One Year Left for CDs?

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One Year Left for CDs?

Postby jon » Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:18 am

CD-format to be abandoned by major labels by the end of 2012
ref. - http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=46980_0_2_0_C
Posted on 23/10/11

You read it well. The major labels plan to abandon the CD-format by the end of 2012 (or even earlier) and replace it with download/stream only releases via iTunes and related music services. The only CD-formats that will be left over will be the limited edition ones, which will of course not be available for every artist. The distribution model for these remaining CD releases would be primarily Amazon which is already the biggest CD retailer worldwide anyhow.

3 weeks ago we heard it for the first time and since then we have tried getting some feedback from EMI, Universal and Sony. All declined to comment.

The news doesn't come as a surprise to those who have been working in the business. In a piece that was published in a q&a with the Alfa Matrix people back in June 2011 in the 1st issue of "Matrix Revelations", our chief editor Bernard Van Isacker said the following when asked if a CD would still exist in 5 years: "Yes, but in a different format. Normal CDs will no longer be available because they don't offer enough value, limited editions on the other hand will remain available and in demand for quite a few more years. I for one buy only limited editions because of the added value they offer: a nice design, extra bonus gadgets, etc. The album as we know it now however will be dead within 5 years, if it isn't even sooner. I predict that downloads will have replaced the CD album within the next 2 years. I don't see that as something negative, it just has run its course, let's leave the space to limited editions (including vinyl runs for bigger acts) and downloads instead."

It's a move that makes completely sense. CD's cost money, even when they don't sell because there is stock storage to be paid; a label also pays money to distributors when CDs get returned to the labels when not sold and so on. In short, abandoning the CD-format will make it possible to just focus on the release and the marketing of it and no longer focus on the distribution (since aggregators will do the work as far as dispatching the releases to services worldwide) and - expensive - stock maintenance. In the long run it will most surely mean the end for many music shops worldwide that only stock and sell CD releases. In the UK for instance HMV has problems paying the labels already and more will follow. It makes the distribution of CDs no longer worth it.

Also Amazon will benefit from this as it will surely become the one and only player when it comes to distribution of the remaining CD productions from labels. Packaged next to regular album downloads via its own Amazon MP3 service it will offer a complimentary service.

The next monument to fall? That will be printed magazines as people will want to consume their information online where they also read most of the news.

What are your feelings? is it a move that you like or not?
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Re: One Year Left for CDs?

Postby jon » Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:20 am

If you check the link to the article, you will see some very heated arguments that the writer is full of baloney regarding the plans of the Majors.

A fairly lively discussion has also emerged on this topic on SOWNY.ca, the Southern Ontario radio board. Here is what I had to say there:

Two CD supporters I know have their points. One is a retired Radio Production Genius and he has never met an MP3 he didn't hate. In other words, he could always hear the difference between the uncompressed CD track and even the highest bit rate MP3. On the other hand, Consumer Reports magazine did a scientific test 10 years ago and found that none of their non-pro test panel could hear a difference between 192Kbps MP3 and the CD track of the same thing.

A former co-worker has been in bands ever since he was a teenager, and he buys CDs for the liner notes and better quality cover art than he would get with iTunes.

For Radio Production purposes, CBC and Alberta-wide CKUA have, last time I checked, always insisted on CD quality, not MP3, source materials. Though I do know that CKUA has more recently used MP3 for some programs recorded remotely.

Finally, just like tape dubbing, there is a "generations" issues with MP3 and other forms of compression. Yes, nothing is lost if you simply copy the digital .mp3 file, but when you start using MP3 source material in a Production piece that is then stored as MP3, you are definitely losing quality in each "generation" (decompress/recompress).
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Re: One Year Left for CDs?

Postby PMC » Wed Oct 26, 2011 12:02 pm

Audio clipping is what destroys the quality in mp3 playback... as example if using winamp, turn off the clipping so that the full audio is there. This ability may not be in the free version... same applies to having a choice of equalizers.... spend the $20 to get the full version rather than a demo of what it does.

The type/brand of sound card in the machine can also make a difference on how it processes the bits... 8, 16, 24 etc. Not all builtin motherboard audio sound processors are the same, and this applies to the software device driver too.

If you are serious about audio then buy a computer motherboard that allows you to add the components that you want, such as Sound Blaster 5.1 or 7.1. A good motherboard choice is Asus, and they are available for Intel or AMD cpu's.

As for CD/DVD-Rom's disappearing, I doubt that because it is a storage medium. I would be more concerned if some politician was screaming burn all the books, as books get digitized.
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Re: One Year Left for CDs?

Postby pave » Wed Oct 26, 2011 8:15 pm

Another matter that will likely get lost in the mass transition away from Print to digital is that material read from hard copy is more easily recalled than that read from an electronic screen. It's an easy self-test and the results ain't priddy, neither.

Meanwhile, I really do still prefer holding an album (vinyl) in my hand complete with any other materials that come with. It's a "thing" - a "product". There is a benefit to the tactile portion of an experience. Plus, I still prefer the "warmth" or whatever the hell that is of analogue.

But, that's just me chasing cars and barking at hubcaps.
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Re: One Year Left for CDs?

Postby Tape Splicer » Wed Oct 26, 2011 8:56 pm

pave wrote:Meanwhile, I really do still prefer holding an album (vinyl) in my hand complete with any other materials that come with. It's a "thing" - a "product". There is a benefit to the tactile portion of an experience. Plus, I still prefer the "warmth" or whatever the hell that is of analogue.

But, that's just me chasing cars and barking at hubcaps.



"pave" i agree with you. There is something about LP Jacket art - "the sound" and the idea that there is some substance to the sound.

I helped a fellow move a couple of weeks ago and he had 15 liquor boxes of LP's. While stocking his shelves with the records, I found that I was looking at the artwork of each LP as it went on the shelf. Even the "classical" LP's were interesting to look at, not to mention those forgotten rock and jazz albums.

"pave" it is OK to chase cars and bark at hubcaps Just don't leave a mess where someone can step in it. As for me, I tilt at wind mills.
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Re: One Year Left for CDs?

Postby Dan Sys » Thu Oct 27, 2011 12:50 pm

I'll take a turntable and a good old fashioned vinyl LP any day over MP3's and all this other crap that is being marketed down our throats.
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Re: One Year Left for CDs?

Postby Neumann Sennheiser » Thu Oct 27, 2011 1:51 pm

Most audiophiles agree across all boards that the best sounding format was, and still is, the 33 1/3 rpm vinyl disc (particulariy, but not restricted to, direct-to-disc recordings) and I am solidly in that camp as well.
Audio quality aside, there is no other platform that offered such a tactile experience on so many other levels of sight, sound and even smell. Remember the scent that came with the first cracking of the sleeve of a new LP?
It's like the taste of chocolate, in the sense that it's impossible to describe to someone who hasn't tasted it and impossible to forget to those who have.
Unfortunately, the experience will one day be as lost as the Tillamook Salish Indian dialect, last spoken in 1970.
It used to be a language. Now it's just a brand name of cheese.
"You don't know man! I was in radio man! I've seen things you wouldn't believe!"
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Re: One Year Left for CDs?

Postby Tape Splicer » Thu Oct 27, 2011 2:29 pm

As a reminder of what was - I keep two Wurlitzer jukebox 45 RPM metal record centers on my key ring... the funny thing is when I ask someone what they are, they say "four head screw driver" (because of the way the edge that grips the record looks) - or they have no idea... and these are folks who grew up with LP's, 45's and 78"s... the only record centers they remember are those yellow plastic incerts or the changers from their home record player.
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Re: One Year Left for CDs?

Postby Neumann Sennheiser » Thu Oct 27, 2011 2:57 pm

Something like this?

Image
"You don't know man! I was in radio man! I've seen things you wouldn't believe!"
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Re: One Year Left for CDs?

Postby Tape Splicer » Thu Oct 27, 2011 3:06 pm

lIKE THAT EXACTLY x 2!
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Re: One Year Left for CDs?

Postby Howaboutthat » Thu Nov 01, 2012 3:29 pm

So, how's this prediction working out?

I'm thinking someone was looking at the Mayan calendar?
Houston, We're dealing with morons!.
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