7 Reasons To Bring Back The Compact Disc

Jeb Banner
Aug 23, 2017 · 6 min read

I believe it is time to revisit the compact disc as a preferred music medium. For those of you that know me this may be a shocking statement to read. I’ve been an avid record (vinyl) collector for almost 3 decades. I have somewhere in the range of 5000 records and own maybe 3 dozen CDs. As a musician I prefer to record on analog tape and I have 4 record players in my house and only one CD player. I belong to a club “Perfect Sides” that meets monthly to listen to vinyl records. But I have come to believe that we walked away from the CD format too quickly and we should consider re-embracing it for a number of reasons.

  1. The Sound. Ok, I know that might be sacrilege, but if you take a modern recording (last 20 years or so) and 1:1 the vinyl pressing with the CD, the CD will almost always win. (As I address below, this is often because the vinyl is made from a digital vs analog source). Then compare a CD to a streaming service like Spotify, which is essentially a highly compressed file, and again the CD easily wins. Also, we are still a long ways from mobile services (AT&T, Sprint, etc) delivering bandwidth that can stream uncompressed audio files to devices. Now it is true that a high quality re-mastered vinyl pressing will almost always squash a CD, same with original pressings from vinyl’s heyday (70s/80s), but those are often expensive, hard to find, and simply not available for many releases in the last 20 years. Which brings me to my next point.
  2. The 90s. The 90s were the CD decade. Of course at the time we thought CDs would be with us forever but by the end of the decade we had Napster and the CD’s demise seemed assured. That began a precipitous decline of CD sales that continues to this day. But during the late 80s through the early 2000s almost all albums were produced and released with the CD in mind. Just as artists during the vinyl age worked towards the limitations of vinyl (20 minutes a side, 40 minutes total), artists during the CD age worked towards the limitations of the CD. One could argue that the vinyl format is better synced with human experience (I would agree) but the reality is that many of the classic titles during the CD age are best heard on a CD. They don’t translate well to the vinyl format, often requiring 4 sides to cover 1 album. I’ve come to believe that the dominant medium of each age is usually ideal listening medium for those releases. Vinyl was that up to the late 80s, CDs until the mid 2000s and streaming for many releases in the last decade. Of course there are exceptions to this rule since there are artists currently writing and recording with the vinyl format in mind.
  3. The Craft. Pressing a great vinyl record is really hard to do. Add to this we are losing mastery of the craft. Many of the “old timers” that ran the massive pressing plants of the 50s/60s/70s are gone or retired. We are having to re-learn the art of vinyl. Also, we are using decades old equipment, until very recently, since no new equipment had been made since the 1980s. Add to that the fact that most records are being mastered from digital files- yes, when you by that new vinyl pressing you are most likely listening to the equivalent of a CD transferred to vinyl- and you have a craft that is far from its peak in the 1970s. If you want to hear what a great vinyl pressing sounds like I suggest you buy some original pressings from 1973–1983 and take a listen. Almost all records pressed during that period sound amazing. That was vinyl’s peak as a medium. I don’t know if we will ever get back to that level of quality outside of boutique/audiophile pressings. Many mass issue pressings are noisy and quiet (low volume level).
  4. The Artists. It’s no secret that streaming services, as awesome as they are for discovery and convenience (I’m an avid Spotify user), mostly suck for artists. Artists reaching a million streams (not easy to do) often only receive checks in the $5–10k range for that level of volume. Compare this with selling 10,000 records at a $1–2 revenue share a record (or more) and you begin to get the picture. This has pushed many artists to seek “syncs” where they can place their songs in ads, movies, etc. This revenue shift, which has been helpful for artists and labels, has also pushed artists to create music that is more sync friendly. This is a new voice in their heads when they write and record music. I’m not sure that’s a good thing. CDs have a high profit margin. They are much cheaper to produce than a vinyl record ($1–2 versus $5–10) which means there is more money to go back to the artist. A resurgence of CDs would mean increased income for artists.
  5. The Experience. Similar to a vinyl record, listening to a CD is a focused experience. It exists outside of your computer or device. Notifications won’t interrupt it. Like vinyl, you have to get up to skip a song which forces you, in a good way, to experience the album as the artist intended. Also, as noted above, many classic albums from mid 80s to mid 2000s were made with the CD in mind. Relaxing at home listening to a CD, reading the liner notes and experiencing the album as the artist intended- remember that? The death of liner notes with streaming services is a travesty, in my opinion. Streaming/digital services are built for exploration and serendipity. They have done great damage to the album format as we bounce between playlists. But the album remains the primary intended experience of most artists releasing music. It’s like looking at a corner of a painting over and over while ignoring the rest. Not to say mixes are bad things themselves, which brings me to…
  6. The Mixtape. Remember mixtapes? Ok, you have to be at least 30 something to remember cassette mixtapes but the format ported nicely to CDs. Every Christmas for the last 10+ years I have made my friends a mixtape (CD) “Very Vinyl Xmas” of my favorite songs from the year including liner notes. I transfer them from vinyl and my kids make custom art. I often hear from friends that these CDs are the only ones in their car since they don’t really buy CDs anymore. No other medium currently in use can do this like the CD. It is perfect for mixtapes. Each CD becomes a piece of personalized art that passes from one person to another. It is so much more powerful than giving someone a Spotify playlist.
  7. The Opportunity. Back in the 1990s when CDs were ascendant you could buy record collections for pennies. People were dumping their collections and switching to CDs. I was one of those guys grabbing vinyl collections as they cleared out of closets and basements. My first business was built on selling vinyl records on eBay. Now many of those records I bought for pennies are worth $10, $20 or $100 or more a title. Vintage vinyl prices are kinda crazy right now. But CDs are rock bottom, you could walk into a music store today with boxes of your prized CDs and they might offer you $50 to $100 for a collection that you spent thousands of dollars building. That’s a bummer but it serves as kindling for a CD resurgence, just like the flood of vinyl in the late 90s fed into our current vinyl resurgence. As collectors rediscover the CD I expect to see prices on desirable titles (think classic 90s releases like U2, Smashing Pumpkins, Snoop Dogg, etc) go up. If/when CDs become truly collectable it will help fuel a market for new releases on CD.

In the end time will tell. Maybe CDs are doomed to the dustheap of history but I get the feeling they have a second act just around the bend.

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