While we may be waiting a bit for Spotify HiFi to launch, there is a way to send CD-quality music to your home without using data. It's called a CD.
For the first time in 20 years, the humble compact disc format saw a surge in sales according to data released by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), with 46,6 million discs sold last year.
Granted, that's not a statistically significant jump given the drop in sales over the last 20 years (there were over 900 million CDs sold in 2000 before the popularization of music streaming services), but it is. surprising enough to give us some hope for the obsolete. Format.
Sounds like it might be time to dig up that CD player for one last spin.
Analysis: Are there any advantages of CDs over streaming?
No one will argue that CDs are more convenient to use than the half dozen streaming services we carry on phones at all times, but you could argue that CDs still sound better than most streaming services.
Most Spotify Free listeners, for example, are limited to 160kbps, while Spotify Premium subscribers only get around 320kbps. Compared to the 1411 kbps bit rate available on CDs, a lot of music data is lost.
That said, streaming music services have started to dabble in CD-quality streaming. Apple recently upgraded most songs on Apple Music to lossless audio quality (same as CD bitrate), and don't forget that Tidal built its entire platform around the idea of CD-quality streaming. .
CDs are unlikely to ever be a competitor to streaming services again, a point supported by RIAA data, but the format is still a good way to get a clean copy of your favorite album that won't go away if a service transmission collapses due to financial pressure. .