VINYL MADE ITS COMEBACK. NOW ARE COMPACT DISCS NEXT?
It still feels like yesterday. The year was 1992, and my parents got me my first cassette player and CD player combo boombox. Life was great. You still had the luxury of making mixtapes and rocking your Walkman… but you also had the luxury of the compact disc, pure, crisp sound that felt like the future.
I recall visiting the music store back then. It was literally the heartbeat of the mall. This was the era when people smoked indoors whenever and wherever they wanted, and somehow nobody questioned it. My eyes still burn thinking about it. I still remember my parents taking me to the mall the day after they got me that first CD player and telling me to pick out two CDs.
I went with Poison’s Flesh & Blood and Nirvana’s Nevermind.
Yes, I was caught somewhere between hair metal and grunge.
Fast-forward to the present day. I’ve lived through every phase of how we consume music: the days of destroying my parents’ desktop by downloading music and porn off LimeWire, building a legit digital library on my iPod touch, and eventually paying for streaming so I can access basically any song ever recorded at the tap of a finger.
And within the last few years, like many, I have also gotten hip to the vinyl craze. Better late than never.
Which brings me to the big question:
Why are we paying $35–$50 for something we have to work so hard to play?
And the answer is the same reason vinyl came back in the first place: the physical connection. A friend once told me that when you buy a vinyl record, you’re buying a story, and the music comes free. That stuck with me. Unwrapping it, sliding out the booklet, taking in the sleeve art, reading the lyrics and liner notes while the music plays, and getting lost in the whole experience
But here’s where I think CDs are sitting in a perfect spot.
For $15–$20, you can buy a CD and still get that physical connection, including the artwork, liner notes, and the booklet for a fraction of the price and a fraction of the hassle. No flipping sides. No worrying about dust. Just pop it in and push play.
And in today’s uncertain economy, with prices climbing on literally everything, CDs feel primed for a comeback. (Hopefully things stabilize and DJT knows what he’s doing, but I won’t hold my breath.)
I also look at my 13-year-old daughter, and that whole generation is obsessed with stuff from when I was growing up. They’re into nostalgia, and honestly, they might be the ones who bring CDs back.
Unfortunately for me, I already started her on vinyl. Got her a record player, got her a stand for her room… the whole setup. And now I’m realizing I could’ve pulled off the same “physical music connection” for way cheaper and been ahead of the curve by stacking CDs.
Regardless of what happens, I have a feeling vinyl walked so CDs could run. The compact disc is going to have its day again. Mark my words.
I just wish I could say the same for music stores and malls.
