Online retailer Amazon is extending its Trade-In Program today to also cover CDs – you know, those round, shiny things collecting dust in the back of your closet? Starting now, customers can send in their old CDs to Amazon in exchange for Amazon.com Gift Cards, which can then used to purchase anything on Amazon.com, including, of course, any of Amazon’s 19 million MP3′s. → Read More
The Compact Disc was quite a revolution when it came out. With a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz and a 16 bit rate, CDs marked the shift to digital music. Unfortunately, it seems to have fallen from being the playback medium of choice. These days, people either buy vinyl records because “they sound better” (especially when played on your vintage hipster record player you bought from Urban Outfitters) or… → Read More
I recently did a horrible thing. Hoping to offer my son a little music to enjoy I downloaded 100 kid’s songs from iTunes for something like $7.99. I figured “Hey, kids like songs. 100 songs is a lot of songs. It’s a good deal.” I was wrong. I entered, for about two months, a circle of hell of which even Dante did not write: The Circle Dedicated to Listeners of Toddler Music.
So why am I doubling… → Read More
This isn’t for me, but my parents might be into it. It’s a CD carousel that holds up to 150 CDs. It plugs into your PC via USB and plays via iTunes or the jukebox software of your choice. It doesn’t rip them, but instead acts as a jukebox with your PC as the interface. Interesting, but I don’t get it. We’re guessing the RIAA is sending these out as Xmas bonuses this… → Read More
Make found a catalog of microwaved CDs, which basically offers up some of the coolest lightning simulations you’ve probably ever seen. → Read More
Welcome to the Unreasonable Stance, where our own John Biggs takes the minority opinion on a tech matter and defends it with convenient data, spun numbers, fanboyism, and insults until he proves, without a doubt, that those that disagree with him are filthy mouth-breathers. What was the first thing you bought in January 1990? If you said “Food” or “a tankful of gas,”… → Read More
If the threat of making Madonna go hungry weren’t enough, CD pirates in Arkansas are now locked up in solitary and forgotten for four days. [For] four full days, Adriana Torres-Flores was locked away and forgotten in 8 1/2-by-9 1/2-foot cell in the Washington County Courthouse, with only a metal table, two benches and a light bulb that never went out. She had nothing to eat or drink. There… → Read More
I’m getting ready to move from Minneapolis to Boston and, upon cleaning out my house, found a treasure trove of old CDs that I’d shoved under the stairs along with my 3DO and Sega Saturn systems that some idiot spilled beer all over. I grabbed Metallica’s self-titled black album (which, coincidentally was the first CD I ever bought) and threw it in the last remaining CD player I… → Read More
This is good. It’s a combination MP3+CD player, and, if it were ever released, I’d be all over it. To the untrained eye, it looks like a standard $50, no-name DAP that you’d find at Best Buy. Once you open it up, however, you’re able to stick your CD in between the two, uh, things, and it starts playing. More pics ahead. → Read More
A great album, but it leaked a whole three months before its release date You’ve got to peep this article on this small blog. It’s a great write-up on how CDs get leaked months or weeks before their release and the impact it has on the music industry and fans alike. Sometimes leaks work in a positive way though, like when Nine Inch Nails left USB drives in venue bathrooms for fans to… → Read More
Apparently, fair use is going to hell in a hand-basket very soon. If I buy a CD and don’t want to keep it anymore, I should be able to sell it to a third-party for a considerable sum of money. According to Florida and Utah law though, you can’t do that. In fact, these two states are placing restrictions on the sale of used CDs so that you must submit plenty of identification as well as… → Read More
As I was thinking about this week’s Help Key topic, I tried to remember a few things that really made me angry when I first started using computers and when I first started using a Mac. My biggest pet peeve? Dead DVDs and CDs that littered my home office like so many belly-up roaches. Optical disks are, at this point in the game, mostly being used to store media and, in a pinch, back-up… → Read More
Ever since Tower Records closed its doors for good late last year, I’ve been wondering about what record stores are going to be like in, say, 10 years’ time. Will they be nothing more than rooms full of self-serve digital music kiosks? People are buying digital music online in droves, and there’s only growth in sight as broadband penetration [eeeww] marches on and new… → Read More
The future of the CD is not looking good. Last year, 112 million CDs were sold between January 1st and March 18th. This year? A paltry 89 million. Don’t get me wrong. 89 million CDs in three months is still an lot of discs sold. But a 20-percent drop in sales? That says something. The music industry is blaming lackluster sales on the growing demand for digital downloads. I’ll believe… → Read More
In the odd world of high-end audio, everything is a factor. Take this little device, for example. It’s a media demagnetizer that allows you to demagnetize everything from your vinyl to your prized CDs. Why, you ask? I suppose it reduces crackle and prevents your Florgo 5000 $20,000 CD player from blowing up. How much does it cost to demagnetize your media? $2,900. A bit much, it seems, for… → Read More
Are you still using CDs for whatever reason? Well, that’s your problem. They’re large, get scratched up, and don’t hold much data. If you do have some legacy information on some that have been abused, or really feel the need to rip Careless Whisper by Wham!, then you need Skip-Away, a colorful box for repairing scratched or warped CDs. It’s fully automated, meaning you put… → Read More
I’ve been unloading a ton of old CDs and filling in holes in my collection through a site called Lala.com, a cheap-and-easy CD-trading site. Along the same line as Lala.com is BarterBee.com, which adds games and DVDs to the trading. The site, instead of just straight trades, lets you assign point totals to the stuff you’re trying to get rid of. Someone then pays you the points you… → Read More
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