{"id":660679,"date":"2026-10-29T14:04:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T14:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/660679\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T14:04:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T14:04:19","slug":"algorithms-make-everything-predictable-why-the-cd-is-making-a-comeback-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/660679\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Algorithms make everything predictable\u2019: why the CD is making a comeback | Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

CDs appear to be having a resurgence<\/a>. John Lewis said searches for CD players are up 96% since July, while another report<\/a> on trends in music and film this year found that CD sales are up 16%.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, we asked music fans why they favour discs over other formats, and if it is a new preference or a lifetime habit.<\/p>\n

\u2018I have well over 10,000 CDs\u2019Andrew Wales says his wife is very considerate about his CD collection.More of Wales\u2019s CD collection.<\/p>\n

Andrew Wales, 67, from London, owns \u201cwell over 10,000\u201d CDs. \u201cMy wife\u2019s very considerate,\u201d he says over the phone. \u201cThere\u2019s quite a few in this room where I\u2019m speaking.\u201d They have also spilt into the next bedroom and into the corridor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need Spotify,\u201d says Wales. \u201cThe fact is, I like listening to music and I have always preferred owning it in a physical form. The [size of the] CD format allows me to own the number I own despite living in a two-bedroom flat and not a country mansion, so that\u2019s another bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the classical music Wales buys and listens to is available only on CD. \u201cI bought my first CD in 1991 \u2013 John Scofield, Meant to Be \u2013 around the same time that I bought my first CD player. LPs were becoming increasingly shoddy, both in terms of pressing and presentation, and their limitations meant that often or not songs or tracks were included on the CD release, but not on LP. There are still cases where that happens today.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, Wales also owns \u201cabout 2,000 LPs\u201d, \u201ca few hundred cassettes\u201d and an increasing number of Blu-rays. \u201cI\u2019m not always wedded to a single format.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018After having a baby, our records were too bulky and inconvenient\u2019Gabriela Crowley with her daughter and her CD player.<\/p>\n

Unlike Wales, Gabriela Crowley, 32, from San Jose, California, started listening to CDs only over the last year. \u201cGrowing up, my parents had a tonne of them,\u201d she says. \u201cMy dad played them in the car and everywhere. And then he got an iPod. By the time I was like 18, everything had started to shift away from physical media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her return to physical records started with the vinyl trend a few years ago. \u201cI met my husband, who also had a large record collection, and we enjoyed that hobby together for a while. But after having a baby, we found we really weren\u2019t listening to our records much any more \u2013 they were too bulky and inconvenient. My father-in-law gave us one of his old CD players and now we use that every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

A CD collection helps with the \u201cparadox of choice\u201d that streaming brings, she says. \u201cInstead of being paralysed by the endless options, you become more intimately familiar with what you have. I find it a much more satisfying way to engage with music. Plus, no autoplay or AI-generated playlists are being forced on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I buy CDs directly from the bands\u2019Neil Cumming has several hundred CDs from classical to folk, rock and blues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI bought my first CD in 1988 and have been collecting ever since,\u201d says Neil Cumming, 53, from Gloucester. \u201cI have several hundred of them. Everything from classical, folk, rock, blues \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Cumming buys CDs mostly to support musicians. \u201cI like a lot of small indie and folk bands, who are not making a lot of money. I buy CDs directly from them when I can, which means they get a bigger share of my money than they would if I streamed their music.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it means I own the CD for ever,\u201d he says. \u201cStreaming means you are basically renting the music, and it can disappear from the streaming sites. I enjoy the ritual of selecting a CD and putting it in the machine \u2013 it is a nicer experience than just pressing play on an app.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not that he\u2019s anti-streaming. \u201cIt\u2019s quite good for trying music before you buy CDs or finding new acts. But in the evening, with a mug of tea or a glass of whisky, I find the experience of a CD more satisfying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asha Varadharajan says the patience required in listening to a whole CD makes songs memorable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am drawn to the narrative and aesthetic arc of an album,\u201d says Asha Varadharajan, 65, from Toronto. \u201cIt\u2019s the antithesis of scrolling. I\u2019ve never been a fan of music as white noise in the background, unless I\u2019m boogying while vacuuming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Varadharajan has owned her CD player since 1999, \u201cwhich allows me to listen to five CDs at a time in any order I choose, building my own narrative arc as I listen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m grateful to friends who introduced me to artists I may never have listened to,\u201d she says. \u201cThe patience and persistence required in listening to a CD makes songs memorable. Streaming makes music ephemeral. I think algorithms make everything predictable, but everybody\u2019s taste is kind of random.\u201d<\/p>\n

It helps that CDs are hard to damage, she says. \u201cI\u2019m a klutz and was terrified of scratching albums as a child because I never could place the needle accurately without my hand shaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Varadharajan\u2019s CD player allows her to listen to five CDs at a time \u2018in any order I choose\u2019.\u2018They give me something tactile and tangible\u2019<\/p>\n

Ed, 63, from London, bought his first CDs in 1986 \u2013 \u201cGenesis, Invisible Touch, and Level 42, World Machine, if you must know\u201d \u2013 and has \u201cnever stopped\u201d, he says. \u201cBut my interest in the format has waxed and waned.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they first came out, CDs were very much positioned as: they\u2019ll last for ever, you can drill holes in them, you can put jam on them and they still play. But I got put off CDs because they sounded too bright and shiny compared to vinyl.\u201d<\/p>\n

But over the past two years, Ed has bought more CDs owing to their \u201calmost throwaway prices against the excessive costs of vinyl\u201d. Having music on CD \u201cgives me something tactile and tangible\u201d, Ed says. \u201cA good digital source is now every bit as engaging as a good record player.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CDs appear to be having a resurgence. John Lewis said searches for CD players are up 96% since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-660679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}