emi chairman says the "cd" format is dead.

[seckle]

the tower records music chain went chapter 11 here in america. all stores are in liquidation. times are changing.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/s ... DFA59EE%7D

[dusty]

As he goes on to say however, there is still a need for a physical format. To quote bigshineything.com:

We’re amongst the claimed 60% of CD buyers who rip our music straight onto hard disk, but we’re still exclusively CD shoppers for one very specific reason — those silly little silver disks in their crappy brittle ‘jewel cases’ are still virtually the only way to purchase un-DRMed, uncompressed digital audio, and until that changes, neither will we.

Storing digital files is tricky, CDrs corrode quickly, hard drives can fail. So the traditional pressed CD is still a great tool for long term high quality digital storage.

[subtek]

long live vinyl!

[pangaea]

Bollocks. I mean, what? I thought sales of music are at an all time high right now, and the majority of people are always going to want a physical product. There's a digital download boom right now but surely there'll be a lot of people in the near future wishing they hadn't spent hundreds of pounds on data.

[seckle]

basically, what he's saying in a nutshell is welcome to the dvd-r format. video & music for the same price.

[pangaea]

Heh, yeah I think I interpreted what I read as saying digital downloads are the way forward. Which annoys me.

Fair play if people want to stick a load of extras on a disc. As long as there's the album on it, that's the main thing.

I haven't bought a CD in months.

[Tombones]

shit I didn't know cdrs corrode more quickly than pressed cds, i thought it was just a matter of actual sound quality. So just how long can you expect a cdr to last?

[kion]

nah, what I reckon he's paving the way for, is the SACD or DVD-Audio format (diff to DVD-Video)- been in the pipeline and available for a few years, but hasn't kicked off just yet.

[shonky]

Said it before, but when vinyl was the major seller, you only really had the option of taping it if you wanted a copy. When record labels decided they could mostly discontinue vinyl and then re-release their back cats on cd, it seemed like milking the original record buyer who might then buy the album again on cd.

By pushing the most easily copyable format (until mp3's appeared) they've kind of shot themselves in the foot.

The only cd I've bought in the last few years was the Burial album, and I'd have bought that on vinyl if it was available.

[metalboxproducts]

Said it before, but when vinyl was the major seller, you only really had the option of taping it if you wanted a copy. When record labels decided they could mostly discontinue vinyl and then re-release their back cats on cd, it seemed like milking the original record buyer who might then buy the album again on cd.

By pushing the most easily copyable format (until mp3's appeared) they've kind of shot themselves in the foot.

The only cd I've bought in the last few years was the Burial album, and I'd have bought that on vinyl if it was available.

Yes but, you can record a brand new vinyl to your hard drive and burn it to cd with only miner degradation in sound quality.

[shonky]

Said it before, but when vinyl was the major seller, you only really had the option of taping it if you wanted a copy. When record labels decided they could mostly discontinue vinyl and then re-release their back cats on cd, it seemed like milking the original record buyer who might then buy the album again on cd.

By pushing the most easily copyable format (until mp3's appeared) they've kind of shot themselves in the foot.

The only cd I've bought in the last few years was the Burial album, and I'd have bought that on vinyl if it was available.

Yes but, you can record a brand new vinyl to your hard drive and burn it to cd with only miner degradation in sound quality.

Nitpicker. Always have to point out the facts that ruin my theories. Damn you Metalboxproducts, damn you

[dusty]

shit I didn't know cdrs corrode more quickly than pressed cds, i thought it was just a matter of actual sound quality. So just how long can you expect a cdr to last?

CDrs use heat sensitive ink, burning a CDr means the laser darkens the ink. It doesn't etch into the aluminium like a proper CD. Over time the ink can fade, all depends on the conditions and the quality of the CDr, we have been using CDrs at work for data backup, some of the older ones (8 years or so) are cropping up with data errors, and the aluminium is yellowing. Depends what tech papers you read but its only tens of years for a CDr.

[metalboxproducts]

Said it before, but when vinyl was the major seller, you only really had the option of taping it if you wanted a copy. When record labels decided they could mostly discontinue vinyl and then re-release their back cats on cd, it seemed like milking the original record buyer who might then buy the album again on cd.

By pushing the most easily copyable format (until mp3's appeared) they've kind of shot themselves in the foot.

The only cd I've bought in the last few years was the Burial album, and I'd have bought that on vinyl if it was available.

Yes but, you can record a brand new vinyl to your hard drive and burn it to cd with only miner degradation in sound quality.[/quote

Nitpicker. Always have to point out the facts that ruin my theories. Damn you Metalboxproducts, damn you

But, your point still stands. The introduction of the recordable cd brought easy duplication of music from whatever format you choose.
The big record company's have shot them selves in the foot and now they're trying to claw something back.
I think what will happen with music is what has happened to music software/hardware. With the introduction of easely copied software we had a slew of cracked copy's of various programs. The big software houses clocked this and have now started to introduce hardware that you need to run the software on.

[djgyn]

CDrs use heat sensitive ink, burning a CDr means the laser darkens the ink. It doesn't etch into the aluminium like a proper CD. Over time the ink can fade, all depends on the conditions and the quality of the CDr, we have been using CDrs at work for data backup, some of the older ones (8 years or so) are cropping up with data errors, and the aluminium is yellowing. Depends what tech papers you read but its only tens of years for a CDr.

Yet another reason why I hate when labels send me CD-R promos for review. If I really like the album it will ultimately need to be replaced!

[dirty]

CDR's are very useful, I have all my music is on my computer and and backed up on an external hard drive.

Even if I buy a CD I rip it then burn to CDR for the car that way I keep the original and if it gets scratched (which it does!) I can burn another one.

I read in a newspaper couple of weeks ago that digital downloads acount for over half of single sales in the UK.

I think this gives independant artists / producers an opportunity to sell their material without the costs of manafacturing CDs or vinyl.

In terms of dubstep I think it is good that most material is released on vinyl but I like tunes in a digital to format aswell because I mostly listen to tunes on my comp and in the car.

Its important to remember that not every who listenes to dubstep is a DJ

[ufo over easy]

Yet another reason why I hate when labels send me CD-R promos for review. If I really like the album it will ultimately need to be replaced!

Shock horror, you might actually have to buy a copy!

[bedward]

Its important to remember that not every who listenes to dubstep is a DJ

not everyone who has a record deck is a dj, either.

vinyl is just the best format, so far.
it takes a pretty decent turntable & amp (etc) to largely notice the difference though.

btw: cd's are kind of biodegradable, natural skin acids corrode them.

[scoz]

there's some proper CDs from the early 90s that are starting to degrade apparently because of a fault in the manufacturing. The same can't be said for my dad's jazz records which are getting on for 50 odd years old now. They are in surprisingly good nick, only a slight bit of crackle which would probably be fixed by giving them a good clean. As long as your stylus isn't fucked and you look after the records vinyl will easily outlive CDs.

[digital]

Its important to remember that not every who listenes to dubstep is a DJ

not everyone who has a record deck is a dj, either.

vinyl is just the best format, so far.

In terms of what?

Quality? Personally, I don't think the quality is any better. My 320 of Dutch Flowerz from the CD album is so much better than when I play the tune on vinyl.

[ufo over easy]

there's some proper CDs from the early 90s that are starting to degrade apparently because of a fault in the manufacturing. The same can't be said for my dad's jazz records which are getting on for 50 odd years old now. They are in surprisingly good nick, only a slight bit of crackle which would probably be fixed by giving them a good clean. As long as your stylus isn't fucked and you look after the records vinyl will easily outlive CDs.

Agree 100%.. a few of my dads older CDs are unplayable these days, and he looks after them really well. His vinyl is all in perfect condition, although admittedly he's not a DJ, so doesn't mess about with his records at all.

I wish I had the money to buy loads of anti-static sleeves and stuff like that, but looking after records is expensive. 'Every little bloody dust..'

My 320 of Dutch Flowerz from the CD album is so much better than when I play the tune on vinyl.

No it's not man.. mp3s are compressed files, it doesn't work like that. If the vinyl sounds bad, it's probably to do with your turntable, stylus, speakers or something like that. As far as I know, the possible frequency range for vinyl is also far greater than digital formats.