CD is dead. In 2020, sales of compact discs in the US have increased 483 million dollars, down 97% from the format’s peak in 2000. Only 31.6 million CD units are transport in the US last year. In contrast, the Bee Gees alone have 16 million Monthly listeners on Spotify. How did the CD die? More deadly than disco.
Cause of death: the unbelievable convenience of streaming platforms. For a modest monthly fee, Spotify provides instant access to what feels like every song ever recorded. Its recommendation algorithms, built on continuous monitoring of users’ listening habits, consistently deliver top recommendations. Surprised. Listening to good music could hardly be easier.
Actually, it is too easily.
Streaming platforms are not designed for serious music fans. Back when you had to buy a physical album to listen to it, you actually heard it—even songs you didn’t like at first. Eventually, some of those songs will become your favorites. (Of course, the other tracks simply suck.) You paid a lot of money for that CD, after all. Skipping halfway is like an admission of failure.
Not so with on-demand streaming. When you can listen to any song, anytime, at no extra cost, there’s no pressure to immediately listen to something you don’t like. This can lead to musical tastes that are both broader and shallower. Thanks to Spotify’s recommendation features, I discovered a lot of music, especially from Latin America, that I might not have heard without a push from an algorithm. That’s great. At the same time, however, I very rarely challenge myself to listen to music that I don’t immediately like. Why would I, when I could easily switch to something else.
Indeed, the immediate, frictionless availability of something else? keeps me from spending as much time as I used to even with music that I really love. In the pre-streaming era, I wanted to buy an album and listen to it over and over. With Spotify, I often discover a new artist, get really excited about them, and three months later completely forget they exist. If it doesn’t take up space on your wall, it probably doesn’t take up space in your mind.
There’s an obvious antidote to this condition, one that may already have happened to you: vinyl records. A lot of Thousands belong to are from was written about the return of vinyl. There is a natural symmetry to it. When streaming turns songs into something ephemeral and interchangeable, a great recording Thing. Its big. You can hold it in your hand and admire the artwork on the sleeve. If the problem with Spotify is the lack of friction, vinyl records are just as complicated as you might be. Literally, they require friction to function.
Another way of saying above that profiling is a huge pain in the butt. I’ve had a turntable for the past decade. As I get ready to move across the country this summer, thinking hard about what’s worth transporting or stuffing in my small car, I realize I hardly ever listen to my profile. me. It’s just too much work. The profile is dirty; you have to clean them. Ditto stylus pen. The file is huge, and surprisingly heavy; it’s hard to find a place to store and display them. They are expensive. Halfway through the album, you have to get up to turn it over. And then you have to get up again when the recording is over, unless you want to wear down the needle. As WIRED senior editor — and self-branded owner of approximately 1,300 LPs — Michael Calore put it, vinyl is “an unwieldy music playback format that sounds worse every time you listen to it.”
