Is the compact disc headed for resurrection or extinction?
The history of recorded music has been shaped by new technology. Many of these industrial developments were innovations in the recording process, but the most publicly visible change has been the consistent introduction of new listening formats.
The first commercially available recordings were sold on wax cylinders. While these cylinders were the highest quality playback method available for some time after their introduction, they were quickly replaced by the cheaper and more user friendly disc format. Discs also had the added appeal of being able to store a longer recording, and by the 1910’s they had mostly eclipsed their cylindrical competitor. Eventually, the shellac discs of the early format wars evolved into the long playing vinyl records that dominated the commercial music space for decades and are still available today.
The cassette tape was introduced as a new medium for listening to audio recordings in 1963, however vinyl continued to be the preferred format for most consumers due to its superior sound quality and the fact that many households were already equipped with a turntable. Cassettes did ultimately enjoy a very notable, albeit comparatively brief, time in the sun starting in the early 1980’s. While vinyl had continued to be popular for at-home enjoyment, the arrival of portable tape players such as the Sony Walkman and the ubiquity of tape decks in the vehicles of that era made the cassette ideal for listening on the go.
By the 1990’s however, the cassette’s popularity was waning, as a newer portable format began to take up a larger share of the spotlight. This format was, of course, CDs, the last major development in physical music media, and the subject of this article.
The CD combined appealing elements from both vinyl records and cassette tapes. In terms of technical audio quality it finally surpassed vinyl, and did so while being just as portable as tapes (and more durable than either option to boot). While record collectors and tape traders developed and maintained healthy niche communities, the mainstream adopted CDs and stuck with them until all physical media experienced a significant drop off with the advent of digital downloads and eventually, streaming.
Many listeners have tacitly embraced digital music platforms as a wholesale replacement for physical media. This attitude is certainly not universal, however. As a hobbyist record collector myself, I can attest to the joys of having shelves full of vinyl on display. It gives one an excuse to sit down and actively listen to an entire record and really give it your full attention, not to mention the “warm” sound of vinyl that myself and many other collectors favor over the more polished sound of digital formats. Statistics reflect a significantly increased public interest in vinyl over recent years as well. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), vinyl sales grew by 17% last year, continuing a sixteen year long growth streak for the format. At this point, the once unexpected resurgence of vinyl records shows no signs of stopping any time soon and could be considered old news. So how have CDs stacked up in comparison? Well, last year sales dropped 18% and for the first time since 1987 more vinyl records were purchased than CDs. This may seem especially discouraging compared to the previous year, when CDs saw their first increase in sales since 2004. But I am not an economist (thankfully), so I know that numbers don’t tell the whole story. After all, at the turn of the millennium, when CDs were at their peak in terms of sales, no one could have predicted the approaching vinyl boom. Who’s to say that in an age ruled by streaming the now “outdated” CD format may not be headed for its own revival?
Before it became the hot new old thing, vinyl had become the domain of collectors. I think it’s important to note that in spite of the massive proportional growth of vinyl sales, physical media in general is still dwarfed by streaming numbers. That is to say, vinyl is still a collector’s market, just a much larger one than it was sixteen years ago. The fact that there are still small active communities of CD collectors means that there could be a potential foundation for another expanded collector’s market. But what makes people want to collect CDs in the first place? I’ve drawn from my own personal experience to explain some of the reasons people get into vinyl, but I’m not really a CD collector per se (though I do still have more than a few of them collecting dust in my apartment). Luckily, I know someone who is. I talked to CD collector Ben Cook, who releases electronic music under the moniker Reef Frequent, to see what made him want to build a CD collection.
The first point he brought up is one that I think is especially relevant to the topic at hand, nostalgia. “I am 100 percent in the iPod/mp3 player generation for early music exposure and I loved doing that, but as is often the case my tactile memories are much stronger, and so trading CDs in middle school and using my mom’s Discman to listen to borrowed Metallica CDs from my cousin are very strong early memories that made CDs desirable”, Ben says. Nostalgia has been a driving force behind many modern cultural trends, and as 90’s and 2000’s media become a greater part of the trend cycle, perhaps more people will want to relive memories like the one Ben described. He also acknowledged the way price impacts new collectors of physical media. “Lots of the music I liked was on vinyl too, but being able to get CDs for a few bucks as opposed to $20-$30 made that decision really easy and turned me into a bit of a quantity collector”. This is even more so the case today, as vinyl’s growing popularity raises overall prices and fills stores with more expensive new pressings, and fewer affordable secondhand records. Despite these appealing factors however, Ben remains skeptical of the possibility of a mass increase in popularity for the format. “There’s options like streaming that are way more accessible now, physical options that are a lot more tactile, and digital options that are just technically superior, so all the sensible reasons to go after CDs aren’t really there” he stated. “But saying that, I really do think I have a serious attachment to things that were once cutting edge or things that simultaneously aim for really high quality but still prioritize cheapness. In tech there will always be a rapid next generation platform shift for everyone, so I think there’s a conscious decision at some point to stay somewhere and say ‘this is good enough for me’, and that’s a really easy position from which to catch the detritus of everyone who’s moving forward. But I think unless a lot more people get into that mentality we won’t see a proper CD resurgence”. This assessment does make it seem like CDs, for the time being at least, aren’t really set up in a position to appeal to a much larger base of collectors. Ben mentioned in passing that the collector communities he’s a part of are small, internet based, and not especially cohesive, lending further credence to the skeptic’s point of view. Yet he also spoke briefly about his method of releasing his own music in a way that I think does revive a bit of hope for less beloved media formats. He has issued several Reef Frequent projects on cassette tape, and his reasoning behind doing so was as follows: “Credit probably goes to labels like Business Casual, Orange Milk, and No Problema for popularizing cassette tapes within the vaporwave scene. When I entered that world it really was the standard new release format” He goes on to clarify, “I also chalk that up to certain formats suiting certain styles. Lofi music genuinely thrives sonically on tape, as much as anything mixed and mastered with analog equipment sounds great on vinyl, or really any computer music sounds best on CD”. This comment really illustrates the way that genre trends can also impact people’s choice in listening format. While vaporwave didn’t reach the highest of mainstream peaks, it did escape from its subcultural online niche and bleed into pop culture, boosting the popularity of tapes on a small scale in the process.
In order to explore how independent artists and music scenes might similarly increase the popularity of CDs, I reached out to Katie McTigue of the band Pacing, who recently distributed a unique run of CDs for her Snake Facts EP. When asked what made her want to release her music physically, Katie had this to say: “I’ve always been a CD person, it’s just the medium I grew up with. I had a portable CD player as a kid. In high school I had a million mix CDs in my car, and I loved to make mix CDs for my friends. I wanted to make CDs for my first album, hatemail, for basically the same reason – to give to my friends just for fun. But then I thought hmmmm I might as well make some extra for Bandcamp, and then I started going crazy with the design ideas and things spiraled out of control.” Indeed, these copies of hatemail really do capture the feel of a mix CD you might have received from a friend in years past, as Katie labeled and decorated each individual disc and jewel case by hand. The way her listeners have responded to these one-of-a-kind pieces has been incredibly positive as well. “I’ve had a ton of success, by my own personal standards! I do really small runs of CDs, and I put a ton of care into them. So far, all my little batches have sold out pretty quickly, and people seem excited and happy when they get them in the mail! I love that it feels kind of exclusive, like a little club of people who have them.”
Coming across Katie’s videos on Tiktok promoting these batches is actually one of the things that got me thinking about the future of CDs. It struck me as a beautiful way for an artist to connect with their audience, especially if they are operating at a relatively small scale. In the course of our brief conversation, Katie also echoed some of the more positive sentiments that came up during my earlier interview with Ben, stating “I think CDs are the future! Vinyl is cool and all, but it’s soooo expensive and the plants are all backed up. And tapes are super fun and cheap, but the quality just isn’t that great. CDs are a happy medium, and probably the most accessible”. She also pointed to personal nostalgia and the continued presence of car CD players as factors in her continued use of the medium as well. Given the success bands like Pacing have seen with these limited run CDs, and the value of such a release for fans who want something affordable and collectible they can buy to support artists, I think that a CD oriented DIY approach is something that we may see more independent musicians trying out in the future. For many artists, cultivating a smaller and more dedicated fan base is preferable to fighting for a place in the mainstream music industry, and the customized small batch CD release is one way of building that sort of community with your listeners.
In general, I think that many of the strongest arguments for the possibility of CDs making a comeback result not just from consumer trends or collector habits, but from the practical needs of the artist. Both records and CDs have been a longtime merch staple for bands of all sizes, but this has been especially true as physical media has grown in popularity. Vinyl can present a bit of a challenge for some artists, however. For one, getting vinyl pressings of your music made is not a cheap process, particularly when it’s done in small batches. As Katie alluded to earlier, this problem has been compounded by supply chain issues that have made it more expensive or sometimes downright impossible for small or independent musicians to get physical records made. There simply aren’t that many facilities capable of manufacturing vinyl records. Many factories shut down long ago, during the heyday of CDs. The ones that stuck around and continued pressing wax for the faithful have often done so on aging equipment and with relatively low demand for their product. As demand has continued to surge, these once neutral realities have become a significant problem for the music industry. For a long time, vinyl was not a priority for major acts. This essentially meant that the line wasn’t so long to have vinyl records made, and it was doable for smaller artists as long as they had the money to pay the upfront manufacturing costs and enough record collectors in their fan base to reliably purchase the LPs once they’d been pressed. As the market has regrown though, pressing records has become a higher priority for major artists. The same small number of manufacturers are now tasked with meeting the needs of mainstream performers whose labels are trying to cash in on the higher profit margin of physical sales. This has massively extended the queue for everybody, but artists with industry backing are likely to have better resources for managing the logistics of that process. This leads to a great deal of bitterness as plants set about pressing half a million copies of the latest Adele record while indie artists that have long incorporated vinyl into their release strategy are hit with unexpected wait times. This is not to say that these delays are the fault of popular artists themselves, but rather that there simply isn’t enough infrastructure to support an expanded vinyl market that includes large orders from major record labels. The vastly increased demand, coupled with pandemic factory shutdowns, and manufacturers having to repair and replace old machines that haven’t been put under this much stress in decades, has led to a significant backlog that will likely be felt for years to come.
Even if the material is available and an artist can afford to go the vinyl route, it’s not always the most practical method of selling physical copies of an album either. When I was a student studying jazz guitar in college, the school would frequently host guest artists to perform concerts and give clinics. These artists ranged from successful regional and local players to internationally acclaimed “jazz famous” musicians like Maria Schneider and John Scofield. Getting to this small music school in rural Ohio required many artists to fly in specifically for their residency. Naturally, if you’re going to perform an intimate concert for a crowd of enthusiastic music students, it makes sense to have copies of your newest album to sell, and vinyl records are usually not going to fit in your carry-on luggage. As a result, these artists almost always had a much more portable stash of CDs available for sale after their performance. I have a nice little collection of these, all signed by the artists I purchased them from. This is not a model that applies exclusively to artists working the academic circuit either. It probably isn’t very practical for your up-and-coming hardcore band to pile into a van alongside a pile of fragile vinyl discs, especially when that van may also be your living quarters for the duration of the tour. While vinyl can be a cool merch item for artists at all levels, the practicality of CDs gives them a leg up in many touring situations. Even mainstage artists who can offer a variety of merch have been moving a lot of CDs while on the road as of late. Many have speculated that a major contributor to the significant uptick in total CD sales in 2021 was the return of large-scale concert tours after the previous year’s pandemic cancellations. A CD is a concert keepsake that costs less than most of the other offerings at a merch table and is far more likely to make it home in one piece than its vinyl counterpart, and it seems like eager concertgoers have recognized this.
So, with limited collector interest and steep competition from vinyl, are the upsides of CDs strong enough to bolster a full-on revival? Will people getting into physical media be increasingly drawn in by their affordability, convenience, and growing nostalgia factor? Are CDs enough of an asset to touring musicians to start dominating merch tables? Who knows. At the end of the day, only time can adequately answer these questions. What I can say is that many of the ingredients are there, at least in my opinion. While there are a number of very solid arguments as to why such a comeback is unlikely, it’s worth acknowledging that these things are also not fully dictated by logic. I can talk at length now about vinyl’s numerous attractive qualities, but most of those things are not what drew me in some 15 years ago. I mostly just thought they were cool, in a vague and innocent sort of way. I wanted to know more about this “obsolete” and mysterious format, so I dug through my parents’ old stuff, started hanging out in record stores with my friends, and gradually assimilated into that collector culture. I think this is the case for many new collectors even today. Kids aren’t asking for vinyl because they’re all audiophiles, they’re doing it because of a less tangible “cool factor”. And if there’s one thing every generation gets worse at over time, it’s figuring out what’s going to be “cool” next. Whether or not CDs come back in a major way is largely up to the next generation of physical media collectors and music fans. I may not be able to tell how things will shake out just yet, but I think I’ll hold off on clearing the discs out of my glovebox for the time being.
Special thanks to Ben Cook and Katie McTigue for taking time out of their busy schedules to give me some perspective for this article. You can find their work at the links below. Please show them both some love, and look out for the new Pacing album dropping on October 13th, with an exciting new CD design to follow!
Nicholas Rossler 
Great article!
LikeLike