🔗 The compact disc isn’t going quietly - Chicago Reader:

CDs have DIY appeal too. Chicago postpunk band Blush Scars just self-released their new album, Summoned, and front man Sean McCormick made runs of 50 CDs and 50 cassettes at home. “I did all the CDs within one day, and now I’m on day three or four with these tapes,” he says. Burning CDs didn’t just give McCormick an inexpensive way to release his band’s music on physical media; it also reminded him of when he used to burn his own mixes on CD. “I think there’s kind of a nostalgia factor towards it,” he says.

I feel like this aspect of CDs is under-appreciated. You can’t press records in your house, and we’re not down to one factory left making CDs. And it’s not like home-taping, either, where if you want decent blank tapes, you’re stuck combing eBay for new old-stock Maxells and TDKs from thirty years ago.

My big fear with this sudden surge in coverage about people still buying CDs is that the mercenary collectors will get involved and drive the prices up like they did with records and comics.