Music CD sales are still sold at concerts and many musicians rely on that income. But some artists have begun selling digital codes, too. Automakers began phasing out CD players several years ago. “But there are still people who will buy CDs, so this just gives them one less place to buy them.”

Wholesale cost of CDs was $0.75 to $1.15, while the typical retail price of a prerecorded music CD was $16.98. On average, the store received 35 percent of the retail price, the record company 27 percent, the artist 16 percent, the manufacturer 13 percent, and the distributor 9 percent.

Generally, if you care about sound quality, and if you can tell the difference, a CD costs the same or less than digital downloads, and have a higher quality compared to the compressed format available to shops like iTunes. In my case, buying CDs are still cheaper than purchasing digital files.

31.6 million CD albums

There’s lots of reasons why CDs should be seeing the resurgence. Fuelled by music lovers not wanting to lose yet another option for accessing music, both the CD and the vinyl record have started to see sales rise again – despite the advances in online music and services like iTunes and Spotify.

The difference between the loudest and softest sounds an LP can play is about 70 decibels (dB). CDs can handle over 90 dB. In practical terms, this means that CDs have more than 10 times the dynamic range of LPs.

Vinyl records are very expensive to produce as the production has multiple steps that are all expensive, both in labor and materials. They need to use expensive materials like master lacquer, nickel solution, etc which adds up.

Never touch the record’s playing surface with your bare hands or fingers as your body oil will transfer onto the record attracting even more dust thereby affecting sound quality. If you accidentally touch a record, it is best to immediately clean it with a liquid record cleaner before putting it back in its sleeve.

The 10 most expensive vinyl records ever sold

• The Beatles: Yesterday & Today – $125,000.
• John Lennon & Yoko Ono: Double Fantasy – $150,000.
• The Beatles: Sgt.
• Elvis Presley: ‘My Happiness’ – $300,000.
• The Beatles: The Beatles (White Album) – $790,000.
• Wu-Tang Clan: Once Upon a Time in Shaolin – $2 million.