CD format abandoned in 2012?

http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=46980_0_2_0_C

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.

3 weeks ago we heard it for the first time and since then we have tried getting some feedback from EMI, Universal and Sony. All declined to comment.

The news doesn't come as a surprise to those who have been working in the business. In a piece that was published in a q&a with the Alfa Matrix people back in June 2011 in the 1st issue of "Matrix Revelations", our chief editor Bernard Van Isacker said the following when asked if a CD would still exist in 5 years: "Yes, but in a different format. Normal CDs will no longer be available because they don't offer enough value, limited editions on the other hand will remain available and in demand for quite a few more years. I for one buy only limited editions because of the added value they offer: a nice design, extra bonus gadgets, etc. The album as we know it now however will be dead within 5 years, if it isn't even sooner. I predict that downloads will have replaced the CD album within the next 2 years. I don't see that as something negative, it just has run its course, let's leave the space to limited editions (including vinyl runs for bigger acts) and downloads instead."

It's a move that makes completely sense. CD's cost money, even when they don't sell because there is stock storage to be paid; a label also pays money to distributors when CDs get returned to the labels when not sold and so on. In short, abandoning the CD-format will make it possible to just focus on the release and the marketing of it and no longer focus on the distribution (since aggregators will do the work as far as dispatching the releases to services worldwide) and - expensive - stock maintenance. In the long run it will most surely mean the end for many music shops worldwide that only stock and sell CD releases. In the UK for instance HMV has problems paying the labels already and more will follow. It makes the distribution of CDs no longer worth it.

Also Amazon will benefit from this as it will surely become the one and only player when it comes to distribution of the remaining CD productions from labels. Packaged next to regular album downloads via its own Amazon MP3 service it will offer a complimentary service.

The next monument to fall? That will be printed magazines as people will want to consume their information online where they also read most of the news.

What are your feelings? is it a move that you like or not?

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

As long as they provide .wav or .flac files. I'm not going to pay for lossy crap.

You're SOL unless you've backed it all up on a Cloud or something.

darkshade wrote: rushfan4 wrote: You're SOL unless you've backed it all up on a Cloud or something. Right, but if you had a physical format, you wouldn't really have to worry. What if, hypothetically, the internet fails? (well I guess there would be more to worry about than just your music collection), but still. Maybe it's the cynic in me, but I honestly feel like something could happen in the next 20 years where people are going to wish they had that hard copy of music because all the internet is down or programs on your computer are not working, like how iTunes may run with "cloud", meaning you could only listen to your music if you're connected to the internet.

I'm with you on this.  I'm not a techy and really don't understand this Cloud-thing, but it is the new most amazing thing and apparently between your iPads and your iPhones and your iComputers you will be able to access anything, everywhere on the Cloud.    Beats me what prevents this Cloud from being hacked or deleted or temporarily down for maintenance or down due to an electrical storm or sun spots or from being unaccessible because you are camping in the middle of nowhere or in my case driving in the middle of the most technology based city in the state of Michigan but not able to get a signal because there is too much electronic equipment with magnets running blocking any signals from actually being received.

harmonium.ro wrote: darkshade wrote: rushfan4 wrote: You're SOL unless you've backed it all up on a Cloud or something. Right, but if you had a physical format, you wouldn't really have to worry. Theft / flood / fire / scratch / etc...

All jokes aside, that is beyond the scope of this topic. Those are problems with any tangible item.

I'm more worried about scratches, than theft / flood / fire combined.

My worry is dropping the case and it breaks

I think that the worst part about it for me is that I still enjoy going to record stores a/k/a CD stores and browsing through CD bins and picking things out based on album cover, or being familiar with a band, or looking at song lengths and deciding it is something that I would like, and then interacting with the store owner.  It is one of my more enjoyable forms of social entertainment.  

I can barely enjoy CDs because the small size (talking about the cover), but if this is true, artist might aswell stop using covers to their albums.

Actually, the only good I could see is that the artists do not have to worry about filling up a CD, as opposed to the old problem of making sure you could fit your music on a vinyl.

Edited by Atoms - November 04 2011 at 13:43

I'm also not pleased at all about this.  I too use my computer for most of my listening right now, but one of my big goals for the next 10-15 years was to get myself a totally amazing sound system with which I'd play all my CDs, old and new...with the lack of new, sure I'd still have all the stuff I already have, but as others have said, I don't want to have to pay for mp3 downloads in low quality sound.  Maybe if enough people still cling to CDs (pleasepleaseplease) then the record labels will lose a ton of money in this move and decide to stick with the physical product.