Topic: The death of the CD?

[Rik]

El Reg reports:

The major record labels are planning to kill off the CD format by the end of next year to make way for digital downloads only.

That's the claim made by music site Side-Line which says it heard whispers that the end of the CD is nigh from music industry insiders.

That said, it has failed to get any official confirmation from the labels, though that's not perhaps surprising.

The notion is that, by the end of 2012, the majors will focus entirely on downloads. The only CDs that will go on sale through 2013 and beyond will be special editions and albums from the biggest artists.

If true - we're not entirely convinced; we can't see the majors acting in such harmony - the news could spell even bigger profits for digital content suppliers Amazon and iTunes, while ruining bricks'n'mortar stores like HMV, which already struggles due to the rise in digital-download popularity.

I can't see it myself, classical music lovers in particular will not, I feel, put up with the lower quality of MP3.

[Simon]

I would be very sad if that happened.  There's something about having a product in physical form that is much nicer than downloads, then,  as you say, Rik, there's the sound quality issue with MP3.  They could, of course, release albums in lossless formats, such as FLAC, but they would be bigger download file sizes, and therefore consume more bandwidth.

[sam]

I prefer to own cds and convert. physical is always better.

[GillE]

A lot of artists who perform live, especially on the folk music circuit, like to cart their latest releases around with them on CDs.  The death of the CD has been predicted many times over the last ten years, just like the death of the paper book has been predicted.  We still have have them.

[Simon]

For now...

[Clive]

I too have discovered that MP3's are very variable in quality.  I'm going through my iPod and weeding out the trash.   

[Rik]

We'll see you in January, then, Clive.

[Clive]

I might have a blank iPod by then!   

[Rik]

 

[Simon]

After all that time downloading them! 

[Rik]

 

[Clive]

And all that bandwidth surcharge I had to pay! 

[Simon]