Will iTunes kill the CD?
(Credit:
Steve Guttenberg)
We're getting close to the day when a major artist or group releases a download-only album. Maybe it'll be the next Rolling Stones or Sufjan Stevens album. That'll be a dark day.
Just last week, I went to my local record store to pick up "Hemispheres," the new release of Bill Frisell and Jim Hall, a jazz guitar duo. I left the store empty-handed.
Next, I checked on Amazon.com. It stocked the album in MP3 format only. Great, but I refuse to pay $17.98 for a crappy-sounding MP3.
Next, I checked the record label's site, and yes, you can buy the CD there, but I wasn't in the mood to navigate the trials and tribulations of its order form. I already own a lot of Frisell and Hall CDs; I guess I don't need another one.
Tower Records shuttered its doors a few years ago, and now another big record chain, Virgin Megastores, is closing down, so there are fewer and fewer places that sell CDs.
These days, I'm buying more and more CDs from Amazon.com, but even Amazon may not move enough product to justify the labels pressing CDs. And local record shops are an endangered species; here in New York, the better ones are barely hanging on.
Still, the fact is that people buy more CDs than downloads, and download sales aren't expected to surpass those of CDs for another couple of years. There's a lot of conflicting information floating around.
Then again, LP sales are on the rise, so maybe we'll wind up with the choice of low-quality iTunes, MP3s, or vinyl. That would be strange.
If you couldn't buy CDs anymore, would you care?
Would you buy vinyl instead?
Do iTunes sound about the same as free downloads? If they do, why buy them?
Steve Guttenberg is a frequent contributor to magazines and Web sites including Home Entertainment, Playback, and Ultimate AV. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
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THIS IS 2009, AND THE WORLD IS MOVING AWAY FROM PHYSICAL FORMATS, PERIOD.
I stopped buying music a long time ago, but when I did buy it, I tried to frequent indie stores to support them. And I still do once in a while. I do download singles online, but albums, i try to buy in stores.
But I guess I'm one of the waning few.
Digital liner notes just do not have that effect, their not as personal, it's not as close a connection to the artist as having the real thing right in your hand.
I've bought a lot of vinyl recently, and still pickup as much music as I can on CD, especially independant or local artist.
But it's not just the connection to the artist I get from having a CD or vinyl of their record. It's also the sound quality. I have a pretty sensitive ear and have issues listening to lossless or mp3 encoded files. I can even tell the diff between a burnt copy and a retail copy if the media used for the copy isn't high quality. It's more of a curse than anything.
this is why i still have a 6 disc changer in my car, this is why I do not own an ipod, this is why I still have a Sony discman, this is why I still have a record player in my house.
- agreed with you until this unbelievable comment. Copied CDs, regardless of the media, will sound exactly the same if it remains uncompressed. That is, 1:1 copy. Bad quality media will result in short lived and possible unplayable CDs. Your CD player either reads it, or it doesn't. The data is exactly the same so if the player can read it, assuming you are playing both the original and the copy on the same system, there will be no difference. The belief that you can tell the difference between original CD and 1:1 copied version is in your head.
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I usually purchase a CD or two every week or every two weeks. I love taking the plastic off the jewel case, looking at the CD itself to see if there are any cool designs on it, and reading the liner cover to cover, usually reading the lyrics of songs before I listen to them, just to have a better frame or reference.
I also like listening to an album all the way through. For me, I have the hopeful belief that the creation process of the songs and the order in which they are cut are tied into the creative processes that the artist(s) has gone through, in the creation of the album.
All artists have a creative process of some sort, and most pull from their experiences to express what is going on around them. When I buy an hard copy album (CD or vinyl) I make it a point to experience the music the way the artist intended, from start to finish.
Once in a while you'll find that magical album that just has such a flow and will tell a story, you won't be able to take it out of your player for days or weeks (sometimes even months). It's at that point for me when purchasing a physical album becomes so much more of an experience than just downloading a song cuz you want to hear it.
Plus, downloads suck, and if you have a decent stereo or audio listening station (home theater) of some sort, go buy some physical media and treat yourself.
You expect people to read your comment and change their reasoning?
No, but it's there for anyone to consider if they want.
More appropriate would be to ask how soon and to what extent.
As for buying CD's... I have always and still think there is something special with coming home from the store with the physical disc, but unless it's from a more popular artist or you have a great local store around, iTunes is just way too convienent and you can't almost compete with it's prices most of the time. Besides, it's going to end up on iTunes anyway, people are just going to realize it doesn't matter.
Audiophiles complained when the CD began to displace vinyl back in the 80s and the same complaints are being heard now about digital tracks. The quality of the sound is highly impressionistic and the ear of the listener and the listener's taste in music are part of that equation. Thomas Edison, the inventor of recorded sound, focused on the technical quality of his recordings and his phonographs, forgetting that the vast majority of the listening public wanted popular music, by known artists, in an affordable format, and loud enough to dance to when they had company over. His label went out of business in 1929. The market just won't rally around technically superior formats that require more expensive equipment and/or inconvenient formats.
I won't shed one tear when the last CD disappears from the shelves. It's been good 25 year run, but it's time to move on.
Yes, Vinyl may sound (on average) better than a CD. But you can't escape the fact that CD's are just better than vinyl is so many ways.
And people will always want CD's because CD's are a better storage medium than vinyl and downloads. Vinyl has to be away from heat and takes up a lot of space. Downloads can become corrputed if your hard drive dies or can be accidentally erased.
I can see why record companies want to stop pressing CD's. CD's have a manufacturing and distribution cost that downloads don't. So to stop pressing CD's would merely be a cost saving function.
But I'll always buy more CD's than I would buy downloaded MP3's. If the record companies ever decide to stop producing vinyl, it'll be a sad day.
Audiophiles crack me up. Talk about willful self-delusion.
I realize that my opinion of the ipod world in which we live is of little consequence and I can't blame the kids for not caring about the 2nd rate crap they're being served because it's all they know. Most of today's popular music is so poorly recorded that you are probably better off listening to it on an ipod because it's going to sound like crap on anything that's actually capable of reproducing decent sound. I love music and I hope I will always be interested in hearing new things that I haven't heard of or even thought of before, but I would rather listen to old 78rpm shellac played on an ancient Victrola than an mp3 download.
- by WTF2009 March 5, 2009 2:45 PM PST
- Why does this have to be about iTunes killing CDs? MP3 Via napster was a bigger threat, it is the format that should be discussed. I really get tired of the product placement in everything CNET does.
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- by myles taylor March 8, 2009 6:13 PM PDT
- Because iTunes is the current market leader in digital downloads, and it accounts or about 75% of all music downloads. Also, it's currently the leader in selling music of all formats. If anyone is going to kill the CD, it will be iTunes. Napster hasn't been relevant for sometime and to bring it up today would be pointless.
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