"CD-format to be abandoned by major labels by the end of 2012..."

If I can't, or otherwise don't want to bother with downloading music; how are you going to sell your music to me if there's no physical media as an alternative?

The answer is that you won't, ergo you end up losing my money. That would be shooting themselves in the foot all for the sake of "progress" and following a trend that could very easily die out.

 

Whether manufacture of cds stops, or not, does not matter. There are so many cds out there already, most computers and dvd players support cd playback and will continue to.
When there are no longer drives made that will play cds, then the manufacture of cds will probably go away. It will be a while, I think.

 

Look at my shopping list for the next few months:
1) U2 Achtung Baby Uber
2) Rem Best Of
3) Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here sacd
4) The Rolling Stones Same Girls Deluxe
5) Jethro Tull Aqualung Deluxe
6) Rush Sector 1,2,3

ecc. ecc..

just do great PHYSICAL box sets/reissues for me and leave downloads to the r&b and hip hop crowd! I couldn't care any less about new physical releases by new bands

 

Didn't CD sales actually go UP a fraction of a percent last year?

Nothing would surprise me, but I've heard from a couple people in the industry that download revenues were dead in the water and the labels were rethinking the all-download paradigm. If it coincided with a serious ISP crackdown on "suspicious" downloading practices they might decide to roll the dice, hoping to acclimate young people to the crazy idea of paying for music.

 

I think that's right. Right now certain sites allow you to download a .pdf of the full booklet, which I like a lot. But I think when the transition eventually takes hold, and ordinary releases are available only via download, there may not be booklets anymore, at least not as they are today, with artwork, sometimes an essay, etc.

 

If the scenerio of the CD's demise plays out, then the used record shops win!

 

That's a fact

 

Assuming radio promotion is still happening via CDs (I doubt it's the case for singles at least), I don't see why the promos can't be simple CD-Rs rather than pressed CDs.
As far as I understand radio stations are given access to watermarked downloads so that it is possible to track if they are responsible for leaks.

 

If you don't listen to and enjoy Top 40 radio pretty much exclusivly, this concept should scare the hell out of you.

If record companies can decide to kill physical media, they can decide that anything that isn't Top 40 shouldn't be even made available for download at all- including Beatles and Rolling Stones catalog titles. Not to mention non-pop/rock albums (Jazz, Classical, etc). It will al slowly but surely disappear as they decide it's not worth having songs and albums available for download when so few people will download them compared to Top 40 singles.

Because hey; those older albums just aren't cool for the kids with their awesome iPods...

Also say goodbye to the entire concept of an "album". Pop and Rock bands will go into the studio to record 3 or 4 singles per session and that will probably be it. There'd be no incentive to bother recording any more than that since there are no more "albums" to fill with filler.

 

If a sale is too expensive to pursue then it's a good business decision to give up on that sale. That's not shooting one's own foot.
If you "can't be bothered" to accept what is profitable for the industry then you are not an interesting customer for them.

 

I'm glad the Japanese loves the physical digital disc and keeps finding new ways to market it (mini sleeve,shm,blu spec ,sacd) etc

 

If physical media goes, I won't buy new music. Sure, I'd considering buying lossless downloads, but my digital clutter is getting too much, and the need to get bigger hard-drives and then a corresponding backup is getting really, really irritating. Please don't lecture me about "2TB for a $100". I have enough expenses in my life. The little money I have for own frivolous spending I choose to put into physical media. I haven't adapted to the modern, gadget-worshipping world, and I don't give a flying ****.

 

A lot of promo CDs are CD-Rs and even the TM Century HitDiscs are CD-Rs.

 

I would say it's exactly the opposite. Downloads have a much lower distribution cost so it's easier to cater to a small audience of niche products. If distribution is expensive then everything must sell high figures to recover costs.
A business like HDTracks would not be able to sustain physical releases while they can survive with downloads. Downloads have a much lower risk associated: you don't print thousands of copies and cross your fingers the thing won't flop, which is what happens with physical products.

 

Yes that's what I thought... so promotion is not based on pressed CDs already today.

 

Remember that every downloadable song or album takes up space on someone's server. The music still has to be stored somewhere wherever they want it to be downloadable from.

When an album or song doesn't sell enough downloads, into the vaults it will go and you won't be allowed access to it. Sort of like how many catalog CDs go out of print. Except you can't buy a "second hand" download when those become unavailable.

 

There's going to be a lot of bummed out people when their hard drives crash. Bye bye music. You're going to have to constantly be wary about back up and backing up the back up. I guess cloud sales will rise.

If collecting music did become exclusively digital downloads, I'll still buy a few things but it'll be nothing like what I do now. It'll certainly make it harder for Rhino to sell those expensive deluxe Monkees sets when they go exclusively digital. Actually, it'll make it a lot harder to sell albums in general. Everything will be viewed as singles. I guess Christmas shopping will be a lot easier as we just buy little plastic download cards with the artist's picture on them. And, I have no idea how this would affect classical music sales.

 

That cost is negligible compared to the cost of physical distribution where at least 4 or 5 middlemen must take a share of the cake before the product gets to the end consumer + transport + stock + sales assistants + store space rent cost....
CDs go out of print because it costs money to print them again. Keeping an item available for download has almost no cost in the big scheme of things associated to online distribution.

I am not making it up... if stores do not sell CDs anymore there must be a reason... I don't think they are all idiots.

 

That brings up an interesting point- buying music as a gift for someone used to be very personal- you'd buy someone an LP or CD by a band they like.

Now; you buy them an iTunes gift card (I guess?) and say "Here, download what you want". It just doesn't seem the same.

 

Not all of them are idiots, but the FYE and Sam Goody (etc) near me that was still trying to sell single CDs for $18 sure were... Small mall locations, lousy selection, and vastly over-priced compared to Amazon.com (or even to Best Buy or other B&M stores if you want to make that comparison).

 

Not really a problem. Many services already allow purchased music to be re-downloaded. All should do this. Apple has already made clear everything is going to be retrievable from the cloud.

As for the original article, I don't buy it. There is still too much money being made in physical disc sales at this point.

 

You can buy specific releases and send them as gifts too (at least on iTunes). The only thing gone is the physical delivery.

 

I started a related poll

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=266965

 

For now... and probably only a specific number of times. They could change those rules at any time if they wanted to.

 

No, there isn't. Distribution costs have gone up, while the market has shrunk tremendously.

People speaking of PCs and whether consumers will buy them are missing the point. Everything is moving to a combination of "the cloud" and peripherals that can connect to content via the cloud.

When I upgraded to iOS5 recently, I discovered that all my movie/tv-series purchases through the years, using Apple TV, was now easily available on my iPhone, iPod Touch, and several computers. Same with the music.

Apple has just announced that ALAC will be open source - which means they are getting ready to let people access music in lossless quality.

Kids find CDs silly - and listen to their music via their phones, tablets and computers. And they access content via these devices, finding purchasing a CD to be quaint in the extreme.

The stores offering CDs are disappearing.

The article states that the industry will focus on other formats, and that distribution of CDs will continue via Amazon, etc.

Makes perfect sense.