When did CDs officially replace Vinyl Records as the popular music format?

[Neon Sparkle]

For anyone who is old enough to remember, Around what year did CD "Take Over" and become the preferred format to purchase music on over Vinyl Records?

I'm well aware that new albums were regularly released on vinyl throughout the late 80's but I was born in '88 and when I was a little kid in the very early 90's and probably even before then based on old home videos we have, my parents only had CDs and Cassette tapes and did not own a turntable at all, so when I first became aware of records as a kid I perceived then as some sort of ancient relic that hadn't been in use for ages, despite having literally just come out of the tail end of the Vinyl era.

So, was it around the late 80's that CD's started to really become popular? I know they had already been around since about the mid 80's but I know most new formats take at least a few years to really take off. I seem to recall my parents already having a fairly large CD collection by the time I was 3 or 4.

[Emberfly]

When I was little, I had my older brother's turntable, that also had 8-track, for our childhood records.  It was in the early to mid 80's that all my new music was on cassette.  I didn't get my first CD player, and free CD, until '92-'93; it was huge and cheap.  I got my first discman around the same time.  I'm not sure if I was with the times or not, I may have just been too poor.  Mom did buy a rather pricy portable CD player with cassette player in the mid 80's but I'm not sure if we even had any CD's for a while.  She still uses that player and it works great, wow, that thing's almost 30 years old!

[kezrob23]

It may also depend on the area. I remember buying a record (cher - Jesse James, so whenever that came out ) and also remember getting a cassette tape for my birthday I think 1989? I know my sister got nkotb's first album on cassette...    and both my sisters got cd players Xmas '92.

[Shiromisa]

You're missing a step there.

[kiwimlp]

I'm not sure about when CDs took over but I know vinyl is on the come-back.  There are a LOT of record collectors out there and plenty of old albums are being re-released to vinyl

[popyduggan]

I was born in '86 and cassettes were the cool thing until about '92, then cd's were the the leading format. I can't really say about vinyl, but I guess cassettes took over around '82?

[Neon Sparkle]

See, I guess I never really viewed Cassettes as a format replacement since from my perspective they seemed to co-exist during both the Vinyl & CD eras. I remember people still buying Cassettes well into the late 1990's even when CDs were at their peak of popularity.

I always assumed people bought Vinyls to play in stereos and bought Cassettes as a more portable alternative as you couldn't very well play a Vinyl record in your car.

[skyrocketneko]

I'll agree with about 92'.  I did get a CD player for my 10th birthday, which was in '90, but they weren't really that big yet.  I remember CDs costs about $22 each back then, which was an awful lot of money at the time!

[NoDivision]

You're missing a step there.

I would agree with this. CDs really weren't an instant replacement for vinyl, there were definitely some cassette heavy years inbetween.

[Marigold]

Cassettes coexisted with vinyl. The main point being, if you were serious about your sound you listened to vinyl.  Records (vinyl) had much better sound quality and people who wanted good sound had records.  Cassettes were more of a mobile thing and were great for kids and teens who might not care as much about great sound quality or for people who don't know better.  People who were serious about music would have both a record player (for home) and a mobile boom box to take with them.

Therefore, cassettes never "replaced" records because there were many people who preferred the better sound of records.  I totally agree with them. 

Cd's in my area showed up around 1988 and it seems like within a year or two they had become the main form of music.  Especially as walkmans and boom boxes were quickly made for them.  Now music had a better and more constant sound and was mobile so the record started fading away.  But you still might keep some tapes for your car until cars started putting CD players in them.  Heck, MY stupid 2006 car came with a tape player in it.  I don't know what the manufacturers were thinking.  I do not ever listen to tapes anymore.  Why yes, it was a very cheap car.

Interestingly though, some people still keep record players.  The sound has a certain quality to it that many people still like.  And there is some music that I personally like better on a record player.  There are also some records you might not find in digital form.  I almost think vinyl recordings still capture sound better than digital formats do, but that might just be my preference. 

[kaoskat]

You're missing a step there.

I would agree with this. CDs really weren't an instant replacement for vinyl, there were definitely some cassette heavy years inbetween.

I have to agree with this. Records disappeared from alot of stores long before there were CDs. And as for any of them disappearing completely, I can still find records without too much trouble. My MIL just bought a new record player from I think it was Target, but it may have been Best Buy, a couple years ago. Granted it's a record & CD player and I found that a bit odd, but still. CDs more replaced tapes than they did records.

[melodys_angel]

*nodnod*  I had quite a few cassettes and didn't really get into CDs until much later.

[StoryDreamer]

This NPR article is fascinating and says the first CD ever sold was Billy Joel's "52nd Street."  The article points out that record companies could release their previous music now in CD, and people bought it all over again.

Many artists are offering albums in vinyl and CD these days. I bought an Alabama Shakes record that came with a free digital download of the CD. A lot of artists are doing that with the vinyl.  You can still buy new turntables and the sound is amazing, especially the old jazz albums that were recorded live, where you can hear the clink of ice in the drinks and the murmuring in the crowd.  There's actually been a resurgence in vinyl sales.  Death Cab for Cutie recently released a 10 year anniversary of their Transatlanticism album in vinyl, and I know I'll be buying it!  The albums have big beautiful artwork and you can frame the covers.. it's no wonder we loved albums. Tapes were for portability, not even really sound quality.  A boombox by Sony or Phillips was easy to take to a dorm room, and you could play tapes easily in the car.  CDs kind of enhanced that ability, brought better stereo.

I recently picked up some Victrola records to sell on Ebay and they blow my mind. They're HUGE, and heavy as heck, and they feature live recordings from the 1900s! Like..what.... can you imagine...something so old...recorded...

Great topic, interesting to read people's views on music formats.

[GazeboMouse]

In the 70s and early to mid 80s, my parents had a record player downstairs, and I had a cassette player upstairs in my bedroom. My parents only had a few records, mainly John Denver and Abba, and my albums were 'Disney Golden Favourites' and '20 Wombling Greats' and a nursery rhyme one. Cassettes were much cooler in the 80s, although my singles were all on record, I had A-Ha's 'Take on Me', and Band Aid's 'Don't they Know it's Christmas', and a couple of others I'm too ashamed to admit. But albums were on cassette in my house from about 1985 onwards. Didn't own any cd playing equipment til I went to Uni in 1995 and my husband to be had a Discman. Still trying to replace my tapes with CDs now!

[Neon Sparkle]

Yeah, I actually own one of those Crosley all in 1 record players you can get from Target. I know Records are still produced but they are more of a niche collector's thing now and are usually produced in smaller numbers than CDs and only sold in specialty shops or online.

I'm mainly curious to know when was the last time you could walk into a mainstream chain store like Wal-Mart and buy a new Record when they were still mainstream and widely available in mass amounts. I know that in the first few years of the CD era, they came wrapped in cardboard outer 'Longboxes' so that stores could still make use of racks they were originally designed to display Records.

As far as Cassettes go, it seems like those would have been the successor to 8-Track, and when the CD came out with it's high sound quality as well as portability, it eventually replaced both Records and Tapes over time.