thank you everyone for sharing your stories! I am reading all the comments but there are so many now that I can't respond to all of them but you are being seen!

You know whats great about CDs? You pop it in and it just plays. You don't need the internet, or a password, or Wi-Fi. You just get uninterrupted music from beginning to end. And they come with booklets filled with lyrics and pictures. Usually.

I will never give up on cds.

Maybe it's just me, but I swear playing a CD in my pickup sounds better than connecting my phone to it via bluetooth. Never let physical media die!!!

Buying a CD as a teenager in the 90s/00s was a special event

Florida man seen trying to buy CDs

Japan is where the CD (and most physical media) market still thrives. The music industry there loves the idea of releasing limited special collector's edition autographed albums that can entice the otaku . They still operate Tower Records including a very prime location in Shibuya.

As my grandmother used to always say, "Don't get old, it doesn't pay". RIP Grammy

There is still a large market for CDs/DVDs/Blu-rays, it's just the labels are trying to force obsolescence to funnel people into streaming. Look at all the major music acts whose documentaries/live films are ONLY available on streaming platforms now rather than physical media. The upshot to this is there are some high quality bootlegs that are available almost immediately to cater to the folks who wish to OWN the film rather than rent it in a sense through streaming. High quality "fan-made" blu-rays and DVDs of The Beatles Let it Be, Billy Joel's 100th MSG Concert and the new Beach Boys documentary are out there, and ALL have hours of bonuses on them - just like best DVDs and blu-rays used to. Make no mistake, not being able to easily find physical media in stores in 2024 is by design. There is still a large market out there for this stuff, but since streaming generates a constant stream of revenue for the labels (as opposed to a disc which you buy once and have it forever), so that's where they are pushing folks towards in 2024.

I feel privileged to work at a record store currently because as of now people from all walks of life are coming in to buy tons of physical media. Gen alpha kids are buying DVDs and CDs brand new and used. Most customers buying this stuff talk about how they're sick of streaming and want to own the material so it's not taken away from them later by the company. While physical media is in a bad place right now, it's good to know there's a strong market still that's pushing to keep stores like mine alive and physical media as a whole so it's not lost to time.

If you grew up in the 70s or 80s or was a DJ in the 90s, vinyl will never be a fad.

It's so sad when stores like Best Buy have completely given up on CD's. Something that was considered a technological marvel in the 80's is now just a worthless piece of plastic coated aluminum. 25 years ago, people would've thought we are out of our minds to have the vinyl record become our physical media of choice in 2024.

Looks like those stores were all sold out of Dancing with Ghosts cd's. Way to go!

Fun fact: my local Walmart and Target have taken to stocking kpop albums. That shit is wild to me. To be fair, kpop fans are insane and happily blow $20-40 on each album and they sell out pretty quickly so I guess it's a no brainer. But considering I'm from a medium sized south Texas town and most the other CDs stocked are 80s fodder or Tejano, it's.... certainly a wild thing to experience.

Vinyl is so expensive these days. Here in the UK we have a shop called HMV and some of the vinyl can cost upwards of £50! It's ridiculous. Best to buy from charity shops or independent record shops. Cool video anyway my dude!

Cds blow away vinyl. When cds are gone I am done buying music.

toys R us in canada this year, started selling, cd's, records, and dvds, it's actually a huge part of the store too now edit, it's also not just top 40,. i saw all of pantera's albums in there

I still burn CD's to listen to in my car.

I remember buying music in a music store without knowing what it was going to sound like. The mystery could be very exciting when you discover something you really like

I remembered back in the 2010’s buying cds at target since they would never ID you for explicit cds. Got Yeezus and Born Sinner the same day. One day I would try to buy Long Live A$AP at a Fred Meyer. The ID verification popped up on the screen but the cashier was like a couple years older than me and bypassed it. I still have those cds and feel nostalgic when ever I see em

“Clearly my time has come and gone. I have become that old man that yells at clouds and whose references have become more and more obscure.” I’ve never felt a quote more relatable in my life lol.

The content we come for!

Things certainly have changed. I started collecting records in the late 1980s. I found them at thrift stores, used record stores, and a few chain stores. Not long afterward, I added CDs to the collection. Over time, it grew to the point of becoming completely unwieldy. Just over ten years ago, I moved to a new city with a far more expensive real estate market, so I had to purge a lot of that stuff. I no longer have vinyl records or a turntable for them. I still have some shellac records and a mechanical record player that was made in 1917. It's mostly a historical curiosity, but if the power happens to go out, I can play some ancient records on it. I still have CDs and DVDs, but I have long since ripped them to my hard drive, and they now sit in boxes in a dark corner. It is far more convenient to find music on my hard drive than to go into another room, pull a CD or a record off the shelf, put it in the device that plays it, and then in roughly an hour after it is done playing, put the thing away and dig out another one. I still want to own music, so I haven't gone over to streaming, but nowadays, I buy downloads. Amazon has made this increasingly inconvenient because they want to force people into streaming, but there are other ways to buy downloads. Classical music is my first love in music, though I also like many other genres. For classical and jazz, Presto Music is great for CD-quality or better lossless downloads, and for those who are still stuck on CDs, they sell CDs. The classical crowd doesn't seem to have come back to records in the same way as fans of other genres - CDs are still king for those who want physical media, and a lot of classical fans are old curmudgeons who refuse to embrace computer hard drives and streaming. For other genres, there is a lot of weird, underground stuff on Bandcamp. It is fun to dig around there and see what hidden gems might turn up. I've never had trouble buying downloads from that site. Come to think of it, I haven't looked around there for a while - maybe it's time to get back to it and see what I might find. One note on music downloads... If you do this as I do, back up your hard drive. Even better, keep multiple backups. I mirror my music library on two different computers and keep an external backup. Hard drives crash on occasion, and you don't want to suddenly lose a gigantic music library. I went in the FYE at the local half-dead mall recently. It certainly has turned into a weeb emporium. (Incidentally, there is another weeb superstore in that mall, and it is even more weeby.) It's fun to look at the strange stuff in there, but none of it interests me. I don't have room to collect useless ugly junk. That store still have some physical media, but the racks are as pitiful as the ones in this video. I also found some old, long expired candy there, and the place is generally a mess. The employees look like the place has sucked out their souls. I have good memories of a large big box FYE, which had previously been Media Play. All kinds of CDs and DVDs could be found there. Out of curiosity, I looked on Google Street View to see what is there now, and I saw a sporting goods store. Barnes & Noble and Borders also used to be great for CDs and DVDs, but those days are long gone. There is a used CD and record store in town that keeps a lot of stuff in stock. I don't want to add to my physical media, but occasionally I'll look in there, and if I see something interesting that I can't easily buy as a download, I might make an exception and pick up a CD or two. I know there are a few other stores like it around. People who still actively collect physical media should look for stores like this. There aren't as many as there used to be, but going into the used record stores that remain is like going through a time warp back to the 1990s. There is nothing quite like browsing through the dusty racks in a moldy old record store; the way discoveries can be made there simply cannot be duplicated online.

I miss the days of buying a CD in the store's what has this world come to

Best Buy not having physical media blows my mind. What’s the point of the place anymore?

Here in the north of Mexico, CDs, VHS's and tapes are appreciated by collectors, they are at regular price, greetings to all.

I hate vinyls. Who just has a record player? CDs are awesome I can still use them in my cars and they are useful

Thank you for the fantastic content! Thanks for not pivoting to drama because its easier to farm engagement. I am here for the long haul!

I used to be able to buy CD's at everywhere from Media Play (RIP) to Meijers grocery store. Now most have totally gotten rid of their physical music section and if you do find a store that sells them still it's one or two small racks with just a few current titles sprinkled with a few hits packages from legacy artists. Thankfully I have Amazon and Ebay to buy new CDs from every week. I currently have 11,000 CDs and will never give up on them.

I still buy CDs quite a bit. Some of them are meant as collector's items, while some admittedly, I burn, and usually don't play them again. However, I want a physical piece of media in my hands. I don't want to stream all of my music, as if I don't pay for the streaming service, I won't have it available for my listening pleasure when not on the internet. Currently, I use KZfaq music, as it allows me to listen to albums I'll be it with ads, and if I find I like it enough, I will purchase it. I will never let physical media die. Plus, if you see your favorite artist, you can have them sign this piece of physical media, which you can't do if only you stream the album.

The FYE in Knoxville has a very sad cd section, it’s becoming more & more “collectibles” 😢 McKay’s in Knoxville is my best hope for CDs.

One more thing the problem with ordering cds off the Internet especially Amazon is they don't care how the pack them half of the CDs I order from them come damaged and have to end up returning them

Best Buy got rid of all their physical media including new movies Q1 2024.

This just makes getting older harder. My car has about 30 CDs in it at the moment, and it's mostly 90s alternative. But nothing later than 2006. Feels like we're living in a parallel reality, where the stuff we grew up with in the 80s and 90s, like CDs, freedom and VHS, is a thing of the past... I really do not like this current timeline. But I'm grateful for the boutique labels in movies keeping Bluray alive at least!

My buddy bought a brand new truck in 2022 and it blew my mind that it didnt come with a cd player. i havent bought a new car since 2009 so i didnt realize that that was even a thing.

Great video man,big fan.

What baffles me as a professional audio producer, is people wanting vinyl over compact disc - with vinyl's poorer audio integrity. What really gets me is tweaking a mix to audio perfection - and then the customer wanting a vinyl plug-in run through... why? I'll do it, but like most things in this world now - it doesn't make sense

i notice one thing over here in Germany: people like me mostly do not got to local shops anymore, because you almost find anything there - it`s the same situation in every shop as it was recently uploaded and to bee seen in one of your "short"-clips - those who collect CDs order them via internet. Thank God i have a very cool 2nd hand-music shop in my town - CDs but also Vinyl in a very good quality, so you dive in there and feel like Alice in Wonderland.

Physical media will never go away. Vinyl and cds are here to stay.

Our local mall back in the 80s had FOUR record stores. For the past 10 years they’ve had ZERO.

I'm so fortunate to live in California, where the compact disc is still popular! They won't be found at Best Buy at all and only a few at Target. The Barnes and Noble chain have a decent selection of LPs and CDs at their stores and plan to expand the chain. There are many independent shops here, including the big Amoeba Music stores in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, selling new and used discs, including imports. A few miles west of me, Pasadena College has a monthly swapmeet featuring several dealers. Of course there are online sellers like Cherry Red, Burning Shed, Rhino (home of Quadio, yeah!) and The Elusive Disc.

CDs are still available in places around me like walmart, target, barnes & noble, local record store. They can also be bought online at amazon, ebay, discogs, bandcamp, artist/record label webstores.

Always ready for CD nostalgia! Thanks!

Some info from someone in Gen Z who started buying CDs in 2019- First, Best Buy stopped selling CDs in 2019. I bought some Green Day and Linkin Park albums when they were trying to clean out their remaining stock. Second, the only chain in my area that has a good number of CDs is actually… Barnes and Noble? The one near me has half CDs and half vinyl (which actually reflects US sales numbers) and has a small section of $5 CDs with a lot of great modern classics. The prices are decent, highly suggest them. It’s a lot of mainstream stuff, but you’ll occasionally find something obscure, and it’s typically discounted.

Great idea for a video, glad it's got some traction. Very interesting.

was just looking at Vinal records when i got your notification lmao

Where I live, upstate New York (nowhere near the city), CDs are everywhere! At every thrift store I go to there’s at least one bin full of them, some of them have a couple shelfs of them, and not just at the big chain ones like Salvation Army and Thrifty Shopper but at the local ones too! In fact one of the local ones I went to had a 7’ tall shelving unit full of CDs, there had to be at least a couple thousand of them, and at 50 cents each, I walked out with about 40 of them and the lady at the counter said they had way more than that.

So Best Buy basically has waaay too much space.

If you have a collection of metal cd's, of any sub-genre, sell them if they're taking up space. I made a nice chunk of change selling mine, way more than I spent on them.

Strangely enough, the US sales numbers are roughly equal for CDs and vinyl so far this year, after a few years of vinyl outselling CDs. And in many other countries (eg. UK, Australia), CDs still outsell vinyl by a significant margin.

I grew up right when a big CD and physical media store was being closed up where once it seems the staff accidentally put something uncensored. A family owned one even survived well into online streaming becoming huge before closing down and another is still kicking

Physical media when it comes to cds and dvd are a dying breed unfortunately. Why vinyls are coming back is pure nostalgic. Another form of the entertainment industry taking our money pretty much. Even in movies and television streaming everything is a remake, a sequel or prequel or reboot. But I find vinyls have an art to them and how they are handle and how to take care of them is something quite unique. CDs are has fragile and the sound quality is different to a vinyl of course…

Really cool and interesting video, very happy this got some traction. also I absolutely love your sense of style, be you bro

It's funny, I was kind of one of those "only analog is real" types years ago, until the vinyl resurgance really started to take off. In the past decade or so, I've really grown to like CDs again as well. They're far more economical if you're a physical media type, and some times flipping vinyl (especially 7"s and 45s) is tedious, especially if you're gaming or something. I also like collecting CD discographies of old punk, metal, grindcore, etc bands with the Artists whole run on it, especially if there's some good (hopefully not too hard to read) liner notes included. Of course, I am a metal fan in his mid 40s, so CD collecting is practically required. I proudly wear an onion on my bullet belt, as it was the style at the time.

I'm an old fart and am very nostalgic, but this vinyl record craze is ridiculous. I was there for the hey-day of vinyl- Have fond memories of sneaking into my cousin's old brother's room and listening to his 'Stones albums, and thinking we were so cool for 10 year-olds...but then I grew up, and embraced CDs and MP3 files when they came around, because they are better! The memories I'll always have...don't need some crappy vinyl records and POS record player to think of them. You can enjoy higher fidelity music AND have the memories. The hipsters today don't even have those memories...and just buying the paraphernalia we had isn't going to somehow create magical memories for them.

I used to buy a ton of CDs when I was a teenager in the 00s and now I have a storage box full of a couple hundred CDs that I don't even open anymore. That's not including two big CD wallets full of burned CDs. There are a couple of albums I have that pretty much don't exist online and were only ever released in CD format so I'm glad I have them. I still buy a CD maybe once or twice a year these days but it's usually at a show or directly from an indie artist's merch store that I want to support. Where I'm from (Dublin, Ireland) they still seem easy to find with a couple of stores still having large selections of them but there has definitely been a major push toward vinyl.

I like ripping CDs to my Mac so I can sync to my ipods. CDs are the perfect physical medium. I also grew up with them

i started collecting CDs again and i've used eBay and Amazon. there is a record store near me that sells vinyl and CDs though. i think they sell cassettes as well

I really enjoyed this video. I am old (65 to be exact). I have loved music since grade school in the 60's right up to the present. It would take hours to list all the genres of music that have been created in my lifetime. I experienced both British Invasions( for younger music lovers, look it up, I'm not talking about Ed Sheeran). To enjoy owning music, I began with LP's and 45"s, witness not only the birth of cassettes and 8-tracks, but also their deaths. CD's appearing in the 80's and passed vinyl by the 90's (supposedly the death of vinyl). Now I have lived long enough to witness the end of CD's, and a revival of vinyl. I did not mention streaming, to me that is not music. Streaming to me is beginning with AM radio in the 60's and moving on to FM in the 70's. Music concerts in the past did not require a loan or a second mortgage to attend like now. You actually attended to hear the music, not be dazzled by the stage show. I am not complaining just stating facts. I replaced my vinyl, cassettes and 8-tracks with CD's years ago. The record companies have already gotten my money many times over, not going back to vinyl. I know, I am old and the music of your youth is always the best, and there is great music now. But, downloading and sticking an ear bud in your ear? Count me out.

I loved this video. It was a nice mix of a vlog and your signature style. I focus more on the film side of physical media so I don't really pay attention a ton to the CDs but I do check those sections out from time to time at my local shops. Local record shops and resale shops are the best spots to find CDs around here. I genuinely think you'd like my local record shop and Music Millennium.

Awesome Vid! Thank You very much for Your Work! Greetings from Germany

The annoying part is that, while we've gotten convenience down pat, we're losing the intangible stuff that made shopping brick and mortars so interesting. I've lost count of how many CDs I picked up because a name grabbed my attention or a cover looked interesting. You can't do that online - or at least I'm not sure what the online equivalent of browsing a used rack might be. You either need to know about something already or get a specific recommendation and it's far less fun than just randomly finding treasure. The vinyl resurgence would be great for it, but most of what you see at anything other than niche stores is the same top 40 and/or "classic" albums. Great if you've lived under a rock most of your life, not so much if you're looking for something off the beaten path. Can be nice to thrift as a CD fan though. It's like tales people tell of looking for vinyl in the '90s when everyone was offloading their shit for pennies. Same deal now, but with CDs.

I still listen to my cds. I have a cd Walkman and a small stereo. I don't want cds to go away. I don't stream and don't want Spotify or a record player. Still have my dvds to watch too.

I still collect CDs and it’s definitely hard to find anything decent in most retail stores. I’m basically just using eBay for used older stuff and Amazon for new modern music at this point. Same thing for DVDs and BR. It’s a hassle to find the space and all that, but I just like having a physical media collection.

Dope video man, I grew up in the 80s and 90s and will never forget trying to keep your walkman hooked up through that wild cassette adapter in the car and not skipping even though every CD player said skip proof on it.

CDs will find their place again. Can't play a record in a car, and Spotify doesn't have everything. It will be the underground artists catering to a physical media crowd primarily that sees it through. I like records and CDs. And DVDs and Blu. I think the world will slowly regain an understanding of ownership ad streaming becomes more complicated and expensive. Best Buy and target halting most physical media stuff seems like an end, but it's really the beginning for many to understand where corporate greed is trying to push us - consumption without rights, and money exchanged without ownership. Spotify and Netflix are the fads.

I converted back to CDs as my go-to physical music format about 3 or 4 years ago when the price of LPs just got out of hand and I haven't gone back since. You can buy about twice as many CDs as you can LPs of your money and personally I find they sound just as good if not better.

I still buy CDs, but usually J-pop imports or things that aren't on Spotify. I know there are other ways to get the music, but I like the convenience of putting the CD in and listening, rather than tracking down files. It would be hard for a mall store to stock the CDs I was specifically interested in buying.

I'm glad I got to grow up in the 90's and early 2000's and enjoy buying tapes and CD's. Now I'm more into the Vinyl thing because of the value they hold.

Cool vid Josh! Here in Chile record stores are multiplying like crazy but are keeping prices high AF, sometimes you can get good deals tho. Hifi CD players are expeeeensive also.

Never stopped buying CD's. As they get harder to come by I get a lot of them from ebay.

Love how you're branching out dude! Your AVGN videos peaked my attention like most people here, but I can tell stuff like this is a real passion for you, keep it up!

I'm only in my 20s and the amount of change has been drastic already.

I was a cassette guy up until 2001 when I got the internet access, yarr! Life in eastern europe... The CD era was completely missed/skipped here. I would actually like the vinyl now tho, it looks cool, but the prices are unacceptable - I'm not broke, but I still can't allow myself to drop this much money on collectibles.

I went through this about a decade ago. Now I buy CDs at my Credit Union (Certificate of Deposit)

At least the Best Buy employees didn't laugh in your face when you asked if they still carried CDs. Then again, I didn't see the expressions on their faces either.

It’s easy to buy CDs online. Not much for the brick mortar stores except if you’re trying used CDs

Man it is sad to see FYE a shell of it's former self. Sadly it is clearly a store that doesn't have a reason exist anymore. I was a 90's kid and I spent all of my pay from my high school job buying cds. I had two huge cd binders that i used when I had a college radio show. But I havent used a cd for years since my car no longer had a cd player. Now if i want to listen to a specific song or album it is easier to find in on youtube than find the cd. It is sad but true. I also feel extra out of touch as I have never owned a record player. They were old tech/my dad's tech when I was a kid. Now people younger than me are into it as well as older people so I am the odd ball generation in the middle.

Just watched Honey We Shrunk Ourselves and Rick Moranus was telling his son that the shrinking machine was going into the Smithsonian along side the Gramaphone. His son asked, “what’s a gramaphone. Dad said an old record player. His son then asked what’s a record. This movie came out in the mid 90s.

I went to my local mall for the first time in like a decade and by chance stumbled across a large music store that took me back to being a teenager in the 90s at the very same mall. They had a huge used CD and Vinyl section, good amount of posters, mostly horror movie and 80s-90s metal bands, and an unbelievable amount of band t-shirt reproductions from my glory days. It of course wasn't the same as the 90s I lived thru, but it was really cool and nostalgic and great to see a store like that in this day and age. I still have hundreds of CDs, VHS, and DVDs that I've accumulated in my lifetime, and as a 43 year old, still have never had the thought of getting rid of any of them, because they are my history of what I grew up with. The only thing I ever gave away were cassettes, because they sucked even back then. All my other stuff I still find value in, and I don't subscribe to any streaming services, because I'm broke and just throw in a DVD if I wanna watch a movie. It's just a generational thing I guess. I loved the 90s and early 2000s, and in many ways, I never left.

You can buy vinyl records BUT you can't buy a decent record deck, the only ones sold today are cheap shite! To get hold of an actual decent high quality player you HAVE to buy second-hand decks and even these aren't anywhere near as common as they once were. I'm 50 so I had vinyl, cassette and CD (along with crappy VHS and quality DVD n Bluray) Cassette was utter white and vinyl just doesn't have the quality compared to CD. I LOVE CD.

I started collecting CD's a year ago after Apple screwed me over on my digital music I purchased. I now have about 200 CD's.

In New England, there’s a store called Bullmoose. They carry new and used CDs, as well as DVDs and blu ray.

Fun idea for a vid! I enjoyed it!

Target and Walmart carry as many CDs as FYE. Go to your local independent record store.

I built up a hell of a collection from thrift stores this year, picked up a couple from record stores, but mostly thrift

You the man Mr. Ghost

How FYE overpriced ass is still open is beyond me.

I’m old enough to remember cd’s being sold in giant display boxes and recording my favorite radio songs on cassette. I recently inherited my late brothers massive metal cd collection and I barely listen to it. CD’s, vinyl, radio, Spotify, it doesn’t matter. They’re all delivery systems to get you to listen to the actual music. Technology changes; it’s a way of life. The only thing that does matter is that music remains culturally relevant and cd’s assisted in carrying that torch for a long time. But their time is done, for the moment at least.

I lived in the South Bay CA in the 90's and one my favorite memories was this music store called Compact Disc Warehouse. They used to sell those bootleg CDs that came from Europe. I remember picking up Smashing Pumpkins "Early 1989 Demos", another collection of demos called "Pumpkin Seeds" and a couple concert recordings all on CDs that cost like $35 each. This was before the mp3 revolution, so you either had to buy these expensive CDs or trade tapes online, and I preferred the former. At some point in the early 00s all those bootlegs went away, and when I asked an employee about it he told me they ran into some legal trouble with that, so it had to end. They also had a robust collection of used CDs and they didn't keep them in any kind of locked cases, so you could gather up as many as you liked and go hit up on of their listening stations and play them all at your own pace. I used to spend hours there listening. They closed up for good around 2005.

Oh wow, it's the FYE store I shop at occasionally. I'm still surprised it even has physical media, some other locations have even smaller selections.

It’s not a long lost deal. I have CDs coming in the mail every week as well as records, dvd, cassettes, books, magazines, etc

i’m jealous your Walmart still sells physical media! here in Canada, most locations (at least in my province) removed their CD section 2 years ago and don’t sell vinyl at all… all that’s left is their “Blockbuster” DVD & Blu-Ray section…

FYE was the best store to steal from in the '90s to early '2000s

I'm currently 28 and I remember back in 2012 when Papa Roach and Three Days Grace had released their newest album at the time I went into Best Buy and was debating which one to buy I ended up buying the three days grace Transit Papa Roach and Three Days Grace had released their newest album at the time I went into Best Buy and was debating which one to buy I ended up buying the Papa Roach The connection album and I still have it to this day and I remember vividly seeing all the CDs in the front for the newest releases and newest movies as well and it was nice to see all the newest releases for a physical media up in the front of the store. And it saddens me how when I go in there now they no longer have physical media RIP💔 Great video btw!

They still sell those at Target and Walmart. I still buy them, only if it's classical music, audiobooks or such.

I worked at FYE in college, right before Spotify exploded. Getting to be around all of that music and CDs was definitely one of my favorite jobs I've ever had. I miss those stores.

Yeah it's the same in the UK, charity shops are where to find CDs. I went to the supermarket few christmases back to get a cd for my dad, was like what's going on ha

Crosley is barely a step above using a sewing needle

interesting video, i like your views on things