It's the end of the world ... for the music CD format!

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 8:06am

Reported by several online sites. Music CDs will go bye-bye at the end of 2012.
LINK

[tazber]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 9:39am

Thanks for posting that Besty. It's not surprising, but I didn't expect to be so soon.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 10:12am

I guess this is the final nail in the coffin for in-store shopping. Browsing the cd aisle in Barnes & Noble was all I had left of the record store experience.

Posted: 11/10/11 at 10:26am

What an odd article- not one major label confirms it and there are vague explanations that "limited editions" will still be available. Let me guess: All major releases (especially ones by EZ listening & country artists) will have "limited editions" available? I can promise you this- Andrea Bocelli and Barbra Streisand will make sure their albums are available on CD at WalMart.

The bulk of the business will be in downloads, yes. But just like how LPs died 20 years ago, CDs will still exist.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 11:26am

My biggest problem is that I can't stand the quality of MP3s. They suck if you play them on any decent sound system. It sounds like canned crap by comparison to CDs, and either 24-bit CDs or even old-fashioned LP records blow them completely out of the water.

I have rarely downloaded music for that reason alone. Hopefully, with the end of the audio CD looming in the industry, they will work out a way to download lossless files (which are big, i.e., WAV or AIF files, at least 16-bit, 48khz). A single audio CD downloaded uncompressed is roughly 700mb.

And for those of you about to say you can't hear the difference, that's truly unfortunate. There are plenty of us who can.

Posted: 11/10/11 at 12:05pm

I was reflecting on that when I read the article. The American consumer always chooses convenience over quality. The LP was outsold by the cassette. Reel to reel never caught on like 8 Track. Now, MP3 players and their teeny ear buds have replaced stereo components.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 12:16pm

Id like to know what percentage of consumers at this point are downloading their music instead of buying CDs. I don't think it's as great a number as they would have you think. I know a lot of people who don't buy as much music as they used to because the stores just don't carry it and there are so few stores that even carry music now, that it's almost impossible to know what's even available.

[tazber]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 12:33pm

The number of people who download exclusively is indeed smaller than what this information would indicate. I can't recall the exact figure, but it's well under 50%.

I admit that I'm still very old school and purchase hard copies of most music, but except for my cast recordings I'm fine with digital.

The other thing is that with cloud storage you don't have to worry about losing your library should your hard drive crash.

And yea, Joe is right about the Streisands and SuBos. The vast majority of their sales are cds. But I think that most units were sold out of BJs, Sam's Clubs, Costcos and the like. I imagine they will still carry a scarce selection of adult oriented titles.

[tazber]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 12:38pm

From Nielsen:

While digital music sales continue to see strong growth, the CD still accounts for two out of every three album purchases.
Link

[Marianne2]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 12:42pm

I agree that I like buying hard copies of certain titles instead of downloading it. The drawback to just downloading is not everything has a digital booklet with information on the music, band, etc... I know, I could just look that stuff up online, but the booklets make it easier.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 1:08pm

If it's a band I really like, I'll buy the CD. If it's just one or 2 songs from a CD I like, I'll download it. I mostly listen to music in my car or at the gym, and I can use my i-pod in both of those places.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/10/11 at 2:20pm

I'm guessing this early info about major labels stopping production of CDs is a test to see how consumers react to it. The labels will make their ultimate decision with their wallets, and I keep thinking this is an ahead-of-the-game move not unlike Netflix trying to "force" buyers into their preferred business model way too soon. It could easily backfire on an industry that is already in a downward spiral.

Do they forget that downloadable music has all but destroyed the music industry? They've thought of themselves and consumers but somehow forgot about the artists. (And the artist is the "product" they are selling.) Albums are all but a dead art form, because consumers want only the songs they like, and now they can have just them and only them. It's becoming cost prohibitive to conceive, record, and produce a full album of songs or even sign artists to longterm contracts, because everybody with a microphone in their dorm room can be a "one hit wonder."

It's the same in the publishing industry and the TV and film industries aren't far behind. The Hollywood studios, music labels, and book publishers are catering to themselves and the consumer and, at the same time, they're making themselves obsolete in the long run.

I can now publish my own book (and have done so) and can sell it internationally online, plus at events and bookstores on my own. Musicians can record their own music and get it on iTunes, filmmakers can distribute their own films online.

It's the YouTube generation. YouEntertainment.

The only thing publishers, labels, and studios can do for artists better than they can do for themselves now is promotion. Getting noticed. They can market better than any individual or small group I know (who isn't already established).

But that's how we all used to become familiar with artists. They were packaged and promoted and groomed and reviewed and interviewed by these "machines." Labels signed artists and produced and promoted albums. Those are the CDs they want to get rid of now. People are not buying albums online anymore, unless they want to. The "machine" is not in control of the product anymore, in other words. Consumers are. They are fickle, forgetful, and disloyal. The iTunes generation will create more flash-in-the-pan fame in five years than the rest of us (from previous generations) have seen in our entire lives. The creation, nurturing, and grooming of the "product" is quickly being destroyed by business ideas like this.

Posted: 11/10/11 at 2:33pm

I think it might actually be a move by Apple to sell more IPODs this Christmas. When I worked retail, I sold a mountain of CD players to people who would come in Christmas shopping for Grandma looking for Myron Floren cassettes. I'd explain cassettes were dead. Grandma can still listen to the ones she has but maybe you should buy her a CD player and then for every birthday and Christmas you can get her CDs to play on it.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/11/11 at 10:40am

I still believe people generally like to have something they can hold in their hands. If CDs evaporate (which I doubt will be for a very long time), I imagine the future to be digital files on a memory card. People like the artwork and the booklet and having a collection to display on their shelves. The digital booklet is just not as interesting and it is entirely dependent on the user's equipment and software capabilities. And the Cloud doesn't guarantee that much security. Those servers can go down or be hacked and anything without a digital license (i.e. transferring an LP that has never had a digital release) could trigger any number of problems. If I put anything on a Cloud, it will be very little and only for the purposes of travel. I don't have that much faith in the industry.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/11/11 at 12:24pm

I agree, Matt. The more I think about it, the more I believe this isn't going to happen anywhere near as fast as they would like it to. If major labels discontinue CDs at the end of 2012, they will only be cutting off a significant percentage of their sales. Not such a good idea.