Ask Lemmy

I'm 27 and regularly atttlend concerts in the 80s goth/postpunk/arkwave/synthpop scene. Every band has a CD and I always get one, though if they have MCs, which they sometimes have, I preffer those. As a profesional poser, listening to MCs on a walkman just has this unique feel CDs can't replicate, while also helping with my attnention span since I can't just easily skip songs midway and stick to the few ones I like, instead forcing me to enjoy the whole album which eventually grows on me.

However, I'm probably not a good reference, since I also regularly host parties, DJ and help the local scene promoter with events, so music is pretty big part of my life.

Also, I don't really listen to them much. I have my own NAS with music, and instead of paying for spotify I download what I need from a private torrent tracker (which I need mostly for DJing, which I never get paid for and always volunteer, just like we do the events with free entry, yo no income from that). That's why I make sure to buy the CDs, while also having a budget that's in the same range as I'd spend on Spotify, that I make sure to use every month to buy an album I liked on Bandcamp, slowly replacing everything I've pirated with either CDs or bought digital albums. I feel like that way a lot more of my money end up at the hands of the artists, than if I just payed for a streaming service I don't want to support, while also not limiting me just to the few albums I can afford (and also giving me offline backup if they ever pull the songs from spotify). Pirating is not ideal and I generaly don't endorse it, but I feel like my approach is kind of morally ok-ish in the long run. Still not excusable, but I'd say better than just paying for Spotify.

I think most are inclined to buy something like a t-shirt, but my girlfriend does collect CDs in the same way I collect records

i wouldn't even go to a concert but if i did probably not. i mean there's no cd players left in my life so what can you even do with it? play frisbee?

I don't usually go to concerts but if i did, I'd rather buy a cd then use spotify or whatever digital thing there is where you don't own anything and get your content randomly taken away.

The last time I bought a CD, I got excited to listen to it at home, then realized I didn't have a disc drive anywhere lol. I guess sweatshirts is the way to go. I'd buy a flashdrive with the lossless music for the same price though.

Edit: oh crap I'm not younger

I go to small venues, small bands. I've bought cassette tapes, vinyls, and CDs. Last cassette I bought was like early 2023. So it's definitely not phased out completely

The last couple of concerts I went to were more EDM and aside from T-shirts, hats, pins, and patches, etc they had vinyl records.

I almost always buy a vinyl. Great artwork, lasts forever, makes putting a great album on a special occassion.

CD without download code is a rip off.

My zoomer sis and her bf are big time concert goers and collecting vinyl is huge. No cds.

Some bands I see sell cassette tapes and vinyl records at their shows. These tend to be heavy metal bands. There's a niche interest in physical media in music, and it's mostly for analog mediums.

Usually t-shirts and hoodies, vinyls, armbands and autographed drum skins are the essentials, I feel like. And then every band has some assorted rotation of merch on top of this, but that's not universal for every band: beanies, mugs, CDs, keyrings, baseball caps, posters, ashtrays, weed pipes and bongs... These fall into the two categories of merch that caters to the target audience, and merch that is bought in bulk from www.weprintyourcrap.com.

For what it is worth, CDs are definitely pretty rare, because it's just an obsolete media. The CD was convenient before phones became even more convenient. Vinyls, on the other hand, are very popular and often occur because they're decorative and playing them is considered an experience.

For reference, I mainly go to pop punk/rock/indie/metal shows

I have a teenager and they seem to track with their parents.

My son is into digital, but he thinks vinyl is cool to collect as art.

One of his friends is into the sound of vinyl, her parents are vinyl people.

I still go to tons of concerts and I’m seeing cassettes and vinyl being sold, I don’t see cds as much but I’m sure they’re selling them.

Yeah they still sell CDs and vinyl. If you're punk enough they sell tapes too. The analogue media comes with download codes most often (or is already name your price on bandcamp, depending). And of course clothing and such.

They sell vinyl pretty often. CDs are a dead end tech though. They might be romanticized in the future like laserdisc and cassette but not nearly as much as vinyl.

If it's one of my favourite artists; I'd prefer a vinyl. If it's not; it's easy finding flacs online both legally (bandcamp/iTunes) and illegally (piracy); so I'd prefer a different merchandise even if I wanted their merch.

I'm not a "younger person" but I do still buy a lot of music within a specific genre. Although most of it is digital as that is what I prefer I have bought music in the past few years on vinyl, cassette, CD and USB. So artists are still producing physical media all be it in smaller quantities.

The last gig I went to earlier this year the merch stand was mainly t-shirts but there were some CDs to be seen, these were bands of "our era" though that I went to see in my teens (early 00s) so maybe they are just holding on to the way things used to be done, I can't speak for any newer bands.

Yeah, every concert I go to I try to get at least a CD, maybe a vinyl or T-shirt if they were sold out.