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Post by kyc on Jun 6, 2022 14:19:46 GMT
Totally unrelated to wuxia but with the music industry: Anyone here still buying CDs? Or do you belong to those who are now into vinyls? If you do, where do you buy them from? Online or physical stores? (Physical CD shops are almost all gone now in Singapore.) What do you think of music streaming? Do you buy audiophile discs like SACDs or LPCDs etc.? Or are you into high-res music or audiophile equipment? Or have you never ever bought a CD before?
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Post by machete on Jun 6, 2022 15:10:56 GMT
When I bought the first half of Kamen Rider Black CDs from a shop selling CDs straight from Japan in 2005 it sold at RM300+ . When I bought the full pack four years ago the price drop to RM20+ . Then I realized; CDs were outdated.
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Post by kyc on Jun 6, 2022 15:35:55 GMT
When I bought the first half of Kamen Rider Black CDs from a shop selling CDs straight from Japan in 2005 it sold at RM300+ . When I bought the full pack four years ago the price drop to RM20+ . Then I realized; CDs were outdated. The price drop is a good thing isn't it? At least for people who still buy CDs.
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Post by Admin on Jun 8, 2022 5:32:54 GMT
The last time I bought CD was 2019. Then I decided that I won't buy any CD again. CD, DVD, as well as books, are treasures that sometimes they're so closely attached to you. I'm a sojourner in this foreign land, and thinking of the high cost of relocation, etc. I decided that unless it's a special edition CD, then I would prefer digital music.
I think digital music and music streaming is a good thing, as it's more environmentally friendly, and doesn't occupy much space. This also lower the cost. I don't know in SG, but in China now it's more than 90% is digital music. And unless it's a special edition, then I personally prefer digital music.
I don't know much about music industry in SG, I could only tell the music industry in China as most of the time I live here now.
There's some plus and minus points of digital music.
Plus point is : it doesn't occupy any space. Just store it in your player and you could just play it anywhere anytime. Also, some musicians some times just release a single song rather than an album. You could easily just buy it through your cellphone. In China, the biggest player for digital music is Tencent QQ, and one single is only 2 yuan - less than half a dollar. With monthy subscription of only 15 yuan per month, you could stream any musics you want. It's just amazing, cause they have millions of songs even rare songs from granpa eras. With digital music, you could buy it. I'm sure if it has to rely on CD, nobody would want to produce this kind of songs.
The downside is: with so many competition, some singers agency might want to boost the sales of a single or album by certain singers by pushing the the fans to buy dozens of even hundreds of songs. Often times, these fans clubs got the money from the agency to buy thousands of copies of certain albums. As a result, the song/album got into the hot charts, and passerby who are not fans or just people who just go with the flow, will buy these song/album.
Therefore, what so called top ten charts, are often just a big bullshit. They have buzzers to boost the sales to get more sales. Some crappy songs from PUA might be on the top list while good songs and good singers are just left behind. But later on China made a regulation, that one single account could only buy maximum 10 pieces of the same piece of music. Therefore, what so called PUA (pick up artists) - singers or idols who actually are lack of competency, could only compete in the industry healthily, and not got famous just because they're back up by capitals.
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Post by kyc on Jun 8, 2022 6:18:12 GMT
Thanks for your response, Admin . I asked this because lately, I have begun purchasing CDs again from Taobao. The fact delivery charges are acceptable means buying CDs from China is still cheaper than buying from Singapore, especially if you listen a lot to Mandopop from 1990s to 2000s. Not to mention most CDs you simply can't find in Singapore. The CD retail business is very much dead here I'm afraid. The default streaming app is Spotify, which you can listen to for free as lower res mp3s. I'm not sure if people here can subscribe to Mainland Chinese apps, because copyright laws can get quite complicated between borders. I can understand why admin prefers not to buy CDs, you really need to own a home to store physical discs. For myself, the drop in price is welcomed, but I don't have much room space so I need to pick carefully (usually not the album but the compilation). For many, there's still an attachment to this shiny piece of plastic; like what admin said, you do get attached to physical discs. Vinyls I don't own or intend to get into: the sound quality is not better, and I was never from the vinyl generation anyway, so I feel much less nostalgia about them. Another thing is that LPs are simply too big for me; I already have trouble finding space for CDs. I am on both sides concerning music streaming. On the one hand, it allows me to hear plenty of singers I will otherwise never get to hear. On the other hand, I feel the money is not enough for artistes, composers, and lyricists. I have to congratulate streaming for killing off the loudness war, but so few buy CDs nowadays I don't really know if it makes a difference. My last purchase is a stash of Cantopop CDs because I'm really curious to know whether audiophile formats improve music quality or not. To me, mastering or remastering is still the reason why one CD issue sounds different from another. I have yet to purchase digital music, but I think the Mainland legislation against sales cheating a good thing. Too many things now are about hype and not quality; we need to reward artistes for good music and not being just another pretty face. What I'm scared of is some virus or myself deleting my digital music collection by mistake. If that ever happens, I may die laughing or crying, I don't know which.
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Post by siuyiu on Jun 9, 2022 2:55:00 GMT
i haven't bought CDs in a while, mostly because the local CD shops have been inaccessible since COVID and there's less impetus to keep track of new releases online. the last CD i bought must've been pre-COVID; my CD player has been collecting years of dust at this point! i have no preference for any particular method of listening to music, and using YT over other online method is just habit more than any other reason. i don't like the static that is inevitable with vinyls, even when they are properly cleaned. my parents' generation prefer them to CDs--something about the sound quality, but i'd rather the more "computerized" sound from a CD if it means i don't have to hear the static. kyc that's great that CDs are so affordable! enjoy! as for accidentally deleting your digital library, that's why backups are important, whether external harddrives, clouds, what-have-you. no excuse for not backing up! as for the physical storage of CDs, if you're not fussed about needing it to be in individual plastic cases, there are CD "books" that you can buy to store your discs. that's what i've been using. i tuck the booklet behind the disc; sometimes, if the playlist has nice art, i'll fold it to fit in the pocket. what i enjoyed doing back when i had more time was create my own mix tapes because there was more flexibility in the order of songs and what the start of the song sounds like--this matters if it's a live performance. CDs always put the dialogue bits at the end of the previous song, but sometimes i like to hear the intro blurb from the singer. i know that there are programs/apps that can cut and paste the bits together to get the same result, but recording a tape is easier technique-wise. and yes, i know talking about mix tapes definitely puts me in a certain age bracket. i'm slowly filling in my gap of exposure to chinese pop songs, esp mandopop. so discovering a song that's five years old is peanuts in my mind!
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Post by kyc on Jun 9, 2022 5:24:46 GMT
Thanks for the response, siuyiu. I didn't know it was possible to edit using tape--must not be easy, but you make your own music. In case anyone has been wondering, I rip my CDs to a hard disk, then listen using a DAC (digital-analogue converter), a headphone amp, and a pair of headphones. It's cheaper that way; you don't disturb your neighbors if you do your listening at night. There was a time you could spend a four-digit figure on just a good CD player; I think it's possible now to get close to perfect sound by paying less than SGD1,000 for an entire audio system. There are forums that help (audiosciencereview.com) if you happen to be in the objectivist, measurement camp.
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Post by Admin on Jun 9, 2022 5:50:54 GMT
Thanks for your response, Admin . I asked this because lately, I have begun purchasing CDs again from Taobao. The fact delivery charges are acceptable means buying CDs from China is still cheaper than buying from Singapore, especially if you listen a lot to Mandopop from 1990s to 2000s. Not to mention most CDs you simply can't find in Singapore. The CD retail business is very much dead here I'm afraid. The default streaming app is Spotify, which you can listen to for free as lower res mp3s. I'm not sure if people here can subscribe to Mainland Chinese apps, because copyright laws can get quite complicated between borders. Ah yes, my ex singaporean boss also used to buy CD from China. I guess, you should just buy from taobao, as it is cheap and perhaps that's the last batch/stocks they have. and later they won't produce anymore. Not only CD, but also DVD business is almost died already. I got the DVD "The Last Emperor" for free when I bought some CDs, and the owner told me that's the last DVD she had, and she asked me to take good care of it. LOL. I haven't revisited the DVD store again, but I won't surprise if the store has closed down. btw, For QQ music, I don't need to be scared of if some virus or accidentally deleting digital music collection by mistake, because basically it's just like amazon kindle, it's attached on your account, and not on your device. So basically as long you are login to your account, you could always re-download your purchase. I have my song downloaded into my computer and some on my cellphone and often time I accidentally deleted my songs on my cellphone I have no idea about Spotify though. I used to use Spotify before 2016, but I don't use it anymore. oh, another benefit of digital music is : some times they upgraded the music quality, and you could upgrade your collections by re-downloading the music you purchased for FREE.
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Post by kyc on Jun 9, 2022 6:04:10 GMT
Yeah Admin, I belong also to the apocalyptic camp, meaning I think maybe one day there will be a war, and streaming apps will all malfunction. Some old man (myself) will sit on a rocking chair and listen to an old CD player attached to a horn loudspeaker as fighter planes fly overhead. Actually for someone who still pays for CDs, paying for digital music is very weird. I like the concept of an album, I like to be surprised. With digital music, I'd only get one track and it's boring. Not to mention cover art, booklet, shiny plastic etc. Is the DVD dying too? On life support? There's still the Blu-ray, but will that die too? A horrifying thought!
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Post by siuyiu on Jun 9, 2022 23:11:48 GMT
Thanks for the response, siuyiu . I didn't know it was possible to edit using tape--must not be easy, but you make your own music. In case anyone has been wondering, I rip my CDs to a hard disk, then listen using a DAC (digital-analogue converter), a headphone amp, and a pair of headphones. It's cheaper that way; you don't disturb your neighbors if you do your listening at night. There was a time you could spend a four-digit figure on just a good CD player; I think it's possible now to get close to perfect sound by paying less than SGD1,000 for an entire audio system. There are forums that help (audiosciencereview.com) if you happen to be in the objectivist, measurement camp. oh, i didn't do remixes or anything fancy like that! i just dubbed songs from another cassette or CD onto a blank tape--just needs a bit of time to compile! even though listening to music through speakers is great, i find that i hear more of the nuances and background instruments on headphones that get dissipated through speakers. or maybe i'm just going deaf? here's a question for the "fogeys" on the boards: who owned a walkman when they were young? (pretty sure the millennials don't even know what that is!)
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2022 4:29:22 GMT
Yeah Admin, I belong also to the apocalyptic camp, meaning I think maybe one day there will be a war, and streaming apps will all malfunction. Some old man (myself) will sit on a rocking chair and listen to an old CD player attached to a horn loudspeaker as fighter planes fly overhead. Actually for someone who still pays for CDs, paying for digital music is very weird. I like the concept of an album, I like to be surprised. With digital music, I'd only get one track and it's boring. Not to mention cover art, booklet, shiny plastic etc. Is the DVD dying too? On life support? There's still the Blu-ray, but will that die too? A horrifying thought! you have a good point about this apocalyptic scenario. LOL, now I regret that I throw away my broken DVD and CD players, and never replaced them. Yeah, agree that albums with a good cover art is pretty meaningful. DVD is dying too. To be honest, we had a business in SG who imported Chinese film contents and distributed them to SG and Malaysia - including the DVD format. But we had to close it down as it could not make money. And that happened even before Iqiyi and WeTV expanded to South East Asia market.
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2022 4:31:01 GMT
here's a question for the "fogeys" on the boards: who owned a walkman when they were young? (pretty sure the millennials don't even know what that is!) I owned walkman, discman, but never had ipod or mp3 player. LOL
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Post by kyc on Jun 10, 2022 5:59:55 GMT
I'm not scared of the DVD dying, but it's true, in Singapore almost all DVD shops have closed down. People buy Blu-rays in bulk from Amazon. But I don't believe DVDs will go away soon because in the West, there are still adherents of the physical video discs. There are problems storing big video files unless you have cloud, each Blu-ray is 50 GB, so if you own 20 discs, that's 1 TB. People also like supplements, interviews, making-of videos etc. Blu-rays are actually more economical in the long run. DVD should survive as a lower-price alternative. Walkmans, discmans, ipods... all dinosaur age-revealing formats. Owning a discman used to be a status symbol among friends, I wasn't so rich, but I was also not the kind that bring 15 CDs and listen to them on public transport. But ipod... I figured why buy something so expensive just for mp3s? The money to be had in streaming is not enough. if you consider CDs used to cost around US$15 and that there are usually ten tracks in an album, each song should cost US$1.50... yes, Mainland stuff is cheaper, but people may not purchase the whole album and this can drive profits down. A track costing less than US$0.50 on QQ Music is just... too little. Stefanie Sun's The Moment sold in excess of 1 million copies throughout Asia--one wonders how many digital purchases her fans must now make for her to make, say, US$10 million per album? Artistes everywhere else are complaining: www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3162085/reality-spotify-artists-theres-no-money-streaming-musictheconversation.com/even-famous-musicians-struggle-to-make-a-living-from-streaming-heres-how-to-change-that-151969I just want more money to line the pockets of music-makers, not those who run the app. I see only a handful of very popular artistes making money, the rest are struggling and unknown. I actually see independent artistes and labels breaking free from some streaming platforms in the future, triggering a domino effect. Maybe some time later the major labels will follow when their artistes also complain. When you can't feed yourself, you revolt. So does it seem odd now that I still purchase CDs?
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Post by siuyiu on Jun 10, 2022 13:52:03 GMT
the west is also converting to online streaming, so DVDs/blu-rays are seeing declines in popularity. the physical stores are becoming more rare for sure, with most of the purchases being done online.
haha, i have resisted apple products to date. i do own an mp3 player, but i listen to music on my phone when i'm on the subway nowadays.
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Post by kyc on Jun 14, 2022 13:58:02 GMT
I don't think DVDs and Blu-rays will die off so soon, though they will probably become niche products. There are successors of the video cassette, vinyl, cassette tape, but no physical successors of the DVD and Blu-ray. Some people still prefer physical formats. If I'm giving someone a gift of his or her favorite movie, a Blu-ray will make a nicer gift than a data file.
The CD is probably in greater danger as you only need less than 800 MB to store an album, compared to 50 GB for a Blu-ray disc, 8.5 GB for a DVD.
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