Poll

Weekly survey: When was the last time you bought an actual compact disc?

The future of the company disc became a little more wobbly last week when it was announced that Lorde’s Solar Power album will be released on vinyl and a digital download but NOT as a compact disc. For good reason, too: CD sales keep dropping as more people adopt streaming. The only physical format people seem to actually treasure is vinyl.

And have you shopped for a new car recently? There’s an excellent chance there won’t be a new CD in the dashboard. I went two years in my wife’s Honda CR-V before I realized that it didn’t have a CD player.

I think the last time I bought a CD was in the UK in the fall of 2019. Yes, the pandemic made it difficult to go record shopping, but even before COVID, my purchases had dropped to almost nothing. Long gone are the days when I’d walk out of record store with half a dozen discs.

What about you? When was the last time you bought an actual compact disc?

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 42406 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross