Nostalgia: will CDs be in vogue again?

The fatal blow was the absolute success of the streaming platforms, which account for nothing more than 38% of global revenue of the music industry, which reinvented and reinvents itself, with great difficulty, along with the technology that precedes it. Since last year, the uphill battle between digital and physical sales has determined streaming to be the absolute winner. And the CD, in turn, faces its irremediable end. Apparently. To its enthusiasts, this is not necessarily the case. In a detailed article for the The Guardian, the journalist Jumi Akinfenwa shows that the premise is wrong and is emphatic: discs are not that out of fashion.

Stores with a modern approach such as Urban Outfitters, found in vinyl and cassettes a bias that makes them attractive to a broader demographic. young, and the popularity of collectibles in the Record Store Day annual show that vinyl has had a full-scale renaissance. But while the compacts only represent 30% of the global market from music, 42% of the UK population still choose discs as their preferred format, according to a report by YouGov. Of those 42%, two-thirds said they would likely still hear from them in five years.

Even though they are maligned for their rigid packaging and unattractive compared to vinyl records, perhaps in the future albums will become a retro item.

While physical albums are often maligned for their rigid packaging and often unattractive for their new proposal, some also see it as an attractive feature. This is what happens for Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the senior editor of AllMusic, who tells The Guardian: “I want to have liner notes lying around. I have found that CD annotations, especially for reissues in the 90s and beyond, may be the only detailed writing available for certain artists, scenes, eras, and labels. ”.

Second-hand compact discs are proving just as popular: it's the fastest growing sales format according to discogs, recording a growth of 28% last year. The company's discography specialist, Brent Greissle, states: “As someone who is always on the lookout for new music, the general lack of attention to albums means I can usually find a lot more than I like without having to pay a premium package.”

CDs are a lurking gold mine

Despite the second-hand compact becoming an increasingly popular alternative to vinyl, its relative affordability also serves as a sign of its decline. Richard Farnell, co-owner of vinyl exchange, a record store in Manchester, says: “We still sell a lot of compacts, but at much cheaper prices than five to ten years ago. There is no evidence for a CD revival – most newly opened record stores don't usually have them (for sale). ”

Instead, these stores opt for vinyl – for DJs, for the nostalgic alike, and for their younger customers who are keen on consuming retro merchandise. None of these roles are currently being filled by CDs. “CDs don’t have that unique vinyl feel as much as the captivating clumsiness of cassettes,” he says. Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, author of personal stereo. “They might not be so nostalgic because we might not have had the chance to miss them as much. Likewise, we cannot strongly associate them with any past era.”

But that may be starting to change. "THE generation Z is entering the nostalgia zone”, emphasizes Greissle. “People are likely to reconnect with youth and buy the music they loved in the formats they originally created it in. I've seen some evidence of people reconnecting with this era by buying iPods first-generation upgrades.”

Like so many others, the hipster is in charge of these revivals. “Something that was once the dominant format fades from the spirit of the age, before someone rediscovers it to set itself apart from the rest of the crowd,” he comments. “To be honest, I always thought that CDs were something I call 'hipster kryptonite', but that could be changing. Time will tell.".

If the future looks uncertain, the physical record market is still showing signs of perseverance as pop singers like Adele e Taylor Swift hitting the mark one million CDs sold only in the USA with its latest releases according to the Billboard 200 chart, which counts the sales of the best-selling albums in the country. On the other side of the world, the South Korean group BTS added up to about 1.5 million of compact discs sold only in pre sale in his country, breaking his own record.

Meteoric success in Asia

If on the one hand the western artists try to reinvent themselves and look for new ways of not abandoning the physical release, the oriental artists, on the other hand, seem to have found the solution: CDs have become loyalty between groups and fans.

betting on bold design e collectible cards of each member of the group, physical sales of records in Asia make up a significant portion of the profit and the relaunches with the addition of unreleased music is a natural resource for the industry. The same artist can offer fans a series of differentiated packaging for the same release for example and seasonal specials are not waived.

Efforts pay off in numbers. The aforementioned Korean group BTS sold more than three million of copies with the series Love yourself. your countrymen, Big Bang, are the boyband that sold the most records worldwide and their numbers surpass hits such as Backstreet Boys e one direction. In ten years of careers they add up to about 160 million of compact discs sold.

No Japan, the numbers are even more expressive. CD sales correspond to 85% of the market, reinforced by the public's resistance to giving up the resource. But there's more: when buying a CD, for example, there are chances to compete for an event where the artists themselves are present. These events are called fansign, where the idols autograph the physicists and take the opportunity to chat with the fans for a brief moment, and the HiTouch, where it is possible to give a "high five" in your artist of heart. It is not strange for the same individual to buy a series of albums in the fissure for that golden ticket. It works. And everyone is satisfied. Perhaps the imminent future of CDs is not so murky.

Source: The Guardian