Are CD’s Dead?

Stack of CD’s… now gone!

I heard breaking news this week that Best Buy was no longer going to be selling CD’s in their stores. What?! Probably not a surprise to many Millennials (born 1980 – 1994) who are used to listening to digital music; however, what about the Silent Generation (born 1925 – 1945), the Baby Boomer Generation (born 1946 – 1964) and maybe even part of the Generation X generation (born 1965 – 1980) that may not be used to being a part of the digital world yet? I know plenty of these generations that still struggle to use a smart phone and have no interest in going digital. Is it okay for us to forget about their needs? Some of them barely buy anything online, if at all. I know my mom who is a part of the Baby Boomer Generation still asks me to buy her things online on her behalf? She has an iPhone and an iPad and enjoys using them both now, but it wasn’t easy to get her there. We tried to give her an MP3 player so that she could play music digitally, but she has never been able to get used to it. So now, she just sticks to the radio or CD’s. So now what?!

Does this worry anyone else? At the moment, I am okay with how fast technology is moving because I am somewhat of a savvy technology person and if I don’t know how to do something, I know how to search for help in using a lot of this new technology. What about when it comes to a point where it just surpasses my brain capacity or I’m just over the fact that I have to keep learning something new every couple of years and I just want what I am used to? I mean, I still have to help my mom with Netflix, YouTube and the cable box. Why are we in such a hurry to keep updating technology so much anyway? Anyone else feel like we are one of the most wasteful society ever? We replace TV’s because we don’t have the latest technology that catches on when other people around the world still don’t even have running water. What’s the rush? I mean, is technology cool? Yes, but are all of these upgrades necessary? It brings me back to the days of iPods. When you feel that you are no longer cool because you don’t have the latest version of an iPod.

I grew up at a time where you only replaced things when they were broken and when there were still companies out there that would fix whatever item it was that was broken. Now, it is even difficult to find anyone to help fix your household items because people are more likely to replace these items once they no longer work. On a side note, anyone notice that items made back in the day lasted way longer than the things we buy now, yet we pay more money for them now? Companies know that consumers are more likely to replace items once something goes wrong with them, so why make them last longer? It is better business for them to have something last only a few years versus 10+ years. That’s a rant for another day. Now back to CD’s.

I still remember getting exited when I knew an artist was coming out with their latest CD and I looked forward to seeing the artwork or potential lyrics the CD booklet might have. I found some of my favorite songs on CD’s that never even made it to the radio. I recently subscribed to a digital music service and I got to hear songs from artists that I haven’t heard before because they were a part of their CD but not a song that was chosen to play on the radio or other music subscription services and all of a sudden, I felt like I was missing out on really good music. It actually made me miss CD’s! I actually have an entire very large storage box with all of my CD’s in it sitting in the garage collecting dust and it made me want to go through them all because I got this really bad case of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) on all of the music that I used to love that I no longer get to hear. But now I have another problem. I don’t have a CD player anymore, at least in my house. The only place that I would be able to listen to all of those CD’s on is going to be in my car and now I need a large CD case to hold all of those CD’s and the patience to place them in the case in alphabetical order or order by genre. That was a time-consuming task, but I was willing to do it because it was the only way to do it back then. Now that I have other choices, it seems pointless. But I’m sure there will come a time where I don’t see it as being pointless and I will no longer be interested in “Keeping Up with the Jones’s” or at this day in age should I say “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” instead?

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