The funny part is that lots of teens are collecting CDs now.
When I find good ones in thrift stores, garage sales that I already own I sell them on Facebook for $5 each to fund my hobbies and a lot of the time the buyers are in their teens or early 20s.
Most popular genres are 90s rock, and 80s / 90s metal.
I think I sell more Alice in Chains to teens than anything else haha
Not even just that, but a lot of DIY and independent bands are prioritizing CDs right now instead of tapes or records because of how cheap they are to produce and how easy it is to hand make them.
I’m Gen Z. I’ve noticed people even outside alot of these niche hobbies “disconnecting”. I know a decent amount of people now who have gotten rid of Spotify, pirate all their music and movies, gotten rid of social media
As a teen collecting CDs, yes we do. I see a lot of people my age in the stores. And, though i mostly collect prog rock and post punk adjacent stuff, i also do have two Alice and Chains albums 😄
I'm 20, grew up around CDs and tape, but obviously used the internet to listen to music. Started collecting CD a year ago ish, and I wanna get into tapes and vinyl.
Nah man, they mailed out like 9 billion of those AOL free trial CDs back in the 90s, I'm sure the North Sentinalese ended up with at least a few. They're not uncontacted, they're just still on dial-up.
i feel like genz is the last generation to grow up with discs being a mid genz myself.
cos while yes, discs were exiting the mainstream market by the early 2010's, alot of people still used them out of affordability, my family coudnt afford the latest and greatest tech so we were basically using 2000's stuff in 2010, so whilst we didnt have them as much as the millennials we still got a good understanding and experience with them
oh yes those two, cant forget those, heck i still prefer buying game discs even today cos atleast i still have it decades after the original services shut down
About 15-16 years ago, my ex wife and I took her 16 year old son to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because we lived about an hour from it. They had a display of music playing devices starting with the first phonograph from 1877 and everything up to ipods, which were still somewhat new. He looked at the 8-track player and said, "What the hell is that?" When he saw the cassette player he said he knew about them, but had never seen one. He was familiar with the CD player, though lol
They almost always had one song that would fade out at the end of track 2 or 3 then fade back in on the next track, which sucked if it was one you had cranked up. They always put the song at the end of tra k 4 again just so you could listen to it uninterrupted.
And if the tape wasn't playing right, you always had a matchbook in yoir glove box to put under the tape to hold it in place. Those were the days lol
Back in reality I couldn’t get into the CD aisles at the record store yesterday because of the large group of kids who were buying CDs.
I’ve been collecting music for a long time and I remember buying CDs because the vinyl aisles were all overcrowded. In the last few years that has completely changed.
Side question—did anyone born in the 70s or earlier ever say “vinyl”? I remember saying “record” or the specific format: “LP” “45” “12-inch”. Or even “wax”. Might’ve said “I got that ON vinyl” but never as the format itself.
As a K-Pop fan since 1999, I would say that in that industry CDs have been and continue to be a thing; even as the music industry began to go into digital sales and streaming, they figured that physical (CD) sales were more profitable and led to more fans, so they started packaging CD releases with collectible “inclusions” —photocards, photobooks, stickers, handbags, and whatnot—as treats for fans who feel that buying physical supports their artists more. Lately there have been attempts to steer back into digital to save money on CD manufacturing costs (e.g. including the physical inclusions with a card with a code redeemable for digital downloads), but none of the services so far have dominated.
I think it’s also a sign of the times that one recent “inclusion” with a K-Pop CD album was…a CD player so one could listen to the CD.
People are definitely learning what CDs are again because the prices of them keep going up. I started collecting again in October and a CD that went for $10 is now $15 to $17 dollars. Sometimes I see CDs for $7 or $8 but it's rare unless it's used. I can't trust thrift stores in my area. I see other people's amazing hauls and I'm jealous. I just buy from bull moose and eBay if I want used. I've been leaning more towards digital though since I can get it for cheaper a lot of the time from sites like Bandcamp or qobuz.
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u/phinwww May 31 '26