CD Lovers Swim Upstream

**woodward** · 08-26-2023, 11:33 AM

A very well written commentary in today's Washington Post about the CD situation and it's destiny. I am posting this in the Motown Forum as hopefully more people will be interested in reading the writers opinion. I agree wholeheartedly. It makes a lot of good sense in my opinion.

Extolling the virtues of music on compact discs,
with their accompanying informative printed liner
notes, Richard Juhnke suggested in his July 28 letter,
“A bit extra with your music,” that consumers “see if
you can find it on CD.” We agree with the sentiment
but are mindful of its implications and challenges.
Once one has the CD in hand, good luck finding a
player in a newer-model car or even the roomiest
laptop or desktop computer. This illustrates a
particular kind of planned obsolescence, in which
progress is assumed to demand elimination of
earlier approaches. We still go to the movies despite
the growing ease of watching films in our own living
rooms, and we appreciate scenic road trips or train
rides even when faster jet travel is available. Streaming is a remarkable advance, but sometimes listening without the need for an internet connection
makes more sense.
The Montgomery County Public Library has some
8,000 audiobooks on CD. For example, at present, all
six multi-disc copies of Prince Harry’s memoir,
“Spare,” are checked out, with dozens of names on
the waiting list. Why should it be so difficult to listen
to CDs while driving, when the now-missing technology had been working fine in automobile infotainment systems for years?
We are advocating not the halting of progress but
rather the embracing of options, enabling some who
applauded the original letter we cited to keep
walking right past the CD section and leave with a
record on vinyl.
Matthew V. Rudorfer, Potomac
Lowell J. Rudorfer, Silver Spring
C

**motony** · 08-26-2023, 11:51 AM

its as stupid as this mad rush to push electric cars .

**jsmith** · 08-26-2023, 12:13 PM

Bought CD's but never really liked them [[CD-R's are totally useless too).
Give me vinyl every time. Guess CD's will become a 'speciality item' in the very near future.

**daviddesper** · 08-26-2023, 12:55 PM

Count me among the ones who will be sad if and when CDs disappear altogether. I have a huge collection and spend as much time as I can trying to find more. But the poster above makes a valid point about how difficult it is to find a CD player in a new car these days. I encountered that problem as far back as 2019 when my preferred brands [[Honda and Toyota) both made it quite clear that they could not help me. So I settled then on a Subaru which I loved. Then here in 2023 when it was time to trade again, Subaru was still offering CD players in many of their models. [[Not all but many.) However I do expect that to change in 2024 from what I have read.

**mysterysinger** · 08-26-2023, 01:45 PM

Try playing your 16 Big Hits LP in a car.

**nabob** · 08-26-2023, 05:20 PM

I loved having the CD player in the car, but hated the damage done to the media. The only advantages to the current mp3 on a data card are the volume of music available and not having to pre-select music for the ride.

**thanxal** · 08-26-2023, 08:29 PM

BRING BACK SHELLAC!!!
Seriously, there is a significant sound quality degradation for any music that was recorded pre-1948 and then mastered/transferred to vinyl.
I want my 78s!!!

**Roger Polhill** · 08-26-2023, 09:40 PM

They can shove their vinyl.I have virtually all the Motown releases on CD and have a CD player in my car and a CD burner on my computer.As we have already had most tracks already I have no intentions of upgrading if that`s the word to any media these greedy arseholes are pushing! I go through about 100 blank CDs every quarter. I do have all of my considerable video clips on mp3s.

**Roger Polhill** · 08-26-2023, 09:43 PM

Sorry my videos are on USB sticks.

**jobeterob** · 08-26-2023, 10:32 PM

We couldn’t get a cd player in our 2022 Ford Truck or our 2022 Toyota RAV 4

**Roger Polhill** · 08-26-2023, 11:24 PM

That`s one of the few benefits of not being wealthy as I have one in my 2009 Hyundai !

**daviddesper** · 08-26-2023, 11:26 PM

If I had my way, I would still have a 6 CD changer in my car! I had one of those about 15 years ago and loved it!

**Motown Eddie** · 08-28-2023, 04:53 AM

Originally Posted by daviddesper

If I had my way, I would still have a 6 CD changer in my car! I had one of those about 15 years ago and loved it!

I had one of of those too. While it was nice to have at the time, I now prefer using my MP3 player to play music when travelling in the car [and I still keep a 5CD changer in my house].