‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

Why media fans want to escape algorithms with CDs, DVDs and vinyl

70 points · 109 comments · beardyw

  1. pkthunder · · focus · HN ↗
    I’ve been going through my own personal revival of physical media - mostly audio. I don’t miss streaming at all.

    Every CD I buy gets ripped to a NAS that hosts the music behind Navidrone where I can stream to my vehicle using Play:Sub (thanks to Tailscale for enabling all of this to work for me!).

    I am just so enamored with being able to get the best of both worlds - my own music, anywhere.

    I do wish I could figure out some sort of recommendation system to find new magic, though. Obviously not to steam new/unowned songs, just to point me in a direction next time I go to the store.

    1. Hoodedcrow · · focus · HN ↗
      Seems like CDs are redundant here though, given that they get digitized anyway.
      1. pmontra · · focus · HN ↗
        They are the backup. A music CD can last for a long time. Proof: my father CDs from about 35 years ago still work.
        1. pkthunder · · focus · HN ↗
          Also just fun to be a plain-old jockey when you have company over, rather than just let “Appotifydal Top 3”
          1. l72 · · focus · HN ↗
            Even though I've ripped my 1000+ CDs, I tend to not let company dig through them, as I consider them my pristine backups!

            I also buy a lot of digital music on bandcamp.com, and like OP, host using navidrome.

            But you are right, when company comes over letting people DJ is fun. Instead of using my actual CDs, I set up a system with RFID cards. You can buy hundreds of RFID cards for super cheap. I print out the cover art of each of them, and the RFID ID corresponds to an album. A simple RFID reader hooked up to a pi, which reads the ID and plays the corresponding album with mpd on my stereo, makes for a cheap, fun way to allow people to physically explore your collection.

            1. pkthunder · · focus · HN ↗
              Really like the idea of RFID cards - I was brainstorming something like that years ago for the kid, but never chased it down.

              (Un??)fortunately, I am usually the one slinging CDs for people to listen to, people just like being able to offload that and listen to curated music, vs. "throw on spotify whatever" and having it just _play_.

        2. swozey · · focus · HN ↗
          People say this and when I look it up it's supposedly true, but I grew up in the heyday of cds and cdrws and have probably burnt thousands of them including specifically expensive plextors or whatever brand wasn't bulk trash back in the day and constantly had issues with scratches, sunlight, whatever damaging them to uselessness. I was the kid selling mp3 discs and pc games when nobody could afford a cdrw burner.

          There is a reason people can tell you how exactly how many times they've bought greenday dookie, offspring smash, 2pac all eyez on me and other 90s gold. I think this is some collective brainrot or everyone is talking about hiding their discs in the canticle of leibowitz and not their corolla.

          edit: 35 year old cds is 1995, that your dad comment made it sound even older. I guess you're not the prime cd burner in the house, your dad was, ask him how many times he's bought those working discs albums. Or he was the guy with the giant bookcase envelope of CDs he treated like gold. I could always burn a new one.

          1. techdmn · · focus · HN ↗
            Similar to the OP, I buy discs, rip them, then store the physical copy for recovery purposes. I keep them in a box in the basement, the vast majority are still in working order. (Including discs purchased or burned 35 years ago.)

            Like any other media, frequent use and handling will degrade discs, and sunlight is the natural enemy of anything plastic. The interior of a car will also get ridiculously hot on a sunny day, I have seen vinyl literally melt. (And crayons!) Actually I've lost more discs to theft than anything else, by a large margin.

          2. 1718627440 · · focus · HN ↗
            I think commercially sold disks are not burned, but stamped from a master copy or something.
          3. theandrewbailey · · focus · HN ↗
            > edit: 35 year old cds is 1995

            35 years ago is 1991. Don't try to age me faster than I'm already going!

          4. pmontra · · focus · HN ↗
            CDRW is a totally different technology that happens (by design) to be compatible with the same reader. CDs are moulded, much like the box that holds them. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Compact_disc_manufacturing" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Compact_disc_manufacturing
        3. TFNA · · focus · HN ↗
          Not only are CDs the backup, but in some genres like classical music, the liner notes have some exclusive information that never made it to the web. I rarely take a CD down from the shelves where they now serve as mere room decor, but when I do, I often learn something new.
        4. Hoodedcrow · · focus · HN ↗
          For backup, I&#x27;d rather do a 3-2-1 together with my other important data, it&#x27;s not like CDs are the best for general backup anyway.
Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.