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The Compact Disc is 40 years old

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Ah innocent days when we thought it meant “perfect sound forever”, at least if they made them from original master tapes rather than copies several generations down. Maybe by that 5th remastering they were getting close ….

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  3. My brother bought me my first CD in 1985 for Christmas. Mad Not Mad by Madness.

    I thought, “Oh great, but I don’t own a CD player.” My parents then said smiling, “Now, open the big package under the tree.”

  4. I bought my first one in 1986 (Cream Live Vol. 2) and my approx. four-thousandth one last week (Eno and Cale- Wrong Way Up). While I miss some aspects of vinyl (cover art primarily) I far prefer CDs. And yeah, the loudness wars sucked but at least CDs didn’t warp, scratch, wear out, need to be changed every 15 minutes etc etc.

    Ignoring a couple of instances of severe mechanical traumaI, I have had only one CD become unplayable (Who Rarities vol. 2 – CD rot).

  5. In 1983/84, a CD would cost around £16. The equivalent LP version was about £6.
    CD prices gradually dropped (as vinyl LPs gradually increased) to the point where both versions could be had for a tenner. As vinyl left the shelves and more CDs filled the gap, prices crept up slightly but don’t often break the 15 quid mark (unless it’s a double, import, or box set).
    CDs – an inflation proof commodity

    My first was Jimmy Page Outrider in 1988 – but it was another 9 months / 12 months before I actually bought a CD player.

        • .. but even then you were making the best of a very inferior medium. I bought quite a few cassettes around that time, when I was between long-term abodes. I still have a sizeable box of them on top of my shelving. Replaced some of them with CDs later. Replaced some scratchy vinyl with CDs too.

            • I worked for years with the bloke who designed the industry-standard Distribution Amplifier used by cassette duplication firms. Let’s just say he wasn’t an audiophile.

              I designed a DA for radio & TV studios & OB trucks. Let’s just say it was much better sounding.

    • Nice. Easier to store if you throw away the horrible plastic cases. Better sound quality? That’s an endless debate, depends on original source material, mastering and playback equipment

    • Elvis 68 comeback.more tracks than on the original vinyl.years later got the box set and DVD with outtakes and full sit-down and stand up shows.latest purchase is gorillaz cracker Island.

  9. I think the first CD bought is incidental. What’s more important to me is the first album I thought I needed to buy on CD. I really felt The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld with its extended, quieter rocking-the-birdsong passages would be preferable on the crackle free, quieter medium. Very Pet Shop Boys came in a cool orange box on compact disc and by then I was of the view that this format was the natural home for music recorded digitally using mostly electronic instruments..

  10. I have never understood the opprobrium heaped upon CDs. They are now becoming as rare as hen’s teeth, a source of constant annoyance as they are far more convenient to use and sound just as good as LPs to all but the fussiest ears. Their decline alongside the resurgence in vinyl is a complete mystery to me. A rather fine record shop selling nothing but new and secondhand vinyl has recently opened in my neck of the woods, with nary a CD in sight, and seems to be thriving. Thank goodness for Music Magpie.

    I bought my first CD in 1989 – Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever since you asked – and couldn’t wait to offload my modest LP collection. I have bought CDs ever since, thousands of ‘em, most recently a 4CD boxset of John Mellencamp rarities and obscure album tracks, On The Rural Route 7609. I had to sell a kidney to afford it, but it’s rather splendid. The huge book it came with was hardly essential reading and a drain on space along with all those horrible plastic jewel cases, but I do like a nice cardboard digipak, and can still swoon over nicely packaged CDs just as much as any vinyl purist.

    • I am currently sorting out my parents’ house prior to sale, including cataloguing their mid-sized music collection. There’s some surprising stuff amongst the vinyl that might pique the interest of any of their four sons, but what is more likely to get played? The voluminous vinyl with surface crackle in a mixed bag of faded and occasionally torn paper covers, or the unscratched CDs in their likely perfect jewel cases? I just know I won’t get round to listening to the records; CD wins every time.

      • This doesn’t have to be a CDs v Vinyl thread. 40 years of CDs, almost 100 years of vinyl. Both still going, one maybe stronger than the other. The relative decline of CDs is that they are only a carrier of ones and zeros, content that can exist exactly the same in many other places. As soon as home computers (with CD burning and ripping capabilities) and the internet became ubiquitous their decline became inevitable

        • I’m bemused by the younger generation’s fascination for vinyl. It is purely an artefact of affected nostalgia for a time long before they existed. I had lots of great sounding LPs, but also lots of crappy original ones including a Ziggy that was so thin a torch could shine through it and an All Things Must Pass that sounded like it was coated in rubber. Didn’t stop me falling in love with the music in either case.

          As to the older generation’s love of vinyl, I really wonder how many audiophiles understand the extent of their hearing loss. An audiophile friend I have can’t hear a sound over 7K but will die in a ditch regarding the superiority of vinyl. I can’t hear anything over 13K, but can clearly hear the bed of white noise between tracks.

          • Speaking as the parent of a 16 yr old who enjoys vinyl I am not sure of your theory. Her main way of listening is streaming and CDs are just not on her radar. Vinyl just looks better in your bedroom especially when you may own only about 20 or 30 of them

          • The weight of the bulk of the albums RCA spewed out in the early 70s were nearer 18 grammes than the much ballyhooed 180 grammes labels are bigging up nowadays

          • I belong to several forums where there is endless debate about the benefits of hi res audio (24bit/96kHz or even 192kHz) and dismissal of practically anything that is “only” CD quality. Needless to say, the age profile of most of the (male) contributors is north of 60 and their hearing will have deteriorated to the point where any perceived benefits of hi res audio are non-existent.

            • Yes, it’s ludicrous. I do think that it would have been good if they had waited another year to get it up to 48/24 for CDs, but 44/16 is still fantastic. On my recording software I can detect changes up to 48 but bugger all after that. Maybe a very slight change to 96K, but certainly not worth doubling storage for.

            • There’s an engineering rule of thumb, which applies to filtering, “3 times the bandwidth for 1% distortion”. For audio, with a bandwidth of 20kHz, that would be at least 60kHz sampling rate.

              The severe ‘brick-wall’ filters required for 44.1kHz are part of the perceived problem with CD (they have an effect well into the audio range), and why many preferred DAT (which samples at 48kHz).

              44.1 (CD) and 48kHz (DAT) were chosen because they are fractions of SD TV’s 27MHz clocking rate, so are 88.2 and 96kHz. CD was not being designed in isolation.

              So 48k is measureably better than 44.1, 88.2 or 96k are even better, 176.4 or 192k are into diminishing returns.

              Saying that, I record at 88.2kHz (24 bit) and master at 44.1

                • 24 bit is definitely better than 16, simply because the quantisation distortion of 16 bit is huge at low levels. With 24 bit, quantisation distortion is 256 times lower (i.e. in the noise floor).

                  32 bit is fine for DSP internally, but overkill for real-world interfaces.

                  With a 2V peak signal, 16 bit is 30 microvolt per step and you can measure it with the right equipment. With 24 bit, each step is 120 nanovolt, which is in the thermal noise of most electronic components.

                  24/48 is a good compromise for storage if you pay for HDD space yourself. I’m 53 and my ears no longer go up to 20kHz, so I compromise on 24/44.1, as I record in 24/88.2 which makes downsampling for CD much easier. If I was baking old master tapes for archiving, I’d go for at least 24/96.

                  It was possible to get 20-bit 44.1kHz out of a CD (search “HDCD”) but not hugely popular as it required an extra expensive chip in the player. Neil Young was keen on it, as were Arcam and Naim.

                  I am very dull.

                  • I honestly don’t think my ears could tell the difference between 44.1/16k quality and above. I have some SACDs and I kid myself I can hear a bit of a difference, but in a blind test I don’t think I could.

                    • It depends what, where and how you’re listening.

                      Pop music is mostly pretty loud, jazz or classical less so.

                      Most people don’t have the sort of environment to get the best out of their CD player.

                      Most people would get more bang for their buck by spending money on room acoustic treatments.

                      Most people would not go to the expense of building a soundproofed, acoustically treated room.

                      I am not most people. I am very dull.

                    • I am genuinely interested if I could tell the difference in a properly acoustically treated room and with high end equipment. I should really go to a hi-fi store (do they still exist……??) and ask for a test. But as a slightly socially introverted person (hello Afterword!) I would feel awkward asking to test something I had no intention of buying.

                    • I think you’d be surprised, Arthur. A great-sounding room will make even moderately good equipment sing, and most mid-range equipment is good enough to show off the difference between CD and better-than-CD. The question is would you pay for it and/or be prepared to put up with your living room looking a bit like a recording studio?

                      The best pre-recorded playback sound I ever heard was not in a hi-fi shop but in a radio studio at the BBC Wood Norton training studio. A simple (rugged/broadcast-quality) Tascam CD player, Quad 405 amps and LS5/8 speakers. But the room acoustics were spot on, like a small concert hall.

                      My Linn/Naim/PMC gear has never sounded as good as it does now. I spent a few hundred quid on room acoustic treatments. I couldn’t have got such an improvement by upgrading any of my gear for that kind of money. It does now look like a recording studio, though, which I’m not bothered by but Mrs F says the look is “ruined”. I don’t listen with my eyes, though.

                  • I thought HDCD was worthwhile: no extra cost (compared with buying SACD); a lift in SQ (NOT comparable with SACD, of course) – provided your CD player had the chip. My current one doesn’t.

                    • The playback chip wasn’t cheap, but the 19″ rack of encoding gear the mastering studio needed to install was even less cheap! And the CDs had to be kept pristine (the extra 4 bits were squeezed into the auto-correction stuff).

                      My Teardrop Explodes HDCDs sound great.

                    • I should have specified: no extra cost to the consumer. I assume it was the extra cost to the producer which blew it out of the water (apart from streaming, downloading, etc)?

                    • I think 24-bit DVD-Audio (some with regular CD layers on the flip side, known as DualDiscs) and SACD had a helping hand, as they were 4 bits better.

                      The playback decoder chip wasn’t cheap, at a time when CD players were becoming something to pick up in a supermarket with the weekly shop.

  11. I think my first CD was classical – Karajan/BPO playing Sibelius 4th symphony. I initially went through a period of buying new classical stuff on CD but sticking with LPs for rock ‘n’ jazz. It was a phase – don’t think it lasted long…

  13. I delayed getting into CDs for a long time, finally succumbing around 1990. You can’t beat them for resilience of course, and box sets in vinyl are ridiculous. I hate the fact the Beatles boxes have become vinyl centric – the CD is perfect for extended archival sets. I still play my old records and most sound great, but the CD just works…no pops, crackles …and you aren’t getting up every 20 minutes!

    • Yes, but one tiny defect on the CD surface and the blasted thing won’t play – with a record, just lift the stylus over the damaged track and continue as you were.

      That being said, one thing that I liked enormously about CDs was that they seemed to open record company vaults to re- release music that hadn’t seen the light of day in years; and the relative cheapness (eventually) of burn-you-own meant unknown unsigned artists could easily get their music sold at gigs or elsewhere.

      • Unless you are really unfortunate, surface damage to a CD is a lot less likely to spoil your enjoyment than a scratch on a quiet bit of an LP.
        Damage to the shiny side of a CD, unless it’s deep gouges, can usually be polished out, with care. Damage to the label side is a lot more likely to give trouble, as the thin foil layer with the pits and spaces that carry the information is very close behind the label.
        The lasers in CD players lose power over time (quite a long time) and that is when surface scratches on discs start to cause problems. A worn-out stylus will very quickly damage your precious vinyl and styluses need quite frequent replacement if you play a lot of records.

        I suspect in another 20 years or so, all physical means of containing music will be regarded as rather quaint. They won’t die out entirely, but collecting them and the necessary equipment will be an expensive hobby for the cash-rich and very far from the mainstream.

  14. I resisted CDs for years (1997) and I think that’s why I have such a positive view about them – I never paid £16 in the dire, the equivalent at the time of four Arsenal v. Manchester United games or three England Internationals!
    By the time I was on board, the average price was £7 to £11 and the second-hand market in CDs had started.

    It’s plain dumb that a format which most people (not, ironically, me at the moment, I’m getting a new CD player next week) can still access has been almost completely excised from the High Street.
    Personally, I’ve got pretty much everything I need, but a few Hugh Masekela 60s LPs on CD wouldn’t go amiss.

    As an aside, if you read a Record Collector magazine from the dire and compare it to an issue in 2023, the former says CDs are the biz and vinlys are lousy, and the latter says vinlys are the biz and CDs are lousy! The clever money is to have been on the “lousy” side in each era.

  16. My first CD purchase was the CD single of ‘Ship of Fools’ by World Party.

    1987 I think. I was still a student with no CD player but I was planning ahead as soon as I graduated I could buy a CD player…which I did.

  17. I got my first CD player in 1986. I had been working at Philips Semiconductors in Stockport during the summer after my first year at University and so managed to get at a discount in the staff shop (spending the earnings I had left after paying off the overdraft).

    First CDs I purchased were Kate Bush / Hounds of Love, Dire Straits / Love Over Gold, Genesis / Wind & Wuthering and The Police / Greatest Hits. I still have the original CDs, but they have all by replaced by reissues etc.

  18. I was very late to the party to get a player, my first cd was a used copy of The Doors debut. It cost $13.00 AUD which was a great buy at the time. It would cost about $1.00 today or $2.00 at the most. I’ve been scooting around charity shops for some time picking them up for spare change.

    When they first took hold people left their vinyl out by the side of the road for anyone who came along to pick up and cart away. I was smart enough not to do that but not smart enough to pick them up for myself.

    • Vinyl regret. In one house move took a whole load of vinyl down to Record and Tape Exchange…£1 a pop for all. Including an original pressing of Surrealistic Pillow amongst others.

  19. Anyone remember the once ubiquitous (and ruinously eco-unfriendly) long boxes CDs came in?

    Not sure if they were used in the UK, but they were big (SWIDT?) in the US and in Asia before everyone cottoned on they were literally a waste of space

    • According to Discogs, it is worth as much as $10. I doubt he’ll be retiring on it.

      I recently saw it on vinyl for £50. I didn’t buy it, but next time I went to the shop it had gone.

  21. I worked in Wigfalls* when I left school and got my first cd system in 1987.

    A Toshiba midi system which sounded great.

    First cd was Rush “Exit….Stage Left” which Ibought from WH Smiths in a sale for £7.99.

    It missed off “Passage To Bangkok” due to “space limitations”

    Last cd was “An Introduction To Tim Hardin” bought for £1 from a record fair.

    *Wigfalls was an electrical store based mainly in the North Of England. I worked at the Scunthorpe branch. 2 years YTS and they gave me a contract. Bought out by Currys and closed 6 months later.

  22. Around 2010 I swore off CDs, reckoning I could do without taking up any more storage space and that future purchases should be digital. But then I found I couldn’t shake the habit for a couple of favoured artists – John Hiatt, Old Crow Medicine Show – then that jazz and classical sound a lot better on CD than any purely digital format, so that intention crumbled within about three years. And now I’m funding that for some albums a CD purchase, especially if it’s second hand, is cheaper than the MP3. So that corner of the living room with my CD is even more stuffed.

  23. I love CDs but I think the jewel case was probably a bad decision. The nicest physical copies of any media I have in my collection are a selection of Japanese Mini LP CDs with vinyl replica sleeves. Beautiful things. My copy of Muscle of Love by Alice Cooper is a work of craftsmanship.

    The problem with CD cases is that they are not nice to touch. The feel of cellulose you get from a record sleeve makes them more lovable. I reckon had CDs gone with cardboard sleeves instead of the jewel case we’d like them more.

  24. My first machine was a Pioneer 6-disc changer with random play an’ everything.

    Once I got it I wondered along Oxford Street to Virgin at Tottenham Court Road (was that the one with the CD “factory” in the basement?) and splurged on 6 discs- it must have been payday.

    I remember the Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack and Talking Book were in there, plus “Wish You Were Here”. As soon as I got home I thought I’d try out the randomiser. The first track it played? “Welcome To The Machine.” Well, that was it for vinyl.

    True, although quite dull, story.

    • Koyaanaqatsi? Welcome to the Machine? All back to Escher’s for a party! You must have had them all beating down your door for a rave at your gaff back in the day.

      Of course, I was the same with my Jean Michel Jarre and my Miles Davis . Of course.

      • Koyanaqatsi.
        I remember being in London in 1983 in a highly popular high st for electronics , maybe near Sterns. I’d smoked a jazz cigarette and decided to see a movie. Hmmm that sounds exotic and it has a Phillip Glass soundtrack.
        So I sat down and enjoyed the arty intro as I waited for the plot and dialogue to unfold. And I waited and I waited ….
        The spliff would have bern ideal had I had different expectations.

  25. I was a late adopter, mainly because I wanted to have the funds to buy 10 CDs with the new player. Also my stereo was on its last legs so it was a complete refit. I grabbed an Arcam CD player and amp which happily talks to my turntable (and is still in use, still sounding great). This from a proper hi fi shop in Watford with a listening room n’all where they set up the system, cunningly using Mission speakers which guaranteed the upsell.

    I can’t remember the full 10 but there was certainly Kind of Blue, Gary Moore – Still got the blues and Southside Johnny – “Better days” which had just come out so this is late 1991.

  26. I don’t remember my first CD, but I do remember my last vinyl for years – PJ Harvey’s Dry (with the bonus demos LP) on – checks Wiki – 30th March 1992. Purchased in Tracks Records, Hoddesdon, on my way home from work, served by old lag ‘Bones’ who pointed me to the last rack of LPs being sold off for 50p a pop. I left the shop with two bulging carrier bags, including the 1966-86 run of Rolling Stones albums.

  27. My last vinyl purchases before committing to CD were two double Zappa albums, “Guitar” and the “You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Sampler” in 1988. The YCDTOSA series of double CDs were a starting point with CD collecting that year. I had become a Zappa obsessive and as well as some brand new CD issues, Rykodisc were releasing the entire Zappa/Mothers/MOI back catalogue on CD. Though sometimes in rather dodgy remixed & partially re-recorded forms.

    • One of my first CD purchases was a glut of Zappa releases (10 for £2 each) in the Virgin Megastore about three years before I bought a CD player… and I can testify that the CDs Frank worked on in the dire are absolutely awful. It was his time and it was his back catalogue but he contrived to render it all virtually worthless. I don’t think they even have a curiosity value.

      The happy ending to the story is that the CD reissues since his death are wonderful.

  28. I can’t find the comment and who said it about opening the vaults to stuff we would never have heard or had the opportunity to buy, but thet wereabsolutely bang on. Try buying a Pentangle album in the 80s etc. Let alone far deeper curious.

  29. I’ve flown the flag elsewhere on this site for the DJ mix, a form of music that absolutely would not have existed without the CD. Turning over your mixed vinyl every 20 mins? No. Listening to Derrick Carter’s About Now CD right now and it’s sounding mighty fine. Also you can get an entire classical symphony on one CD, bar Mahler and again listen uninterrupted.

      • Funny that eh? In clubs themselves CDJs and laptops didn’t really take off until the 00’s. So dance music, one of the chief beneficiaries of the CD as a medium, helped to keep vinyl alive.

        And of course mp3 and then streaming ultimately abolished any idea that there was a physical limit on the length of the piece because of the medium. Check out this 5 and a half hour mix from Autechre

        https://autechre.mixlr.com/

    • Time for me to trot out my well-worn fact that probably everyone here knows, that bores most people who don’t care anyway, and might not even be true:

      The size of a CD (thus length of playtime) was determined by how big it would have to be to fit Beethoven’s 9th on one disc.

      • Are you sure you’re not getting lovely, lovely Ludwig Van’s 9th with Todd Rundgren’s Initiation?

        I’ve heard it said (although not on CD) that the two are often spoken about in the same hushed, reverential breath..

      • Are you sure you’re not getting lovely, lovely Ludwig Van’s 9th with Todd Rundgren’s Initiation?

        I’ve heard it said (although not on CD) that the two are often lovingly referenced in the same hushed, reverential breath..

      • That fact seems to have been debunked as a myth.

        I’ve at least four different recordings of Beethoven’s Ninth on CD, and at least two of those have the disc padded out with another 15 minute or so long track. The longest recording of the work I own is about 65 minutes long, and that’s a live recording with some applause at the end.

          • Audio CDs can have up to 90 minutes of music. The 80 minute limit is a technical standard the record labels and audio equipment companies agreed on.
            German »punk« band Die Ärzte issued a Best Of album on Universal with both discs having around 88 minutes of music. Bear Family regularly released discs with around 85 minutes playing time. (Yes, every Hoffmanite with a CD player not equipped to play these kicked up a storm of complaints….)

            • Yes, you are right. There is no (as far as I am aware) upper limit in the Red Book standard. But there is a lower limit on how narrow the optical track can be. Given the inner and outer circumference, this effectively sets the limit.

              CDs with narrow tracks don’t suffer the 30-minute-per-side-LP sound quality problem, but they are more likely to skip.

              I have some 90-minute CDRs in a box in a cupboard. I think I once tried burning one.

            • Oooh I genuinely find this fascinating. I’m not sure why. I always thought the 74 minute limit was an actual, physical limit that couldn’t be breached – which due to “technological progress” was subsequently squeezed out to 80 minutes. I didn’t realise it was those pesky men in labcoats just setting an agreed limit and being afraid to push the technology as far as it could. 🙂

              Reminds me of the stories about EMI engineers squeezing more and more bass on to Beatles singles in the mid 60s, even though they were instructed not to let the little needle go into the red as it would blow peoples’ record players. Must have been thrilling to break the rules like that!

    • I’m not a dance music fan, but definitely I used to LOVE some more eclectic/ funk/ hip-hop based mix CDs (and yes, weirdly enough they were a big inspiration for me to get more into vinyl.

      My three top mix CDs (off the top of my head):
      – David Holmes – Essential Mix 1998
      – Liam Howlett – Prodigy presents Dirtchamber Mix Volume 1
      – The Avalanches – GiMix

            • Oh, is that a rare CD these days? I feel quite smug!

              Mind you, talking of rare CDs, I’ve just realised I accidentally cheated – the Avalanches one was only ever a cassette tape sold at gigs, not a CD (until some later pirated copies). Quite proud to own an original, as they are very rare! Although I’ve no idea how I would ever prove it’s the real deal (it’s just a cheap looking little thing with a photocopied cover).

              • I picked up the David Holmes essential mix a few months ago on discogs for about £8 (plus postage). I originally had the cassette at the time (as I was a poor student nurse when it came out).

                Other favourite mix CDs would include-
                Chemical Brothers- Brothers gonna work it out
                Justin Robertson/Felix da Housecat- Bugged out
                2 Many DJs- As heard on Radio Soulwax

                • I quite like the Chemical Brothers one, although it goes a bit too dancey for my liking. The opening few tracks are brilliant though.

                  I am strangely sniffy about the Radio Soulwax one! I’m not sure why, but when it came out I was an incorrigible snob (so what’s changed, arf) and I poo-poohed it: it felt like the whole mashup thing had been done to death and they were just capitalising on it. They seemed to me they were just riding on the coat tails of the Avalanches who in my eyes were better. I seem to remember it seemed like “just” a dance mix (again, not really my thing) with the novelty mashup bits like Velvet Underground and Dolly Parton shoehorned in. But I haven’t really gone back to it in the last 20 years so I really should!

  31. In a further twist to everything being shite, Ace Records have started doing cassettes again (true – £14.70), so keep them CDs, you absolutely know (this WILL happen) that in 10 years time, ankle botherers will be foaming at the mouth for Oasis’s first record on CD not vinly, on the not unreasonable contention that most people heard it that way in 1994.
    Buy ’em now for 10p – shift ’em for £20 in 2033.

    Never ever underestimate the British public’s capacity to want to pay MORE money than they have to.

  32. I bought my first CD player in February 1985 at the age of 18, having got my first full-time job working in Boots record department (also where I bought the player). It was a Philips CD104, an amazing sounding player that caused me no end of heartache with technical problems. My first discs were Rumours, Thriller and Can’t Slow Down – the latter two still sound great, but Rumours needed that recent remaster.
    The early days of CD were slim pickings on range availability – around the time I bought the player we had a shelf in a locked cabinet in the shop with the slim range of CDs we had proudly displayed on Perspex stands! The shop opened in November ‘84 and I remember the change from LP as the dominant format to cassette in 85/86, finally to CD towards the end of the 80s – I recall the excitement of finally being able to get things like Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation… on CD at the same time as other formats, not a given in those early days (and that’s as late as ‘88). I also remember the novelty of being able to buy compilations on CD in the early days – I bought a copy of Now 4, the first of the Now’s to get a CD release, but was only a single disc with half of the tracks of the other formats (worth a small fortune in mint condition today, which sadly mine isn’t in…)
    I still buy them regularly (Sleaford Mods and Miley Cyrus last week), but mostly upload to my computer and then on to my iPod Classic for the last 20 years. I have 4000+, and never had the heart to let go of them…

    • I echo your final sentence. I’ve just had a tidy up of my CDs (with more left to file) and I’ve filled 15 and a half out of 16 storage drawers. I really need to stop buying them!

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