25 Years With Our Beloved CD

[Suhit Gupta]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/mulligan/archives/2007/08/25_years_young.html' target='_blank'>http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/mulligan/archives/2007/08/25_years_young.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"So the Compact Disc turns 25 today (the first commercial release was produced August 17th 1982). It’s pretty much de rigueur to cite the CD’s imminent demise, but the bottom line is that there isn’t actually anything in place to take its throne. As a physical format it still does a really decent job. It’s sturdy, high quality and cheap to manufacture. Crucially it has essentially universal interoperability and similar adoption. Its two key weaknesses in the current digitally focused market place are: Form factor (it’s too large for portability compared to MP3); Interactivity. Consumers increasingly expect a more interactive experience with media. Though CDs are increasingly being packaged with added value content, that is essentially using the disc as a data storage unit for PC usage. Most CD interactivity does not work with most CD players. Digital has failed to show any signs of supplanting the CD as the dominant recorded music format (see chart below)."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/formatsgraph.jpg" /><br /><br />On the one hand I find it surprising that the CD is dying at the incredible rate that the graph indicates, because music and movies are still sold pretty heavily in CD form. And on the other hand, I am also surprised it has not died completely yet due to the relatively ubiquitous rate of adoption of alternative technologies. Do any of you feel this duality as well? I wonder if the slow decline is due to the fact that most of the people that have relied on the CD technology are slow to move to the various different formats.

[jeffd]

When we say CD, we are refering to all disc like dvd, hddvd, blueray, and not the old 700 meg format, right?

Interactivity is a mis understanding. CD's do not create the interactivity, the programs on the disc do. And if nothing on cd has had success at being interactive, you are pretty much saying every game in the past decade is not interactive. ^^

Also when you say MP3, I'm sure you ment flash rom (which is also what I imagin the article is refering to as digital).

[Felix Torres]

When it comes to music, CD typically offers lossless digital encoding, no DRM or watermarking, and bundled prices under US$1 per song.
Digital distribution doesn't match that, much less improve on it.

The studios just got spoiled by the all-CD era, when they killed singles and forced people to buy full albums to get their hits.
What we are actually seeing is a return to more traditional music buying patterns from the pre-CD era; some folks have always bought albums, some only buy singles. Substitute CDs and DL's and I would be shock if the ratios in 2010 don't resemble the ratios in the vinyl era.

[Jason Dunn]

As Felix points out, CDs still carry a lot of advantages - unmatched quality, little to no DRM hassles (I'm thinking of some of those evil CDs that you have to fight with to rip), and you get a physical product you can keep with album art, etc.

I purchase digital downloads fairly sparingly, though I am quite glad they're offered - it's nice to be able to snap up a single song on an impulse.

[whydidnt]

I think this line from the article goes a long way towards explaining why CD's are still dominant:

However, if the below chart was to be based upon consumption rather than purchasing then the inexorable rise of MP3 would be far more pronounced. Which further underlines the importance of the majors removing the restrictive shackles of DRM.

Studios are just now starting to realize that people aren't all thieves and will pay for high quality, non-DRM'd music. It will be nice when I can purchase all of the songs I want and not have to worry about having some sort of special license to be able to listen to it in 5 years.