The End of CD's

[fusilierb]

That is wild! The only people I know buying vinyl spin (DJ/remix on the fly). I've got to admit that seeing vinyl come back would be cool. I'm not investing in a turntable anytime soon, unless its "two turntables and a microphone". Remixing on the fly is fun, but I'm an Ableton user for that kind of fun. You know what I really would invest in is on old Victrola! I've got a friend with a couple of those old beauts and a huge old album collection. You have to change the needle each time you play a record, but the sound coming out of that old cabinet is mesmerizing to me. And I LOVE how the volume control is how far open the cabinet door is.

This will be interesting to watch. Out of curiosity, who out there still has a turntable?

B

[billg1]

If you're not an alt country or Americana fan I think the vinyl users are either very "young and hip"
or "very old". I'm thinking of getting a turntable just to listen to Wilco's "Sky Blu Sky" LP.

I'm qualfied in the "very old" category & I like bands like the Drive Through Truckers.

[elser]

This will be interesting to watch. Out of curiosity, who out there still has a turntable?

B

I've got one...in the garage. I've got about 1700 records I just can't get rid of but my wife is super interior design conscious and we can't find a good place to put the turntable. I think we eventually will though, I'm interested to go back and listen to the records to see how much better the audio quality is.

My initial impression when CD's first started getting popular was that I didn't miss the record noise at all.
It's a good turntable but I wonder if you need audiophile level equipment to really hear that much difference.

[billg1]

I'm curious about the sound of modern recordings on vinyl too. Mostly about bands who still record to tape (Wilco, Truckers, etc.)

[fusilierb]

I was never a fan of wilco but saw them last year at the jazz fest. They Came on after a band I really wanted to see. I only intended to finish my beer before moving to another stage but ended up staying for a half hour. They were surprisingly great. I've seen the drive by truckers many times live. Good stuff there!

My memories of my albums were that they were scratchy and hissy. I was listening on a teenager stereo system so that might have been the real issue. I suspect that a lot of peoples affinity for the sound of albums is kind of herd mentality as it really takes an expensive audiophiles setup to truly bask in their glory. But the same could be said for a digital system.

[beachbum88]

I went to Costco today to buy groceries and swung by the book/CD/DVD section to look at CDs. Can you believe what I saw? NOT A SINGLE CD for sale! I think that our Costco is not selling CDs anymore (due to low sales??). I was shocked and somewhat saddened that another part of my youth is on the verge of extinction. The world is changing, and I feel like a dinosaur.

[coachdebra]

So, I've seen a lot of conversations like this in various places and we can postulate and hypothesize about the ultimate outcome. But I think as artists (if you're looking to sell to end-buyers, as opposed to Libraries and publishers), the answer to your question for right now has to be the answer to these questions:

Who is my target market?

How do they like to buy their music?

If they're in my generation or older I'm guessing they still like the physical manifestation of either CD or Vinyl. Younger generation may not be interested in any physical presentation but only want a download card.

What the big retailers are doing - Walmart, Best Buy, etc. - is probably less pertinent for you. It's more a question of what you're going to sell direct to fans or through CD Baby or Amazon.

And it always comes back to - what does your audience want/need/desire and how do they want to receive it. Answer that question and you'll know whether to make CD's, thumbdrives, Vinyl, or whatever comes next...

[billg1]

So, I've seen a lot of conversations like this in various places and we can postulate and hypothesize about the ultimate outcome. But I think as artists (if you're looking to sell to end-buyers, as opposed to Libraries and publishers), the answer to your question for right now has to be the answer to these questions:

Who is my target market?

How do they like to buy their music?

If they're in my generation or older I'm guessing they still like the physical manifestation of either CD or Vinyl. Younger generation may not be interested in any physical presentation but only want a download card.

What the big retailers are doing - Walmart, Best Buy, etc. - is probably less pertinent for you. It's more a question of what you're going to sell direct to fans or through CD Baby or Amazon.

And it always comes back to - what does your audience want/need/desire and how do they want to receive it. Answer that question and you'll know whether to make CD's, thumbdrives, Vinyl, or whatever comes next...

exactly! the saddest thing is the change in listening habits when the physical "disc" is gone.

There are so many records that can only really be appreciated with several full listens. If I only listened to singles or random cuts I would have probably missed out on a lot of great records (Rubber Soul and Astral Weeks come to mind . . . more recently Wilco's Sky Blue Sky)

[Hookjaw Brown]

I just finished reading 'Futurehits.DNA' and it had some real interesting ideas. According to the author, CD's are dead. Streaming music, internet radio, iPods will be the future of songs. Concert merch will still include t-shirts and coffee mugs and an instant copy of the concert, possibly as part of the ticket price. The single will be the release format of choice again. Timely releases also, to keep the fans involved in the development of the artists.

The average listener will hit the 'skip' button on the radio or iPod in about seven seconds, so a song has to grab the listener in that time. Four second intro into a chorus.

Royalties from radio play will make 5 minute songs more valuable. Think about 30 second fadeouts, endings with just a partial chorus, all kinds of tricks to make the listener want to listen to the song again and again.

It is a mind warping book, well presented, with some well thought out methods for the coming decade of songwriting. This is a book for song writers and not commercial music writers, well worth the read.

[billg1]

I just finished reading 'Futurehits.DNA' and it had some real interesting ideas. According to the author, CD's are dead. Streaming music, internet radio, iPods will be the future of songs. Concert merch will still include t-shirts and coffee mugs and an instant copy of the concert, possibly as part of the ticket price. The single will be the release format of choice again. Timely releases also, to keep the fans involved in the development of the artists.

The average listener will hit the 'skip' button on the radio or iPod in about seven seconds, so a song has to grab the listener in that time. Four second intro into a chorus.

Royalties from radio play will make 5 minute songs more valuable. Think about 30 second fadeouts, endings with just a partial chorus, all kinds of tricks to make the listener want to listen to the song again and again.

It is a mind warping book, well presented, with some well thought out methods for the coming decade of songwriting. This is a book for song writers and not commercial music writers, well worth the read.

I've seen excerpts from that book & if it holds true the future for pop music and pop songwriters is pretty bleak. They had better hope that the copyright fees for streaming are hefty because the rest of the examples are virtual freebies (pun intended). It's already been established that there isn't much room for pro studios/engineers, etc. in the future. The major labels will probally vanish and most pop recordings will be made by part-timers who will have to find ways to further dumb down the music to cater to the seven second skippers. There will be no sonic "bar" (it won't matter anyway with the final destination being an mp3 listened to on earbuds) and the major creative hurdle will be how quickly you can get to a catchy chorus and how long you can make the song. Sorry, but I've got to add a LOL here!

I actually think that this will turn out to be a good thing for people who enjoy truly listening to music in a format other than mp3. The more that popular music heads in that direction, the bigger the backlash for an alternative. This could explain the rebounding of business for the few (mostly independent) record stores that are left. (last month's record store day promotions & sales were waaaay up). Right now the lines are blurred a bit but eventually there will be a clear divide between how music is made and distributed between the masses who view music as cheap "backround" soundtrack for their lives and the others who actually enjoy listening to music.

Stay tuned . . .