Is this the End of the CD?

[Fat Freddy]

What do y'all think?

(Choke)

 

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/11/15/music-lovers-prepare-to-say-goodbye-to-the-cd/?icid=maing-grid10|htmlws-main-bb|dl16|sec1_lnk3|113231

 

Music Lovers, Prepare to Say Goodbye to the CD

 

You had to know that the CD wasn't going to last forever.

 

We've seen 78s, vinyl, 8-track tape, and (for the most part) cassettes come and go. Why should the pre-recorded music CD be any different?

 

Side-Line Music Magazine turned heads last week when it reported that the major record labels plan to abandon the CD by the end of next year -- if not sooner.

 

The online music magazine didn't get a single music company to go on the record with its bold claim, though it later updated its story to point out that several label employees did approach the magazine to confirm that plans do exist to nix the compact disc.

 

If the article is accurate, we'll be down to simply limited-edition CD releases restricted to the top-selling artists after 2012.

 

Farewell, Physical Distribution

 

We should have seen this coming. The first "a-ha moment" came during the first half of 2008, when industry sales tracker NPD Group reported that Apple (AAPL) overtook Walmart (WMT) to be the country's largest retailer of music. For those scoring at home, Apple doesn't sell CDs. It's all about digital distribution through iTunes Music Store.

 

We had already seen the demise of the traditional record stores before that. Tower Records filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2004 -- and again in 2006. Sam Goody parent Musicland also buckled under pressure.

 

Let's play a game. Think of the largest mall in your town. It surely had a dedicated record store or two several years ago. Is there still one there now?

 

The fadeout of traditional record stores didn't have to be fatal. Walmart, Best Buy (BBY), and Target (TGT) stepped up as leading retailers of music CDs. However, don't be surprised if you find that your local Walmart or Best Buy keeps hacking away at the shelf space devoted to compact discs.

 

Light media is being challenged on all fronts. Borders liquidated earlier this year, as bibliophiles who once swore that they would never abandon leafy reads finally come to terms with the ever cheaper e-readers. This is shaping up to be the third year in a row for declining video game sales, as console downloads and casual gaming smartphone apps eat into the once-brisk sale of gaming software on cartridges and discs. Hollywood is bellyaching about sluggish DVD sales, just as streaming video is booming as a primetime obsession.

 

Everywhere you turn, physical distribution is passing the baton to digital sprinters.

 

But I Love My Record Collection!

 

Change isn't easy, but it's evolutionarily inevitable. The same people that bucked the migration from vinyl to compact disc -- arguing that album liner notes and the warm tone of a needle on grooves of wax could never be replaced -- are now going to resist filing change of address forms for digital digs.

 

I remember the resistance well. I was fortunate enough to have my band -- Paris By Air, don't fret if you blinked and missed us -- signed to a major label in the late 1980s. Our first single was released on vinyl and cassette in the summer of 1989. By the time Columbia Records issued our second and final single with the label nine months later, CDs were the media of choice.

 

The next time you hire a DJ for a music outing, don't be surprised if his gear consists solely of an MP3 player and a mixing console. It's the new way.

 

It doesn't matter if you have never even owned an iPod.

 

Amazon.com, Apple, and Google (GOOG) have rolled out cloud-based music storage services this year. Wireless phones and tablets are making music portable for those that don't see the point of dedicated MP3 players. Digital music stores are beefing up the quality of their tracks.

 

If you don't feel it now, wait until you see how few 2013 model cars will come with CD players. As music streaming gets easier and more seamless, the percentage of music fans that don't have access to digital music will continue to shrink.

You may not like it now, but you will probably understand later.

From Foe to Friend

 

Record labels dreaded digital distribution at first, largely because it consisted of rampant piracy on peer-to-peer networks. They didn't like Apple drawing a line in the sand at the 99-cent price point for singles and $9.99 for complete albums, a move that turned album buyers into cherry-picking consumers of individual tracks.

 

However, the industry has come around. It didn't really have much of a choice.

 

Digital delivery makes sense on the surface. Labels can save money on manufacturing discs, shipping them out, and bracing for the eventual retail returns. However, it also threatens the very viability of major labels.

 

I needed Columbia Records 22 years ago to promote my music to radio stations and get my records in stores. That talented kid of yours probably doesn't in a world of YouTube, Facebook, and a handful of sites that can get garage bands on to all the major digital distributors in a matter of days for just a few bucks.

 

See, not all change is bad. Embracing the inevitable is the first step.

 

As for me... (fingers in ears) Nope. Nope nope nope. Nope nope nope nope nope. I REFUSE to go digital dammit!!! (stands firm, arms crossed)

[Swazi]

Hang on to your CD players and pray they don't fuck up !

[martinsane]

That digital medium is just bad. Nothing positive about this disposable society we are being forced to live in. Just wait and see...

[embrock]

I really can't understand, why modern society doesn't want to really posess their "things" anymore.

I mean look at it:

– digital photos: I like 'em and it of course enormously simplifies taking photos everywhere, BUT I'll probably never get the same emotion again as when I was skipping through photo-albums with friends 10 years ago.

 

– digital music: This is just unlearing to appreciate true art. Period. I completely understand when people download a couple of songs off an average album, but can you seriously rank an album, which you only posess as MP3 or FLAC or whatever, amongst you favourite albums of all time? There's so much more to that imo.

 

and the most stupid "thing":

 

– friends: It's sad to see how many people use facebook as their main tool to keep contact. It's a fantastic tool to get in touch with people at the other end of your country (or the world for that matter), but I get the impression that more and more "old" (non-digital) friends rather chat through facebook instead of meeting down at the bar and having a drink. Seriously, this is sick!

 

digitalism leads to oversaturation in every part of life and while that is it's plus-factor it's also its downside (yes, that includes porn as well, Geoff )

 

okay, rant over: Keep the CD alive! Maybe there's going to be a nice side-effect when Major-labels drop the CD-format. If labels like Frontiers are going to keep it up, our music is going to rule the charts...and that has to make an impact on society

[Jez]

Them digital fuckers will never take me alive

[66 mustang]

I hate the fact of not owning a hard copy of the music I want and if my PC crashes I may lose the music if I didn't back it up. when I buy a cd that is my back-up right then and there

[Dead Planet]

I'm not worried...well not too much...the booters will still be there and they will just expand to fill the void...

[Geoff]

I do find this all very sad, but also very true. The article is 100% right. If you're not seeing it coming, you're just being foolishly hopeful. I'd have hoped it wouldn't be as immediate as next year, and I will be surprised if it is that quick, but the way CD stores disappear and the amount of new albums that are released only in a digital format, it was always going to be inevitable. When I go to these concerts of younger modern rock bands, both the band and I, and every one there is aware of that fact that no in the crowd (aside from me, lol) owns the actual physical CDs of these bands.

 

The only things that really worries me about it is not being able to buy physical CDs of any new releases once it all does kick in, and the simple things like Bernd said - holding onto a CD player that will work for the rest of your life, and praying your vintage 2011 model car holds out for the rest of time, just because it has a CD player in it! If you look at the fact that you can still buy vinyl and cassette players today (even if it's not that common) I'm not too worried about the actual CD player being totally phased out in our lifetimes, but by jeesus I will miss the physical CD if new releases do cease to be released in that format.

[Captain Howdy]

the thing is, despite how big the digital market is, they would be risking losing a lot of sales if they get rid of physical copies as there is still a huge part of the population that either refuses to go digital for whatever reason, or just doesnt have the capabilities to do it.

Not everyone has a computer or internet access (many people I know only have access through their phones which have limited access), or is willing to use a credit card online etc etc etc

 

It took a long while for people to accept the CD as a replacement for vinyl and cassettes, and still to this day people want vinyl.

[Studboy]

To me it was very liberating to finally embrace digital music and start selling my CDs. I discovered I NEVER listened to actual CDs anymore, haven't for several years now, I rip them then put them on a shelf and then either shuttle the music around on my ipod, iphone or memory stick. So really why should I keep them all around just to say I have a lot of CDs? If I actually listened to them it would be one thing, but I just don't so it really doesn't make any sense to just have them sitting in my basement taking up space when I can sell them and do something useful with the money. However I'm 41 and it took a LONG time to finally get to this point.

 

So why doesn't everyone just join me on the dark side, I dare you.

[Fat Freddy]

To me it was very liberating to finally embrace digital music and start selling my CDs. I discovered I NEVER listened to actual CDs anymore, haven't for several years now, I rip them then put them on a shelf and then either shuttle the music around on my ipod, iphone or memory stick. So really why should I keep them all around just to say I have a lot of CDs? If I actually listened to them it would be one thing, but I just don't so it really doesn't make any sense to just have them sitting in my basement taking up space when I can sell them and do something useful with the money. However I'm 41 and it took a LONG time to finally get to this point.

 

So why doesn't everyone just join me on the dark side, I dare you.

 

 

I'm the same age as you, yet I stand fast and say NEVER!!

[Geoff]

To me it was very liberating to finally embrace digital music and start selling my CDs. I discovered I NEVER listened to actual CDs anymore, haven't for several years now, I rip them then put them on a shelf and then either shuttle the music around on my ipod, iphone or memory stick. So really why should I keep them all around just to say I have a lot of CDs? If I actually listened to them it would be one thing, but I just don't so it really doesn't make any sense to just have them sitting in my basement taking up space when I can sell them and do something useful with the money. However I'm 41 and it took a LONG time to finally get to this point.

 

So why doesn't everyone just join me on the dark side, I dare you.

 

 

I'm the same age as you, yet I stand fast and say NEVER!!

Haha... yeah, the thing with me is I still do play my CDs, all the time. The only time I play my Ipod and MP3 player is when I can't play CDs. The Ipod and MP3 players are AWESOME for music on the move, but at home and in the car it's still always CDs for me. I know it'd be a minimal difference, but I still love the crisp sound of a CD playing direct through the speakers.

[Nightrain]

You don't need to worry about this thing. Remember Vinyl, after CD arrived, they said that it's going to extinct, but to this day, the community is still there and Vinyl production and sales are still going strong.

 

and problem with major label is they print too many for a single album (say 1 million copies) to reduce the cost heavily but ended up with a bulk of unsold items, while on smaller / indie labels, a single album probably only printed in 500 - 2.000 pieces, so chances that these will sold out in time is still high thus prevent them from taking losses.

 

Digital is good thing to spread the music quickly and cheaper, but it has the very extreme risk of losing your entire music collection in a beep. I know a friend who has 2TB of hard disk with thousands of music wiped in a day just because of hardware failures, and imagine if you have your whole collection that you've been collected for 20 years lost only in a blink of an eye, that must be hurtful. So, physical storage is still the best option to preserve that. Solution is that you need to backup the whole thing with the second storage, but then the problem remains the same, it's fragile and vulnerable to digital damage.

 

So, I doubt that CD will be out, don't worry, I think it's still there but risk is that new CD will be slightly more expensive because the cost to produce is higher on smaller amounts, but if they can keep the same price like today, I believe they'll survive.

 

Let's pray for the best but fingers crossed, CDs will still exist!

[Mullethead]

Not gonna do it...

[Captain Howdy]

To me it was very liberating to finally embrace digital music and start selling my CDs. I discovered I NEVER listened to actual CDs anymore, haven't for several years now, I rip them then put them on a shelf and then either shuttle the music around on my ipod, iphone or memory stick. So really why should I keep them all around just to say I have a lot of CDs? If I actually listened to them it would be one thing, but I just don't so it really doesn't make any sense to just have them sitting in my basement taking up space when I can sell them and do something useful with the money. However I'm 41 and it took a LONG time to finally get to this point.

 

So why doesn't everyone just join me on the dark side, I dare you.

I pray to god that you dont have some kind of huge electrical failure and lose the whole lot.

I actually had my music collection on two hard drives and both went tits up on the same day. Luckily I was able to get one of them working for half an hour on and half an hour off, and retrieve nearly everything (I lost one album which thankfully I was able to rip again as I had the physical CD).

This is why I now have my whole collection on five hard drives. Sounds like overkill, but even though I still have the physical copies, I dont want to have to spend all that time ripping them again.

If I'd got rid of my CDs and hadnt managed to get that hard drive to work in short spurts, I would be well and truly fucked that 18 years of collecting CDs was wasted.

 

Thing is, one of my current external drives recently deleted 3/4 of the collection on it for no apparent reason. Another got a corrupted boot sector and had to be reformatted completely.

These were both on separate occasions this time, but it just goes to show that nothing is safe when it comes to digital media.

[Fat Freddy]

^^^^^^ See? Stories like the above are why I could NEVER go digital.

 

(Hugs CD collection, cries a little) You're NOT obsolete, my little silver friends! Daddy's here! Everything's going to be OK!

 

But seriously folks...

 

I dunno, I guess this bugs me cuz I have a "collecting" gene. I mean, everybody's gotta collect somethin', right? And my "thing" is CDs.

 

Growing up, I collected baseball cards, comics, and beer cans. Over time I left all of those hobbies behind but I still collect music and probably will till they put me in a pine box...

 

I'm sure I'll survive if CDs do go away, cuz even if new ones are no longer produced, Lord knows there are more than enough old ones out there that I don't own and those will be turning up in second hand shops, flea markets, yard sales, and thrift stores for generations to come.

 

...it just won't be the same!!!

 

Either that or I'll go back to collecting vinyl... cuz as we all know, sacred vinyl is the only tr00 way to listen to arcane steele... ehehehehehehehe

[DaHun72]

Well I just got a cabinet maker in today to quote me on building CD shelving on a spare wall coz I need more space for my collection.

 

CDs forever. I think we'll all survive, most of us have been finding a way to keep the music alive and still buying it 20 years after it's gone out of fashion.

[Nick C]

I reckon there'll still be outlets for CD for a few years yet, as mentioned vinyl is a case in point - okay it's not mass appeal but there was an upswing in popularity judging by some shops I visit now that have vinyl sections in whereas they were all CD previously also a few of my younger relations and family friends swear by it.

So I guess there will be a niche market for CD too for some years yet. The hardware to play them will keep chugging out, might become more pricey as record decks did (and I meant proper record decks not these USB ones you plug into the soundcard of your PC).

 

A few months back I downloaded Head Easts new Live allbum, but I burned it and made a little sleeve as I wanted to have something to show for what I paid for, but that's the last time (plus now they've released it properly...waiting for Amazon to fulfill my 2nd purchse as it were of this album!). Love Aerosmith, but I'm damned if I'm downloading Steven Tyler's solo single.

 

But if it does (god forbid) all come down to downloads I expect I'll just stop buying new stuff and just plunder stuff from the past, there's plenty I missed out on on vinyl and CD. Plus I've not bought many NEW CD's by artists over the last year in comparison to previous years and it has been tailing off in favour of re-issues e.t.c. I bought the new Vain, Steven Wilson and Proto Kaw over the last few months, but most of the other stuff has been older or re-issues.

Again it's all about what u prefer, the photograph analogy was great, it's cool going through a load of old photo's with friends passing them around, I've done the same using a TV to show them and the buzz isn't there from the group. There was less interaction and people couldn't hang on to the picture for longer to check it out before it was moved on to the next shot - its all a bit sterile.

 

I was watching the gadget show the other night and some nerd was freaking out becaue they went to Silverstone or Brands Hatch with the idea of creating a racing simulator that was the same as driving a car....and he's excited because it's a simulation of something you could do in real life okay it's a racing car but if your so desperate to do it then do it, you can even pay to do it in real life....wha?? Has the guy got a rubber doll for a girlfriend. I just though what a bunch of geeks!

Simulation this, download that...it all detaches you from real stuff, and I guess that's what mr big business (and governments) wants, a load of drones that buy stuff and stay in their little sealed units only venturing out to go to work. While they rake it in and spend the money on going to the real woods, mountains, beaches that you eventually only bother to visit by simulator. They say it's about choice, it isn't - it's about being so self absorbed that nothing and no-one outside your little world matters....as long as you get what you want and how you want it then all well and good, forget everyone else you don't have to interact with them, you don't have to go to the gig and get sweaty, pissed and have fun, you can watch it streamed live instead to your home.

 

Anyway a bit doom n gloom that (and taken to the stupid extreme) in short I just like CD's and vinyl I guess, like to check out the sleeves and such.

[Glen]

Good God, what a very humerous read this thread was.

 

OK, here's my 2 cents......or 2 points

 

1. CDs do nothing in my house but gather dust. Fact. Come on guys be truthful here - how many of your precious 1000s of cds do you actually play in any given year?? 5%, 10% maybe a huge 15% lol.

 

2. What's all this crap about losing all your music?? Havent you guys heard of Touchcopy and the like?? Simple software that will let you retrieve everything from your MP3 players?? My 120gb ipod holds ALL my music, so the only way those tunes are gonna disappear for ever is if my computer crashes on the very same day as someone steals my ipod (and even then I have 4000 tracks on my iphone which can just as easily be retrieved).

 

Embrace technology.

 

Ye Gods.

[Captain Howdy]

 

 

2. What's all this crap about losing all your music?? Havent you guys heard of Touchcopy and the like?? Simple software that will let you retrieve everything from your MP3 players?? My 120gb ipod holds ALL my music, so the only way those tunes are gonna disappear for ever is if my computer crashes on the very same day as someone steals my ipod (and even then I have 4000 tracks on my iphone which can just as easily be retrieved).

 

 

Did you read my post?

I had my external hard drive and my MP3 player pack up on the very same day, and was only lucky that I was able to get the MP3 player to boot up in short spurts to retrieve it all.

And even then, one of the albums was beyond saving. That could happen to anyone.

As for retrieving from your iPod using a third party software .. you wouldnt need third party software if you didnt have an iPod .. dont embrace Apple

 

Shit can happen to anyone when it comes to tech. And nobody here isnt embracing technology as we nearly all pretty much own MP3 players and digitise our collections, but what we are saying is why get rid of your physical copies just because?

 

An MP3 player makes carrying around my music collection a possibility that wasnt available in the past, and it means that you can just set your PC up as a jukebox at home if you want, but theres a lot more comfort and security in keeping your CD collections rather than discarding them.

And hey, if we all embraced technology and went 100% digital, who would you sell your collection to?

[Nick C]

oops

[Nick C]

 

1. CDs do nothing in my house but gather dust. Fact. Come on guys be truthful here - how many of your precious 1000s of cds do you actually play in any given year?? 5%, 10% maybe a huge 15% lol.

 

 

I have around 1600 CD's (plus around 400 vinyl on top) not a huge amount by some standards here ... and no I don't play them all every year, but it's like a library. Something of tactile value that I can read up on, browse through, reference and play when I feel like it. Does someone who has all their songs on a hard drive play each and every song on there? Plus there's the monetary side - if/when I get bored with it I can sell parts of it off some maybe cheap some maybe not, but who is gonna buy a hard drive full of songs someone has paid for? It's dead money you might as well tape the songs off the radio....premium prices for nothing much.

On average I play around 2 full CD's a day, sometimes a lot more and on a RARE day or so I play nothing, which works out about 700 a year which is closer to 50% than 15, okay some may be played more than others but I'd say I hit around 40% or more.

 

 

Plus the fact is some folks are collectors be it books, cars, beer cans e.t.c. I like to collect the physical product associated with the music I like as opposed to a load of 1s and 0's on my PC. Yes it's all about the music, but also how it is presented to you...the full package not economy class. I'd rather also see the real band than the tribute one

[Captain Howdy]

if/when I get bored with it I can sell parts of it off some maybe cheap some maybe not, but who is gonna buy a hard drive full of songs someone has paid for?

And that is something that is spot on. If you buy a CD that ends up being crap, you can sell it on straight away and recoup some of your losses, but with downloading you are fucked.

Yes you can often hear snippets that help you from wasting your money, but you can also use those snippets to judge whether you want to buy a CD or not.

I know some people have the attitude that with downloading it gives you the option to DL the songs you like, but knowing the mentality of most people on here, most of us want complete albums. Plus, by only downloading the tracks that appeal to you straight away, you may end up missing out on the best tracks on the albums that are growers rather than instant hits. (and lets not even mention the tricks that Amazon and iTunes pull by making certain songs only available if you buy the whole album.

 

Heres the other thing. If an album is OOP, we have the option to buy a used CD (whether its cheap or not is another story), but if a digital album is removed from the main DL sites, the only option is to hope that someone either uploads it illegally or hope someone will send it to you.

Apart from the odd single b-side or whatever, I have never legally downloaded an album as I refuse to pay for an album in that format.

 

Digital has a long way to go before it fully replaces a physical CD.

[Fat Freddy]

Come on guys be truthful here - how many of your precious 1000s of cds do you actually play in any given year?? 5%, 10% maybe a huge 15% lol.

 

Counting CD-R copies I must have a smidge less than 1000 discs, I think (I've been too lazy to count'em all up the last couple of years...but I guess I'll know the exact # whenever I'm finally done setting up my RateYourMusic account...haha) and when I leave for work most mornings I go to my CD cabinet and pull out a dozen or so CDs to listen to in my car and then at my desk throughout the day. Those discs might stay in my knapsack for a day or two after that but then they get put back and I pull out another dozen. So over the course of a year I probably listen to every CD I own at least once. Yes, even my CD-R of the debut by "Killen."

 

But then, I'm an obsessive-compulsive weirdo, so I can't speak for anyone else's listening habits.

[Nightrain]

I play around 2-3 CDs per day on my way to work and back home at car, so at least 12-13 CDs per week, and occasionally 1-2 CDs on weekend at home. So in average, i'm able to play 600-700 CDs annually, that's quite a good rotation i guess, same as Nick.

 

You should never underestimate digital losses risk Glen, electronics such as PC, laptop, hard drive, iPod, they deteriorate over time and in any given day, they can be damaged instantly without you knowing the reason why, it happens. That's why people use backup to prevent that. Sometimes data-retrieving software aren't 100% reliable so you can't bet on it solely, and if the damage is on one of the chips inside, it's helpless.

 

And putting all your music in your iPod and not on hard drive is even riskier, so I guess for those who went the digital path, I'm also suggesting to transfer most of the music to DVD, it's around 4GB and can contain up to 40-50 albums / DVD, so if you have 2000 albums, it's around 40 DVDs, not too many but much safer and cheaper to minimize risk.