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.
I’ve started buying Vinyl again, and loving the whole experience. as someone who grew up with it I’d forgotten what a different experience it was not having listened to a record for over 20 years.
I’m a complete convert now, a good record on a good system sounds bloody amazing. i was listening to a 1962 recording of Vaughan Williams this morning on 180g vinyl and it’s stunning, i doubt you could better it now 5o years later.
Downloads only would be disastrous, I’ve never downloaded a pro track in my life and never will. I could understand abandoning CDs and going with DVD/blu ray but downloads only? Nah, preposterous.
Imagine all the millions of CD players that will keep on playing CDs from the indies and minors and the billions of discs still out there. Its a foolish move which will cost them. Fek 'em, I say!
Piracy will again rise (I suppose it still is) . I don’t buy much commercial stuff any more, I like BluRay concert discs, but beyond that… its their loss not mine. But its hard to fight big money.
Vinyl is cool, no question, but a renaissance is unlikely in any great quantity.
HD audio on disc or chip (someone way back in the 80’s patented a consumer chip 8 hour cd quality recorder/player - the name escapes me right now - which was bought up and shelved by one of the giants - Philips?) would be my ultimate preference, but it seems that the majors want to “virtualize the packaging”, so that’s out too. I don’t want to be online all the time. It costs money, constantly. All these radio waves are unhealthy too. We’ve been suckered by the technology and the money makers holding the bandwidth.
I think we have to admit that we all knew this was where it was going. First thing I’ve done with all of the CD’s I’ve bought in the last years is rip them to my computer, and the second thing was to copy them to my MP3 player. I almost never played the CD’s directly. Last couple of new albums I bought, I got from Amazon downloads. I rarely even put a CD into my home stereo system. I’m more likely to plug the mp3 player into it.
I did not know about the major labels doing this ‘dance’
but this download music trend perfected by Apple Inc.
prompted me a few months back to post this thread
about the future of CDs.
‘Talk about the angels and they are there’.
=Cds#p78525
Thumb drives here we come. (maybe)
BTW
I found this at the end of the article:
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.
Yeah, mine takes FLAC even, but I just use MP3 for the convenience of having more songs. I don’t go below 192 kb/s though, the artifacts become too apparent then.
Now don’t get all artsy-farty and hoytee-toytee on us > > Fidelity means a a good deal but for the most part it’s all about portability & conveniences in the smallest packages that we can now be able to take music with us wherever we go…anywhere, any time…and that’s for players, and obtaining our music. I’d like to see vinyl snobs strap on their turntables at the beach or on their mountain bike > > My player also plays .wav as well as mp3’s but I choose to put mp3’s to save space…even though it’s a 16 GB player.
Steve - you have somehow tapped into the accountancy-led devaluation of our art and the reproduction of it.
Mp3 was fine as a ‘portable’ solution so even the ‘vinyl snobs’ as you put it would use a portable format this way.
The issue is using mp3 as your main,end of line format. For a lot of consumers its fine and convenient,I would like to think on a pro audio forum we would be setting the bar a little higher though.
Well, the stuff I downloaded from Amazon was 256-bit mp3 and at that sample rate I defy anyone to identify it consistently against a .wav file in a blind hearing test.
Why disparage accountants with the spurious claim that we are devaluing art?
There are (or were )several accountants that are (or were ) members of this board. I’ve not seen any accountant-types devaluing art, or the reproduction of it. I’ve never witnessed such a thing in over 30 years of sailing the high accountant seas (thank you Monty Python).
Went through this years ago when we had to pull the 8-track tape players from our cars didnt we?
Just history repeating itself…
Then we had to pull our cassette tape players from our lives…
Now our CD’s must go…
I cried when I had to get rid of my fostex cassette tape “multi track recorder” in highschool just like all of you
As earlier posters stated… simply… evolution !
But think about it… WE - can not complain either… WE ARE PART OF THE REASON this happened!
How many of you have shared music with the community and said “Please give me your postal addresses so I can mail you my new CD?”
No, we post links to stream and download our music… soundcloud, youtube whatever…
We … are how music happens… and many of us have already abandoned CD’s for our own music distribution… we can blame no one… but evolution !
Oops - no offence intended. There are accountants and accountants of course, mine saves me money every year, he’s a great guitarist of some repute and an all - round nice guy. I had in mind the corporate accountants whom you might agree have caused untold mayhem in many areas.
I played a gig at a “Bass” (name of brewery) pub in the mid eighties and it happened to be the “local” of one of the Bass Brewery directors, he was an accountant. He came to chat to us during the break and made it clear that he didn’t approve of us “long-haired louts”, “But never mind” he said “I’m going to instruct all my pubs that to pay a band £25 they must show that they took £400 more in beer sales than they would have if they hadn’t had a band on”. I think our fee in those days was about £200 or, to put it another way, £3200 worth of beer!
That’s the sort of accountant I’m not too keen on…
as someone who grew up with it I’d forgotten what a different experience it was not having listened to a record for over 20 years.
. I don’t buy much commercial stuff any more, I like BluRay concert discs, but beyond that… its their loss not mine. But its hard to fight big money.
> Fidelity means a a good deal but for the most part it’s all about portability & conveniences in the smallest packages that we can now be able to take music with us wherever we go…anywhere, any time…and that’s for players, and obtaining our music. I’d like to see vinyl snobs strap on their turntables at the beach or on their mountain bike > 
