The Death of the CD

In 2005, music lovers would wait until their favorite artist released a new album and, when the time came, rush to a local record store and purchase the latest CD to add to their ever-growing collection.

This physicality made fans feel close to their favorite musicians. Holding a CD, a result of months of producing and perfecting, meant so much more than just listening to new music. It now seems this sacred ritual has been kicked to the curb as people turn to a new platform to satiate their music needs.

When the CD was introduced in 1981, people almost instantly ditched their cassettes and records. CDs brought clearer audio quality and were light, sleek and portable. They were cheaper to produce than records, and record labels capitalized on the blossoming platform. CDs were a deal for everyone: they were profitable for record labels and fans had access to a modern form of portable music.

For Kellie Mardula, founder of the music blog “Lotus Play Beats,” receiving her first CD and experiencing the music firsthand with her family was the reason she became enchanted by music.

“We would all come around it and hear it together,” she said. “Music is literally all about having an experience where people lose their minds.”

For music lover and bassist Camille McDaniel (COM ’19), purchasing CDs was a way of expressing her love for an artist and their music.

“If I really love an album, I like to have a physical copy of it,” she said. “Something about being able to hold it in my hands and play it on my Barbie CD player makes it even more special.”

This all changed with the introduction of streaming, the new phenomenon that altered the music world in ways the CD could have never done.

The rise of the Internet brought the creation of music platforms like LimeWire, where users could instantly download their favorite songs onto their computers. This ability was the closest thing music-consumers had to magic and gave people every reason to toss their CD shelf aside to make room for a computer.

Apple’s iTunes Store launched in 2003, allowing users to purchase a seemingly limitless array of songs at 99¢ each and $9.99 for an entire digital album. Within the first week of opening to the public, more than one million songs were purchased on iTunes.

In 2000, at the peak of physical music sales, Americans bought more than 943 million CDs. By 2007, when digital sales were becoming the end-all-be-all and generated 819 million sales, CD sales sunk to 500 million. CD sales have only decreased as streaming becomes the new norm for music fans. In 2015, paid subscription services like Apple Music and Tidal generated $1.2 billion in sales in the United States, crushing whatever hope was left for CD revenue. This led to the shutdown of thousands of local and national music stores that found themselves in the red due to a lack of interest in physical copies of music.

For many, including Boston University Music Business Club member Lexi Herosian (COM ’19), streaming has been the best thing to happen in the music industry.

“Spotify allows you to explore and listen to so many new artists,” she said. “I discover a lot more music on Spotify versus on a CD that limits me to one album and one artist.”

While promoting local artists through the Music Business Club, Herosian thinks streaming is helping advance artist’s careers.

“Most of the promoting that we do is for music is on music streaming websites like SoundCloud, because it’s easier to share with a wider audience,” she said. “There’s just more of a community online for young artists with other musical artists and listeners.”

Mardula argued that something else was lost with the end of CD purchases.

“I think, culturally, [the music world] has shifted because artists now aren’t just focusing on a CD and making music, they have to focus on plans of how to keep the rights to their music,” she said. “Record labels are worried about losing the ability to distribute and get money, so now [artists] have to focus on making a hit to sell anything, because people don’t want to listen to your whole CD anymore.”

However, with the end of the CD and the rise of streaming services, something unexpected occurred: physical vinyl sales began to increase. For some time, vinyl was the hipsters’ best kept secret. Today they’re mainstream, being sold at all major music shops and stores like Urban Outfitters. It’s only natural to question this resurrection when streaming is available at our fingertips.

For Alli Calfield (COM ’19), who adorns her room with a record player and an impressive vinyl collection, the comeback stems from a pure devotion to musicians.

Something about being able to hold [a CD] in my hands and play it on my Barbie CD player makes it even more special.”

“To me, records are works of art,” she said. “I have my collection on display in my room and will often just flip through it because having something tangible to show my love for the artists is really exciting to me.”

Mardula explained that vinyl revival is a kind of aesthetic, comparing them to “novels.” Yet, she is certain that the CD will not enjoy the same revival as the vinyl.

“I don’t see people going back to CDs,” she said. “I understand [vinyl is] from a different time completely, and I think that the allure that vinyl has makes more sense to me than a CD.”

In our current culture, some are yearning to bring back the physical CD, while others moved on and enjoy the speedy journey to an electronically fueled music world.

“I love my Walkman, but it’s just heavy,” Mardula said. “I can have a phone that has all of my music on there and I don’t feel like my [music] culture was stripped away from me in any capacity from this shift.”

While we are moving toward a new era of music, it can be hard for some to let go of the CD. They did their part in shifting music culture and were the final tangible pieces of music before the breakthrough of the Internet. If anything, they will hold onto that legacy and hope to provide good use before they become only a memory of what once was.

BY TALEEN SIMONIAN | ILLUSTRATIONS BY KATIE HONG | DESIGN BY ASLI AYBAR