Is the CD Becoming Obsolete?
Posted by Jeff on Jun 27th 2007, 14:34
In an interesting article on Audioholics a couple days ago, it appears that sales of physical CDs are going to be down 20% in 2008. This is more than the predicted 15% drop from earlier in the year.
To me at least, this isn't that surprising. Technology has always and will always advance. First we had film, then tapes, then digital devices for storing data. Technology will improve and things will get smaller, higher quality and more efficient. The move by consumers to slowly be favoring digital file downloads over CDs is the next step in that progression.
And the numbers don't lie. iTunes has 9.8% of the retail music marketshare. That puts them #3 in the world, behind Wal-mart with 15.8% and Best Buy with 13.8%.
The question then becomes: who is going to be progressive and go with the change? Filesharing and lawsuits aside, the RIAA and big name record labels have made the shift to offering their music for download. And that's great. Well, kind of.
See, one thing I neglected to mention when I wrote about the progression of technology is for the progression to succeed and a change to occur, the new technology has to be better than the last one. And if you think about it, digital downloads from record labels are worse than physical CD sales.
With CDs, you can loan them to your friend. Digital download with DRM, you can't. CDs can be played in your car, in your boom box, even in your personal CD player. Downloaded music is stuck to be played on your computer, or one of the approved list of devices for the license you agreed to by downloading the file. With a CD purchase you get cover art, lyrics, liner notes, etc. Digital downloads have the CD cover art, but that's about it.
I could go on and on, but you get my point. The experience of purchasing and downloading music files has to be improved for it to succeed long term. Right now consumers are caught between an overpriced and rapidly shrinking CD market and a lackluster value digital download market. Whoever figures out the blend of the two will lead the charge on the future of music sales.
To me at least, this isn't that surprising. Technology has always and will always advance. First we had film, then tapes, then digital devices for storing data. Technology will improve and things will get smaller, higher quality and more efficient. The move by consumers to slowly be favoring digital file downloads over CDs is the next step in that progression.
And the numbers don't lie. iTunes has 9.8% of the retail music marketshare. That puts them #3 in the world, behind Wal-mart with 15.8% and Best Buy with 13.8%.
The question then becomes: who is going to be progressive and go with the change? Filesharing and lawsuits aside, the RIAA and big name record labels have made the shift to offering their music for download. And that's great. Well, kind of.
See, one thing I neglected to mention when I wrote about the progression of technology is for the progression to succeed and a change to occur, the new technology has to be better than the last one. And if you think about it, digital downloads from record labels are worse than physical CD sales.
With CDs, you can loan them to your friend. Digital download with DRM, you can't. CDs can be played in your car, in your boom box, even in your personal CD player. Downloaded music is stuck to be played on your computer, or one of the approved list of devices for the license you agreed to by downloading the file. With a CD purchase you get cover art, lyrics, liner notes, etc. Digital downloads have the CD cover art, but that's about it.
I could go on and on, but you get my point. The experience of purchasing and downloading music files has to be improved for it to succeed long term. Right now consumers are caught between an overpriced and rapidly shrinking CD market and a lackluster value digital download market. Whoever figures out the blend of the two will lead the charge on the future of music sales.