I’m 40, and when I was a teenager, EVERY band had CDs. And I know a lot of music has shifted to digital. So much so that I heard Best buy stopped selling CDs. Presumably because nobody buys them.

So I wonder what musicians sell besides t-shirts and posters at concerts. Do the kids have ANY CDs? Do they buy mp3’s? Do they just use pandora and spotify? Do they even own their own music?

I’ve given up on trying to understand the lingo. Other generations lingo sounds stupid to me, but still understandable based on context.

I have NO idea what a skibifibi toilet is…sounds like a toilet after some taco bell and untalented jazz, but maybe I can try to understand their thought process on media consumption.

  • Dempf@lemmy.zip
    41·
    3 months ago

    Sometimes I buy CDs and rip to flac so that really obscure shit doesn’t get lost forever.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldOP
      14·
      3 months ago

      Upvoted. Because my favorite music comes from bands that I’ve been in tiny concert venues, where I’m 1 of 13 people in the crowd.

      I’ll admit that even though she’s not my style, Taylor Swift has some…as the kids would say…bangers.

      But my favorite music is with bands that I 100% can say you’ve never heard of, and is so obscure I doubt you could even find it.

      But people like you are helping make obscure music easier to find. Awesome!

      • brygphilomena@lemmy.world
        3·
        3 months ago

        I had to fix my ratio on redacted. I found I had so many CDs of random local bands that were handed out at shows that weren’t online. It was weird to basically be the only person that had some music online.

          • brygphilomena@lemmy.world
            3·
            3 months ago

            It’s crazy, because I know a lot of those bands aren’t together anymore. They never made it and are effectively forgotten to the internet. I feel like a custodian of music history. If I didn’t put them online, they’d have disappeared entirely.

            • Dempf@lemmy.zip
              1·
              3 months ago

              I’ve definitely had that feeling before. I was really into Chinese rock bands and bought a bunch of CDs. I’ve been slowly uploading them. I mean China is a big country with lots of people, so it’s not like these bands are completely unknown, but when I used to go to concerts in China some of the groups that I thought rocked the hardest didn’t tend to pull big crowds. And when you look on Chinese Internet for this stuff, you usually find crappy MP3s, not rips following proper procedures.

              I still think about the band where I showed up late because the train to Beijing was delayed and then the taxi driver couldn’t find the venue address, so I just barely caught their last song. Then afterwards I was hanging out chatting with people and they were like, since you only got to hear one song you deserve to meet the singer. And they were friends with the singer so they called her to come out. It seemed like she was blown away that any foreign fans at all are into her music, and when she found out I didn’t yet have a place to stay for the night and was planning to find a last minute hostel or hotel she said “no, you’re not doing that, you’re staying with my friends who have a spare room”.

              Whenever I rip & upload Chinese rock, I think about those people who were so friendly and gracious towards me. Like who tf invites some random stranger at a rock concert over like that. And none of those bands, even the ones that made it “big” really got the attention that I thought they deserved. They were pouring their heart and soul into their music.

  • AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
    29·
    3 months ago

    Man, I started answering you and realized I am also 40 and…yeah.

    But, were I to go to a show, a CD? Nah. But a sticker or socks or something, certainly.

  • hushable@lemmy.world
    23·
    3 months ago

    Not a younger person, but last concert I attended, the artist was selling bandcamp codes for their albums (I got two for €5 each). On top of that CDs and vinyls, each would include a bandcamp code too, so I assume people without CD players or turntables can get the physical item and still enjoy the music digitally

  • bitwaba@lemmy.world
    21·
    3 months ago

    I just turned 40. For my birthday I went to go see a small disco funk band. They run their own merch table, tour around the country in a van, have day jobs, etc. I wanted to support them so I was gonna buy a T-shirt, but it was $25, I only had $20 on me, and they didn’t take card. So I got a $15 CD. They also didn’t have any change, so I had to wait 5 minutes for them to go to the bar and get them to break a 20.

    Then I got home and realized I didn’t even have a CD player. So I dug out an old DVD drive and installed in my desktop, ripped the CD to FLAC, pulled the drive out, and threw the CD into my old box of CDs I haven’t opened in 10+ years…

    • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      I was gonna say “only $25 for a concert t-shirt?” because they wanted like $50 for one at a Pantera concert about 6 months ago…then I saw this was over a decade ago.

      • bitwaba@lemmy.world
        1·
        3 months ago

        No, this was 2 months ago

        Its an independent band that runs their own merch table after the show. Its not a band with 3+ decades of content that can charge $50 for a shirt.

        • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          Ah, I misread the last part. Of course if it’s a small Indie band they’re not going to charge out of the ass for stuff, that’d be dumb on their part.

  • Magicalus@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    19·
    3 months ago

    Teenager here, I regularly buy CDs at bagpipe concerts* because there’s no unique bagpipe music on streaming services.

    *Bagpipe concerts here means renn faire performances

  • Ephera@lemmy.ml
    11·
    3 months ago

    Do the kids have ANY CDs? Do they buy mp3’s? Do they just use pandora and spotify? Do they even own their own music?

    Yeah, from what I tend to hear from teenagers, I don’t think most of them own their music.
    The thing with CDs or MP3s is that it takes time for you to build up a collection. If you got started on that before streaming services took off, it’s probably worth listening to.

    But if you’re starting from scratch today, you’re basically deciding between listening to one or two albums in your collection vs. all the music you can imagine for a monthly fee. The value proposition of the latter is then just hard to beat.

    I believe, streaming services generally don’t allow you to add your own MP3s into the mix either, so even if you get a cool CD/MP3s from a local band that’s not on these streaming services, then there’s still not much you can do with that.

    • edb_fyr@lemmy.world
      4·
      3 months ago

      Spotify at least does allow you to add local files on a computer, and they even sync tracks to your phone when they are on an offline playlist when the devices are on the same network. I’ve done that myself to get some otherwise unavailable songs into my catalogue, and am thinking of starting the move to owning all my music that way

    • mbtrhcs@feddit.org
      1·
      3 months ago

      Apple Music allows you to add arbitrary audio files to your cloud-synced library. I believe it will even generate streaming revenue for the artist if the file is recognized to also be in the catalog of iTunes Match (but I’m not sure on that one).

  • gerryflap@feddit.nl
    8·
    3 months ago

    I’m probably too old (29), but I do tend to buy CDs of artists I like. 2 weeks ago I was at a festival and bought 3 CDs (as well as some other stuff). Today I’m expecting another CD to arrive in my letterbox.

  • blackstrat@lemmy.fwgx.uk
    8·
    3 months ago

    I still buy CDs. I have a player in my car and in my hifi. My desktop has a BR drive which I use to rip the disc and then I use it how I want when want. They also sound fantastic. Streaming is great, but you give up a lot compared to owning physical media.

  • kora@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    8·
    3 months ago

    My car still plays CD’s, so if the price was right and the band actually got a solid cut of it, then yeah I would buy one.

    I’m 29 and 13mo’s

  • BurningnnTree@lemmy.oneEnglish
    7·
    3 months ago

    I’m 32, I bought a cassette at the last concert I went to. (I generally prefer vinyl, but I don’t wanna buy a vinyl before a show starts cuz then I have to awkwardly hold it for the whole show)

  • dyc3@lemmy.world
    6·
    3 months ago

    CD? No, I can get mostly the same sound quality, if not better via streaming. Vinyl? Yeah because it’s a set piece. It’s a great conversation starter to have a cool collection.

  • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
    6·
    3 months ago

    I like to buy vinyl for my favourite artists, but I wouldn’t do it at a concert because I’d have to carry it around for the whole show. I do also like to buy t-shirts at concerts

  • bonn2@lemm.ee
    6·
    3 months ago

    TBH I (23) have gone backwards. I love collecting signed vynals of my favorite bands

    • Kalladblog@lemmy.world
      2·
      3 months ago

      Can second this. Not only has it personal and collector value, you actually own it in contrast to the digital age where everything can be taken away by the host service even if you payed for it before. And no, “you only bought the license to stream it not the media content” is only legal rubbish these companies spout to justify the morally questionable bs they push to be the norm.