The End Of The Cd's Are Coming! Are You Prepared?

From the original link: http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=46980_0_2_0_C


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.

 Update: We were approached by several people working with major labels, who indeed re-confirm that plans do exist to give up the CD. We keep on trying to get an official confirmation, but it seems that the matter is very controversial, especially after Side-Line brought out the story.

..If that's the case then friends what this mean is that there won't be anymore places to discover music in town be it Wally World, Target or Best Buy which actually did kill off the whatever record stores we used to have in town.  CD's are higher in cost since the great three Giant labels have moved their CD operations south of the border.  Most new CDs are manufactured in Mexico and of course that's why the big brain trust never tells you.  Takes money to move them and gas prices have been too fucking high since the Bush 2 era.  And of course most new CDs sound like shit anyway due to the LOUDNESS Factor.  Another problem is that the major labels manufactured too many CDs that nobody wants (anybody listen to the American Idol Runner ups season 7 lately?).  Of the flavor of the week that everybody plays one day and gets rid of the next (American Hi Fi got it right with their tragedy accurate Flavor Of The Weak and then whatever they put out went to the dollar bins).  Problem number three: The internet, effectively makes it easy just to get up from bed and plop on the computer and order from your own home.

What does this mean for me?  Well, looks like I'm going have to come up with another hobby to pass the time with.  Although there's enough CDs out there in the world that will enable me to continue to find things if and when they come through the used book store or pawnshop. Those will not be gone away too soon but as time passes on, CDs like 45s or albums or 78s will eventually become more less and less.  I had a discussion with somebody at some other site about this.  Even though if the 3 Majors have their way and end CDs in 2012 or sooner, there'll still be enough CDs out there to at least keep a open mind or ear on what's out there.

Even as the years progressed, CDs manufacturing have been shoddy, especially from the folks at DADC, who used to make some of the best jewel cases of the 1990s, but nowadays, their made in china jewel cases are so GD flimsy, that most of the time the CD holder is never secured.  Nothing pisses me off more than trying to take a CD out of the case only to have the rest of the piece of shit holder come out too.

In the end I still believe that CDs will be made but in a lesser capacity from the specialty labels that put out reissues (Wounded Bird, Real Gone, Varese Vintage).  But if the labels are only interested of rehashing everything on a crappy MP3 format, I just convert what I got to MP3 myself, tell the labels and Itunes to shove it up their ass with a wire brush and live out my retirement years on scratchy albums and what CDs I have.

And tell Bob Lefsetz he can keep his fucking Spotify and that so called music revolution he keeps talking about that  we all have been waiting to see.  Only to be disappointed again when it hasn't happen.

Yet.

Counterpoint:  http://www.heyreverb.com/2011/11/18/end-of-cds/