The end of physical media.

[GrimJosef]

Originally Posted by Trevor

Why cannot a retailer operate a download centre you chooses your music your format and then the retailer burns a cd or records a tape cuts a record ...

How much would you be prepared to pay for it ? Would it cover the cost of the medium, including packaging, the cost (performer's rights) of the material, the retailer's wage for the time needed to do it and, depending on how many customers there might be, your share of the plant cost, the premises cost and overheads (taxes, advertising, administration etc).

The cost of LPs and tapes was an issue even when they were all there was, so people had no cheaper alternative (except the wireless) and they were produced in their millions, so economies of scale made them relatively cheap. I fear you'd have to have deep pockets to be able to afford a custom-made one now ...

Cheers,

GJ

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by GrimJosef

How much would you be prepared to pay for it ?

I see my preference for physical media led me to pay £12.73 in 2012, inclusive of carriage, for what turned out to be a CD-R manufactured by Amazon in the US with very basic printed inserts: apparently produced on demand. Print-on-demand books are of course commonplace, covering even much of the Oxford University Press back catalogue: large savings in warehousing costs no doubt. As I recall there was much speculation a few years ago that automated print-on-demand book booths would spring up on various places, I don't know whether such things currently exist anywhere: anything similar for CDs doesn't seem at all likely absent a major resurgence in the popularity of the form, and there's no sign of that.

Paul

[Richard_FM]

I've got the feeling in the Far Eastern countries it was possible to get custom make Minidiscs from a vending machine, selecting the tracks from a database.

[agardiner]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

I've got the feeling in the Far Eastern countries it was possible to get custom make Minidiscs from a vending machine, selecting the tracks from a database.

Yes, although this was popular in these countries due to the cost of purchasing an album. Techmoan covered this in one of his recent videos on minidiscs.

[lightning]

The good thing about DVD's and CD's being deemed "old hat" is that those of us (like me) who still want to buy a film on DVD can get them
for next to nothing.

Most films l have bought on DVD or blu-ray recently have been from popular auction sites for under £5, and sometimes 99p

Same with CD's, £2 being the average price paid.

[Trevor]

I agree re the cost of music I do not mind paying a royalty fee to the artist and studio
but think on this Why produce millions of cd,s that no one wants
What happens to unwanted cd's
more landfill
Trev

[Richard_FM]

I picked up 4 DVDs from a charity shop for a Pound about 2 years ago!

Just before the lockdown I was quite intrigued to see a copy of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On? from a pound shop, & didn't think twice about buying it!

[Junk Box Nick]

The charity shop was once a happy hunting ground for vinyl – I got many LPs I was much desirous of in my youth this way – in fact probably more than I had previously bought at full price.

Now it is CDs and DVDs. One shop in my town puts them on a large trestle table outside. There is a nominal price for each or a bulk offer. Sadly, I must have missed somebody donating a heritage railway part-work as I was only able to scoop up the remains but was more than happy to pay the asking price. I rather think they are pleased if someone steals the stuff – it saves putting them back into store.

[Paul Stenning]

Putting smaller cheap things that kids might nick close to shop doors is fairly common and sensible.

[agardiner]

Me and the wife still enjoy DVD's and BlueRay. In fact most of what we watch is on them; we don't do streaming.

We are members of an online DVD rental club - probably the last remaining one in business!

[G6Tanuki]

While the 'burn your own compilation CD' idea may seem attractive to some, I can only think that if there was really sufficient demand then someone would have monetized it and it would be available as a service.

15 years ago - when I last moved-house - I'd have been happy if there was someone-out-there who offered a bulk CD-to-FLAC digitising-service - let's say a fiver per CD - and I'd have shipped them a couple of hundred CDs, hoping to get a handful of USB memory-sticks in exchange and seen the CDs get 'recycled' in a heating-furnace somewhere.

Truth is, though, if such a service had been available, I probably wouldn't ever have listened to more than 10% of the results.

Musical tastes change and evolve. Stuff I was happily paying £15.99 per CD for in the mid-90s - though fun at the time - does not turn me on these days.

I still have a few 'legacy' CDs here, along with a Philips CD710 player, which hasn't been powered-up for years - it serves as a convenient 'riser' for the monitor I'm typing this on!

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

Musical tastes change and evolve. Stuff I was happily paying £15.99 per CD for in the mid-90s - though fun at the time - does not turn me on these days.

Yes, the way personal experience stacks up must be among the larger influences on our attitudes to physical media. Mine has been different, while certainly the decades have opened my ears to music that's passed me by before, and a number of today's artists have my attention, not quite all of them on the wrong side of 40. With ever so few exceptions, though, the musical fare that delighted me at 12 (mainly a motley assortment of 78s, leaning toward vaudeville/music hall and Edwardian balladry), 22 (Peter Hammill and Magazine to Mahler and Bach), or 32, 42, 52, can hold me still. Can't play everything all of the time, but my usual response on returning to a former enthusiasm after years away is an augmented rekindling of whatever about it held me in the first place: and an increased gratitude that the physical objects, be they 78s, 45s, LPs, cassettes or CDs, are still there for me to handle and play.

Paul

[andrewferguson]

Originally Posted by Trevor

Why cannot a retailer operate a download centre you chooses your music your format and then the retailer burns a cd or records a tape cuts a record you could even better have a compilation done
every one is happy no waste

I was in the process of writing a reply to the effect of "some do!", because I knew that the Warner Archive Collection, which sold the more obscure back-titles from Warner's film archives, used a print-on-demand service (where no back-stock was kept, and each copy that was ordered was printed on demand).

Sadly, it seems that service is no more. I did hear rumours last year that it might be getting killed off, and they seem to have come to pass. A pity, as I don't believe there's a way to officially order some of the more obscure titles now.