Comments on: Will iTunes kill the CD?

With fewer and fewer stores selling CDs, the day is fast approaching when a major band won't release an album on a disc at all. If that happened, would you choose vinyl over MP3s?

[SenorFrog]

If most music wasn't digital and I couldn't buy music ala carte, where I can much more easily expand my listening across a massive spectrum of choices, my music collection would be much smaller, much less diverse. Seriously, my artists listed under 'W' contain Victor Wooten, The White Stripes and the Wu-Tang Clan. And I'm sure I'm not unique. Trading bits for atoms has been a godsend for music lovers, even including the idiocy of DRM.

As for audiophiles, while labels may stop mass production of CDs, there's nothing stopping them from doing like book sellers and doing burn on demand where they make your lossless CD when you order it and ship it to you (and didn't WalMart experiment with this?). It could actually be a great business opportunity for them because customers could then specify the music quality, maybe up it to a DVD, include customized special materials such as album sized covers with liners, interviews, concerts, etc. Audiophiles will only lose if they (the music labels) keep their heads in the sand and don't take advantage of technology and processes that already exist.

[kibbeeluvr]

I stopped buying CDs when the record companies decided to copy protect them a few years back. Once you buy a CD, you should have the freedom to transfer the songs to a portable device.

[research1st]

What copy protection...? I remember a few years back there were a few releases that were supposedly copy protected, but they had playability problems depending on the player. And it didn't stop anybody from copying them anyway. I know because, I was able to do it. I currently have 2000+ CD's in my collection. I buy new release on a fairly regular basis. Have not ran into any that I could not rip to MP3, WAV, FLAC, etc... The only reason I rip them is to play on a portable player. I've not ran into any DRM problems. I'm still running Windows XP(SP2) and a slightly older version of Roxio as my main my ripper software.

[tappy727]

I haven't bought a CD in a while but I haven't bought anything on iTunes either. I don't listen to the radio much so I just listen to the same old stale songs on my iPod. I just don't see myself spending money building a collection of low quality music so old music is not big thing.

[HatecrewDr]

I would switch to vinyl. I have grown so sick and tired of how awful and low quality music downloads are. I recently converted everything I have (which is mostly cd) to FLAC. Sounds a thousand times better.

[Azzuro10]

Disagree. MP3 will be dead and those ripping their entire library of CDs to MP3s or purchasing MP3 albums will come to regret it as they will do it all over again. The reason why MP3 is popular is because it takes up less space. Well space is becoming less of a problem as the cost of flash and hard disk memory continues to free fall. So, I believe in that in the future people will be downloading CD quality lossless tracks from iTunes with no DRM so you can play it on your home system at the same quality as your CD player. At the moment, I personally don't see the point in buying an entire album on iTunes as it costs the same as a CD and is of inferior quality. However, eventually I see the pricing model being adjusted so that you will get the same quality cheaper than a CD if you buy on-line - after all, wasn't that the original intention of the internet? To cut out the middle men from inflating the cost?

[Esquirrel]

iTunes lemmings make me laugh. Anyone who pays full price to download AAC or .mp3 makes me laugh. You're getting a lot less music for the money. If you listen through any remotely decent system, your music sounds like trash. With new DACs, CDs are a pretty good option. Still, there isn't a lot of audiophile support -- they couldn't keep SACD or DVD-Audio going. I think the sweet spot is a format that encodes and permits retrieval of a good amount of detail, at least as much as average home systems can reveal. .mp3 falls short of that. Of course, as storage media decreases in price and as people get increasing bandwidth, it seems only reasonable to expect that the CD medium is doomed. Who will want optical disks when it's convenient to port around your entire collection in "lossless" format that's at least as good as CD? I've got a few thousand CDs, which I've been collecting since about 1985, and I'll admit that they do take up a lot of space.

[b_baggins]

Ah, another audiophile in self-delusion mode. The audio loss is behold your threshold of detection. It's one of the reasons the CD sampling rate was set at what it was (what? You didn't know that CD is a lossy format as well?)

[abundantsnotbob]

I think iTunes should have CD quality music available for downloading. If they did, it might be alot harder on their servers.

[ddhboy]

What the hell is the point in doing that? FLAC files are remarkably huge and pale in comparison to the amount of audio you could have in an MP3 player. The truth is, most of us don't care if our MP3s don't sound exactly the same as the CDs, we just want music.

[abundantsnotbob]

I said "available", i didn't say in stead of. It would make audiophiles happier, and you don't have to listen to it just on an iPod. It would also give Apple an exuse for making iPods that can't possibly be filled with music. I know the classic does video, but the Zune 120 has a bigger screen, and much better sound quality. I have listened to music on my iPod touch, and my Zune 30, and the Zune has noticeably better sound quality even with both of them using the same pair of headphones. I haven't opened the ones that came with the iPod, because I have Zune in-ear headphones that sound great. The regular pair that comes with Zunes also sounds better than the standard iPod ones, but I have yet to listen to the iPod in-ear headphones.

[SanjayGolf]

I think it'll be a cold day in hell before Sufjan Stevens releases an album only on iTunes.I believe you cant complain about the advancement of technology. I personally still buy CDs b/c they sound better and also i feel like i'm helping out the artist more. But if iTunes sold lossless tracks at the same price as a CD then that would obviously be more appealing.

[big8news]

i love buying my music on cd's if it go's than i been on by it on vinyl. vinyl is making a big come back bass on abc news night line 80' per cent up as cd s are dropping in sales i see a store in my city it sales new singers and bands on vinyl it's a teenager / rock than store

[bluescratch]

I just signed up with "yourmusic.com". Their CD's cost all of $6.99. I'm hoping this works as the only reason CDs are failing is that they are way overpriced. for $200 you can buy a stereo that could compete with a $2000 system 20 years ago. Yet $15+ for a CD that costs maybe $3 to manufacture is ridiculous.
I trully hope the above music club works out, it appears they are just starting up but do have a good, if not complete selection. The downside is they take up to 15 days to deliver, the upside is shipping is free. I hope to get back to you to let you know if it works, if anyone out there has tried it please let us know how it has worked for you.

[joshua.goldman]

yourmusic.com is a new business model from BMG Music Service, so yes, it has a large catalog.

[abbeyroad22]

The thought of this happening actually sickens me. I've seen local store after store close up because people stopped buying cds at the mom-and-pop shops. I love being able to walk into a store and buy something that ISN'T a new release without having to wait for a mail order to arrive. My wife and I walked into a local FYE (20 miles from my house mind you) and the place was absolutely packed - in the Music section! I couldn't believe it! And this is in a "slow economy". It was so nice to see a record store with traffic again. Those people weren't there to buy Mp3s. I sure hope that the labels don't drop the ball on this one. The demand is still there. They just have to realize that not everyone ONLY wants the latest releases. Try finding a classic U2 or Iron Maiden CD at Wamart or Target. All they have is new releases. Circuity City, Tower, Virgin, Media Play - all gone! And all decent places to buy CDs. There is a huge market still out there for people that are digging deeper into the genres they love. Why do they think people are gravitating back to vinyl? It's because that is one way for people to get that nostalgic feeling in the music they love. The same thing still happens with CDs. These record giants just don't have a clue. They came in late to the Mp3 game. They turned their backs on vinyl lovers in the 80's. They're constantly turning their backs on bands after the first or second album. These guys need to listen to the fans for a change. Instead of smashing the music into an Mp3 file they should be expanding the audio into a higher resolution format like SACD. Why not give that format a chance like they did with CDs? Their problem is that if it doesn't sell NOW, then they think it won't ever sell. The almighty dollar speaks and my dollar speaks with buying CDs. Not some intangible, low-quality megabyte audio.

[The_Dishwasher]

MP3's are too crappy, especially when played over my reference monitors. As for vinyl... do I even need to go there?

If they stop making CD's (replacing the CD format with a higher-quality version being the exception), I'll stop buying music. Plain and simple. I'll (reluctantly) keep paying high prices for CD's, but only if I get music of decent quality. If the studios try to force me to pay the same price for music that sounds shallow, I'll just download it for free. It's up to them.

[T Willis]

To suggest that one should purchase an album or CD, when you have access to iTunes or MP3 formats, is to suggest we should return to the days of old, when the primary mode of transportation was horse and buggy. Why should we travel by train, automobile or airplane !

A few reasons why progress is a good thing:

1. CDs and Albums may have 5 songs out of 20 a listener actually likes vs iTunes or MP3, where you only purchase your favorite songs.
2. CDs or Albums eventually end up in a land fill vs iTunes or MP3, you can purchase thousands of songs that are virtual with nothing to dispose of.
3. CDs and Albums can be physically damaged vs MP3 or iTunes, you can play the songs hundreds of times and the sound quality remains the same and it is not possible to physically damage the songs.
4. When a consumer purchases songs on iTunes or download from a legal / legitimate website to their MP3, the consumer is still supporting the artist.
5. CDs and Albums are bulky and require a lot of space. Consumers have to buy additional furniture just to house all of the plastic vs iTunes or MP3s, you can have 1,000 songs in the palm of your hand !

I can continue to give you more reasons why this topic is silly but the more I write it is evident this conversation has been relegated to being barbaric !

[svgtom]

Well, let's see:

1. Some of us are completists and we like to own all of the songs by our favorite artists, and believe it or not, there are still some albums where all the songs are good.
2. I have yet to throw out a single CD that I've purchased in the past 22 years. Hard drives and MP3 players don't last forever so at some point they'll end up in a landfill.
3. MP3's can be damaged or rendered unplayable if your hard drive crashes. Whoops! There goes your entire music collection. Hope you have back ups.
4. I would hope so.
5. Some people actually like physical things and take pride in having their collections on display.

[joshua.goldman]

Um, what exactly are you storing your files on that won't end up in a landfill? CDs can be recycled, hard drives are a little trickier.

[iroq321]

@joshua.

if i had a cd/case for every album i have on my hard drive, i, my house, my loved ones would be burried! your argument holds up to a cetain point but the fact is i will eventually throw out ONE hard drive that at one point contained hundreds (thousands?) of albums. i consider that to be less wasteful.

[sting7k]

What is this "CD" you speak of?

Now that iTunes is DRM free (at least mostly right now) I buy everything on iTunes and burn them to CDs to play in my car. I don't even remember the last time I bought a CD at a store. My local Best Buy has drastically cut down the size of the CD section, it used to be huge and they just remodeled the floor. Now it's is about 1/2 the size it was and the DVD and game sections are massive.

[azzuro2006]

The minute iTunes starts selling songs in lossless format, then I will start buying the songs. Not everyone likes listening to music on iPods...they like listening to it on a nice stereo.

[bigmc6000]

Low-quality iTunes? Did you miss the big announcement the entire catalogue moving to iTunes Plus. I'ts 256kbps AAC DRM Free music. 256k AAC is much better than 256k MP3 so let's not start that argument again. I'm sure the day they stop selling CD's you'll be able to get them in lossless format (for a premium I'm sure since the masses are more than happy w/ 256k).

Are you going to get all "yay, go green" on us? I mean, think of all the wasted material there is in CD's. With digital downloads you cut out having to fly and truck the stuff all over the place, you cut out having to operate physical stores all over the country to buy the content. I'm really surprised GreenPeace or somebody doesn't boycott Virgin and tell people to "save the earth" and buy digital...

[C0mmanderB0nd]

Is iTunes really killing the Record store???? Single handedly, no!

Don't forget about Wal-mart and Best buy selling cheap new releases and poaching sales from the out of date record shop store model.

Also the industries stubborness to hold onto selling an entire album for 17.99 because its on a CD is just laughable. Remember when a tape or LP cost 9.99 and the CD was 17.99 because it was newer expensive technology.

Now fast forward the tape is dead, vinyl people still exist because they just love it..., and a CD is still 17.99 why again????

Oh because over the last decade that has been the arbitrary number the industry cut up and percentaged out so they can't charge less than that right???

Face it the music industry is living in the past where the rest of the world moved to the modern day. Why go to the record store to buy your CD, when really all the latest versions of record shops were just carrying the same products as best buy but at higher prices.

Shocker, they went out of business!!!!

[danielhall360]

At this point, the sooner CD dies, the better.

Don't get me wrong, I love CD's! I love buying them, i love owning them, i love the physical factor, i love albums as a concept, but above all.... I love the sound quality. However, i now probably spend more on iTunes. Why? Because they have a huge inventory, they are never out of stock, i get the product immediately whilst still paying for the music... it is simply a painless experience and the only two factors it compromises is sound quality and physical factor (although music on a touch or iPhone looks damn good).

So why do i want the CD to die? Because finally the record labels will have accepted that non-physical music IS THEIR FORMAT. Instead of trying to protect the ailing CD, all effort will be on how to get the best out of formats, bundling high quality album art in a much more accessible format that itunes and ipods etc will be able to display natively... and most importantly, the focus will shift onto the next generation of formats: surround sound, HD- ie above and beyond the quality that the very old CD offers. This, very simply, will not happen whilst the CD is still a contender. The shift from physical to non-physical is nearly finished, and when it does, we can expect GREAT leaps in offerings from the likes of iTunes.

[iroq321]

the physical just becomes trash. whether it takes days or years, it will eventually meet the dumpster.

[emgesp]

I'm not planning on converting to digital music downloads unless they start offering uncompressed PCM, or similar quality downloads. I'm not one to take a hit in quality for convenience.

Offering uncompressed downloads shouldn't be a big problem. Most of us have the broadband speeds to download a 700mb album in a couple of hrs, or less.

[svgtom]

Until lossless downloads become mainstream and stand alone music servers are readily available at affordable prices, I think we'll still see CD's.

[svgtom]

One other thing, not everyone has access to a computer or high speed broadband. Hopefully this will change, but if an artist releases a downloadable-only album today, he or she is shutting out some of the marketplace.