Should You Throw Your CD’s Away?
Maybe such a drastic step is a bit premature…
Sometime in the mid-eighties, everybody was hailing the ‘crystalline clear’ digital sound of the compact discs. The sales were booming, record company executives were rubbing their hands in delight. They will finally be able to make a profit on music that was previously recorded, let alone the new stuff.
At that time, on weekends, walking down practically any street in a U.S. city of your choice where there was a garage sale going on, you would see piles and piles of vinyl albums and cassettes being sold for literal pennies. Actually, many were given away for free.
Thirty or so years on, things have seemingly turned upside down. These days you can hardly find a household without a streaming device and record stores (the name stuck, didn’t it?) are again brim-full of vinyl records, old and new at prices that certainly exceed those of CDs. Even cassettes seem to be on their way back!
But what about the CDs? Their availability seems to be dwindling. Some don’t even carry them anymore. At the same time, try taking a stack of CDs that are collecting dust on your home shelves to a secondhand store. Chances are that when the owner sees that you are bringing CDs, he won’t even let you through the door, let alone give you anything that will even resemble a decent price for…
