A digital revolution of the musical kind, a short study of the CD

Now that the Digital Media revolution has well and truly engulfed most people’s daily lives, what happens to all the old technology that has become outdated? Is everyone going to be stuck with crumbling boxes of obsolete media and gadgets? Do you remember tapes and VHS? I was almost shocked to discover a friends 14 year old brother did not know what a cassette was the other day. This however just goes to prove the speed at which technology moves forwards and onto new things. My question however is this, is there a place for CDs anymore in our digitalized age?

Think about it. When you want to listen to some music, what do you first – reach the closest CD, take it out of its case, place it in a CD player and hope the disk isn’t scratched? No, I highly doubt it. Nowadays, home-media centers connected to a computer, MP3 players and mobile phones are the foremost, easiest and most reliable source of aural satisfaction.

Remember how bulky portable CD players and carrying even just a few CD cases were, maybe only carrying a couple of hours of play time around with you too. And this is the reason why MP3 players and mobile phones with great amounts of storage are much more desirable, and reliable!

This however poses the question, what happens to the music fanatics CD collections, when it’s vastly easier to download and transfer music at the click of a button? I for one have over 250 CDs sat in a corner and stuffed in boxes, gathering dust and taking up space. Essentially these discs are pretty much useless to me, apart from sentimental value.

Moving on further, perhaps now is the time to look forwards and recycle CDs before they become as worthless as cassette tapes and VHS videos. There are various rumors flying around online about certain major record companies phasing out CDs altogether in 2012, that is not far away!

The easiest and best option I have come across so far to sell CDs online is called MusicMagpie. There is always the eBay option, however if you have a vast collection of CDs to sell, this is a time consuming and tedious process. Which needs to be followed up with posting CDs out individually. Local buy and sell shops are available in nearly all towns, however they will only pay out a pittance generally for CDs.

MusicMagpie is an online service I have come across who will buy your CDs (and also DVDs and games) and even collect them for you via a courier service if you are getting rid of ten or more discs. All you have to do is enter the CD barcode into the website and you will receive an instant off of how much money you will receive in exchange. Send them back (Freepost!) and receive a cheque in exchange. Maybe I am lazy, however it seems a pretty darn good option to me…

But what happens to those embarrassing discs that even you don’t want to admit you ever brought? Some of them are simply going to end up as unsalable. If you are worried about the environmental factors of sending CDs to landfill, don’t! Did you know that CDs are almost 100% recyclable and can be recycled into car-headlight reflectors and streetlamps? Every year over 2500 tonness of CDs end up in landfill sites each year. Don’t let your old discs be there too.

Related posts:

1. The School of Rock and other Musical Contradictions
2. EU Study Calls Out Content Industry On Piracy Claims
3. Vive Le Rapidshare – Is A New French Revolution Afoot?
4. Soundcloud By Soundcloud – A Short Film Project

Posted by Rhian Farnworth on Nov 23 2011. Filed under featured, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.