Should CD’s Make A Comeback?

Hello my people, I hope you all are doing well. I know this a random topic but I really just wanted to speak my mind and talk about what happening with the music industry. With all that being said let's get right into this blog!

Now if you don't know what CD's are, I'm asuming that you are a child, at that is okay. I will go ahead and explain what CD's are.

What Is A CD?

CD stands for Compact Disk. CD's are/were generally used for audio recording purposes and later on movies, and other things. You can still find some CD's at your local Target or Walmart by the way; we're just seeing fewer of them due to the rise of streaming platforms.

CD's may actually still be use but more so for gaming. People hardly use CD's for music anymore; especially since we've got Apple Music, Spotify, SoundCloud, etc.

So now that we know what CD's are, lets discuss some pro's and con's of CD's.

PRO's:

1. One time payment - When you puirchased a CD, you paid one time to play whatever it is that you purchased an unlimited amount of times. With streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Apple Music, Spotify, etc, you have to pay at very least $7 a month to watch a lot of movies or listen to songs. Granted $7 a month sounds like chicken change, but you have to realize you are slowly racking up those bills. And to be honest you aren't watching everyhing. Also there are times where people might keep the subscription even though they aren't watching anything. CD's are really inexpensive in the long run.
2. Movies Used To Be A Whole PRODUCTION! - I don't know about you all, but I remeber a time when you could buy a movie from walmart and it would just be the movie. It was a WHOLE PACKAGE. The movie industry used to spoil us. I recall being able to play games that came with the movie set up.  There a time where you could put the CD in there would be a menu with something along the lines of  "Play Movie/ Subtitiles/ Scenes/ Games;"  we really saw a lot of that with kid movies. It was a nice way for parents to get two for the price of one. If you dont believe me, I'll leave a link below as to what I'm referring to. https://youtu.be/VCW3IVfoaDs
3. All Parties We're Happy- Both the consumer and the people who worked tirelessly for the movie/show/song to come out successful were happy. Imagine working on set for 3 months to year and everyone in the world watches the show/movie you just wrapped up all in one day.  Then after watching it once, viewers watch your work sporatically. Or imagine putting out an album and before you can even blink, someone has already posted negative think pieces on social media. Everything moves too fast with streaming. When CD's were out only option, it allowed people to fully digest the body of work. We used to have real crtics who were respectable. Not only that, but for the artists, the artist got paid what they were due. For every physical copy sold, you got x amount of money. Nowadays, with streaming, there are folks that get 1 million+ streams but they are still starving. So now the question is, can you really make a living wage off of your  art? And if so how do you calculate that? This is exact reasoning is the logic behind the writers strike going on in Hollywood.

CON's:

1. Scratches- One bad sctratch on your CD and it is a wrap for that CD. With minor scratches on your CD your CD could probably still function. Once you get a real nasty scratch on your CD, whatever is it they you are playing will instantly begin to start acting up.  At some point you'll remove the CD all together.
2. Clutter- Having an abundant amount of CD's evntually lead to clutter.   Due to that clutter, at some point, you may begin to inquire about what's known as a CD rack or CD holder which can take up large amount of space. With streaming you just go on an app and you have any movie or song at your disposal.
3. Folks Aren't Getting Paid- As I discussed earlier in the "pro" section, people aren't gearing what they should be earning. The writer's strike really open my eyes to this fact. I saw online that some writers only made $700 the whole year. I also saw another story where this writer expressed online how she only made two cents, $0.2, in total. So you can understand why people are furious right?
4. Break Easy- If you are so unfortunate as to drop your disk on the wrong surface, your disk can not only be scratched, but can also end up being chipped, cracked, or broken into mutiple pieces all together. The devastation would be real.

I think Snoop Dogg got it right when he said, "Streaming gotta get their sh*t together."

It really doesn't make sense how someone could seemingly do so well on paper and the money is not adding up. In all honesty, the math is NOT MATHING!

Should We Go Back To CD's?

No. At least not physical CD's. Instead we should figure out a way to go back to the concept surrounding CD's. There has got to be way for both the creator and the consumer to equally be happy at the end of the day.

How can we make it so wrtier's are getting paid what they deserve without bleeding the pockets of the consumer?

Adding advertisments to these streaming platforms could be a good idea, howver how do you do that without making the consumer feel that they should just go back to cable televison?

Something has got to give.

I would love to hear what you all think, in terms of a probable solution.

Special Thanks

Thank you all for reading my blog post. I really appreaciate all of your support. It truly means a lot that you all take the time out of your day to read my thoughts. Thank you so much!

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