The End of CD's

[mazz]

It may end up being some of both. Imagine if you could buy a vinyl record, encode it digitally in whatever high quality format you happen to have (if you're into that kind of thing), and then put it up on the cloud so you could listen to it anywhere. When you get home, you could put on the record, but when you're out and about, you would still have access to the music. This may or may not be important to everyone, but since music has been established as a mobile pastime since the Walkman, it's clearly important to a lot of folks.

An alternative, it seems to me, would be to have access to any music you've purchased without having to encode it yourself. In other words, if you buy a CD or whatever physical delivery method is available, there's some mechanism to prove that you've purchased it. At that point, you also gain access to that music via the cloud by virtue of purchasing a license for it on physical medium. The artist will have already made it available in the cloud for licensing so it's already encoded. The artist gets a royalty that's somehow tied to your purchase of the license.

Another thing that occurred to me about the cloud: imagine a live gig streamed onto the cloud either audio and/or video. Now it's there. Some audience members in remote locations will want to stream it as it's happening, others will "time shift" it and listen/watch it at their leisure. The artist could sell "tickets" to the gig all over the world but be performing at their local pub.

The next few years are going to be interesting, if nothing else!

[eliotpister1]

I agree with Tree. I think the idea of digital download cards will take off in place of a physical product that you can stick into a player of some sort. I think of it like business cards: sure, we can bluetooth our contact info to somebody's blackberry when we're talking to them, but we all want to receive some kind of advertisement for what they do, hence the continued relevancy of business cards. I think the same is true for music. There's still value in a photo, some kind of impressive packaging, and a visual statement of what a particular artist is about.

When I drop $10-15, I want something to hold in my hand other than a receipt! That's why I think the download cards will take the CD's place. The cool thing about download cards is that they can be any dimension you want - card sized, traditional CD jewel case sized, or even LP size if you want! And they can be laminated, heavy stock paper, or whatever - there are no limitations.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I still like to buy CD's just for the fact that I get to look through the credits, photos and the whole experience while I listen to those tracks the first time. It's just not the same to see the little picture of the album cover that Windows Media Player or your iPod screen displays.

Whaddayall think?

Cheers, Eliot.

[billg1]

I agree with Tree. I think the idea of digital download cards will take off in place of a physical product that you can stick into a player of some sort. I think of it like business cards: sure, we can bluetooth our contact info to somebody's blackberry when we're talking to them, but we all want to receive some kind of advertisement for what they do, hence the continued relevancy of business cards. I think the same is true for music. There's still value in a photo, some kind of impressive packaging, and a visual statement of what a particular artist is about.

When I drop $10-15, I want something to hold in my hand other than a receipt! That's why I think the download cards will take the CD's place. The cool thing about download cards is that they can be any dimension you want - card sized, traditional CD jewel case sized, or even LP size if you want! And they can be laminated, heavy stock paper, or whatever - there are no limitations.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I still like to buy CD's just for the fact that I get to look through the credits, photos and the whole experience while I listen to those tracks the first time. It's just not the same to see the little picture of the album cover that Windows Media Player or your iPod screen displays.

Whaddayall think?

Cheers, Eliot.

I think this is what may be happening to some degree now. A lot of the LPs being sold include a download card. I wonder how many people buy the LP to satisfy the desire for a physical product, load uo the tracks from the download card and just have the LP as reference for the cover art, lyrics, liner notes etc , , , (?)

[fusilierb]

Itunes LP is a new format (one that really isn't catching on that quickly) but it essentially gives you an electronic version of all the cool stuff that used to come printed on the albums and more, think videos and interviews, etc. etc.

My main problem with physical items is that they are physical, which to me means wasteful. Chemicals to make the products, energy gulping plants to manufacture, gas and pollution to get them from point A to point B. The older I get, the more disgusted I get at the amount of pure garbage (packaging) that comes along with everything I buy. It just goes right out my door into a landfill. And I've moved more than a few times in my life and dragging all that stuff around is a real pain. so I really love it when bytes can get me to the same end result without all that crap.

All my music and movies have been digitized and I can get to them from anywhere I have an internet connection. Again, the internet disappears for whatever reason one day and this all disappears with it, but I'm fine with that risk, cause if it does disappear, we're facing bigger issues than "where is my stuff?"

B

[billg1]

Itunes LP is a new format (one that really isn't catching on that quickly) but it essentially gives you an electronic version of all the cool stuff that used to come printed on the albums and more, think videos and interviews, etc. etc.

My main problem with physical items is that they are physical, which to me means wasteful. Chemicals to make the products, energy gulping plants to manufacture, gas and pollution to get them from point A to point B. The older I get, the more disgusted I get at the amount of pure garbage (packaging) that comes along with everything I buy. It just goes right out my door into a landfill. And I've moved more than a few times in my life and dragging all that stuff around is a real pain. so I really love it when bytes can get me to the same end result without all that crap.

All my music and movies have been digitized and I can get to them from anywhere I have an internet connection. Again, the internet disappears for whatever reason one day and this all disappears with it, but I'm fine with that risk, cause if it does disappear, we're facing bigger issues than "where is my stuff?"



B

Although that makes sense and is a very "green" and a cool way to think, it goes against human nature . . . most people like to collect and display things that they love and appreciate and that have an importance to them. Art is one of those things that needs to be a physical, tangible thing and some people ( i must admit I'm one of them) associates music with the medium/ packaging, associated graphics etc. and enjoys having a physical "something" that represents the music.

If there were a greener way to collect music I'd be all about it but nobody has come forth with a physical "green" end product for music distribution. I believe that the need for physical music product will probably ebb and flow with the times but humans love to collect, especially younger people (baseball cards, comics, pogs) and always music. My daughter is 22 & as part of the iPod generation was sort of left out of the music collection right of passage (CDs were never really huge with her) so "record" collecting now for people that age makes sense, music is still important to them but downloading doesn't even satisfy the need for a feeling of ownership, much less the need for collecting.

No doubt that cloud distribution will happen in a big way, but there will always be some demand for a physical product. If nothing new is offered people will keep going back to the older things . . . in 10 yrs. CDs will probably be popular again if no one comes up with something better.

i'm one of the holdouts that believes a physical product is better for the music industry as a whole so I'm gonna be on the sidelines rooting for any physical music product the consumer will spend money for (except 8 tracks, even I have to draw the line somewhere!)

[fusilierb]

I'm not trying to be preachy. But I personally am fine without physical. And I know a lot of people who are fine with it also. I get that people like to collect stuff. I do also, but I don't have to have some item that I can hold to feel like I'm collecting. My books are now ebooks, my music is now electronic, my movies are, my documents are all electronic, my bills get received and paid electronically. It's just easier and, to me, more responsible. To each their own, but I'm done with physical in any way I reasonably can be.

B

[billg1]

Maybe it just comes with blowing out too many birthday candles but I don't think I would ever be able to connect with any kind of virtual artform. I can appreciate where your coming from though.

Here's an interesting article with Jack White .

[fusilierb]

Maybe it just comes with blowing out too many birthday candles but I don't think I would ever be able to connect with any kind of virtual artform. I can appreciate where your coming from though.

Here's an interesting article with Jack White .

No link for the article.

I get what you're saying, but music is kind of virtual by nature. It's just sound moving through the air. I don't see what difference it makes how the sound is being pushed into the air. When you push play, on whatever you push it on, it's just your ears and sound. No need to bottle that in packaging IMO. Now a painting or a sculpure, etc. Of course. I can even see how people love real books. I've got a huge collection, but don't miss the physical object when reading ebooks. My eye scanning words is all reading really is. My eyes don't seem to mind whether those words or on paper of a display of some sort.

I'm rambling, but just wanted to give another perspective on why, if CD's do go away, I won't cry.

B

[billg1]

here's the link I forgot
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music ... 000506.stm

I just look at things differently. The physical aspect (album/cd art/liner notes/credit) has always been a part of owning music to me & if I can't hold it in my hand I don't feel as if I really own it. I don't collect it though, which is a big part of owning physical "records" to some.

Some of this thinking is generational I believe. My wife is 18yrs. younger than me. She has a great photo she took of our cat. I ask her to print it out so I could matt & frame it & her reply was "why?". Storing he photos on her camera's memory stick is fine with her but I feel as if something is lost with that thinking.

And following the sound pushing air analogy, a painting (or anything visual) is just light reflecting off of a surface, but I'd rather see the actual Mona Lisa painting as opposed to a pixel representation or even a printed pic. It's all the same in my mind but I will admit that maybe it's only in my head.

The thing about music as a physical product might have as much to do wth collecting as it does with the music, there are hundreds of studies and opinions on why people collect things and most agree that collecting satisfies some human need.

People have always enjoyed collecting music in the form of LPs, 45s, CDs, etc and the music industry depended & counted on this. It just seems logical to me that if you remove the collectability factor of the music that the industry will suffer.

Whatever the reasons, the figures show that downloaded music has stripped away the value of CDs but that there is a growing segment willing to purchase LPs instead. There has to be some valuable information in this for the music industry. So far the response has been to release more vinyl (one figure I saw stated at 50% of all releases now had a vinyl counterpart). But in my mind the solution lies in some revolutionary new product & whatever it is needs to somewhat follow the LP in attributes (physical size, artwork, etc.).

If this doesn't happen and all music becomes virtual I believe it will continue to be devalued & the current trends & numbers support it.

[guscave]

I agree with Dean on his view of the "Cloud" and it's future. I work in the tech communications industry, and just last week we had a big corporate meeting and the main topic was the "billions" of dollars that is currently being spent on ecloud.

For Artists, this technology is not just the ability store and distribute music, but also the artwork, the liner notes, video of gigs, the backstage experience & etc. The cloud environment offers something for everyone. If you just want to hear music while driving or surfing the net, you can. If you want to connect further with the Artist you can read the liner notes. If you still want that physical property experience, you can print out the album cover or photo montage of their recent concert and put it in with your other collections.

IMHO by eliminating the limits of home storage (weather it's CD, DVD or hard-drive), and removing or limiting the cost of physical manufacturing, The Cloud maybe that "new" format we're looking for.