EMI Exec Says 'The Music CD is Dead' 528
Anonycat writes "Alain Levy, the chairman of EMI Music, made a speech at the London Business School declaring 'the end of the music CD as it is.' He went on to say that most CDs are simply used for ripping onto digital audio players. Levy adds that by the beginning of 2007, all EMI CDs will come with additional material to make them more attractive to the consumer. Revenue from CDs still outranks revenue from downloads by better than 6 to 1. Would it take 'additional material' to get you to keep buying CDs? What material would you like to see?"
What Is He Smoking? (Score:5, Insightful)
There are three letters that keep me buying CDs: DRM. As long as the only legal route to purchase music online is DRM encrypted music, I won't take part in it.
Granted, there are a ton of people out there that don't realize that they rely on iTunes to decrypt their music for them, I don't know how people can spend so much money without physically receiving anything. They aren't even getting a guarantee that they can play that file for the rest of their lives! They would have to burn it to a CD to ensure that.
I'll appreciate the added content to a CD but you don't need to do that to convince me that I should keep buying physical media. Hell, if you want to win back people, maybe you should get the word out that the iTunes TOS is downright shady [macnn.com]?
I will admit that the first thing I do with a CD when I buy a new one is CDex [sourceforge.net] it to high quality MP3 format. Then I put it on the shelf never to be played again. Why? Because that's my master copy that won't ever be scratched or stolen or lost. I may use MP3s to play my music, but I don't distribute or download them illegally. I'm well aware that I am copying them without consent but the only person that ever uses those copies is myself so I'm not afraid of a court case. Not one bit.
If the CD format is dead, you're going to have to figure out some way to get a physical master copy to me or I'm going to be upset mighty fast. I think if you remove this from people, some will start to miss it. And the second people realize that Apple's 99 cent deals were set by Steve Jobs & guarantee you nothing, I think there will be quite the demand for the 'ancient' physical media.
Is this just a case of 'I have it so hard! We need to change our business model, please feel sorry for us!' or am I the only one that thinks this dude is crying that the sky is falling?
Re:What Is He Smoking? (Score:4, Insightful)
Or until record companies stop producing them.
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Some better simplified math:
There are places that sell CDs all over the country. They manage to make a profit by selling a CD with roughly 500MB of data for $17, including:
So although a car may not be the most efficient form of surface transportation, ground shipping can be pretty cost effective. And increase the bandwith by a factor of 30 if we're talking
Re:What Is He Smoking? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What Is He Smoking? (Score:5, Funny)
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http://flac.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
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Early CD audio was inferior to a good turntable. The adoption of CD players happened because:
1. An "okay" CD player was cheaper than a "barely acceptable" turntable.
2. Records are a royal pain in the ass to keep clean, unbroken, and unwarped. Mere house dust can damage them forever, and even simply using them as intended in a mythical perfect environment will degrade them eventually.
3. Cueing up t
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This is true, but of limited practical value.
The problem is that making a perfect analog reproduction is inmensely expensive, and with current analog electronics actually impossible due to the inherent noise of current technology analog electronics.
For practical applications, you can exactly quantify the losses of digital reproduction, w
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If you're comparing the average mp3/acc (which tends to be 192kbps these days) to cassette tapes, then you need to go back and relisten to your cassette tapes, because you are FAR off base. Even as an audio engineer, many times I have to really listen to hear the inconsistancies of mp3s. I'm not saying they're perfect, but there are many other much more important things to worry about: namely the quality of the player, DAC, amplifier, and speakers. Cassette tapes leave loud tape hiss and have a highly degra
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He's smoking $100 bills (Score:5, Insightful)
It looks like the record execs finally found a way to profit on this new business opportunity that everyone was saying to evolve to. They did, but only because they found a way to squeeze us a little harder.
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Re:What Is He Smoking? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:What Is He Smoking? (Score:5, Funny)
Isn't that all was Sony was trying to do, give you some free software when you bought their CDs?
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Just a nitpick, but you aren't guaranteed that you'll be able to play music for the rest of your life no matter what the format is. The CD format, just like any other format, is not going to be around forever. The industry is going to march on, and eventually consumers will follow. How many people do you know who have a large cassette tape collection that is
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Links for the do-it-yourselfer
http://www.discoverengineering.org/cool_things/cd/ cd_cool_thing_pa [discoverengineering.org]
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Re:What Is He Smoking? (Score:4, Insightful)
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I gotta say....pretty much, YES....most all of my entire collection...about 300+ cd's and much of it 20+ year old music...is indeed to me just as relevant to me, as it was when I first discovered it.
I am like many of the others that have responded to your views o
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2) ditto - DRM is stupido
3) while these are disgusting, they're not near as disgusting as the formulaic crap that the industry puts out these days under the onus of maximizing their profits.
What still amazes me is who draws the large crowds, and who doesn't. What band of the last 5 years is going to draw the attendance of say, the Rol
Novel idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Instead of including a pile of other useless stuff that I don't care about with the CD, how about charging less than $20 for something that I (as someone who buys music online) consider to be worth at most $6, and can probably download for roughly that amount? This is of course assuming I actually want all of the songs on a given CD, which is rarely the case.
They keep calling themselves record companies, which pretty much explains the problem: just like records, they are trapped way back in a time before the age of the internet.
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Oh, wait: that would be a quality over quantity argument.
Exactly! (Score:2)
The other benefit to a CD is I can "discover" an artist's other music(the "whole CD is artwork argument), in addition to the popular stuff I hear on the radio/Sirius. However, with notable exceptions, the fluff that takes up the other 8 - 10 tracks on current CDs is not worth the extra $12 over the $2 for the two songs
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I remember how happy I was to have an option better than vinyl or tape, but that was a long time ago.
Price them at say five bucks and CDs will fall into the "impulse purchase" zone.
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I remember commenting to a sales clerk how they were expensive compared to cassettes or something like that and he remarked that "yeah, but as soon as lots of people are buying lots of them, the price will drop down to the price of cassettes, or even lower since they're cheaper to make. A CD costs like 50 cents to make."
The price *only* decreased because of inflation. The sticker price never changed, on average.
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I have to admit that I still use the term "record" all the time. I don't think another word really describes an audio recording as nicely. I guess I'm just unable to associate "record" with LP the way most people are. When I wish to say "LP" or "cassette" or "CD", I do.
When I hear someone correcting me for calling a CD a "record",
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I have outre tastes in music, and still I despair of hearing even a fraction of the music that I'd enjoy: any visit to a CD store of any breadth (Amoeba Music being the pinnacle of them, but there are many) reveals just how much more there is to hear out there.
What material would I'd like to see? (Score:5, Funny)
disconnected from reality. (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess the guy is either mential or chooses to ignore the millions of people that make below $40,000 a year and cant afford a new stereo with ipod and ipod adapter or mp3 player plus rf transmitter...
Most everyone at my kids highschool still uses CD's in their CD player.
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MP3 capable audio cdplayer have taken over the classic "cd changer" niche over the last years over here.
Bullshit (Score:4, Insightful)
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I too buy CDs, but only ever second hand.
That way I can get an album for a cheap/fair price, and don't feel like I'm supporting a company which has the idea of value-add meaning "Won't play unless you install our windows-only rootkit".
I'd pay more for albums from companies who would stop being so litigous, such as not suing people who post lyrics online, for the rare time when I hear a track I like on the radio and miss the name.
I like music. I listen to music almost 24x7 when awake, but I won't suppor
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Everyone, at least under 25, pretty much uses an Ipod or other MP3 player for listening to music on a daily basis. This is the main target audience for most CDs, and this executive is dead
EMI Moderation System (Score:3, Insightful)
These ivory tower execs should have realized almost 7 years ago with the advent of Napster that the CD was dying. Frankly, I don't think the iTunes Music Store should have ever happened, they should have realized the market then and adapted, now they'll have to play catch up to those innovating the non-physical media market.
Goodbye, EMI. (Score:2, Interesting)
Only 7 years? Heck, almost 30 years. The music business doesn't require an economy based on artificial scarcity, but the record business certainly does.
With an unlimited sup
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Lawsuits are not value added (Score:5, Interesting)
If this is what they see as value added, I think they got the eqation backwards... it's supposed to be value added to the consumer's experience, not the record company's legal squad.
Simple: (Score:5, Insightful)
And while I'm dreaming, I'd like a pony.
If they know 60% of their users.. (Score:5, Insightful)
If they realise that 60% of CD purchasers are ripping content then why on Earth are they trying to make it more difficult? If this guy is correct then increased anti-piracy measures will alienate more than half of their target audience.
Either he's wrong (I doubt it) or the music industry is trying to commit business suicide.
But I suppose we already knew that when they signed Ashlee Simpson.
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They're making it more difficult because they want you to rebuy all your stuff on iTunes and the like, not rip stuff you already have. They want to consumers to get frustrated and say "Guess I'll have to buy The White Album again." Though I agree that alienation is more lik
Hmmm (Score:5, Interesting)
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I don't buy popular music anymore so I'm not up-to-date on the latest trends, but I thought it was a cool idea. HMV's biggest Toronto store has pretty much moved all the music upstairs -- the mainfloor is 95%+ DVDs now. I think this is the best sign that CD sales are in jeopardy.
Good music? (Score:5, Insightful)
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statements... (Score:2)
2. I will avoid DRM where possible.
3. I will REMOVE DRM when found.
HEY EMI GUYS, read these statements in your heads. Customers are like me. Forget about the people who pirate things because frankly they're the minority anyways.
Tom
Re:statements... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think they are. The average person on Slashdot may be, but not the average consumer. I think a more accurate set of statements for most customers is:
My wife doesn't know what DRM is. My mom doesn't know. Neither do most people I know. As long as the average consumer can access his/her music the way they normally do (via iPod/iTunes or on a CD), they won't know and won't care about DRM.
-dave
Bye bye Ms. American Pie. (Score:3, Insightful)
Besides, I'm not sure what CD profits being 6 times online profits actually means...I buy one CD, that's going to cost the same as what? 10 songs on iTunes? At least? So, maybe it's just that online sales, being mainly single songs, are exposing the obvious fact that most albums only have one or two good songs.
Rather have leprosy (Score:5, Insightful)
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Please check your facts before you post idiotic crap like this.
No (Score:2)
Sad, really.
DVD: $9.99 Soundtrack CD: $17.99 (Score:5, Insightful)
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There's not much they could add to a CD to make me buy it besides more songs I want to hear. That's its purpose. What I want to see are lower prices. Even 10+ years ago, I started buying mostly used CDs because even if I didn't get the latest tracks first that way, I could get 3x as mu
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Easy Sony (Score:4, Funny)
Why rootkits and virii for my computer of course!
Hmmm.... (Score:2)
Pron
Copy DVDs!? (Score:2)
But the most recent CD I bought was by Richie Hawtin [richiehawtin.com], the pre-eminent electronic artist behind plastikman. The CD came with a DVD (or vice versa), with a live show by him. The CD had a full album by hi
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You do realize that simply owning the vinyl version doesn't make it legal for you to download the MP3s from somewhere, right?
To be completely legal, you'd have to make your own MP3s directly from your vinyl recording.
Not that anyone would ever care, but still.
Three letters... (Score:3, Funny)
Anything that's not DRM'd.
I know, what are the chances of that, huh? On the other hand, what's the point in including extra fluff that's DRM'd in a package where the primarily content isn't DRM'd? "Here's the cake you ordered, sir. And to thank you for your patronage, we've included a bonus poisoned pill. It's sugary though, yum!" "Umm, thanks... I'll just eat the cake."
Just Now? (Score:2)
I haven't looked lately; can you still find a Red Book compliant CD in music stores anymore?
The best feature of current CDs ... (Score:2)
In a related question, buggy whip manufacturers are asking what features we would like added to buggy whips in order to make them more attractive to consumers.
What would it take? (Score:2)
I'd continue to buy CDs... (Score:2)
While I have downloaded mp3s from bands' websites and myspace *hurk* pages, I have never used itunes music store, the napster (the original) or any subsequent file sharing service or torrent site.
I rent CDs from the library, but I don't rip with the one exception of a funeral, the deceased had a particular request and I had never bothered to acquire that music before the eventuality, so I was pressed for time.
So yes, I will continue to buy CDs, (thanks ebay, amazon
I know.. (Score:2)
A fair price would be nice. (Score:3, Insightful)
I still buy CDs. Now, let me say, what would attract me to purchase more of them would be a more justified price on them. I'd buy a hell of a lot more CDs if they were $5. I like album art. I like having a physical copy of my music... and I like albums, not just songs. My biggest worry about the explosion of downloadable music is that it will forsake the album in favor of mass-produced, repetitive singles.
The record labels keep trying to add shit to CD packages (dualDisc? yuck) and cut costs by using crappy cardboard cases, when they could just stea-- I mean, charge less money. I mean, how much do you think it costs to stamp a CD? It's not like a lot of that money gets passed on to the artist anyway...
In car music (Score:2)
I'd be amazed if
They're Still Missing the Point (Score:2)
Music geek stuff (Score:2)
CD alive, CD PLAYER is dead (Score:5, Insightful)
Traditional CD players may be dead, but the CD continues to be useful as a distribution medium. Clearly online distribution does not eclipse the traditional CD, in quality, in fundamentals (no DRM so you can rip to any player in any format, copy on all of your players at once [car, portable, PC], you get a permanent high-quality copy, particularly in DualDisc options, printed jacket + lyrics), and in extras (promotional material such as special editions with included DVDs etc).
The fact that listeners continue to buy CDs only to rip songs from show that the CD medium is very much alive and that online distribution can not match the value of CD-ripped music.
The traditional CD PLAYER on the other hand, may be dead.
What would you like to see? (Score:2)
Something other than the crap that the labels are promoting these days. Enough with the bee-bop, teen-age "artists" singing whatever the label tells them to. Enough with the inexperinced "artists" singing about love when they're barely out of puberty.
PGA
Include the data versions of the song (Score:2, Insightful)
Vi
Material (Score:4, Insightful)
How about starting by discontinuing litigation against your customer base? I stopped buying CDs when the lawsuits started. Granted, I was helped out by the music business itself. The stuff being sold today sucks so badly that I may not have bought it even if there weren't any lawsuits.
revenue given to the artist, lyrics, and... (Score:2, Interesting)
All I want is for CDs to be easy to rip (Score:2)
If people are going to rip them, make it easier (Score:2)
How could anyone ask for more? (Score:5, Funny)
It feeds me proto-literate lyrics, expertly Photoshopped images of poseurs, titillating videos that don't make any sense, the instrumental talent of digitized samples and vocal harmonizers, and -- if I can afford it -- maybe a ticket to a lip-synched World Tour performance with a team of 30 dancers and some fireworks.
People who download music miss all of this. They aren't cool. They hurt the Artists.
That's why Mariah Carey made "Glitter", you bastards. She was hurt.
In answer to your questions.... (Score:2)
Well, I would like to "hear" material that is worth "listening" to. I have purchased 3 CD's this year. All of them Joe Bonamassa albums. Other then that, there hasn't been a CD that I have heard worth buying. You see, I actually like listening to "music" performed by talented professional artists, not crap that I could pick up a mic or guitar and sing or play in 20 minutes. You want me to buy more CD's,
I Like CDs (Score:2)
He's hit the nail on the head - with wrong hammer (Score:2)
But seriously, CD should be dead - music should come on DVDs in at least 24 bit sample depth. 96Khz is not as important but 16 bit depth is not enough. Everything gets compressed to buggery and for many styles of music, any compression at the mastering stage should be avoided. But if you do that you end up having to worry about the noise floor. 24 bits is enough to avoid
Time for a New World Order (in music at least) (Score:2)
What about quality? (Score:4, Interesting)
If the CD goes away, where will the baseline of quality be? Will 128k be where the bar is set?
Better Comparison of Market Share (Score:2)
Why would I want a CD when I could have a DVD? (Score:2)
When meeting.. (Score:2)
Nowadays people often get a quizzical look on their face, or the conversation descends into a "who buys CDs anymore?" spiral.
The last three house parties I attended were DJed by iPods.
I'm quite partial to Rhapsody for "daily" music use, and spend my CD money on small label stuff (Aquarius in SF, Other Music in NYC, etc).
Paul is Dead (Score:2)
What he would say if he were honest is "the unique privilege of publishing CDs by official monopolizers of 'the right to copy' is dead".
CDs are dying, but only as a medium in which to store music. It will be quite some time before even nifty network transfers totally replace physical objects as a transfer medium for music. Because people like to get something we can hold, phys
Stop the "Only 1 good song" BS (Score:3, Insightful)
Ok I kinda went on a long rant there (and i don't feel like proof-reading so deal with it), but my point is that people really should think about listening to entire albums again. This is something that has been lost on the CD generation, and now even more on the internet download generation. Now I respect everybody's choice to listen to whatever they want however they want, but I think some of you out there will get a great experience out of listening to an album in it's entirety and have a better idea of what makes a good artist vs. a bad artist.
To give you a little background on what music I think is good:
1. Listening to a single track of Pink Floyd's Dark side of Moon is a crime against humanity.
2. I you ask me what my favorite Led Zeppelin song is (or album) you will get an answer that goes on for about an hour. I don't think I can narrow it down to fifteen.
3. Artists should (and do) earn their living by touring and performing live, and a good artist will not perform any of their songs in the same manner as they were performed on the album. I bought the album, I might have seen the video, so why did i come here?
Additional Material (Score:5, Interesting)
What I'd like in a CD (Score:3, Interesting)
A URL to go to for downloading high quality music videos.
A unique number for each title that lets you see which music videos are currently released for that title. As videos are released, this list grows.
A number unique to that CD that lets you download each of the videos on that list once. If they want, they can watermark the videos and shut out that CD number if they find any copies floating around.
I still buy CDs because... (Score:3, Insightful)
2) No DRM
3) I can rip at any quality I want. FLAC for at-home streaming. Lame encoded MP3 for my ipod.
4) I was raised to believe that I shouldn't take what isn't mine. I don't take that totally literally. I have no qualms about downloading a bunch of CDs off of usenet, but I do that to listen to bands that I might not have heard yet (to listen to the whole albums at decent quality, not a couple of hyper-compressed tracks that the record company or the band wants you to listen to)... and then if I like something I hear, I go buy the CD. See #1. I try to support the bands that I like.
Are CDs dead? Yea, kind of. I don't often pop a silver disc into a player to listen to it very often anymore. But until the music industry gets off this sue everyone and DRM the heck out of everything mode, I don't have much choice.
-S
Sorry, but it is over (Score:3, Interesting)
When people can "sample", "mix" or "re-edit" your content, you aren't in control of it. Trying to establish a "brand" with any sort of material that can be reedited, repackaged and resold the minute it ends up in a customer's hands is no control at all.
Any sort of bargain that people in the entertainment business might have thought they had with customers ended a few years ago. Today, the only reason more than a single copy is sold is inefficiency in today's piracy. Having global organized crime involved with it doesn't help either. The people buying CDs are generally those on dial-up Internet connections or those too old to have heard of Napster and all of its decendents. The fact that these people are spending six times as much as the people paying for downloaded music should be an important clue that virtually nobody is paying for downloaded music - they are just downloading it.
How will this end? Well, for starters it can be assumed that music distribution on physical media will end pretty soon. No more "record stores". Probably music "promotion" will end as well, and that will take VH1, MTV and most of the ClearChannel radio stations with it. This will have an pretty widespread effect, so if you are involved in a business that in any way interacts with physical distribution of entertainment media - such as selling big bulky CD cases or radio station advertising - you can just kiss your job goodbye.
Yes, the music CD is dead. The "music business" is probably dead as well, killed off by greedy younglings that want to collect all the songs they can for free. Movies? Probably the idea of a movie studio producing a DVD for profit rather than as an advertising vehicle will be gone soon as well. You might see some "theater-only" productions, where the only attraction would be that it is never, ever going to be available anywhere else but a movie theater.
Yep-- read my mind-agreemsg (Score:2)
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Add to that the fact the most of what I buy on CD isn't sold electronically.
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How about, immediately?
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I'd just like to point out, as an interesting side note, that US foreign policy requires that countries who want to deal with the US have to tighten up (or in some cases - create) their IP laws. An example - CAFTA. I live in Costa Rica. As part of the "Free Trade" agreement (which is a whole other rant), Costa Rica is supposed
Re:I'd like to see a talking goat (Score:4, Funny)
Or a goatse-tubgirl duet, in B-fart major. Barrrrf.