bhowells

Who thinks that the CD's days are numbered, I have a huge collection of CD.s and have not purchased an ipod as yet, but I am a great believer in having a physical product rather than something stored on my pc.

I wont mind so much if the cd will disapear from the stores, but as long as online retailers like Amazon will still sell them I will be happy.

I still have my all old vinyl albums as well., but I did get rid of most of my audio cassetes as I dont see the point in them anymore, unless of course they can be burned on to cd.

batman

I buy all my CDs etc online so what happens in the shops doesn't bother me as long as, as you say, online retailers keep selling them.

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

Chevyman

Yes. I've downloaded a few albums but like you two, I prefer to have a tangible product with booklet etc.

I buy most products online though. Only problem with that is "shattered spiders" on the inlay card.......Yes I know I've just set myself up

Two good things about the CD format is 1) that it was never regionalised and 2) it got rid of the problems with tape hiss which, despite Dolby and ANR, the cassette was cursed with.

Interesting that the LP format still sells well with heavy Metal and Goth diehards

If anything kills the CD it will be online purchasing patterns. But most retailers still allow it plenty of footage instore. Portent for the future?

"One appears to have dropped one's monocle in the soufflee"

Why not visit the Festive Fayre section?

David Brent

Earlier this year due to a computer mishap I lost all of my music files.
There were many songs that I had not been able to transfer to CD at the time so I had to track them all down again.
After five months hard work I've only just got my music files back to near completion. Although there are probably some songs I will never recover.

No matter how easy it is to download music on the PC you still have to back-up your collection onto CD or risk losing them with a computer problem.

Dave.

davidb

i like owning the actual product with the artwork etc etc ,still have a load of vinyl for that matter ,i wouldnt be happy with my music collection on a microchip ,be good from a clutter point of view though

Freddy

Only yesterday I received a hundred or so vinyl LPs as the owner was moving house and knew I still had a turntable.

Many are classical with the highlights being Vaughan Williams complete box set of his nine symphonies so I now have his London Symphony and the Sinfonia Anatartica which includes Shelley's wonderful verse

'To suffer woes which hope thinks infinite,
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night,
To defy power which seems omnipotent,
Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent:
This . . . is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free,
This is alone life, joy, empire and victory.'

On the cinema front there are a couple of Geoff Love and Ron Goodwin film theme
compilations as well as a Sound of Music LP from the stage musical, recorded in 1965 it gives no mention of the film so I can only assume this was released before then.

The artwork, contents and style of LPs for me are head and shoulders above any small cd package.

Freddy

The world wags on.

MB

As pointed out - it does depend on the genre of music that you like and the age bracket. As you probably know - most 15-24 year olds download and don't transfer to CD until they have a specific reason.

I used to work in the lower eschelons of the music industry and was asked, at one point, to look into the future of the 'mechanical music industy' just as the Gowers report was coming out (So I’m a year out of date on the nitty gritty)

But it doesn't look good - what is holding the music industry and the production of CD's etc together at the moment is traditional merchandise buying chiefly by die-hard fans and the slightly older generation such as ourselves . The younger people who tend to buy newer music cannot see the point in buying a CD unless it has extra features and even then..they can probably get hold of it from somewhere..at that point Sony were in the early stages of panic (far too late ) and were predicting a 50% decrease in sales in three years.

Bands like Radiohead and even Madonna are wising up to this fact - but are in a position to do so. Many aspects of the music industry and in freefall - in particular - the smaller record companies who just don't exist anymore to take on new bands..

It would be nice to think that as this generation mature, stand to understand better how their purchasing power affects the industry and, perhaps, have more money to spend.. that the traditional methods will continue or at the very least - there will be a greater use of legal downloading....but, at the end of the day it will depend on whether it will be profitable to pay for the production, storage and sale and if the top industry can find a way of making downloading more profitable for them (which they are trying very hard to do) then they will probably leave off the CD..

My take on it was that, at some point, what you can get pre-recorded will be limited and people will get out of the habit - eventually CD's will take a position alongside vynil.

batman

You are probably right .... let's enjoy our cd's and their art work while we can.

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

Dame Starry

I i-Tunes........

I actually like the choice. Either to download a single - or just one song from an album for less than a quid if I don't want the rest, or to buy the CD if I want to.

DS x.

MB

It's difficult to know who to cheer for as the top industry only has itself to blame..they didn't see it coming and they have profiteered and, generally, behaved badly for so long that there is a great deal of resentment built up against them..

Easy access on the net and downloading gets the music out there and cuts out many of the shark middlemen..but there is no money to help the younger bands who want a 'deal' and who need guidance..it's trickyone..I hope it sorts out as I'd love to get back involved (probably on the live side - which is where the profit is likelyto be from now on) rather than running an internet shop from home and eating knick knacks..

If you see me on here you have permission to tell me off as I do have work to do

dremble wedge

As long as it's the Nice n Spicy flavour

orpheum

Well i still have over 1000 78s,mostly dance bands and i have no intention of ever disposing of them!

Welcome To Highbury The Home Of Football

billy bentley

The CD's days are definitely numbered. Here in NYC there are not many places to buy them, unless you want the Top Twenty and the word is Virgin will not be renewing their leases on their two megastores (where CD sales are not even 50% of their sales). My 16 year old buy's CD's but he is the only one amongst his friends that does. Every one else just buys the downloads and see the packaging/actual product as a pain. A friend of mine in the industry claims that apart from specialist stores, it is no longer possible in the U.S. to turn a profit just retailng music !

bhowells

Clutter is a problem I will admit, I have spent many an hour searching for cd's on the shelves, pulling everything about looking for them and not enjoyng the cd being played.

winsfordtown

I didn't like way that suddenly one day vinyl was out of date and the consumer was expected to spend £12 a CD to replace everything they bought before.