads USB drives, and probably auto-rips

Hopefully by that time USB drives get cheap enough to use instead ;p

As for me, any cds I buy gets ripped, thrown into a box, and listened to digitally. I'm a lazy git, after all ;p

[solarbird]

Yeah, I've totally got that message from many people - I had no idea, for me they're just in such different categories. I don't know why!

I have no love in particular for the CD format - I also rip and file. (As opposed to toss in a box, I suppose.) I don't play CDs as CDs either. But if people don't even have a place to play or rip them, then they become a lot less useful as souvenirs, and that's what I'm worried about. But if people put them in DVD and BluRay players, then, well, great!

[jarandhel]

"Then what're we going to do for souvenirs?"

A sample of the artist's blood and hair encased in carbonite from which to clone your own copy? ;-)

[solarbird]

WOULD YOU DOWNLOAD A PERSON FROM THE INTERNET?