17 Million People Stopped Buying CDs in 2008--People Still Buy CDs?

[Adam Krebs]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/03/report-yep-cd-sales-keep-falling-but-new-trends-may-help.ars' target='_blank'>http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2...ds-may-help.ars</a><br /><br /></div><p>"<em>While overall music sales were up 10 percent in 2008, the year saw a drop not only in CD sales, but in the number of customers actually purchasing music. But according to a new report, the act of music listening is actually on the rise. While digital music purchases remain strong, the numbers show that there is still much more work to be done in the industry's transition to a new, more diverse set of business models. ... One trend that may finally be going mainstream is music streaming services. NPD's report notes that awareness and usage of Pandora doubled year-over-year to 18 percent of Internet users. Social network music streaming is also on the rise, as usage rose from 15 to 19 percent year-over-year. Nearly half of US teens are "engaging with music on social networks" now, so new revenue opportunities like premium account memberships and advertising are following.</em>"</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1237478603.usr495.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></p><p><em>http://www.themusiciansite.com</em></p><p>There's no doubt the music industry is in a state of transition, but I wouldn't be surprised if this trend of listening to music through subscription and social networking continues to rise. Personally, I haven't bought a CD in years (I have several vinyl albums, but maybe that's just for the cool factor.) When faced with the option of listening to a fixed album or a constantly evolving music landscape, I choose the latter almost every time. This bodes well for services like Pandora, iLike, and Zune Social as we head towards a generation of music on demand, but do artists want their work to be interchangeable?</p>

[mcwilliams132]

I haven't bought a new cd in years, but I have bought older/hard to find cd's for a song off eBay or other outlets vs. buying digital copy - saving a ton of cash plus having a physical backup and abiltity to rip at the bit rate I want is also a plus.

[Alber1690]

On Zune Social...what the heck is going on? The service has been lagging it for the past month--or longer--and today it's completely unavailable. The Zune Team needs to provide some answers and hope that at some point browsing Zune Social won't take longer than 30 seconds to load each page. They want to revolutionize music sharing, but everyone who bothers--including myself--to be an active participant is being welcomed with excruiciating slow experiences over at Zune.net. *sigh*

[USArcher]

I'd be curious to learn what the demographics are for those 17 million. Are they an older generation where music is perhaps less of a factor in their daily lives? How much of this can be attributed to the economic slowdown?

As far as subscriptions, I think there is alot more Zune can and needs to do.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Ok, this is a US study, but I'd like to say that as someone living outside the US, I don't have much of a friggin' choice. Zune? Nope. Amazon MP3? Nada. Even iTunes requires a song-and-dance involving gift certificates since there's no iTunes store in my area (and I probably wouldn't buy AAC files).

It's been a long grouse of mine, but will internationalisation hurry up already? There's money to be made here but I'm guessing the lousy greedy buggers just want to ensure they can milk every dollar they can.

[Adam Krebs]

I'd be curious to learn what the demographics are for those 17 million. Are they an older generation where music is perhaps less of a factor in their daily lives? How much of this can be attributed to the economic slowdown?
From the article:
"NPD saw all demographics pulling back on CD purchases, but the most significant groups were teenagers and those over 50."


What do the 20-50 year olds know about CDs that the rest of us don't? Maybe it's a generational thing?

[Adam Krebs]

On Zune Social...what the heck is going on? The service has been lagging it for the past month

Oh I know exactly what you're saying. I'd like to think it's because the service is so popular, but really is it too much to ask for a little uptime? I've got quizzes to take!

[Jason Dunn]

Ok, this is a US study, but I'd like to say that as someone living outside the US, I don't have much of a friggin' choice.

I know how you feel - until late last year, I was still buying CDs because there were no online stores worth anything in Canada. Once I realized I could buy Amazon.com MP3s using a bit of a trick, I haven't bought a CD since. There's definitely money to be made by selling online music, but it's amazing how the lawyers of the world make the process impossible...

[jdmichal]

It's all about the overseas proxy servers...

[waverlyn]

CD is still the preferred format for me. I'll jump onto the digital music bandwagon when they offer their products in the lossless format (preferably in either FLAC or WavPack.)

[Dyvim]

I just bought a CD last week. Of course I just rip it to lossless (archive) and then lossy (iPods), and then either put it on a shelf or perhaps in the car (the only place I still actually listen to CDs although I'd like to move away from that too). They're still a great value considering the quality and unlocked nature. I buy quite a few digital download singles but for albums I still mostly go for the CD (but that's probably a generational thing).

[c1oudrs]

I stopped buying music--all music--including cds--years ago as a quiet protest to RIAA. Its only in the last couple of years that I've started buying music again (when the non-drm offerings began to come out.) I figured the RIAA could eat @#*& and die but that I wasn't going to support them even indirectly. F&*^# greedy music industry. In my opinion cds weren't safe to use in the way I wanted to use music(and they still are not). No you can't legally back them (cds)up. If your device doesn't have a cd player where you physically place the cd in the player you cannot play your purchased music on that device. Because you didn't purchase music. You purchased a cd that had music recorded on it. If you really liked the cd--your supposed to buy another just like it when it becomes scratched or whatever. At their heyday there was no one more agressive than the RIAA in coming out against fair use. The music industry tried to do away with blank casset tapes. They lost the legal battle way back when. So they went to cds. When cds became copiable, they instituted drm, and hired their own enforcers. For the record I've always bought my music, but my perception was that regular people weren't safe. When all the folks at the RIAA got laid off, I cheered. I've bought quite a few non-drm mp3s from Amazon (I'm careful to save my receipts). And I like Amazon. But no, I'll never buy a kindle under the current business model. No. I'll never buy a cd again. I'm nobody. Not particularly successful. But I own a moral compass. On the one end there's the greedy pirates and on the other there's the greedy RIAA and their ilk. There's lots of white and gray in the middle. But I'll continue to avoid the drm stuff when I can and financially support those sites/companies that support fair use.

[mar2k]

Like others have mentioned, for my favorite artists, I will still buy CDs. Buying tracks is great when I just want a single or two off an album I otherwise have no interest in. For a whole album, the savings is too minimal when I can buy the CD and rip it to whatever format I see fit (FLAC in my case, which I really wish Windows 7 would support out of the box) for storage on my home server, another to MP3 for local storage on my client PC. Flipping through the album art and often the song lyrics is still an experience if its an artist I really enjoy. Plus having a physical backup is still very satisfying at the end of the day.

I've bought a lot from Amazon because of iTunes DRM but with Apple upping the quality to 256k and DRM free I have to say I might have to give in and start buying more from iTunes. I don't like the fact that Amazon is a one and done model. Apple is doing it the right way by allowing multiple downloads of the same track once purchased. I know more than one friend that has had a hard drive crash and was able to redownload their iTunes tracks. What is the Zune model BTW?

[WyattEarp]

I still purchase CDs even though I own an iPod and an iPhone. I still can't get myself to purchase music ripped to such low bit rates when I can get the CD for the same price and rip it to lossless (WAV) for the home system and 320-bit AAC for the iPod and iPhone. When iTunes, Amazon, etc start offering lossless audio then I'll jump but not a moment before.

[Jason Dunn]

I don't like the fact that Amazon is a one and done model. Apple is doing it the right way by allowing multiple downloads of the same track once purchased.

Apple must have changed their model then, right? Because they were the originators of "download it once and if you lose it, it's gone" model, weren't they? When did they change, and are there any limits to the number of times you can download the same track?

I know more than one friend that has had a hard drive crash and was able to redownload their iTunes tracks. What is the Zune model BTW?

I agree it's a nice thing to be able to download tracks again, though in this day and age I don't have a lot of sympathy for people that don't back up their data - it seems everyone needs to lose their data before they grasp the importance of backing it all up. It's kind of like people who don't wear their seatbelts... :( It would be nice if backing up data was as easy as putting on a seatbelt - maybe someday.

The Zune model, AFAIK, is a single-download scenario. I think Apple may be unique in offering people the ability to re-download all their purchases (if that's the way it works).

[Jason Dunn]

I still can't get myself to purchase music ripped to such low bit rates...

I agree whole-heartedly when we're talking about iTunes 128 kbps AAC tracks, but the 256 kbps MP3 tracks I get from Amazon sound really good on everything from $300 Ultimate Ears headphones to my Audioengine A5 speakers...I have zero complaints about 256 kbps MP3s. Guess you have better ears than me. :D

...when I can get the CD for the same price and rip it to lossless (WAV)...

I'm curious that you'd say the CDs are the same price. Pretty much all albums on Amazon.com are $8.99 or $9.99. Don't most CDs in the US still cost around $14.99 or so? That's a 50% mark-up. I was going to buy the CD for a favourite artist of mine recently, but it was 50% more and even though I'd have liked to have had the CD, it wasn't worth 50% more to me.

[jdmichal]

I'm a digital packrat, so sometimes I don't mind HDD crashes :-\ I still have saved school work from high school. I've been working in the wild with a college degree for over two years.

That said, I run RAID-1 and "backup" important documents via Live Mesh.

[David Tucker]

The Zune model, AFAIK, is a single-download scenario. I think Apple may be unique in offering people the ability to re-download all their purchases (if that's the way it works).

Nope, definitely multiple download model!

[Jason Dunn]

Nope, definitely multiple download model!

ORLY? :D Goes to show how often I buy music from the Zune Marketplace...