How much longer the CD?

Aural Fixation · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:13 pm

Alan McGee's opinion -- message taken from MySpace:

Quote:

HOW MUCH LONGER THE CD?

BY THE END OF THE YEAR THE SINGLE IN ENGLAND WILL BE OBSOLETE.DOWNLOADS ARE KILLING THE PHYSICAL SALES.WITHIN 2 YEARS THE BIG CHAINS WILL BE MOBILE PHONE SHOPS.CD'S KILLED PEOPLE'S LOVE OF MUSIC.VINYL IS/WAS A BEAUTIFUL EXPERIENCE AND WILL BE ABOUT FOREVER.CD'S 74 MINUTES OF DRAWL.DOES ANYBODY EVER REMEMBER ANY GOOD DOUBLE ALBUMS?WELL THAT'S WHAT CD'S BECAME FUCKING DOUBLE ALBUMS.THE MAJORS LOVED IT BECAUSE THEY COULD GET US ALL TOO BUY THE BEATLES BACK CATALOGUE ANOTHER FUCKING TIME.DOWNLOADS IS SONG CULTURE LIKE THE 50'S.THE START OF ROCK'N'ROLLSONG CULTURE IS/WAS ROCK'N'ROLL.THE MAJORS HAVE LOST THE MEANS OF DISTRIBUTION NOW.APPLE OWN THAT AT THE MOMENT THE MAJORS ARE IN DENIAL.THEY THE MAJORS KNOW THERE NUMBERS UP.GO TO ANY PROVINCIAL HMV AND SEE WHAT'S GOING ON,SCREAMADELICA,THE STONE ROSES FOR £3.99.THEY HAVE ALL BEEN SALE ITEMS FOR THE LAST YEAR.THE ACCOUNTANTS HAVE FUCKED IT UP AND THE CONTROL OF MUSIC IS GOING BACK TO THE MUSICIANS AS THE MEANS OF DISTRIBUTION IS CHANGING.THE CD AS A FORMAT IS UNLOVABLE COLD AND IS JUST FUCKING DATA..COMPUTER DATA.PEOPLE LISTEN TO MUSIC NOW ON IPODS LIFE IS TOO FAST TO STICK ON CD'S AND LISTEN TO WHOLE ALBUMS IN THE HOUSE.NONE OF US HAVE THE TIME BUT WE WILL LISTEN ON AN IPOD ANYWHERE.MUSIC IS CHANGING AGAIN AND IT'S IN FAVOUR OF THE MUSICIANS AND THE INDIES WE CAN CHANGE FAST NOT THE MAJOR CORPERATIONS.APPLE IS SEXY.EMI ISN'T BOTH CORPERATIONS BUT APPLE RULE THEY MOVE FAST AND THE MAJORS HATE THEM..I LOVE THEM.DANCE ON THERE GRAVES THEY ALL FUCKING DESERVE IT FOR NOT LOOKING OUT FOR THE MUSIC JUST THERE MILLION DOLLAR A YEAR SALARIES.ENJOY IT AS THEY CRUMBLE.DOWNLOADS WILL BE KING WITHIN THE NEXT COUPLE OF YEARS.THE MAJORS HAVE LOST THE FOOTBALL.THE ACCOUNTANTS ARE FUCKED BECAUSE THEY NEVER LIKED MUSIC ANYWAY.CD'S ARE UGLY FUCKING DATA INVENTED BY THE MAJORS.ONLY USEFUL NOW FOR DJ'ING OR DOWNLOADING TO YOUR IPOD.THERE GAME IS UP...MCGEE

(He really needs to learn about paragraphs.)

Anyone like to provide their opinions?

legonads · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:16 pm

CAPS LOCK OFF

splates · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:17 pm

there game is up

shiv · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:19 pm

I DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE YELLING ABOUT!

timmyjoe42 · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:42 pm

lego Wrote:

Stop shouting!

Black Magic Putin · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:45 pm

i get very upset whenever i have to buy music on physical media. if i could never do it again, i'd be happy. those fucking things are heavy when you have to move a thousand of them.

tt · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:51 pm

that's just the way he writes. i've gotten used to it.

greezy · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:14 pm

i think it will be toast before too long. my high school-age little brother has never given a shit about cds. the quality isn't that much better than an mp3, and most liner notes these days aren't worth much. mp3s don't skip and they're damn near indestructible.
the upshot for nerdy audiophile types is this could mean better sound quality. cds are only capable of 16 bit/44khz audio, while there's lots of sound cards these days that can deliver 24 bit/96khz audio (there's a good explanation of the difference here). if everything goes digital, we'll be able to take advantage of all the new audio hotness just by buying a new sound card or ipod (as opposed to buying all of our old albums on some new format).

but analog still sounds better.

Flying Rabbit · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:26 pm

See though, you don't think MP3s are a joke? That isn't the end all be all media. What happens when something new comes along, and you're stuck with MP3s and your Ipod? Oh, yeah right upgrade! Not only that but for those of you who say you don't like something physical to handle, what do you back them up on? DVDs? Harddrives? All not failproof. This is a neverending battle. A false, brief reprieve. There will always be "the next big thing".

I'm not against digital music at all. I think its great. I think its a fine way to get music out there, to make it more portable, etc. Let's just not kid ourselves though, that this is the format of formats.

greezy · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:37 pm

oh definitely, as internet connections get faster and hard drives get bigger we'll get to the point where we can get music with lossless compression. as far as losing your music goes, i've never used itunes--is there some way to get music back that you've already downloaded if your hard drive crashes?

timmyjoe42 · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:38 pm

This is about England. Who really cares about the UK?

Flying Rabbit · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:40 pm

druucifer Wrote:

oh definitely, as internet connections get faster and hard drives get bigger we'll get to the point where we can get music with lossless compression. as far as losing your music goes, i've never used itunes--is there some way to get music back that you've already downloaded if your hard drive crashes?

nope. Yr shit outta luck. Unless you have backups of backups of backups and even then your not insured to be able to get yr stuff.

Elvis Fu · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:41 pm

druucifer Wrote:

oh definitely, as internet connections get faster and hard drives get bigger we'll get to the point where we can get music with lossless compression. as far as losing your music goes, i've never used itunes--is there some way to get music back that you've already downloaded if your hard drive crashes?

Ever read Mark Cuban's thoughts on why broadband won't get all that much faster? I'm no techhead, but I find it interesting.

greezy · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:45 pm

no i haven't, want to shoot me a link?

ptrck · **Joined:** Wed Oct 27, 2004 10:55 pm **Posts:** 5568

Isnt this guy like somebodys idol or something?

alongwaltz. · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:52 pm

If the music industry were to switch over to just mp3's and digital data, I can't help but imagine that being the death of the music industry as a whole.

It's so much easier to get an album of mp3's for free than it is to get a physical cd for free. So a huge portion of the market would just stop paying for music altogethere.

Add to that the portion of the population who don't have computers/are computer illiterate/feel like listening, arranging music on a computer is complicated and that's a huge slab of people who will just stop listening to anything but the radio.

Eliminating a physical form to buy music could be the worst mistake the modern music industry ever made.

Aural Fixation · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:57 pm

I dunno about him being an idol, but he found Creation Records which spewed out the likes of Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, The Pastels, My Bloody Valentine, Teenage Fanclub and yes, even Oasis. The guy became fairly famous and continues to be admired by many.

The Mayor of Simpleton · **Posted:** Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:08 am

alongwaltz Wrote:

Eliminating a physical form to buy music could be the worst mistake the modern music industry ever made.

I don't see it happening anytime soon. I think a portion of the industry will go all digital, probably the very most popular of music - the Britneys, et al, because their music is centered around singles anyway. I think bands that focus on the album as their expression of art will always release something physical because it's about more than just the music - it's the music in combination with the artwork, lyrics, liners, etc. Until we get to a point where all of that is digitally available to us at any moment we want, it won't go away in a physical format because people love owning stuff. It's just a plain fact. Right now it's just cool to not own music and instead own movies, but I have a feeling that someday it'll be cool again to own big collections of music.

I look at it like books - does anyone really see actual books going away anytime soon? They already have digital solutions for that, but who wants to read a book on a computer, or even on one of the handheld devices? It's just not a pleasant way to do so. And people like owning and displaying books. Music will be this way again someday.

alongwaltz. · **Posted:** Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:16 am

The Mayor of Simpleton Wrote:

I look at it like books - does anyone really see actual books going away anytime soon? They already have digital solutions for that, but who wants to read a book on a computer, or even on one of the handheld devices? It's just not a pleasant way to do so. And people like owning and displaying books. Music will be this way again someday.

Precisely. I'm a huge Salinger fan and there's certain websites with uncollected short stories of his. But even with the anticipation of being able to read stuff I haven't, I couldn't get through a page on the computer screen.

I'll have to print them off if I ever do want to read them.

shiv · **Posted:** Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:18 am

i like buying cd's.

Postmersh · **Posted:** Fri Jul 14, 2006 2:00 am

timmyjoe42 Wrote:

lego Wrote:

Stop shouting!

Don't blame Alan McGee - Stephen A. Smith was the best ghostwriter he could afford...

tentoze · **Posted:** Fri Jul 14, 2006 2:21 am

The sky is not falling on ceedees, regardless of what this cretin sez. I laughed in the early 80's when similar lost pundits predicted the disappearance of vinyl in 2 years.

puma · **Posted:** Fri Jul 14, 2006 2:32 am

holy hell that just gave me a headache reading that!

anyway, i haven't been in the music industry for very long, but i don't see ANY of the majors eliminating physical form anytime soon. they'd completely freak out. however, i do see more digital downloads for sale... and a lot of the business is going more digital as the technology expands, etc.

but i'm a purist and i like my cd's and vinyl thank you very much. i've moved a million times and it's a bitch but i must have physical copy.

as far as "the majors have lost their means of distribution..." HA! dude is smoking crack.

Damen · **Posted:** Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:02 pm

pumachik Wrote:

as far as "the majors have lost their means of distribution..." HA! dude is smoking crack.

Depends on how you look at it.... One of the key strategies of the American majors over the years was to push the album. Push people to buy the whole $15-$18 CD even if it's for only 1 song. The profit margin is way bigger for the label that way, who wouldn't do that? But now, a kid can just buy that one MP3 he or she wants off the album for $0.99 & the rest of the money stays in the pocket. Which bites into the labels profit. There's no more bundling of tracks in a package where the label can charge for the entire package. I'd say that's a loss of distribution. It's now a la carte artistry.

But honestly, Alan McGee needs to learn how to write

paladisiac · **Posted:** Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:07 pm

physical product's going away. mp3s or whatever file medium is the future, store on centralized-redundant servers you pay fees to incorporate into your playlist, played via the internet, which in the future, is as fast and reliable as electricity is today.

i'd say it'd be awhile before this happens, but innovation-thru-computer-technology seems to move a lot faster than pre-comp-tech. All other non-elec types of music have been in decline for a few years now, except a minor resurgence in vinyl. So the day is coming, but how soon? when i finally sell off my cds confident my electronic copies/licenses are forever good enough, i'll let ya know.

How much longer the CD?

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