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Death of the CD


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Actually, I think this might be good news for independent record stores. There'll always be a market for physical media, wheter it's vinyl or plastic discs. People just don't want to buy a disc for every single song they hear on the radio; that's why the cd single disappeared a few years ago. If Walmart and Best Buy discontinue their cd sales, people might return to the smaller stores.

 

I for one still enjoy buying cd's, but they usually end up unused in my closet, because most of the time I already downloaded a lossless copy.

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I think the last stronghold of CD sales is the car stereo. At least here customers to whom I have talked, cite the ability to play music while driving, the key reason why they buy CDs.

 

I personally stopped listening to CDs in the car, I just plug-in the iPod. However, I still buy physical CDs of the artists that I like, though I rarely "listen" to the CD itself, I seldom play the disc.

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I don't own an iPod, and still refuse to pay for Mp3 files. I suppose if record companies start offering FLAC downloads, I would go for that.

 

I noticed that article said "major record labels", which I don't think there is that many of, so others will still make cds I would think.

 

Plus, there is the whole vinyl resurgence - which still baffles me.

 

I have noticed this month that Wal Mart has big bins of cds for 5 bucks each. So - they must be getting ready to stop carrying them - unless it's a holiday thing.

 

About the only way I buy cds anymore is by way of Amazon. And I don't really buy much music anymore. I am starting to see I already have more music than I can listen to. (I say this as I have thousands of cds, records, tapes, and cdrs.)

 

I have noticed that sometimes just finding new stuff by way of Youtube is good enough for me. This works for me as I really only listen to music at home.

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However, I still buy physical CDs of the artists that I like, though I rarely "listen" to the CD itself, I seldom play the disc.

 

This is what I do with the majority of my music these days, though sometimes on the weekend I'll put a CD in the stereo and blast it.

 

I'd hate to see the CD disappear, but I've got to admit that I enjoy all of the options that are out there today. Each format fills a different need for me. I mostly buy CD's, but I also buy the occasional vinyl record or mp3 album. Lately I've been doing a lot of my listening on my iPod via MOG. I've been having fun listening to older albums I've never heard before. For instance, I just listened to Blue by Joni Mitchell. One of those classics I'd been curious about but never wanted to commit to purchasing.

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Ever since the onslaught of iTunes there has been at least an article a year about the death of the CD. We've had several threads about it. At one point I was worried about it. Then I tried to embrace mp3s and kind of went digital. That actually made me crazy. Having 'everything' available at any moment is overwhelming. Incidentally, I'm back to CDs. Actually bought two today. I like songs in the context of albums. I still listen to CDs at home and albums on my iPod. the iPod is great for the car and traveling, but music for me is the physical album. I pay more attention when I have the actual album with liner notes, pictures, etc.

 

As far as the CD dying...this article is complete bullshit. There's no hard source for what this guy is writing about. The earliest the CD will die is when Gen X is in their 70s. The big record companies only make money on their CD back catalogs (Eagles, Led Zeppelin, U2) being sold to boomers through Gen X'ers. I read somewhere that Eagles Greatest Hits goes platinum every year! Also, the most recent numbers are that only 40% of music is bought online. The rest is CDs with a small percentage of vinyl. This is not to mention the special deluxe editions of new and old albums that we are continually bombarded with (see the new Rush and PF box sets). Oh, and not ALL the artists are in one place. Some shit's on itunes, some shit's on amazon and some shit's only on CD. There are still some big artists not on the web yet (AC/DC, Bob Seger) So, the CD is going nowhere. I could get on board with lossless downloads for cheap and vinyl-size artwork (digital artwork and booklets don't work for me). If everything does go digital, I'll probably just go with Spotify and work really hard to maintain my attention on one album at a time.

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To add to the pessimism, Google has just announced a music service to compete with the likes of tunes and amazon, though the scope of the project seems limited at the time (lack of a rich catalog, Android-dependency). However, since Google is a technology powerhouse I wouldn't rule them out completely, the service is in its infancy and unfortunately not available outside of the U.S.

 

 

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/11/17/idINIndia-60572820111117

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The death of CDs is an exaggeration and this is an urban myth. For any group that wants to sell music to the vast majority of the public, they are still going to put out CDs. While the bottom has fallen out of of the used CD market, it is not going away any time soon. Vinyl records are not going to re-replace CDs and downloads are not going to totally eliminate physical disks. Someday maybe, but maybe not. Not by the end of this year for sure.

 

What people out in the real world still buy is CDs. Many folks buy MP3s. Only us crazy folks buy LPs.

 

The death of the book is also exaggerated, but clearly all digital media is going to eventually overtake analog media in sales, but not elimiate it.

 

LouieB

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I don't know if I believe all of that. The way I understood the article was big labels/Top 20 artists. I doubt very many Justin Beiber fans have a cd player in their bedroom. I would think the majority of those sort of folks sales are digital. I don't really know much about popular music, but I don't see too many young people owning anything other than an iPod.

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http://gizmodo.com/5860265/google-music-is-a-complete-letdown

 

gizmodo thinks google music blows. what's funny is that the bands that we seem to love on this board are independent and will continue to put out physical product because that's what 'real' dedicated music fans want. what the majors do has no bearing on that. at the same time, i recently went to best buy and was astounded at the selection they still had...everything from Rush and Pink Floyd complete catalogs to Wilco, Battles, LCD Sound System, Radiohead, Phish, Dream Theater, All big names in jazz, etc.

 

the other thought i had is similar to LouieB above. The market seems to be evening out. I see digital peaking at 50-60% with CD sales being a huge minority and the cassettes and vinyl being a smaller, novelty minority.

 

c

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The death of CDs is an exaggeration and this is an urban myth. For any group that wants to sell music to the vast majority of the public, they are still going to put out CDs. While the bottom has fallen out of of the used CD market, it is not going away any time soon. Vinyl records are not going to re-replace CDs and downloads are not going to totally eliminate physical disks. Someday maybe, but maybe not. Not by the end of this year for sure.

 

What people out in the real world still buy is CDs. Many folks buy MP3s. Only us crazy folks buy LPs.

 

The death of the book is also exaggerated, but clearly all digital media is going to eventually overtake analog media in sales, but not elimiate it.

 

LouieB

 

 

I agree on what you are saying about books on the flipside do you think the magazine will suffer a demise being that the post office is crumbling, advertisement dollars and subscriptions are dwindling?

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I agree on what you are saying about books on the flipside do you think the magazine will suffer a demise being that the post office is crumbling, advertisement dollars and subscriptions are dwindling?

 

good question. to me, the internet is basically one giant tabloid flooded with perpetual user psychological projection.

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http://gizmodo.com/5...omplete-letdown

 

gizmodo thinks google music blows. what's funny is that the bands that we seem to love on this board are independent and will continue to put out physical product because that's what 'real' dedicated music fans want. what the majors do has no bearing on that. at the same time, i recently went to best buy and was astounded at the selection they still had...everything from Rush and Pink Floyd complete catalogs to Wilco, Battles, LCD Sound System, Radiohead, Phish, Dream Theater, All big names in jazz, etc.

 

the other thought i had is similar to LouieB above. The market seems to be evening out. I see digital peaking at 50-60% with CD sales being a huge minority and the cassettes and vinyl being a smaller, novelty minority.

 

c

 

I didn't know cassettes were still being made. The Best Buy here where I live has maybe two rows of cds. And I noticed they are marking them down to 3 bucks for Black Friday. I think Walmart/Target/Best Buy will cease carrying cds at some point.

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It has been a really long time since I bought a CD. I listen to everything on Spotify and if there is something I really like, I'll wait until it goes on sale for a good price ($5) on Amazon. I'll buy LPs of artists I love, but it's nice not having the clutter that CDs take up, especially since I would only use them once, when ripping the songs to the computer.

 

It would be nice if labels started offering noncompressed downloads. But I'm sure they would be too expensive anyway and the bitrate that is currently available on all mp3s is good enough for my ears.

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I don't see too many young people owning anything other than an iPod.

For sure. But not just young people buy music. While old people buy less music than young people, it is still going to be a few decades before all of us old people die and only those with computers are buying music.

 

As far as cassettes. Without hipsters there would be NO cassettes produced anymore. Cassettes are dead except in the hipster communites.

 

LouieB

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For sure. But not just young people buy music. While old people buy less music than young people, it is still going to be a few decades before all of us old people die and only those with computers are buying music.

 

As far as cassettes. Without hipsters there would be NO cassettes produced anymore. Cassettes are dead except in the hipster communites.

 

LouieB

 

I don't think I have not seen a cassette in a store since the early 2000s. Of course - where I live there are no record stores, independent, or chain type.

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I don't think I have not seen a cassette in a store since the early 2000s. Of course - where I live there are no record stores, independent, or chain type.

Cassettes are not being sold in big box stores. They are a specialty item based on small labels or artists producing them for special audiences. Cassettes ain't coming back to the mass market. Sometimes they are carried in indie stores.

 

LouieB

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There is a guy here in Chicago named Dustin Drase who has a cassette only record label. If they guy sells 200 it is a huge run. I have never bought one, but I feel like I should just to help him out. He is always at the record shows. Seems like a lonely life selling cassettes of hipster bands to other hipsters.

 

LouieB

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