Another sign CDs are dead
It’s been written about to death, but today there is further proof the traditional CD is on the way out, replaced by the souless digital music file. UK rapper Dizzee Rascal’s third album Maths and English hits stores June 4 — if you live in England. Stateside, the album will now only be sold digitally, according to reports released today.
This is a major blow to the traditional CD. Sure, Dizzee Rascal doing it may not seem that big (his reason for not selling a CD version of the album? Poor album sales in the U.S.), but it signifies the first major act to totally bypass the CD format for an all digital release. Most music fans aren’t going to notice, but this signifies a seismic shift in how music is sold.
And it’s a damn shame. I may be in the (massive) minority, but I love CDs. The artwork, the disc, the booklets, everything. I understand MP3s are faster to get, more convenient and easier to organize, but some people love having a physical reminder of the music they love. I own the first two Dizzee Racal albums, and I was really excited to pick up this one, but now I’m either stuck with digital files or a pricey import album. CDs may not be as profitable as they once were, but they still have a place in this world.
Only plus from all this – if I have to get the digital album, I won’t have to look at the relatively lame album art.
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I’ve never understood people who want to drive to a store and buy an album they can just download. I understand that people are naturally afraid of change, but digital distribution is the future. I wonder how long people continued to use outhouses before they embraced indoor plumbing.
Scott Olstad
May 23, 2007 at 4:40 pm
People want something tangible they can hold in their hands. If my hard drive fails, I lose all my music; I’m not losing my CDs unless I get robbed or my house burns down (so far, I’ve had two failed hard drives and no thefts/fires). Outhouses to indoor plumbing is a retarded analogy because the latter is obviously 100% better than the former. Digital distribution is the future for people with no romance, for people who would rather sit at their computer and click a button then get outside and look for that elusive CD or record that’s been defying them. The day we switch to digital distribution is the day the music dies.
^ Stupid
May 23, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Audiophiles will agree with me when I say that usually MP3s sold online are low quality. People who really care about the quality of the sound MP3s can make rip high quality bitrates/lossless files from their CDs. Hopefully this album will come as a high quality rip. Dizzee rocks my socks!
Brendon
May 23, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Yeah, these two guys got it right, especially the unfortunately named ^stupid. Digital music seems throwaway, something that can be lost by one technological failure, just another tune to stick on your iPod. CDs seem like more complete works of art, and something one gets more invested in.
Patrick St. Michel
May 23, 2007 at 5:05 pm
I wouldn’t freak out too much about the loss of CDs. I think that there will always be enough of a niche market interested in owning physical recordings to keep that method of distribution profitable, even if it is much smaller than it was before. Vinyl is still going strong, even 20 years after its major demise.
Christian
May 23, 2007 at 5:09 pm
I’m not sure how iTunes works because I’ve never paid for download, but I would assume it works like most other decent digital download services. The purchases are linked to your account, so even if your hard drive is deleted, logging in to your account will allow you to redownload all the same songs for free. This actually makes it even safer than keeping a disc which would eventually get scratched up and ruined. Additionally, if you have digital music, you probably have a way of backing it up. If your house was on fire, would it be easier to grab your external hard drive/ipod or your entire c.d. collection?
Additionally, I’m sure outhouses are more romantic than normal bathrooms. Like the “romance” (inconvience) of searching for a rare c.d. when you can just download it online, the antiquated method of using an outhouse is “romantic.”
Like I said, change is scary, but let’s try and embracing the future. I’d be even more excited for this if companies would actually make songs cheaper digitally like they should be to compensate for the lower cost of production and distribution.
Scott Olstad
May 23, 2007 at 7:21 pm
It’s funny how Sony BMG are the ones who are moaning the most about people stealing songs off the net when Sony invented the CD to begin with; which is basically an invitation for people to steal the songs off it. I’d like to see some emo teen try to rip songs off a record or a tape…
I’m not really surprised that CDs are on the way out, they’re cheaply made, they have no real value like records do, the “artwork” is confined to about 4 inches by 4 inches, they’re overpriced, they sound tinny, and there’s a HUGE back catologue of stuff that exists only on vinyl, only the most popular releases have made it to CD. MP3 players are obviously even worse, but I won’t be sad to see them go. CDs and iPods are really one in the same, they’re for people without imagination or a notion of romance in their heads who just wanna go up to their friends and go “yo man i got the new atreyu song, it’s sick yo”
David
June 17, 2007 at 1:01 am
Vinyl had some seriously great cover art. Plus there are those who swear up and down that the sound quality is superior to any form of digital, although I don’t think I quite buy that.
Bitter Scribe
August 18, 2007 at 1:23 pm