CDs are the best way to buy music
You know when you end up talking to a stranger at a party, and find out they’re just as invested in music as you are? They listen to all the up-and-coming bands, go to all the shows (unless Coronavirus is still a thing when you’re reading this, in which case substitute “misses going to the shows”. Actually, what are you even doing at a party, get back home.) and obsess over their favourite genres. Then comes the question: do you buy Vinyl, or just Stream your tunes?
Neither, I buy CDs, cause I’m a genius.
CDs are simply the best way of owning music, and I’m sick of pretending otherwise. CDs have all of the advantages of physical media (and I unapologetically love physical media) but also the advantage of being able to transfer it into a purely digital format at will, providing you have a computer with a CD drive anyway (sorry not sorry Mac users).
To help spell out how CDs are superior to every other music format, I present the following table of pros and cons:
CD
|
Pros |
Cons |
|
Plays in 100s of millions of devices worldwide |
May start to disintegrate after 15 years |
|
Can be made for pennies |
|
|
Compact |
|
|
Has protective plastic case |
|
|
Has cool artwork and booklet |
|
|
Data can be transferred into MP3, conferring all benefits |
Vinyl
|
Pros |
Cons |
|
Artwork is bigger, and therefore better |
Takes up too much space |
|
Arguably best sounding medium |
Degrades with each use |
|
Paper sleeves get tarnished quickly |
|
|
Improper storage damages it irreparably |
|
|
Costly to produce |
|
|
Cannot easily be transferred to other device |
MP3
|
Pros |
Cons |
|
May last forever |
Can be lost if not backed up correctly |
|
Can be played on nearly anything |
|
|
Can be transferred and copied when needed |
Streaming
|
Pros |
Cons |
|
Cheap/free |
Can’t be accessed when internet is down |
|
Play through many devices |
Albums can be removed from service at any time |
|
Can’t be transferred to other devices |
|
|
No official lyrics on service |
Cassette
|
Pros |
Cons |
|
Comes in a nice case, which you can use to store other stuff in |
Degrades with each use |
|
Improper storage damages it irreparably |
|
|
Sounds like shit |
|
|
Nothing plays these anymore |
|
|
Cannot easily be transferred to other device |
CD reigns supreme.
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