Japan's CD album output falls below 100 mil for 1st time in 2018

I haven't purchased a CD in over 10 years

10 years? That’s generous. I stopped buying CDs when I learned about Napster, Kazaa, Morpheus and more. I feel old. MiniDisc players and then the iPod put CDs out of business in the U.S.

90% of them are people buying CD's for AKB voting.

"Japan's CD album output falls below 100 mil for 1st time in 2018"

That's not so bad. That is about 10 times the rest of the world combined.... you know because CD's died about 10 years ago.

I haven't bought a CD in years thanks to CD rentals at Tsutaya.

I still buy soundtrack CDs once in a while from secondhand stores (collecting older stuff), and I rent from Geo or Tsutaya to build up my digital library.

Unless it's a special collectors edition, I see no point in spending more than a dollar/100yen per song on the disc for anything new.

I buy CDs. My car plays them and the radio in the Midwestern states of America is full of trash and hardly enough good music from the time I grew up. Radio stations in most of America SUCK.

You can just go to YouTube for a song. Ads pay for it so you watch a 5 second or more commercial, then listen for free.

Kinda like how antenna tv pays for itself...at least in the States.

Starpunk:

Agreed. I only buy blank CDs for the car (MP3 for 100 songs rather than 12, thank God). Wish car had hard drive for music I could just transfer from phone to car one time and leave phone (I like to select on the dashboard, not look at my phone).

Oh yeah, I saw a fax about this news at the office this morning.

Japan lagging well behind the rest of the world, as usual.

CD?! what is that? I can't belive people still use DVDs either...

I assume most of the sales are from lonely men buying AKB48 CDs to support the favorite underage girls..

Joe YanMay 9 04:12 pm JSTI assume most of the sales are from lonely men buying AKB48 CDs to support the favorite underage girls..

And these guys buy several CD-single copies so they can vote several times for their favorite little underage cutie, and then throw away several CDs in the trash cans the very next day after mailing in their voting slips that come in the CD packages - clogging up the dumpsters! I saw the pictures in JT late last year.

Man - that's pathetic, disgusting, stupid, wasteful, disgusting, and perverted. Totally ridiculous to say the least.

juminRheeMay 9 11:42 am JSTYou can just go to YouTube for a song. Ads pay for it so you watch a 5 second or more commercial, then listen for free.

Sometimes you can hear a whole new (or older) album for free too. I love that! In America, particularly in a store near my university there were listening stations where you could 'try before you buy'.

I often use YouTube for that purpose before I see a newer 'indy' or 'cult' act that's coming to my hometown.

That's how I found about out and later buy CDs from and/or see in concert exciting modern and 'cult' acts like Modou Moctar from Niger, Kimbra from NZ, Frankie Rose from the USA, the instrumental HM band Pelican, le Butcherettes from Mexico and the electric violin prodigy Lindsey Stirling who has rapidly become a sensation with sold out gigs thanks to YouTube. When I heard that the J-psychedelic rock band Acid Mothers Temple and The Melting Paraise U.F.O. was coming to my city, I listened to some of their catalog on YouTube before buying a ticket to their show. I bought 2 of their CDs at their gig - man, they really ROCKED down the house. They are wild, energetic, eccentric, exciting and CRAY-ZEEE!!!!   ; )

Rock'n'roll is not dead but you have to search harder to sort and find the talent and culture from all the trash that's out there.

I too, haven’t bought CDs in 10 years, don’t need to, it saw its day and that’s a part of history now. I just download everything. Good thing Japan is now catching up to the rest of the world.

Blank CD for Car (but too bad only 80 mins)

Mp3 for Others and even cars but hassle selecting your preferable personal album.

For supporting the artist, buy mp3 from their original site.

When you buy a CD you own it, though it can (and does deteriorate).

When you buy an online track.... from a media service, you do not own it. Merely the right to play it though that online service.