CD format over in 2012 ?

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I mean, this exactly. It would pretty much be financial suicide to nix them within a YEAR.

It's not as if people will just stop buying records if the CD format ends. They will start using iTunes and the like out of necessity.
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Fuck these new kids and their mp3 shit. I want my music physically. :grumpy:

This made me go :lol:. You're hardly old enough to pass off MP3 as something of a younger generation. In fact, I think you might not even have been in secondary school yet at the time that Napster became hugely popular.
 
As long as they keep releasing vinyls, I'm fine with it. I never liked CD anyway. The whole point in them being smaller and easier to carry around kinda died with the iPod.

Go vinyl!
 
Man, this article got torn a new arsehole on Rate Your Music's forums a few days ago. Very weak, and sorely lacking on the sources front (ooh an old quote from your chief editor, woop dee doo!). I don't buy it. Sure, the CD format will probably one day be viewed similarly to how vinyl is today, as a minor format for collectors or nostalgia, but dead by the end of 2012? Come on, it took longer than that for the labels to kill bloody cassettes.

Yeah, I read it a few days ago and thought it seemed a bit jumpy - in fact, I felt as if I'd already read the same article a few times before within the past few years. Regardless, I certainly hope it's not the case, as I still buy CDs all the time (more than I should on my budget!).
 
frankly i'm more concerned about the killing off of the physical hard drive mp3 player than i am about the killing of the CD. the cloud doesn't work so well in the subway :mad:

i think the last CD i actually purchased was the collectors edition of how to dismantle an atomic bomb, and i don't think i ever actually played it. i've gotten a few CDs over the years as gifts from unknowing relatives, but i can't tell you the last time i actually listened to a purchased CD... at least 7 years, probably longer.
 
I still have and buy CD's when they're $ 9.99 or less. I can put them on my iPod and play them on a portable stereo that I still have that plays CD's (yes those still exist in nature). I can lend them, give them away, etc.

I only got an iPod two years ago. I don't even want to think about clouds or any of that. I still have a dumbphone.
 
I find myself often purchasing those weird Wal-Mart compilation CDs more often than anything else. :coocoo:
 
It's not as if people will just stop buying records if the CD format ends. They will start using iTunes and the like out of necessity.


This made me go :lol:. You're hardly old enough to pass off MP3 as something of a younger generation. In fact, I think you might not even have been in secondary school yet at the time that Napster became hugely popular.

Can you imagine how old I feel already?

And I had a discman till at least 2003, then I got a crappy mp3 player. Yet we had no Napster, I didn't download music at all. Had all my cds, yet they didn't fit on my crappy player so that had to wait until after I got my 2nd gen U2 iPod in.. 2005 or 6 or something. Then all my cds were on it and I got limewire or so for random tracks.

But I guess the main point is, I still buy cds, I enjoy having a room full of cds, to look at and to have backup copies if my HD crashes. And it's nice decoration and I like to read liner notes. I'm old. Maybe not physically, but mentally I'm very much supposed to have been born in the 70s. :wink:

I still have an original Nintendo Entertainment System as well. Which I got info on yesterday on how to fix. :wink:
 
What about the booklets? Printers remain one of shittiest and most temperamental pieces of machinery and the cause of great hassle. The one time I was forced to purchase download an album, I received a file that was supposed to be the lyric booklet and if I wanted to print it off, I'd have to resize it and buy special type of paper if I wanted a physical copy of the real thing. Never got round to it, as it was such a pain in the arse.

I should think the CD will still be going around for at least another 5 years. It better be.
 
Those who are really savvy about technology are saying, "Who cares if they stop making CDs? Nobody buys them anymore anyway."

They assume that everybody in the world feels the same way they do. But the fact is, the vast majority of people my age (I'm 50) have never downloaded a song. I never have. Also, most low-income people never have. They don't have a computer or portable listening device, nor do they have the means to purchase vast numbers of songs online.

When less-privileged people want to hear an album, their best option is still to go to a store and buy a CD.

If I had the money, I could buy an iPhone and download all my favorite songs onto it. But I feel no compelling desire to do so. I like my CDs. I like having the liner notes and artwork and lyrics. I like having a music format that I could easily play to a whole room full of people and we could all sing and dance together instead of listening to mp3s privately on tiny earbuds.

I don't see why record companies can't continue to offer both options: mp3s for people who wish to go that route, and CDs for those who prefer that format or don't have the ability to download music.

This is different from the transitions we made through vinyl to cassettes to CDs. Now they're talking about getting rid of physical albums altogether, and that would be a huge loss to the world of music.

I will continue to play my CDs as long as I have a working CD player (I'm thinking I should run out and buy another one just in case the electronics companies stop manufacturing those, too).
 
hikerdeb said:
Those who are really savvy about technology are saying, "Who cares if they stop making CDs? Nobody buys them anymore anyway."

They assume that everybody in the world feels the same way they do. But the fact is, the vast majority of people my age (I'm 50) have never downloaded a song. I never have. Also, most low-income people never have. They don't have a computer or portable listening device, nor do they have the means to purchase vast numbers of songs online.

When less-privileged people want to hear an album, their best option is still to go to a store and buy a CD.

If I had the money, I could buy an iPhone and download all my favorite songs onto it. But I feel no compelling desire to do so. I like my CDs. I like having the liner notes and artwork and lyrics. I like having a music format that I could easily play to a whole room full of people and we could all sing and dance together instead of listening to mp3s privately on tiny earbuds.

Okay... first, if CDs were flying off the shelves, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Most people download. Its quite easy, actually. My 60 year old mom does it, and then plays the music in her bose system, not tiny earbuds. Dancing ensues, im sure.

As far as the "less privileged" people... downloaded albums are actually cheaper than physical CDs.

One can get a brand new laptop for a couple hundred bucks. If that isn't affordable, then the person is in such financial straights that buying any sort of music should not be at the top of their priority list.

If you purchase a large number of albums per year, you would actually save a significant amount of money buying them online... and that's not even talking about illegal downloads. Just straight legal shit.

If you prefer the physical CD, that's fine. Arguing that it's hard or expensive to download is just silly.

Not everybody in the world wants to get rid of newspapers either. But guess what?
 
Call me old (pause for chorus of "LOL CORI'S OLD!"), but I like to have something physical in my hand when I buy music or a book.

I love my iPod, and I enjoy my Kindle (although I am buying very few books because I can't bring myself to pay $10 or more for an electronic file), but I will never NOT prefer to have physical copies of books and CDs.

Unless I end up living in a van down by the river, and just have no room for all that stuff.
 
I like CD's, but I have no problem with downloading. If I want a full album, I prefer to get a physical CD. But if I only want a couple songs, I'm not against downloading at all.

That said, it would be pretty devastating if CD's were abandoned that soon. It's gonna happen eventually, just not too soon I hope.
 
I feel like such a nerdy cyber-punk kid reading this thread. I guess I am an electrical engineering major...
 
There is a romanticism about going to the store on release day, picking up the CD, taking the plastic off without cursing a million times, ans listening to the album for the first time. I get that.

But people said the same thing about vinal. :shrug:

Just like there is still a market for vinal, there will still be a market for CDs. It will shrink considerably... you may have to, ya know, go to a real music store to find what you really want, but the option will always be there. But the times move on.
 
Speaking of Amazon MP3...The Unforgettable Fire is the daily deal today, $3.99.

It's like the 1984 price.
 
There is a romanticism about going to the store on release day, picking up the CD, taking the plastic off without cursing a million times, ans listening to the album for the first time. I get that.

But people said the same thing about vinal. :shrug:

Just like there is still a market for vinal, there will still be a market for CDs. It will shrink considerably... you may have to, ya know, go to a real music store to find what you really want, but the option will always be there. But the times move on.

Vinyl was big in size. People were able to enjoy the glorious album artwork (mostly in the 70's). CD's are, well, compact (as the name dicates). Artwork was shrunk. The only REAL complaint I heard about CD's was the shrunken art work (and liner notes).

However, the portability of CD's, their resistance to scratching and skipping, the ease of use, and the digital sound made them a better choice. Hence whey they caught on so well in the 90's.

Yet, many still love their vinyl collections and vinyl is making a bit of a comeback. Note the vinyl items in the Achtung Baby re-issue!

Plus people do like something tangible. Since CD's offer better sound quality than mp3's, I don't think CD's will be abandoned, just like vinyl wasn't abandoned. CD's may be downplayed in the future. But I highly doubt they will be gone by 2012.
 
I like cds, partially because it feels like I actually bought something when I can hold them in my grubby little hands, partially because they sound better than many mp3 downloads, and partially because I absolutely suck at backing up my digital files and just know I would manage to lose my entire music collection. :sad:

I do buy some things digital only and probably will move more and more in that direction as it is an efficient way for many of the smaller unsigned bands/musicians I like to sell their music without tying up a bunch of money in cd manufacture. But I'm not ready to completely abandon the physical cd entirely and I doubt they will be going away completely that soon.
 
Just in time to promote his new (free) app, Sting is hailing the medium as the future of music distribution. We could have told you that, Sting! Here's the former frontman's full quote, as told to Billboard:

"People are going to stop buying CDs. People are going to stop selling and making them, so I am looking for different ways to get music to people, and the [app] at the moment seems to be the favorite...The app is the new model. It's very full and can also be constantly updated, so it's not a static thing. It's organic."
 
MrsSpringsteen said:
They did? I never heard about it, I'm out of the U2 loop.

Something to do with the blackberry phone.there was a no line on the horizon app for it.

With blackberry sponsoring the 360 tour aswell they must of done a deal then for it
 
Something to do with the blackberry phone.there was a no line on the horizon app for it.

With blackberry sponsoring the 360 tour aswell they must of done a deal then for it

I never heard about it either. But then, I have an iPhone.

This app idea is good. But there are many questions.

Many of the most popular apps, like Angry Birds, have periodic updates. Angry Birds will come up with new levels or new ways to play. For less than a dollar, one has days of enjoyment (if one likes the game).

Could music be this way? And if so, how?

For example, does Sting plan on selling a Sting App for, oh, $9.99? What comes on that app? Will it contain his current release and then subsequently old releases? Will any new releases come with that app?

And is this music app a true money making situation?

Some may say that right now, few CD's (relatively speaking) are being sold - people illegally download. So there's NO (or little) money being made. The app at least brings in some. But will it be enough? Or will the Sting App, for example, have to sell for $20 or $50 or more to justify itself? Will each "upgrade" be another $5 or more?

If the music industry had its way, they'd want to charge $1 or more per song. But that's led to the cherry-picking of iTunes. If one wants to sell an entire album, the app seems a good way, but only if it's also a good deal. Otherwise, people won't pay. Fans will buy an entire album, just like the do on iTunes now. How will this app improve upon iTunes?

If the app is a good price and contains catalog and new releases, established artists will probably benefit more at first. Sting as a solo artists and as part of the Police has a great catalog. People may pay for that app. But will they do that for a new artist, who may release one album and quit?

The big question, of course, is will this app help deter illegal downloading? I'm fearing it will not. iTunes has at least boosted the sales of selected songs. This is being done at the expense of album sales, but at least hit songs may sell in the millions. It's a bit reminiscent of the 50's and 60's when 45 rpm's were the big sellers, not LP's. But the music industry makes more money from LP's (or CD's). Will this app attract people back to the full album?

So I like the idea, just not sure if it's been thoroughly flushed out as the new direction of releasing music.
 
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