CD's make comeback

axisus

The rise in CD sales is no thanks to HMV. Bloody expensive shop, our big local store has just closed, which is a shame. I bought quite a lot of CDs there, but I'd have bought a hell of a lot more if they were a bit cheaper.

Fretwired

VimFuego said:

I try generally nowadays to buy CD's direct from the artist. Obviously, seeing as how my tastes are somewhat niche and the artists/bands tend to do the whole thing themselves, that is generally pretty easy.

I'm with you there Vim .. most of the music I listen to tends to be made by artists who don't have a large record deal so I buy CDs or downloads direct.

ICBM

axisus said:

The rise in CD sales is no thanks to HMV. Bloody expensive shop, our big local store has just closed, which is a shame. I bought quite a lot of CDs there, but I'd have bought a hell of a lot more if they were a bit cheaper.

I'm not sure how much cheaper they could be and still make a useful profit... I buy a lot from them, most at between £3 and £6, or two for a tenner. They're massively cheaper than they were four or five years ago, before they nearly went bust - then, most were around the £13 mark.

Fretwired

I think Amazon can take some of the credit for CD sales rising. They pretty much sell everything at a competitive price and make it easy for the beer O'clock purchase.

mr-mac

Thought CD's were a tiny bit down Vinyl was up again bit big news was downloads had stagnated a bit.

JAYJO

axisus said:

The rise in CD sales is no thanks to HMV. Bloody expensive shop, our big local store has just closed, which is a shame. I bought quite a lot of CDs there, but I'd have bought a hell of a lot more if they were a bit cheaper.

I agree, i wanted to buy more Cds from HMV i liked shopping there. I liked shopping at all music stores they make me want to spend my money. I feel a lot happier buying music than anything else. But the Price! . I bought the Mrs a cd from the ARCHIVE section of Hmv. £16.99. Never again.

richardhomer

JAYJO said:
I agree, i wanted to buy more Cds from HMV i liked shopping there. I liked shopping at all music stores they make me want to spend my money. I feel a lot happier buying music than anything else. But the Price! . I bought the Mrs a cd from the ARCHIVE section of Hmv. £16.99. Never again.

How long ago was that?

HMV’s pricing on most things is usually little more than Amazon - most older CDs are £5.99 - usually available on a 2 for £10 deal as well.

A few months ago I bought 5 albums (one was a double - one was a limited edition 2 CD box set of Exodus by Bob Markey) - and had change out of £30.

Neil

I never left CD's.

I like something tangible, and has been said earlier something with sleeve notes, artwork, lyrics etc not something invisible in the air that apparently you don't even own.

Buy mine mostly at boot sales now at 50p- £1 each, if it's something I really love I'll get it on Amazon for a fiver. 

Phil_aka_Pip

Neil said:

I never left CD's.

I like something tangible, and has been said earlier something with sleeve notes, artwork, lyrics etc not something invisible in the air that apparently you don't even own.

^ this ^ but I'll still go for the EllPee if I can get it.

Musicman20

Vinyl, CDs and downloads for me....usually by the codes I get with the vinyl.

I've never been interested in having music streamed to my phone. I'd probably want something that would hammer my data anyway.

axisus

I don't know what store you people who say HMV is cheap are shopping at???? In Luton and London most records are more like £12 - £15. Two for a tenner deals are on very few CDs indeed, DVDs and Blue ray are top whack. I still buy CDs over download, but not many at those prices. 

ICBM

axisus said:

I don't know what store you people who say HMV is cheap are shopping at???? In Luton and London most records are more like £12 - £15. Two for a tenner deals are on very few CDs indeed, DVDs and Blue ray are top whack. I still buy CDs over download, but not many at those prices. 

Argyll Street, Glasgow. I haven't checked the vinyl prices, but the CDs I buy are almost all between £4 and £6 - and a very few at £3, which is rare but not unknown - and two-for-£10 deals are very common. I must have bought hundreds over the last few years, and the only ones I've ever paid even as much as a tenner for are Now compilations (yes really, my kids like chart music and it's the most economical way of buying everything at one go) and the odd new-release album I needed for a present for someone.

lovestrat74

I still buy CD's, wish I could convert to vinyl but it would cost a fotune to rebuild! Download feels like you havn't actually purchased anything to me - old school I know..

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

axisus said:

I don't know what store you people who say HMV is cheap are shopping at???? In Luton and London most records are more like £12 - £15. Two for a tenner deals are on very few CDs indeed, DVDs and Blue ray are top whack. I still buy CDs over download, but not many at those prices. 

Argyll Street, Glasgow. I haven't checked the vinyl prices, but the CDs I buy are almost all between £4 and £6 - and a very few at £3, which is rare but not unknown - and two-for-£10 deals are very common. I must have bought hundreds over the last few years, and the only ones I've ever paid even as much as a tenner for are Now compilations (yes really, my kids like chart music and it's the most economical way of buying everything at one go) and the odd new-release album I needed for a present for someone.

It all depends what you're buying. 

Back-catalogue is still cheap, but new releases - and deluxe reissues - have gone up fairly steeply the last couple of years, unless they're chart-toppers like Sheeran and expected to sell in big numbers.

That's true on Amazon as well.  They know they're only going to sell a few copies and they also know you'll have difficulty finding it cheaper anywhere else.

JAYJO

richardhomer said:

JAYJO said:
I agree, i wanted to buy more Cds from HMV i liked shopping there. I liked shopping at all music stores they make me want to spend my money. I feel a lot happier buying music than anything else. But the Price! . I bought the Mrs a cd from the ARCHIVE section of Hmv. £16.99. Never again.

How long ago was that?

HMV’s pricing on most things is usually little more than Amazon - most older CDs are £5.99 - usually available on a 2 for £10 deal as well.

A few months ago I bought 5 albums (one was a double - one was a limited edition 2 CD box set of Exodus by Bob Markey) - and had change out of £30.

It was about 5-6 years album was Vanessa Paradis and the store was in liverpoool town centre.

axisus

lovestrat74 said:

I still buy CD's, wish I could convert to vinyl but it would cost a fotune to rebuild! Download feels like you havn't actually purchased anything to me - old school I know..

I'm right with you there. Downloads are actually more expensive (for me!) The few albums I have bought on download I end up also buying a copy on CD in the end as it feels somewhat hollow and empty to not have a physical thing.

Heartfeltdawn

VimFuego said:

I try generally nowadays to buy CD's direct from the artist. Obviously, seeing as how my tastes are somewhat niche and the artists/bands tend to do the whole thing themselves, that is generally pretty easy.

I mostly buy downloads from Bandcamp if available. A few times I pre-order the CD. Everything I own is downloaded and then uploaded to PCloud so I can stream whenever I have a connection or download it to my Sandisk player. I used to be very blah to downloads but realisewd this was silly when I have a few hundred quids worth of plugins for the DAW. 

Alterlifeson

If its a brand new album from an artist I love then I'll go for the deluxe boxset these days. Its sort of become the norm now to have the standard CD, deluxe boxset and vinyl versions of the same album on offer. 10 years ago you would get the CD and that would be it!

I'm with most of the people in this thread though, CD predominantly. There are some occasions where I buy the vinyl version and either stream or use a download card to get a digital copy of the album. I thought that streaming may save me money in the long run, but its exposing me to even more music that I like!

ICBM

JAYJO said:

JAYJO said:

I bought the Mrs a cd from the ARCHIVE section of Hmv. £16.99. Never again.

It was about 5-6 years album was Vanessa Paradis and the store was in liverpoool town centre.

For that much I'd want Ms Paradis to deliver it in person and stay for tea...

That must have been just before the big shake-up - they very nearly went down, but obviously someone must have looked at the business model and realised that selling nothing at high prices wasn't viable, and they needed to be at least roughly competitive. They also closed about two-thirds of the shops, although that process has taken some time and I think the last ones earmarked have only just gone.

Maplins would have done well to look at how HMV was saved - they're in a similar mess now. The difference is there's probably more of a market for music and video than there is for DIY electronics.

strumjoughlamps

lovestrat74 said:

I still buy CD's, wish I could convert to vinyl but it would cost a fotune to rebuild! Download feels like you havn't actually purchased anything to me - old school I know..

Yes if I’d have stuck to CD I would be a fair bit in pocket right now but got back into vinyl collecting  2016 and it has cost me a fair whack. I enjoy the collecting tho and enjoy sitting down listening to an album even more so I am glad I went that route.