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Old 9th Jul 2021, 6:20 pm   #1
G6Tanuki
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Default The end of physical media.

See https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...ling-dvds-cds/

Sainsburys stop selling CDs and DVDs, because streaming has made them obsolete.
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Old 9th Jul 2021, 6:35 pm   #2
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

There was an interesting discussion on the radio (4 or the Wold Service) that said the carbon impact of a CD is about 17 downloads. And you get compressed audio (not that it bothers me) at, say 20% of the original size, then you are down to 4 uncompressed plays to make parity. Remember these streaming services stream every time you listen.

I am a half way dinosaur, I have my CDs on my server, sort of "pre downloaded".
 
Old 9th Jul 2021, 6:39 pm   #3
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

Journalists like to bang on about this endlessly. It's more an issue about movies on DVD than anything else. It doesn't help that the big studios have imposed lots of conditions on the DVD system that makes them difficult or irritating to use - blood curdling copyright warnings that can't be skipped, irrelevant trailers for movies you're not interested in etc.
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Old 9th Jul 2021, 6:49 pm   #4
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

Quote:
Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell View Post
There was an interesting discussion on the radio (4 or the Wold Service) that said the carbon impact of a CD is about 17 downloads. .
Not that I really fret about my 'carbon impact' but in times-past I accrued quite a collection [probably around 500] CDs which I probably only ever listened-to once or twice.... all now consigned to the great pile-of-junk-plastic because I was fed-up with storing the things.

[The CDs I liked I ripped to magnetic/solid-state media two decades ago]

I wonder - honestly - just how many times a particular CD/DVD actually gets listened-to/watched? Does anyone ever buy a movie on DVD or Blu-Ray and watch it more than a couple of times?

My local charity-shops now don't want donations of DVDs; nobody buys them and the charities then have to pay commercial rates for disposal.
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Old 9th Jul 2021, 6:50 pm   #5
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

That link wants me to sign up for a "free" trial.
This one should work:
https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog...s-from-stores/

However, vinyl will still be available in some stores.

We've seen it all before. Buy vinyl. Buy cassette. Buy cd. Every time you will pay copyright royalties for each different format of the same artist performance.

Moral? Everything turns full circle if you wait long enough!
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Old 9th Jul 2021, 7:06 pm   #6
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

Another factor is that a lot of new laptops have no CD/DVD drive.
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Old 9th Jul 2021, 7:29 pm   #7
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

A true vintage man, my hifi will consist of CDs, LPs, cassettes and reel to reel tapes (and FM/AM tuners) until I depart this earth. There's not that many new release CDs that I drool over these days either so I'm sure I can satisfy my hunger adding to my already too big CD collection buying older stuff on the second hand market.

Streaming has robbed musicians of a lot of money. And not all of those musicians are multi millionaires, far from it in a lot of cases.
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Old 9th Jul 2021, 7:55 pm   #8
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

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Streaming has robbed musicians of a lot of money. And not all of those musicians are multi millionaires, far from it in a lot of cases.
Yes - just as LPs didn't go away when the supermarkets stopped selling them, I don't think we'll be seeing the demise of the CD for a very long time yet. Revenue from streaming won't go very far at all except for the most prominent performers, and there are many others with committed if not vast audiences. So I doubt my accumulation of physical media will have to end while I'm still around with a working pair of ears, and in the last three months I've bought five newly recorded and released CDs, two or three from a back-catalogue sale and two retrospective box sets, which is about par for the course.

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Old 9th Jul 2021, 8:00 pm   #9
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

I 'backed up' (ahem!) my entire Enya CD collection to a USB memory stick ... it gets plugged & played on any long journey (not many of those in the last eighteen months).

Storage space is always going to be an issue ... but it's nice to think "ooh, I feel like watching 'The Dish' tonight" and spend the next 5 minutes tracking down the DVD, firing up a most excellent Sony DVD/Blu-Ray player (whiskas, take a bow) and settling in for the evening.

Streaming is OK, but next April I shall be telling a certain broadband provider (Richard Branson, don't take a bow) to take a long walk off a short pier because of their eye-watering 'we don't give a monkey for your loyalty' price hikes - and there will be no "loss of streaming" cudgel hanging over me
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Old 9th Jul 2021, 9:29 pm   #10
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

I think CD’s will be around a while yet but after saying that I haven’t bought one for quite a few years. I have a collection and no interest in expanding it. I have bought album downloads but perhaps a couple a year.

Even though musicians don’t appear to get paid very much for streaming, for myself approx £100 a year is more than I am prepared to pay to stream music, the radio works well for me and musicians get paid from the station via some third party.

Perhaps if supermarkets stop selling them it will give the smaller stores a chance or perhaps the sales will be from online shops.

Paul makes a valid point about DVD’s, the warnings and trailers that cannot be skipped is to me an insult after buying the copy. Anther reason few of those have been purchased over the years and none lately.
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Old 9th Jul 2021, 9:54 pm   #11
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

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Originally Posted by Nuvistor View Post
Perhaps if supermarkets stop selling them it will give the smaller stores a chance or perhaps the sales will be from online shops.
I'd guess it takes quite a large town these days to support a music-based shop. Thinking again of the five new CDs I've bought lately, three were purchased directly from the artists - all pre-orders, one involving a larger financial contribution toward the making of the disc - one came direct from a small classical label, and only the fifth was from a - very well, the - major online retailer. I've no interest in streaming, and have now and again paid for a download but only when no physical release was available. Maybe all that marks me as part of a dying breed, then I wonder how many diehard vinyl purchasers in 1990 had any confidence that new releases would still be appearing on the medium thirty years later.
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Old 9th Jul 2021, 10:38 pm   #12
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

I've got 500 odd CDs & no desire to give up on them. All have been ripped to my hard drive.

Add to that at least 200 DVDs.
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Old 9th Jul 2021, 11:24 pm   #13
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

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I've got 500 odd CDs & no desire to give up on them. All have been ripped to my hard drive.

Add to that at least 200 DVDs.
Do you play the CD’s, if not and only listen to the ones on your hard drive then in a way you have given up on them.
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Old 9th Jul 2021, 11:46 pm   #14
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

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Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell View Post
There was an interesting discussion on the radio (4 or the Wold Service) that said the carbon impact of a CD is about 17 downloads.
I'd like to see some data on that - do you remember the programme?

Building and running a server, from the mind-boggling array of chips required (and the associated mining, building of fabs, clean rooms, processing and other-side-of-the-world pollution); added to the always-on electricity and data requirements (when I lived in Sweden, I remember Facebook put a server farm in the far north as the cooling requirements made it economically viable); and then the Internet footprint to allow downloads and payments 24/7, all this seems gigantically energy-intensive...

It just seems unlikely to be more 'sustainable' than a person powered by bread putting some vinyl on a lathe. A smaller-scale, of course, but perhaps we should all be buying less, more locally and appreciating more.

I remember I worked with someone (before Spotify) who boasted of his online piracy as it meant whenever someone came round they could listen to what they liked. I didn't get it, as going round to someone's place is a good time to leaf through their records/CDs/books and find something new.

There are some people making new 78s on old lathes, using their own DIY materials, so even muscle-and-clockwork, off-grid acoustic playback of new music isn't out of the question!

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Old 10th Jul 2021, 12:38 am   #15
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

Quote:
Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post

Does anyone ever buy a movie on DVD or Blu-Ray and watch it more than a couple of times?
Yes, my wife does.

We have a large collection of DVD's that she has watched multiple times and still does. I don't see the attraction of watching a movie more than once.

As for CD's, I don't remember the last time I bought one let alone even browsed through the shelves at any of the few shops that still sell them. Must be over 10 years or more.

Besides, I can find more than enough to listen too on the likes of free streaming radio services.
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Old 10th Jul 2021, 5:47 am   #16
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

For me its the joy of owning the Physical media.
I buy DVDs at a rate of knots , both new and 2nd hand.
Yes.. ive accrued a huge collection over the years but ive no intention of getting rid of any of them anytime soon.
Im the sort of person who can watch a film again and again and i frequently do but half the enjoyment for me is browsing through my collection, watching the extras which you dont always get .
Its the same with Videogames, i collect those and have an even bigger collection stretching back to about 1974 , but with the event of consoles being designed for download, only even that media eventually will disappear.
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Old 10th Jul 2021, 7:30 am   #17
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

An article from the BBC interviewing a few people about their choice of which type of media and why. I am not arguing for any type of media, I feel we are very lucky to have the choice, we use the one that suits us best.

'My music is always there when I need it' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57780853
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Old 10th Jul 2021, 8:21 am   #18
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

I also like physical media, for one is something that cannot be easily deleted or have its servers turned off.
Also I find it's a good way to support an artist whilst at the same time getting something special, plus I think a download doesn't necessarily properly represent the hard work and effort that went into making the music/film.

Like probably a lot of people here all CD's do get ripped on to the computer (using WMA lossless) as for work and on the go it's naturally easier to have a box of sounds than loads of CD's, plus looking for a song in WMP is far easier than trying to search for CD that could be anywhere!

I see some parallels here in the world of synthesisers and effects units, yes a VST/plugin may be easier and in a lo of cases cheaper nothing replaces having the real hardware right in front of you, something companies like Behringer are very much finding out.
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Old 10th Jul 2021, 11:46 am   #19
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

Quote:
Originally Posted by electronicskip View Post
For me its the joy of owning the Physical media.
I buy DVDs at a rate of knots , both new and 2nd hand.
Yes.. ive accrued a huge collection over the years but ive no intention of getting rid of any of them anytime soon.
Im the sort of person who can watch a film again and again and i frequently do but half the enjoyment for me is browsing through my collection, watching the extras which you dont always get .
Its the same with Videogames, i collect those and have an even bigger collection stretching back to about 1974 , but with the event of consoles being designed for download, only even that media eventually will disappear.
It's interesting to reflect on how storage media have become ever less substantial with each technological advance.

Cylinders became flat 78s; still quite hefty. Then slimmer, lighter LPs. And 45s. Then cassettes. Then CDs, and now...precisely what? Streams of digits, which to me seem more conceptual than actual. Sealed electronic devices which can store mind-boggling amounts of magnetic or electronic representations of the actual product.

To me, there's nothing like the physical, actual product. Album art, decorated inner sleeves with all the lyrics, promotional inserts. The record companies made a good effort with the first CD album releases, to transfer some of the LP experience across. Booklets squashed into the case aren't the same thing.

dglcomp:
Quote:
I see some parallels here in the world of synthesisers and effects units, yes a VST/plugin may be easier and in a lo of cases cheaper nothing replaces having the real hardware right in front of you, something companies like Behringer are very much finding out.
Quite! It's also interesting to see the digital world producing plugins which emulate analog artifacts, e.g. vinyl noise, tape dynamics, valve colouration of the signal
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Old 10th Jul 2021, 12:17 pm   #20
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Default Re: The end of physical media.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nuvistor View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard_FM View Post
I've got 500 odd CDs & no desire to give up on them. All have been ripped to my hard drive.

Add to that at least 200 DVDs.
Do you play the CD’s, if not and only listen to the ones on your hard drive then in a way you have given up on them.
I supposed you're right, I normally give them just a play or 2 these days before ripping them.

At the moment I mostly listen to music while working as the company I work for doesn't mind as long it's through earphones.
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