Sunday, October 29, 2006
So Long CDs?
by
According to EMI Music exec Alain Levy, the traditional music CD is on its way to joining the ranks of other nostalgic concepts such as cassettes, 8-track tapes and LP vinyl records (BigShinyThing blog). Those are brave words from a man who knows CDs still account for 70 percent of all music sales.
Despite all the hype, direct digital music purchases are presently only 11 percent of total expenditures. However, as the article points out, the reason that most people buy CDs is not convenience, but simply to get around the DRM restrictions of digital downloads. Once a CD is bought, most consumers waste no time converting that shiny disk into digital song files for iTunes or some other player. In other words, consumers are using CDs simply to bridge the gap from old technology to new technology.
To extend the CDs maturity cycle a while longer, Levy noted that all future EMI CDs would include “bonus material.” I don’t think that is going to help much. It’s quality that consumers are looking for, not simply more stuff. Most CDs already come with bonus material: unfortunately that material consists of some songs on the CD that may not make the cut when the disk is transferred to a consumer’s digital player (computer, iPod, etc.).
In the old world, CD producers essentially packaged a playlist for the consumer in the form of a new album. In the new world, many consumer’s want to build their own custom playlists one song at a time through digital downloads or CD-to-iTunes conversion. It’s apparent that CDs aren’t going to disappear overnight, but it also seems clear that the writing is on the wall for CDs in the long term. Some day those jewel boxes will look every bit as retro as the stack of LPs that now adorn some people’s entertainment centers.
