Younger people of Lemmy. Would you buy a CD at a concert?
Younger people of Lemmy. Would you buy a CD at a concert?
I'm 40, and when I was a teenager, EVERY band had CDs. And I know a lot of music has shifted to digital. So much so that I heard Best buy stopped selling CDs. Presumably because nobody buys them.
So I wonder what musicians sell besides t-shirts and posters at concerts. Do the kids have ANY CDs? Do they buy mp3's? Do they just use pandora and spotify? Do they even own their own music?
I've given up on trying to understand the lingo. Other generations lingo sounds stupid to me, but still understandable based on context.
I have NO idea what a skibifibi toilet is....sounds like a toilet after some taco bell and untalented jazz, but maybe I can try to understand their thought process on media consumption.
I just turned 40. For my birthday I went to go see a small disco funk band. They run their own merch table, tour around the country in a van, have day jobs, etc. I wanted to support them so I was gonna buy a T-shirt, but it was $25, I only had $20 on me, and they didn't take card. So I got a $15 CD. They also didn't have any change, so I had to wait 5 minutes for them to go to the bar and get them to break a 20.
Then I got home and realized I didn't even have a CD player. So I dug out an old DVD drive and installed in my desktop, ripped the CD to FLAC, pulled the drive out, and threw the CD into my old box of CDs I haven't opened in 10+ years...
Not a younger person, but last concert I attended, the artist was selling bandcamp codes for their albums (I got two for €5 each). On top of that CDs and vinyls, each would include a bandcamp code too, so I assume people without CD players or turntables can get the physical item and still enjoy the music digitally
Do the kids have ANY CDs? Do they buy mp3's? Do they just use pandora and spotify? Do they even own their own music?
Yeah, from what I tend to hear from teenagers, I don't think most of them own their music.
The thing with CDs or MP3s is that it takes time for you to build up a collection. If you got started on that before streaming services took off, it's probably worth listening to.But if you're starting from scratch today, you're basically deciding between listening to one or two albums in your collection vs. all the music you can imagine for a monthly fee. The value proposition of the latter is then just hard to beat.
I believe, streaming services generally don't allow you to add your own MP3s into the mix either, so even if you get a cool CD/MP3s from a local band that's not on these streaming services, then there's still not much you can do with that.
No? I don't have any way to play it. If I wanna listen to a song, I just do it on Spotify or I pirate the FLAC if I really like it...
E: I really don't know why you associate younger generations with a "lingo" or "skibidi toilet"... Sure there are chronically online people who use it unironically but like... Cmon.
I'm probably too old (29), but I do tend to buy CDs of artists I like. 2 weeks ago I was at a festival and bought 3 CDs (as well as some other stuff). Today I'm expecting another CD to arrive in my letterbox.
I still buy CDs. I have a player in my car and in my hifi. My desktop has a BR drive which I use to rip the disc and then I use it how I want when want. They also sound fantastic. Streaming is great, but you give up a lot compared to owning physical media.
I'm 32, I bought a cassette at the last concert I went to. (I generally prefer vinyl, but I don't wanna buy a vinyl before a show starts cuz then I have to awkwardly hold it for the whole show)
My car still plays CD's, so if the price was right and the band actually got a solid cut of it, then yeah I would buy one.
I'm 29 and 13mo's
I'm not much younger & I'm not going to read the comments. They're either ignorant, or they don't care, or they'll reflect my opinion. You need to stop & think -- how do I get money from my hand directly to the artist(s)?
The artists receive very little from streaming revenue or CD sales (unless onsite at concert, maybe). The recording label eats up a lot of profits. So honestly I'd buy tickets, I'd buy merch at concert, I'd put cash money directly into their hand.
Anything else might be stolen by the venue, the recording label, the third parties, the goddamn United States government, etc etc etc.
I am literally importing them from japan and other countries on discogs because I prefer that over downloading from soulseek.
Last resort if either physical costs 100% more than MSRP or not as much sentimental value I will just pirate the flac or sometimes I buy digitally.After I aquired the media I rip it and put it on my Jellyfin server.
Age: 25 y/o
I dont know why but this post feels like a teenager trying to sound like a boomer on the internet. (boomers arent 40 anymore btw)
Pins, patches, vinyl, tapes and very rarely CDs.
My band is planning out our merch for the fall and we're planning on two shirts, four larger patches, 2 to 6 pin designs, logo patches and a 7-inch (TBR). It's a street punk band.
My death metal band has a slightly different table, but it's those things in general.
A band we play shows with often has hot sauce they produce for sale as merch.
I like CDs, but I guess I can't really call myself a kid anynore though, being in my mid twenties. I typically use Spotify for discovery/casual listening but but an album on CD or digitally through Bandcamp when the option is presented to me. I went out of my way to buy a 25 disc CD changer.
Vinyl have definitely become way more popular for physical music purchases, but I like the smaller footprint of a CD.
I do think the vast majority of people use Youtube Music, Spotify or a similar service though. It's inexpensive, has family plans and optical media players just aren't common anymore.
I definitely do. Supports the band in question, and I get to rip the audio off the CD for my digital collection. Best part, if I lose my digital music collection and can't access a backup, I still have the disc to rip from again.
I remember being in high school about 15 years ago and going to a show where a band was selling music on a flash drive. That felt so clever, since the world was just starting to ditch CDs at the time.
I didn’t really answer your question at all though, sorry lol. I don’t think many people buy. Some people collect stuff but it’s probably analog/vinyl, not CDs. Everything is just streaming over buying now.
I went to a small concert and you could buy their music on a flash drive. That was awesome. I like that option
At a anime convention there was a table with various CDs of the band playing that night. I couldn't go to concert, but bought a CD to support them even though it was going to be a slight inconvenience to rip it. I still have all my old CDs (I don't really have that much so haven't gotten rid of them. I keep them in a plastic container) so just put it with the rest.
I’m not a younger person but I used to collect vinyl and had to quit because the younger crowd got really into it and the ensuing popularity led to prices going nuts. 10 years ago it was crate digging for $1 records and new releases for $10-15 and now it’s crate digging for $5-10 and new releases for $40-60. Fuck that.
That said before I bowed out I saw plenty of artists also release on cassette and cd as well as vinyl. Those formats weren’t as popular as vinyl but still were popular, likely for one of the reasons I originally got into collecting physical media for cheap. The vinyl releases would be $40 but the cd would be $15 and the cassette would be $9.
Of course, you lose the other main reason which is the vinyl often has superior mastering to cd/web sources but I honestly don’t think a lot of the new releases are being listened to anyway. But that starts the whole diatribe about the new generation buying up vinyl to either never listen to it or to spin it on a shitty $40 record player that will wreck the disc over time. And people always looooove hearing about that lmao
The whole thing got really scummy too. The price rises were initially because the popularity caught labels off guard and pressing plants couldn’t keep up, especially during covid. But more have opened since then and they can press crazy amounts. They have just recognized they can gouge fans for $50+ dollars plus shipping for a single disc LP because they got away with it for a brief period. Plus then they quickly learned the hype tricks and now that shit is everywhere. Every album is “limited edition, only 1/3000” except then you look on discogs and there are 4800 registered. And then there’s 20 variants of the album for you to collect, show your support to Taylor or king gizzard and buy them all. It’s like funko pops except music. Don’t forget that there’s a limited run of 1000 signed copies! They’re not actually signed, they come with a little art card that’s signed and it’s probably signed by an intern but whatever, $75 for the album that’s normally $40 because you believe Olivia Rodrigo touched it for 3 seconds.
Totally gross consumerism but that seems to be what zoomers get shoved down their throats at all times. I thought us millennials got it bad because we had like constant product placement and advertising everywhere and boy bands and shit but man, they really fucked the zoomers even worse
I’ve seen CDs, vinyls, and sometimes digital options for sale at concerts.
I went to a small concert while on a road trip a couple months ago and the artists had CDs for sale. I figured cool, I'll have some music to listen to if I hit no cell service areas. But it turned out that my CD changer in my car hadn't been used in so long that the motor wasn't strong enough to ingest the CD. I was sad.
As someone about your age, you are more likely to buy vinyl at a concert instead of a CD nowadays. I've even been to two concerts where I got a CD mailed to me as part of buying a ticket to the event.
It is mostly T-shirts now, with some stickers, pins, and buttons.
Oldest guy at the punk show here. The merch tables I see have vinyl records and occasionally cassette tapes. I'm waiting for 8 tracks and Edison cylinders LOL. I always try to support the bands so I'll buy a sticker and occasionally a t-shirt. I think they should give away a code for a free Bandcamp download with every t-shirt sale but nobody listens to me
Last fall I went to a local event where a bunch of food stalls/stands/trucks gather in the downtown park to sell food. Near an area selling beer they had a local band playing. Someone who had CDs on sale, besides the usual shirt merch. If my debit card was working back then, I would have definitely bought one right away. Not gonna say the event or band because that would immediately tell you where I live with some basic searching.
Granted, I'm not that young considering I'm in my mid-twenties, but I've been recently into CDs. That CD would have made my small collection move up from 3-4 to 4-5 total CDs, even though I'm pretty sure one is just the shittiest reprint from some random company in Florida. Definitely looking into buying more in the future, too.
I've bought usb drives with music and pictures and tabs. I don't trust usbs anymore, but I would be open to buy a code for downloads.
I never really liked physical media. But I also don't have a Spotify subscription. So I guess my music is downloaded from YouTube and other sources.
Im 25 so slowly leaving the young person sphere, but I do have CDs and I did buy some at concerts.
Im a metalhead, so it was mostly for metal bands, and maybe this is specific for this genre, but every show i went to, I saw CDs being sold. I think out of 20-25 concerts, i bought 5-6 CDs, that i mostly listen to in my car. Two of them were signed by the band, so this was one more reason to buy it.
When I don't listen to metal, im into folk, rap or electro. I do have some folk CDs, that i listen to with my parents. But for rap and electro, everything happens online. My brother released a first rap EP, and printing on a CD was a very distant option for him and his crew, like 'this would be cool but that' s too much for now'. On the opposite, my friend who have a metal band immediatly started a crowdfunding to get their first EP printed on a small scale
I am currently still buying CDs for my Plex collection off of eBay, so for sure I would.
They sell tee shirts stickers vinyl and sometimes drum heads or tour eps.
Said the 43 year old guy
if I respect the artist and their work and they give me the option to, I almost always do. (even if I still use the pirated version for convenience). they almost always have a CD available on their website and they look pretty cool together displayed on a shelf
I almost never purchase a piece of media if they only allow me to buy a license for it, so I have a lot of respect for the people who give me the option to actually pay for it and own it and will support them for that
Younger person in my 20s. Most of my friends use Spotify. I grew up buying music on iTunes and will continue to do that. I also have little interest in discovering new music and a preference for straight-up owning instead of streaming something I do not own. (Yes, I am aware I should probably go reread the TOS to see if I actually own or if Apple can remotely take my "ownership" away and back up the files like mad.) But I know my approach is uncommon amongst my social group.
I do not have CDs and will not buy one. I know of their use for backing things up. I keep external hard drives but otherwise do not really like physical media and want to keep the count of physical things I have down. Another thing to collect dust, to have to try to keep nice because I like things to look nice, and to be heartbroken about when I inevitably spill something on it/scratch it/otherwise break or damage it, whether in a "it will lose functionality" way or just a superficial way. I'll avoid the pain and just go digital.
I am also just not much of a merch person. I might donate money to support musicians but please don't give me a T-shirt I'll never want to wear (they are not my style, I might buy clothing if it actually fits my style but merch clothing almost always doesn't) or a poster I'll never hang up. If I like your music I might buy sheet music to play it myself. Better be accurate though, not a simplification, or I'll turn up my nose and transcribe it myself. Can't guarantee I'll have perfect results, but I will be closer to the original than the simplified piano/vocal/maybe guitar scores that are often put out.
I also don't know what skibidi toilet is, besides a meme that really belongs to people a decade younger than me. I don't care to find out but I am happy to let them have their fun.
Nkt exactly young anymore, but I would and I do. Music you don't own can disappear any day on the whims of a company. I don't like that.
Not me but I know KPop stans will pay exorbitant amounts of money on albums not really for the CDs they come with but for the added art books, photo cards, etc. I know one young person who bought multiple copies of physical albums with CDs so that they can get access to earlier ticket sales and stuff. Also apparently some songs are CD exclusive and people get really upset when you suggest they just look for pirated rips online.
So yeah, art books, photo cards, light sticks, key chains, lots of stuff that young fans are buying from artists they follow, and some of those things still come with CDs
22 here, the only device in my apparent rn featuring a CD or DVD drive is an old ass iMac my gf intends to gut and put a mac mini inside just for fun, aka, likely disabling the DVD drive :(
We also probably have an external DVD reader in some drawer...
Considering we have like 5+ laptops and 2 desktops here, I'd say that says it all.
I predominantly download my music from bandcamp and my gf mainly uses Spotify.
The last time I bought a CD, I got excited to listen to it at home, then realized I didn't have a disc drive anywhere lol. I guess sweatshirts is the way to go. I'd buy a flashdrive with the lossless music for the same price though.
Edit: oh crap I'm not younger
I'm not even a younger person, but when I got a new computer case a couple of years ago I moved my blu-ray drive from the old one and ended up using a dodgy sata cable or something because it doesn't show up
I told myself I'd fix it when I needed to read a disk.
That day has not yet come
I don't usually go to concerts but if i did, I'd rather buy a cd then use spotify or whatever digital thing there is where you don't own anything and get your content randomly taken away.
I'm 27 and regularly atttlend concerts in the 80s goth/postpunk/arkwave/synthpop scene. Every band has a CD and I always get one, though if they have MCs, which they sometimes have, I preffer those. As a profesional poser, listening to MCs on a walkman just has this unique feel CDs can't replicate, while also helping with my attnention span since I can't just easily skip songs midway and stick to the few ones I like, instead forcing me to enjoy the whole album which eventually grows on me.
However, I'm probably not a good reference, since I also regularly host parties, DJ and help the local scene promoter with events, so music is pretty big part of my life.
Also, I don't really listen to them much. I have my own NAS with music, and instead of paying for spotify I download what I need from a private torrent tracker (which I need mostly for DJing, which I never get paid for and always volunteer, just like we do the events with free entry, yo no income from that). That's why I make sure to buy the CDs, while also having a budget that's in the same range as I'd spend on Spotify, that I make sure to use every month to buy an album I liked on Bandcamp, slowly replacing everything I've pirated with either CDs or bought digital albums. I feel like that way a lot more of my money end up at the hands of the artists, than if I just payed for a streaming service I don't want to support, while also not limiting me just to the few albums I can afford (and also giving me offline backup if they ever pull the songs from spotify). Pirating is not ideal and I generaly don't endorse it, but I feel like my approach is kind of morally ok-ish in the long run. Still not excusable, but I'd say better than just paying for Spotify.
The last couple of concerts I went to were more EDM and aside from T-shirts, hats, pins, and patches, etc they had vinyl records.
I go to small venues, small bands. I've bought cassette tapes, vinyls, and CDs. Last cassette I bought was like early 2023. So it's definitely not phased out completely
I almost always buy a vinyl. Great artwork, lasts forever, makes putting a great album on a special occassion.
My zoomer sis and her bf are big time concert goers and collecting vinyl is huge. No cds.
Nope. I wouldn't have a use for it, even if I was a super fan. I listen to my music with my jellyfin server, or stream from the commercial platforms. I think I still have some CDs somewhere, and could play then if I really wanted, but it's just a pretty dead format for me.
As far as I know, the money is from selling additional stuff, like merchandise. Some people like vinyl, but I personally don't care.
Skibidi toilet is a animated series with actually pretty good quality where people with cctv cams for heads are at war with people who's bodies are toilets. Haven't watched a lot of it but I can kinda see why the kids like it, hits similar as star wars the clone wars but without a mega Corp behind it.
Usually t-shirts and hoodies, vinyls, armbands and autographed drum skins are the essentials, I feel like. And then every band has some assorted rotation of merch on top of this, but that's not universal for every band: beanies, mugs, CDs, keyrings, baseball caps, posters, ashtrays, weed pipes and bongs... These fall into the two categories of merch that caters to the target audience, and merch that is bought in bulk from www.weprintyourcrap.com.
For what it is worth, CDs are definitely pretty rare, because it's just an obsolete media. The CD was convenient before phones became even more convenient. Vinyls, on the other hand, are very popular and often occur because they're decorative and playing them is considered an experience.
For reference, I mainly go to pop punk/rock/indie/metal shows
I have a teenager and they seem to track with their parents.
My son is into digital, but he thinks vinyl is cool to collect as art.
One of his friends is into the sound of vinyl, her parents are vinyl people.
I still go to tons of concerts and I’m seeing cassettes and vinyl being sold, I don’t see cds as much but I’m sure they’re selling them.
Yeah they still sell CDs and vinyl. If you're punk enough they sell tapes too. The analogue media comes with download codes most often (or is already name your price on bandcamp, depending). And of course clothing and such.
i wouldn't even go to a concert but if i did probably not. i mean there's no cd players left in my life so what can you even do with it? play frisbee?
Yeah, every concert I go to I try to get at least a CD, maybe a vinyl or T-shirt if they were sold out.
I'm not a "younger person" but I do still buy a lot of music within a specific genre. Although most of it is digital as that is what I prefer I have bought music in the past few years on vinyl, cassette, CD and USB. So artists are still producing physical media all be it in smaller quantities.
The last gig I went to earlier this year the merch stand was mainly t-shirts but there were some CDs to be seen, these were bands of "our era" though that I went to see in my teens (early 00s) so maybe they are just holding on to the way things used to be done, I can't speak for any newer bands.
I don't intend wasting space with a CD player
If it's one of my favourite artists; I'd prefer a vinyl. If it's not; it's easy finding flacs online both legally (bandcamp/iTunes) and illegally (piracy); so I'd prefer a different merchandise even if I wanted their merch.
I would prefer a record tbh.
The artists I like don't put out CDs with their music so no.
No, definitely not. I buy music off of bandcamp occasionally, to support the artist and get the cool swag that comes with the album, but I don't physically have a way to play cds.
High School teachers I know comment on the number of portable CD players they see these days... So, maybe?
They sell vinyl pretty often. CDs are a dead end tech though. They might be romanticized in the future like laserdisc and cassette but not nearly as much as vinyl.
I'm old but ages ago, venues changed their contracts around so they get all the money from cd's sold at concerts. Until I found that out, I did sometimes buy them to support the band. I also sometimes bought downloads from Bandcamp, which apparently went evil a year or so ago. Idr the specifics though, except a lot of staff got sacked.
Am a data hoarder with a shitton of flac yet I still buy cds. (And blue ray/dvds). It's really about owning things and not losing acess on the whim of some random contracts between copyright holders.
I‘m not young but at almost all shows that I go to, the artists sell vinyl, some sell tapes and CDs as well. I like to buy vinyl directly from the artists so that I know where the money goes. There are also younger folks who buy vinyl but it’s mostly older people who buy CDs
I know some people who will buy vinyls but that's as far as it goes for physical media in music. Music CDs are pretty much foreign objects in 2024 and people just stream instead.
A CD would be cool, but where am I ever going to use it? I don't have a CD player at all...but I do have an Apple Music subscription. A vinyl at least is large and works better as a decoration. Don't really see the point in using a CD.
If I want to support the artist I'm seeing, I just buy clothing instead.
P.S. we don't know what a skibidi toilet is either. Ask gen alpha.
Naah, maybe a bakelit disc tho.
This might answer some of your questions. Music isn’t the same. It’s mass produced entertainment that we can browse at our fingertips with infinite options. Music devalued itself by being so accessible and throwaway.