Do You Remember The Last CD You Purchased?

Can you remember the last music CD that you purchased? In the year 2021, I can't. Like nearly every other musical format before it, the compact disc is about to officially become a dinosaur. Recording artist Lorde is making news because her new album 'Solar Power' which comes out on August 20th, will NOT be made available on CD. For her, it's a green thing. Lorde claims she doesn't want to create thousands of plastic discs that would just end up in the trash. That may be where most CDs are now anyway!

According to HiResAudio.online, The very first CD was manufactured back in 1982. It was actually planned as the eventual successor to the vinyl record. Phillips and Sony were among the huge companies that manufactured the discs. By 2007, sales figures reached 200 billion units worldwide. But the early 2000's also saw the dawn of the digital age, and by 2010, the number of CDs sold in the U.S. were at 50% of their peak.

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Last year, physical sales of music fell to just 9% of the total spent. CD sales in 2020 were at 31.6 million compared to their peak sales totals of 942 million discs. Most sales figures show that money spent on vinyl will overtake the money spend on CDs in 2021. I look at the way my family listens to music. Sure, there is still good old terrestrial radio, but it's also streaming on programs like Spotify or Apple Music. If we buy a physical format of music, it's vinyl. Even my daughter Carly this year has purchased vinyl copies of her favorite albums.

I don't remember the last CD I purchased, but I remember the first one I got as a gift. It was Christmas of 1990 when my brother and I got our first radio that had a CD player built in. The first CD I got? After the Rain by Nelson. A classic? No, but I'll never forget putting that shiny, beautiful disc in the player for the first time. Ah, the 90's.