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?

[ark_v2]

Free downloads tend to sound better than iTunes files nowadays. Anyway, buying vinyls instead of CDs doesn't seem realistic. Besides, some people like me prefer CD quality; while I don't dislike those little noises and acoustic artifacts vinyls have I prefer clear sound. MP3 would only appeal to me as the only means of buying music if they are all sold at 320 Mbps, 192-256 Mbps for pop and music without a lot in the background that's worth hearing or AACs of comparable quality instead.

[jsnowbordr47]

I'm a big fan the iTunes Store. The only CD players in our house are on our computers now, all the others have died. And all of my cars have Aux jacks so I just use an iPod or other MP3 player. So I personally have no real use for CD's anymore. Also, I tend to be picky with my music, when it comes to certain bands or artists, I hardly ever find myself listening to every single song on a CD, so for me iTunes is a Godsend, I can download the songs I want without having to pay for the songs I don't like.

The only time I ever buy whole CD's are usually for soundtracks like the, but iTunes tends to sell entire albums for either the same or less than the physical CD, so that's a big plus for that. I know some people complain about the quality, but I personally can't tell the difference, so that's a non-issue for me.

As for subscription services, that works for some people, but not for me. I hardly ever buy enough music in a given month to equal the price of a subscription to Napster or Rhapsody. It's just like Netflix, I'd be paying for something I'm not using.

I used to use P2P sites for my music, and I'll admit I was able to find some obscure stuff on P2P networks (TV show themes, etc) but 1. most of the music files will be illegal. 2. there's risk of spyware/viruses from bad files. 3. those services have gotten unreliable.

iTunes may not have the best quality, but it is so much more convenient.

[Microgates]

I hope "itunes like" services kill off cd's, I got tired of paying $15 for a cd with only like 1 or 2 good songs on it! Now I can pay 99 cents for each that I actually want.

[iroq321]

first off, itunes can suck it...and it doesn't matter if the downloded mp3 came from itunes or bit torrents or imesh or whatever. downloadable mp3s, whatever the source, are what will kill the cd, itunes will not kill the cd single-handedly. so to answer the question, no, itunes will not kill the cd. think, people.

[awild1]

Quality is king - Quality is king - Quality is king!

I will buy CDs until lossless digital files become available on the massive scale. I think it is a waste of money to buy from iTunes or any of the other digital music stores because they're are not lossless, portions of them are STILL DRMed, and most importantly, I am NOT willing to pay for the same music over again each time the industry up's the quality another increment (that hate is directed at you, Apple). I truely feel that when the quality is there the stubborn part of the market will follow.

I think the print media not being present is a good annoyance, but not enough to halt moving forward. My prediction for that media is to make a big comeback once someone has thought of a better way to view that content that is worth allocating space on a player for.

I would give up the physical format for the major portablity that digital offers. It is invaluable to me to not have to sort through mounds or shelves or maybe boxes of cds to find next album I want to play. Or, as I leave the house I don't have to do any planning on what cds I want in the 5 disc changer, I just grab the player off the charger and go with my whole library in toe.

Bottom line is, Quality is king, when it progresses we will follow.

[iroq321]

very few albums now-a-day are actually good from begining to end, these albums i will buy. too many times i have found myself forcing myself to like every track on a cd because i paid $15 for it! why go through that when i can download only what i like and save a few bucks?

[nicmart]

I use Apple Lossless, but the company is laggard at giving the format proper support. I play my lossless files on my home audio system, but I prefer to cram more files on an iPod in a lower quality format. iTunes offers the option of on-the-fly converting lossless files to 128kbps AAC files when they are transferred to a Shuffle, but to no other iPod. So, I can put only about a fourth as many songs on my iPod Classic in the lossless format.

More on topic, due to their low quality I buy music downloads from Apple and Amazon only when their is no CD to be had.

[ewelch]

Typical ill-informed reaction. As if CDs are all that great. He doesn't seem to be aware that iTunes doesn't sell MP3s. And you can buy high quality audio from Apple that is better than CDs. But then, why let reality get in the way of a ridiculous rant? It's like the LP people complaining about the death of their superior format.

I'll tell you what sounds crappy. Hysterical rants not based in reality like this one.

[wavjockey]

I don't really care if CDs go away as long as I can get the same sound quality and content from its download replacement.

I download my dance music as .WAV files from a site called Beatport.
My Sansa View plays .WAVs.
My car head unit plays .WAV files directly from a jump drive.

I've been through the Lossless incompatibility conundrum so that is not an acceptable option.

[ddhboy]

I've been buying digital only for years now from iTunes and Amazon mp3. So to answer your question, will I miss CDs, no, not really since most of the music I listen to is so obscure that it would be quite a quest hunting down the physical CD, as opposed to just hitting a search engine and fining the song for purchase. Not to mention that I'm fine with the apparent lower quality of mp3s (and if you think all MP3s have the same quality as the stuff they give away for free on CNET, then your daft).

For me, the physical format has been dead since 2004.

[tastetheredhands]

I just want to say that I LOVE Sufjan Stevens!!
I didn't know anyone else actually listened to him!

To contribute to the topic at hand, I would be a little pissed if I couldn't buy a CD.
I like to have a physical compensation for what I buy. Plus, iTunes still doesn't have a LOT of music in its store. Plus, I love to display the album artwork on the CDs in my room.

[norbert6464]

I really don't understand all of the hype on sound quality. When iTunes switched to 256 kbps I thought that solved the issue. I honestly couldn't imagine 90% of people even able to decipher between that and compact discs. Unless you have a studio with an incredible audio set up, it doesn't seem like much of an issue.

I am a huge fan of Sigur Ros, and have ripped four of their albums at 320 kbps in hopes to truly enjoy the sound. I purchased their most recent album in the 128 kbps format, and to be honest can't tell the difference between those tracks and the ones I imported.

The way I see it, if that kind of quality concerns you, you'd be so informed that you wouldn't even be reading this post.

[spearman792]

If I'm going to buy music, I want the actual disc.

[tmt345]

Will CD kill Vinyl? What a useless article, duh.

[nutso101]

What about 8 track format? Nobody mentioned that yet? Let's go back to that format!
Track 3 ending fade out...........Click..............Track 4 now lit up.....click.......Fade in........................

[Azzuro10]

Yeh, Vinyl - thats for nostalgia and for a very esoteric crowd of audiophiles - not for the masses. If people worry about only being able to store 100 CDs on an iPod I doubt very much they are going to physically flip the record after 5 songs. Digital is the future, but its current form is inadequate. CDs will be around for a long time though - don't forget a lot of people are still old school. People who ripped 200CDs to MP3 are going to regret it - big time! Because these days you can buy a 200-500Gb hard drive for peanuts so you could store it all lossless and have it plugged into a good quality DAC - and you have the best quality around. Why settle for less? Its only a matter of time for iTunes starts to sell Lossless.

[blastodon]

it's a vinyl or digital. cd is like an ugly middleman who is no longer needed.

[Crash2100]

I would say that the CD is already dead. The problem is that the music industry still hasn't realized that people want music that doesn't make you sign a license agreement for every song you download. They also want to be able to choose the player they want to use. Anyway, where's the point in having copy-protection on music that you let people burn onto a CD that doesn't have any copy protection?

Right now, you pay more for less with this $0.99 per song deal. You get a copy-protection restricted version of the same song, you pay for your own CD if you make it, and yet it costs more to even buy the thing!

The first company that gets the popular artists to allow them to sell people good-quality unprotected music, in a popular standard format, for a reasonable price (less than $0.50 each) will be what truly kills the CD.

I have purchased only one music download from Amazon, an "album"/CD not available in "print", and it will be my last. The sound of reproduced MP3 files is, in my opinion, just too poor to listen to by any method other than through earphones. However, just as this column is full of comments with misuse and misspelling of words, the world of music purchasing is probably being taken over by people who may not care about such things as correct grammar or the quality of the sound they listen to.

[bykeaholic]

If I can't have music in a format "I" choose there will "no" purchases at all.

MP3 only songs will give one hit wonders a true meaning.