10 Good Reasons to Listen to Music on CD

Many people consider the CD a relic of the past, but there is still a demand for music recorded on CD. So why buy albums on physical media when there is a simple and convenient streaming? Ten "pros" - in our article.

1. As vinyl, a CD is a good old physical medium that is nice to purchase in a collection or give to loved ones. And sometimes the most important thing is the design of the release, colorful printing and bonus materials.

2. Although the CD is not as "warm and aesthetic" as vinyl, listening to it is a kind of ritual that is important for many audiophiles: select the desired album on the shelf, get the disc and install it in the player tray, start playback, select the desired track or listen to the recording from the beginning to the end.

3. An album once purchased on CD will forever remain in your collection, while the performance of the streaming platform and the availability of license rights to play a particular music in the future cannot be guaranteed with absolute certainty.

4. Compared to vinyl and cassettes, CDs sound more neutral and will appeal to almost all listeners. Anyway, the sound of a record or compact cassette is highly dependent on their condition and the quality of mastering a particular release. Meanwhile, the branded CD sounds almost like the original studio recording and, if handled carefully, is almost eternal.

5. Listening to CDs has nothing to do with the ubiquitous algorithms and recommendation systems that analyze our musical preferences and actually impose certain songs on us. In other words, it's a small island of privacy in our brave new world of online publicity.

6. As a rule, streaming services cannot provide a completely seamless transition between tracks, while with a CD it is quite possible to count on this. It would seem to be a trifle, but it is still nice to listen to CD albums that are recorded without pauses between songs.

7. Compact discs, like other physical sound media, may well acquire historical value over time. This is especially true of rare original editions of the 80s and 90s.

8. Finding new music is a fascinating process that has been forgotten due to the development of recommendation services. However, avid collectors are still happy to spend time on vinyl markets, and the process of finding good CDs can be no less interesting. By the way, the effect of pleasant surprise from a successful find is remembered for a long time. In addition, CDs are now much cheaper than vinyl, and this is another argument in their favor.

9. If you store music on a hard drive or SSD, there is a possibility of data storage failure. So, the instant loss of the entire collection or its significant part is possible. On the other hand, even if you scratch or lose a couple of your favorite CDs, you can always buy new ones to replace them.

10. Surprising, but true: for one reason or another, not all albums released on CD are presented in popular streaming services. Well, there is nothing to do - we go in search of "compacts".