Major labels dropping CD format by end of 2012.

[Jrich4967]

it might fuck with the economy a bit. a huge chuck of the cd production industry will take a hit. then, on top of that, they are gonna have to pay more money for servers with more bandwidth that can handle the download demand i love cds, being able to down mp3's is a plus, but i would prefer that they keep cds. this is almost as ridiculous as them only selling movies as downloads, and getting rid of dvds and blueray all together. a physical copy is going to be by far the best choice for me. there will be an increase in blank cds though

 

[crillemannen]

I haven't bought a physical album to myself since 2006. Think i bought one last year to my mom for Christmas though.

I think there is only big bands that can sell cd's on somewhat profitable level. I know some people that play in world known bands and they barely live on their music, and the money they get is just from merch and touring, 'nough said

 

[pikachu69]

I knew this day would come very soon, no point producing somthing that most major retailers have already stopped stocking but I still feel that a newer phyisical format to complement digital downloads will still be nesessary, in fact my friend and I are in the middle of trying something new and different to combat this. We have what I think is a WICKED idea to keep up with modern technology/downloading but still have something phyisical to sell in stores and at concerts. (but not CD or Vinyl) I will keep you all posted.

I do wonder, however, about the few of you that are saying bring back vinyl.
You are talking about replacing old technology (CD) with something new but you want to do this by bringing back an even older, harder to maintain format that is even more inconvineint? I don't see this ever making a comeback enough for it to be a major format again. Purisits will always demand what they grew up listening to rather than the newer alternitive, just like we all complain about lossy formats. The odd band will still want to produce a vinyl record but it will never be what it was. The one plus side I see to reintroducing vinyl would be the end of the loudness war but that is all. The art work is cool, yes, but come on there are reasons why vinyl was surpassed by CD and now it is time for the CD to step aside and let what is new have a chance.

I don't have too many issues with having to download music as long as it is of high enough quality.

 

[Donovan S.]

it might fuck with the economy a bit. a huge chuck of the cd production industry will take a hit. then, on top of that, they are gonna have to pay more money for servers with more bandwidth that can handle the download demand i love cds, being able to down mp3's is a plus, but i would prefer that they keep cds. this is almost as ridiculous as them only selling movies as downloads, and getting rid of dvds and blueray all together. a physical copy is going to be by far the best choice for me. there will be an increase in blank cds though

Invalid analogy because a movie in lossless is usually multiple GB while a full CD (~1hr) is around .5 GB.

Blue Rays can have even larger file sizes.

 

[Donovan S.]

I knew this day would come very soon, no point producing somthing that most major retailers have already stopped stocking but I still feel that a newer phyisical format to complement digital downloads will still be nesessary, in fact my friend and I are in the middle of trying something new and different to combat this. We have what I think is a WICKED idea to keep up with modern technology/downloading but still have something phyisical to sell in stores and at concerts. (but not CD or Vinyl) I will keep you all posted.

I do wonder, however, about the few of you that are saying bring back vinyl.
You are talking about replacing old technology (CD) with something new but you want to do this by bringing back an even older, harder to maintain format that is even more inconvineint? I don't see this ever making a comeback enough for it to be a major format again. Purisits will always demand what they grew up listening to rather than the newer alternitive, just like we all complain about lossy formats. The odd band will still want to produce a vinyl record but it will never be what it was. The one plus side I see to reintroducing vinyl would be the end of the loudness war but that is all. The art work is cool, yes, but come on there are reasons why vinyl was surpassed by CD and now it is time for the CD to step aside and let what is new have a chance.

I don't have too many issues with having to download music as long as it is of high enough quality.

+1. Can't just hold on to something forever. Gotta make way for the newer, better technology.

You got me interested in your idea.

 

[Jrich4967]

Invalid analogy because a movie in lossless is usually multiple GB while a full CD (~1hr) is around .5 GB.

Blue Rays can have even larger file sizes.

that was meant to be in a futuristic. besides, people right now can have downloads as fast as 2 Mb/s, especially on torrents, so even large movies wont take long to download. it will only be a minor inconvenience on the downloader, similar to how ilok is just a nuisance on the people who actually buy it

 

[jipchen]

I'll gladly drop CDs if there's a successor.. make it a "CD2" with 24 bit and (possibly) 88.2 kHz. Vinyl has a ridiculous dynamic range, the size issue, isn't readable in computers etc. etc.

 

[sawtooth]

As long as the music is downloadable in a lossless format I don't mind too much. But I will miss holding works of art, some bands spend a fortune on artwork.

 

[Arsenu,]

Makes financial sense, but still, fuck that shit. It'll be a long, icy winter in hell before I give up buying physical albums.

+1

very icy indeed!
i don't mind if they releasing only the special editions tough
it sucks balls to buy an album and a few days later realize the band has 3 more new songs you don't have on your album!

plus adding clips, videos, documenteries and all other media increases the value of the pyshical copy

no more 8 songs for 25$

 

[pitoga]

This surely would be a big financial problem for many cd stores and distributors.
My self knowing a bit of coding, would think that it would be cool (and easy) to implement and sell via internet something like a "virtual" cd. Kinda like a whole multimedia experience. It could be like a little .exe file that gives you access to all the songs within a especially designed player which contains all the artwork lyrics that go along with the song. You could even add little games(if the theme of the music goes with it). I think this would be pretty interesting and fresh. I'll try to implement something like this for the fun of it.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Dun care either way.

 

[LeSedna]

This surely would be a big financial problem for many cd stores and distributors.
My self knowing a bit of coding, would think that it would be cool (and easy) to implement and sell via internet something like a "virtual" cd. Kinda like a whole multimedia experience. It could be like a little .exe file that gives you access to all the songs within a especially designed player which contains all the artwork lyrics that go along with the song. You could even add little games(if the theme of the music goes with it). I think this would be pretty interesting and fresh. I'll try to implement something like this for the fun of it.

on mac it's called ".dmg" and it would be nice that windows could mount an equivalent or even an .iso natively.

On mac, you double clic on the .dmg, and your virtual disk is mounted, you would just have to display your files videos and whatever you want inside.

If there were an universal file extension, why not, it would be a cool idea after all, but it's not likely to happen quick...

EDIT : i read quickly and didn't get you were talking about an extension that would be readable by players. Anyway !

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

It's honestly, truly amazing that the music industry took this long to go this route.

BTW I have never downloaded an album. And I'll be god damned if I pay $9.99 for an album made of 1s and 0s with no cd cover and art.

Edit: it goes without saying (but worth repeating) the people in charge of the music industry are fucking retarded.

 

[Trevoire520]

no point producing somthing that most major retailers have already stopped stocking

??? Maybe things are different in the states but ASDA (Walmart) and Tesco still have cds in all of their stores. Ok it's mostly chart crap but it's certainly something that's still stocked and still sells.

I'll be god damned if I pay $9.99 for an album made of 1s and 0s with no cd cover and art.

+1. I thought the whole point of digital downloads was to make music cheaper. But honestly I can normally get the physical CD for less than the cost of the digital download.

I still feel the music industry could benefit from slashing album prices. If a album is only £5 in the store instead of £10-15 then it becomes an impulse buy.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

It's funny, I just bought $30 in music downloads.

 

[pitoga]

on mac it's called ".dmg" and it would be nice that windows could mount an equivalent or even an .iso natively.

On mac, you double clic on the .dmg, and your virtual disk is mounted, you would just have to display your files videos and whatever you want inside.

If there were an universal file extension, why not, it would be a cool idea after all, but it's not likely to happen quick...

EDIT : i read quickly and didn't get you were talking about an extension that would be readable by players. Anyway !

I actually was talking more about a little "program" like virtual cd, not like mounting cd's in mac or pc. Something totally different with a User interface which is interactive that could offer other things besides the music. yeah, but the mac / pc issue would surely by kinda tricky you would have to do 2 versions of every thing, unless it's perhaps powered by a third party application like flash or who knows.

 

[jackbraglia]

I'll gladly drop CDs if there's a successor.. make it a "CD2" with 24 bit and (possibly) 88.2 kHz. Vinyl has a ridiculous dynamic range, the size issue, isn't readable in computers etc. etc.

we have that already...Super Audio CD's. they go up to 2.8MHz, but usually only have as high as 192k recordings on them. too bad these haven't become a popular format

 

[jackbraglia]

oh and DVD-Audio too, that goes up to 192k i think

 

[Ascendant]

Personally, I like CDs and absolutely hate the idea of buying my music only as mp3/whatever format.. If I pay for it, I want a physical artwork, CD, extras etc and no file on my computer which even has DRM and other stupid restrictions in the worst case.

This pretty much sums up my thoughts. I'd hate to see physical distribution becoming a thing of the past. Personally I love the physical aspect of an album, to be able to hold the thing in my hands, being able to look at the awesome cover art, browse through the booklet and all that good stuff.

I actually was talking more about a little "program" like virtual cd, not like mounting cd's in mac or pc. Something totally different with a User interface which is interactive that could offer other things besides the music. yeah, but the mac / pc issue would surely by kinda tricky you would have to do 2 versions of every thing, unless it's perhaps powered by a third party application like flash or who knows.

Interesting idea, sounds a bit gimmicky but it could probably be very cool if executed well.

 

[Mago]

not sure how much of a difference it will be only because the key word here (as I see it) is "Major" labels.

Just because they're looking to phase out the cd I don't know if its gonna set a trend with the labels that put out most of the music most of us listen to. I guess when these labels pump millions into just creating and promoting the new Bieber / Gaga / whatever single they're losing out because those are probably the majority type of artist that suffers from rampant downloading. I'm not saying it doesn't effect labels like NB, CM, etc .. just saying that for the most part, again as I see it, metal fans are still the more willing of the bunch to purchase cds because of the reasons others have mentioned that I share as well ... physical product to add to "the collection" with all its awesome artwork, better quality (non mp3), the concept of a "music journey" per say ... you know where I'm going with this

I really hope that.

Tho:
I can't imagine that a true Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga fanboi/girl doesn't have all CD's, tshirts of their fav start and all that shizzle at home...
dunno how much % of the regular "pop" audience that is tho