Wishing all my lovely blog readers a wonderful weekend! I always enjoy conversing with you, and what better way to kick off the weekend than through a fun discussion.
Mr. Handsome and I are part of the age group that is supposed to be head over heels in love with our devices. While we both have smart phones and try to keep up with the latest technological advancements (within reason), there is one thing from the “dark ages” that we just can’t give up: CDs.
We constantly hear people talking about how CDs are on the way out and that the best way to listen to music is to buy it online and download it to your device, but we just haven’t gotten into that.
Our ideal is to buy an album on a CD, download it onto iTunes so we can listen to it on our devices (especially while working out) and then put the CD in the car. That way, we have both a digital version and a hard copy.
I know my readership represents a wide variety of ages, so I’m curious to hear what you all prefer when it comes to purchasing music.
Anonymous
I like both! But its cheaper to me to buy off line!
I'm 16 😉
Jenni Mulvey
I love having CDs! I am also of the technology generation (I'm 22). I do listen to music on my phone as I walk to and from classes. But when I drive, I'll either have the radio or a CD.
Anonymous
We definitely buy CDs still. We do the same thing you all do as far as downloading it and then putting it in the car. From a teenager.
Anonymous
Who remembers 45s LPs and 8 tracks?
Anonymous
Oh I remember those:-)
Regina
What are those? Just kidding! We still have my husband's old 8 track player and some 8-track cartridges. LPs and 45s are back now. It's neat to see them back again.
Terra La Belle
I love your idea to put the music on iTunes as well as the CD in the car! Mind if I steal your idea? 😉
Anonymous
I love buying a album a CD and listen to them on Cd player. I'm not into download stuff from I Tunes.
I don't even own a smart phone.
I still have records and play them on my record player.
nCa720 13
My husband and I do the same thing. I don't want to keep up with technology; it isn't something I feel I need to do. I love having the hard copy to take in the car and to use at work (as a nanny I can bring CDs to listen to during the day) but like having my mp3 player (not an iPod; it's also over 10 years old) to take for working out or road trips.
Moon Sparkle
I'm 32, almost 33 and I still love CDs best! lol. I was really into them as a teenager and early-mid 20s. In 2009 I got an iPod Shuffle for Christmas and I really like that (well, I'm on my second one now, lol) because it's very convenient and easy to take around with you). But CDs are still my fave.
I buy a lot of music on iTunes these days (I recently bought a £10 voucher with points I got from a survey company) and listen to it on my iPod, but I also like to put it onto CDs. And I like to have physical CD albums too.
Anonymous
I use spotify and buy CDs from artists that I really like. Also, vinyl records have become quite popular again here so I also have a few of those. I'm 21 btw.
Anonymous
Are you of the same faith as the Bates's and the Duggars?
Anita
Late 30s. I don't listen to CD's, but I don't even have a smart phone. I am not one to keep up with technology either. Usually if I listen to music, I watch videos on YouTube.
Anonymous
I am more old school than any of you. I have…
A wind-up Victrola that plays old 78's at one volume: LOUD! "YES, WE HAVE NO BANANAS!!!!" "OH, THEM GOLDEN SLIPPERS!!!!"
Two stereos that can play vinyl LP's
An 8-track player, but sadly, the belt has broken on it; goodbye to that part of the 70's 🙁
Dual cassette player that works great & can record from the stereo tuner
Several portable cassette players, great for plane trips (no worry about being in "airplane mode" or having to recharge)
A battery-powered boom box that plays CD's and cassettes
All kinds of AM-FM radios
A CD player with speakers
A 5-disc CD player in a stereo system
A portable CD player
CD players in all the vehicles
MP3's in the computer that we can burn to CD's
Sirius XM in the car and on the computer
Something in one of the newer vehicles where you can plug in a thumb drive or your phone…I think…I never use it (why??)
So I bridge both centuries, the past and the present. Not ready to give up on the past. It makes me smile. "I'M FOREVER BLOWING BUBBLES!!!!"
Anonymous
I like those kinds of houses that eventually could be museums! Great that you never threw out the old stuff when the new stuff came out!
Anonymous
My son asked if we still had the old black "brick" cell phone that was our very first portable phone in 1993. I said yes. He said he wanted it.
I kept a 2 yr. old enchanted for quite awhile with an old rotary phone that wasn't plugged in. Little fingers loved the holes and watching the dial spin. Wheeee!
I had to let my 30 yr. old neighbor come over to my house to make a work-related call to a radio program that was getting recorded for later broadcast. The station needed him to call from a land line. I was the only one he knew who had a land line!
Anonymous
I still have my Lane Line! I'm in my 40's and I don't even own a cell phone I don't want one either.
Everyone in my neighborhood has a Land Line.
Anonymous
I use an old flip cell phone because it's so tiny, so sturdy, a battery charge lasts months, and nobody is going to mug me to steal it! If it gets hacked, they will find nothing but some phone numbers.
Speaking of old ways, I don't like GPS in the car. I grab a paper map or an atlas before heading out. Or I print some local maps from Google first. GPS can try to take you some funny routes that aren't as good as what you can figure out on your own.
Anonymous
You have a rotary phone? I love those! I always wish we had an old one.
SuperJames526
Well, where I live, the choices of music aren't the best; so we just download songs and music we've heard from Movies onto our computer, and listen to them there..
It also doesn't help that our truck's radio was stolen about 5 years ago.
Anonymous
How do you "download" them? What do you have to pay per song?
Anonymous
I'm 20, and I only just started realizing last year that people consider CDs ancient. But I've never done the music download thing (except when I'm working on a slideshow and want a specific song). Now that I'm working an office job full-time, I have gotten into using Pandora for general music-listening. But when I'm home (or sometimes in the car on my way to work) and want to listen to some music, I'm popping in a CD. In fact, I asked for music CDs for Christmas!
I guess maybe if you're more picky about what songs you like, buying individual songs might be a better option. But I'm generally ok with whatever is on the albums I buy.
Alicia Mae
I think I'm about your age Ellie (I'm in my early 20s), and I do the same exact thing as you and Mr. Handsome! 🙂
Anonymous
I'm 38. At work I stream through Amazon Prime, and when I buy music, it is almost exclusively digital downloads through Amazon. Then my entire family has access to it. I do burn it to cd for the car(s).
Anonymous
Amazon Prime is so expensive.It cost like $15.00 to get it.
Regina
I prefer CDs. I made the mistake of downloading a CD on my device a few years ago and promptly gave away the disc. And I no longer have the mp3 player either.
unknown
I am 16, and I like getting the CDs and downloading them just like you do.
Anonymous
Ellie,
How about VHS tapes?
Anonymous
Still have mine and several players. One of my kids has transferred some of the tapes to digital.
Remember when we looked at vacation pictures on 8mm movie film, or slides? Those were the days. Everyone gathered in the darkened living room in the evening to watch and laugh together at the images. You don't get that same social experience looking at pictures online…
Anonymous
I still have my VHS Tapes. I found a Beta tape in my roon and it was from my freshman year of High schools homecoming that was 30 years ago. And just had it transferred to DVD.
Anonymous
I'm 24 and I have a lot of songs downloaded to my phone but I also love playing cds in the car 🙂
Alisha M
Definitely do NOT have a cd player anymore. Totally obsolete. I just don't have the space, and have been getting into minimizing the physical objects I have, and decluttering, if that makes sense. If I want to listen to music in the house, it steams from my itunes, or spotify on my computer. In the car, or working out it plays from my phone. We also have sirius xm satellite radio
Anonymous
Alisha what do you do if your power goes out then you would have anything to listen.
Anonymous
I've had my power out for longer than a week a few times during natural disasters. Battery-operated radios have been lifelines to the news (and music).
Anonymous
Ellie, I think with the content you generate on your blog, you seem to have an older and conservative audience who aren't as interested in technology, so the answers you're getting are a bit biased of people today
Anonymous
But "older and conservative" people still have a say in the market. In fact, we have more disposable income than the 20-somethings. Maybe we've seen all these tech changes and get to a point where we refuse to toss everything "obsolete" because our current things are good enough. Let others chase down the "latest and greatest" when it comes to technology. When you grew up satisfied with a little black & white picture on 3 channels of TV, you realize you don't really need 1000 channels from a satellite on a theater-sized screen. Nothing wrong with being a Luddite when it comes to listening to music. Look how many people still pay to hear people sing live! That's about as far back as you can go in music technology, the human voice.
Anonymous
Everything used to be in black & white. Kennedy's funeral…Moon missions…the news with Walter Cronkite…entertainment shows… And we lapped it up!
Anonymous
I almost always will buy from iTunes and play in car via Bluetooth/Aux cable. I recently had a big clean up and got rid of a whole lot of CDs that I didn't listen to. Im all for recycling and minimising waste so the thought of the unwanted CDs (and anything really) going to land fill pains me.
Anonymous
They make good coasters, you can hang them in the garden and let them spin to ward off birds, and you can decorate them to use as outdoor tree ornaments at Christmas. You can always give them to a charity shop, too.
Regina
I was thinking the same thing about making them into coasters. When we lived in CA we hung several on our apricot tree to keep the birds from getting the fruit before we harvested it.
Anonymous
Always CD's!!! I'm only a teen…and I do use a lot of devices, you still can't beat the old CD's, especially in the car. Also, most of the people/bands I listen to are still making CD's. If I'm working out or something I just listen to Pandora, go on Youtube, or listen to the few songs I have downloaded on my phone.
Anonymous
I have an attachment in my car that allows me to listen to MP3 players while I drive. I believe if your car doesn't have one that you can get one that hooks into the cigarette lighter.
Katrina
Mp3 / streaming all the way especially in the car – no need to keep CDs and pull over to change them!
Maddie Rascher
CDs are the way to go in my opinion. I do the same thing, buy the CD and then put the songs onto my computer and then phone. So much cheaper, especially if you find the CD at a second hand store. 🙂
Anonymous
I'm a senior citizen and I like listening to my radio. I have four in my house in different rooms.
Anonymous
I'm in my 40's and I'm with you! I plug in my radio if i get an itch to listen to music which is not often at all. I'm not into buying this and that to listen to a 3 min song. The radio suits me fine if i feel an urge.
Nancy Irving
I'm 58 years old and I only buy my music on Itunes and listen on my Iphone or Ipad. I plug the device into my radio in the car and listen to my music while I drive. I don't use CD's anymore at all.
Unknown
I'm 28 & from the UK (just to add some context) and I use a paid streaming app on my iPhone to then play the music on my phone through headphones/car speakers, haven't bought a CD in maybe.. 8 years? 🙂
Anonymous
I LOVE music. Now I buy music on iTunes because I can buy one song at a time. When I was younger, I had to buy CD's just to have a song or two I liked. I spent so much money on it. I was babysitting a lot and music was pretty much the only thing I was spending money on.
Now, I can buy one song at a time. I can try music from artists I don't know without spending 10-15$ without being sure I will like the music. I still have my CD's, I listen to them from time to time. I have so many, I just can't download them on any device. It would take way to much time and space on my devices.
Josée
Anonymous
I just don't have the physical space for CD's, for the amount of songs and albums that are on my spotify and itunes – I can't imagine how much room that would take up
AmyRyb
I prefer to buy CDs, but usually now I will look at Amazon and see how much the download costs vs. the CD. If they're close, particularly if I want to do an Amazon order and need to work up to free shipping (I don't have Prime), I'll go with the CD. But if the download is way cheaper and I have nothing else to buy, then I will download and burn it to a disc, as I like to have them in my car. My iPod Touch has hundreds of single songs–many of which I bought and downloaded, and many of which were free through sites like Noisetrade, and I honestly wouldn't have had space to burn my CDs into digital files as the iPod is nearly full as it is. I use the iPod for working out and for use in my car in between batches of CDs. I have a pay-as-you-go smartphone, so streaming doesn't work for me! I will say, though, that a couple years ago I decided I didn't want the tower of CDs in my living room (due to space and baby concerns) so I bought two giant books with hundreds of CD pockets each and transferred all of my CDs to those. They are much easier to store and only a little more time-consuming to access. Definitely worth it, though. I have the CD in one slot and the booklet/back cover from the original CD case tucked into the pocket next to it. I hated to throw out the cases (so much plastic!) so they're currently hiding in my crawl space, but someday they will go…but at least they're not taking up usable space in my house anymore!
Anonymous
I don't own a car,never have. I don't own a computer, and I don't mind it one bit lol. I don't own a cd player or an mp3 player or anything similar. I do have a cellphone and a radio though. I don't feel like I am missing out on anything because if i "need" to ever listen to music i can on my phone on, say, youtube. I rarely feel an urge though so it isn't a big deal to me. I am late 40's. Oh,and I love the city bus, (lol) it suits me fine to get around. No car shop expense, no insurance,no gas, and no headache!
Anonymous
Wow, CDs are considered out of vogue?? I have a ton of cassettes I know I should dump. Also a lot of VHS tapes that will be useless when my VCR goes, as they don't make them anymore. I'm hanging onto my CDs!
Anonymous
Have you tried vinyls? I think they sound amazing and the best part is that you can now get great vinyls for like 95 cents. I've gotten a collection like this and there is something nostalgic and charming about using a vinyl player. I just love it.
nashvillewife@gmail.com
I haven't, but I have heard they are coming back in style. Is your vinyl player an antique? I know my dad used to have one. Not sure what happened to it though.
Ellie