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EMI music boss: "The CD is dead"

torrentfreak.com — The CEO & chairman of EMI Music, Alain Levy told an audience at the London Business School on Friday that the CD as we know it is dead.

Who dugg this? Made popular Oct 29, 2006

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  • OnoTadaki, on 10/12/2007, -1/+35"CD sales accounted for more than 70% of total international music sales in the first half of 2006, while digital music sales were still at about 11%."

    Truly, dead...

    What exactly is this article trying to say? CDs are dead, but mysteriously are making up for seven times the sales that music downloads are? It just sounds like EMI's CEO is trying to sound sensationalist and make everyone feel as if music downloads are the future with no support to back it.

    Of course CEOs LOVE music downloading over CDs. There's almost no costs involved. With a CD they have to create something physical, ship it, and sell it to you in a store with its own overhead. Music downloads cost near nothing to send out in mass quantities. This article should be re-labeled "EMI music boss: 'I want CDs to be dead so I don't have to spend as much money trying to rape consumers'"
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+33I cant wait till music is sold on a flash drive
  • Jacob, on 10/12/2007, -5/+30Only if they give it to us in flac format I don't want to pay for a crappy mp3 file.
  • Providence, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20DRM? Psh, that's what torrents, p2p, and IRC are for!
  • floseb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18yes indeed the CD as it used to be is dead! You can't play them anymore in your PC, car-stereo etc.. And if it is not dead then it is deadly sick and spreads its virus (remember the sony root-kit)?
  • JeremyBanks, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18Some people already are doing so.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barenaked_on_a_Stick
  • vernsan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16If you can't tell the difference you've got hearing problems. I recommend getting a check up.
    Plus I'd rather have a physical copy.
  • ISurfTooMuch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15I think a more accurate assessment is that the music industry would like the CD to die. Why?

    First, it doesn't work well with DRM. Yes, DRM can be added, but it makes playing the resulting disc in some players problematic.

    Second, the CD must be physically produced. With downloadable files, there's no physical product, so record companies can make more money off them.

    Third, CDs can be resold. Get rid of them, and you eliminate the used CD market. This means consumers can't sell their music collections, which equals more money for the record companies.

    Finally, DRM means more profits, since consumers can't play a single music file wherever they want. Want to move a song from your home stereo to the car or a portable player? It'll cost you. Want to take it to a friend's house and let them hear it on their stereo? Sorry, they'll have to buy it themselves if they want to try it out.

    Make no mistake, the music industry would love the CD to die. It will let them make more money.
  • taybay, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18I need CD's! Sorry, but 320 kbps MP3's can't compare with my 1,440 kbps CD's.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11You'll be paying for a WMA at this rate ;(.
  • afruff23, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10CD's are digital. I think you meant DRM. In that case, I agree.
  • unknownsoldierX, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12I for one welcome out new DRM overloards. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground DMCA caves.
  • devoinregress, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I loved the album, With the switch from LP to CD their was a lot lost and now the switch from CD to pure digital distribution is loosing even more of that. I loved the design of the albums. I loved the cover art and the extras. I will continue to buy physical media as long as I can.
    I applaud coverflow and what it is doing for the album. Unfortunately I think the album is already dead.
  • MacSuxWindozSux, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9All people want is just the music.

    No extra crap, no extra price.

    Not more reasons to buy CD's at expensive prices.

    Not more ways for them to invade privacy with Spyware-DRM.

    What he is saying is absolutely the wrong direction. It's the reason why iTunes is growing and CD's are shrinking.
  • fvaldivia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8come on, EMI is dead.
  • MonkeyFit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Then you should get your hearing checked. Or some speakers that are actually worth a damn.
  • nipuL, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Maybe they are praying for a throwback to vinyl?
  • foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6ummmmm..... CDs are digital!
  • Phoenixfury, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I know a good way to save the dieing CD format.. $8 a pop! That was the price tape cassettes were when the CD was introduced to the market. They sold well then at that price and did not go away for a long time even after CD's were being widely adopted. This also would undercut certain online music stores by a couple of bucks a pop. I believe if CD sales were to drop below $10, a high percentage of music piracy would just go away. For $8, I'd be more likely to buy CD's again versus buying them online. Are you hearing me RIAA? Oh wait.. You don't care do you?
  • Ignignokt01, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The industry has to adapt to the way consumers get their products now. I'm not sure how, but there must be ways the music industry can take advantage of this new technology (the internet), instead of trying to thwart it.
  • AmishRefugee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4dead my ass, i consider a music format dead when new model cars no longer come with it

    If the CD dies, DRM could very well BE the future. Long live the CD!
  • iNoles, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Another reason that CDs is dead because Sony Rootkit.
  • castleking, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Either that or he may need to buy headphones other than the crappy ones apple ships with the iPod.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"the rumors about Bose not being what they are cracked up to be appear to be true. : ) "

    umm..everyone knows Bose is fairly awful at this kind of stuff.
  • JoshCBFL, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Have you ever listened to anything in FLAC or some other lossless format?
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Sales are VERY different to profit though.
    And downloading a CD worth of music is essentially free for the record company, whereas manufacturing and shipping a CD to a retail outlet has a significant cost associated with it!
  • haydesigner, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Oh, how I pine for the days of 8-track...
  • rockorager, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Well I recently bought Bjork's Post dual CD, which has the CD (1440kbps) and also the DTS 96/24 version of the CD remastered into 5.1. After listening to it on my system (and yes, my system supports DTS 96/24 so don't question that) I can hardly tell a difference between 96/24 (which is top of the line or at least very near top of the line audio encoding...at least from what I've read). And I had my hearing tested recently and it is well above average...

    The only way to truly be able to hear a difference in all of these media types is to have top of the line decoders, speakers, amplifiers, cables, everything. The weakest link in your system (perhaps a 15 dollar cable connecting your DVD player to your reciever) is the limiting component of your system. So for the average and above average person, there is no practical difference between 320 kbps and a CD...I'd go as far to say that anything above 192 kbps is indistinguishable on even a decent set up.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think the record companies are dead. Nobody would play their drugged-out, slack-ass artists with out payola.
  • rockyrobins, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Honestly, they should all get sued for selling us inferior mp3's and iTunes files. We should get the option of a compression-free download. THEN CDs could be considered dead...except for backup. Yes it would make that iPod not hold as much...But it's just another ploy to keep us buying newer bigger ones.
    The record companies need to cut CDs down to under $5 a cd or less, and share more of that money with the artist-I'd go buy more of them. How about for all of 2007 cut the prices of every CD to some ridiculously affordable price and see how many more actually sell. I bet it would be a bigger year than the previous one.
  • bevanl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The CD is dead?, when was the last time the boss of EMI walked into a music store?, its full of Music CD's (The last time I walked into HMV or Virgin Megastore the place was busy). People still buy music CD's even though they also download MP3's.
  • boxninja, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Foolfromhell: Either you meant a 48kHz sampling rate, not kbps or the rumors about Bose not being what they are cracked up to be appear to be true. : )

    Nevertheless, at 14 you should be able to detect frequencies >16kHz, which should not be present in a compressed bitstream of 49kbps, regardless of the codec.
  • garbaggio, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Not yet, but soon...
  • anthony1124, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4i don't buy CD's. i download music and buy vinyl records... the packagine is WAY cooler.
  • skellener, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Alain Levy needs to visit Amoeba Music any day of the week. The store is always packed. New and used CDs flying off the shelves! I submit, the CD is alive an well and DRM free!
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2*bury
  • carpespasm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3try listening to symbols (SP?) and other high tones in music, the low bitrate will crush it down and make it sound more and more like a bad cell phone call.
  • deathscytheh64, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think they wish the CD as we knew it was dead so we couldn't rip them into mp3's on our computers.
  • ISurfTooMuch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Perhaps they wouldn't play them without payola, but that gravy train hasn't ended yet. Take a look at the music collections of many teenagers, and you'll see plenty of no talent pop acts. These artists are selling just fine. They're throwaway artists in that their music has no lasting value. Look at the Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, and New Kids on the Block. All sold many CDs, but have you heard much of their music played lately? Probably not. They only last for a few years, then they vanish, not only from the record stores but also from our collective memory. This isn't a problem for the music industry, though, as long as they can continue to replace them with equally popular and expendable acts, and as long as there's a market of musically-uneducated youth to buy the junk they pump out.
  • honeycut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Or http://pandorafm.real-ity.com/ if you want to mash them.
  • m0ke, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3While I think the conveniance of online music is, well, conveniant, there's just something more that is added by actually holding the cd box.
  • brstilson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is all a plot to kill CD ripping once and for all. CDs are the last DRM-free music medium on the market. They will kill CD ripping by removing CDs. With CD ripping gone, there will be no more DRM-free files ripped from CDs on P2P or bittorrent.

    They're indirectly killing the Napster clones and bittorrent downloads by cutting off their food source.
  • iancgi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2No he means making money off major CD sales is dead.
  • Grayfox777, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The music CD isn't dead yet, but it is close.
  • Technopundit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Guys like that are always the last to know.
  • groberts1980, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1FTA: "CD sales accounted for more than 70% of total international music sales in the first half of 2006, while digital music sales were still at about 11%."

    Alain Levy is full of *****. The CD isn't dead, and will not be until another phyisical medium replaces it. Back when recordable casette tapes came out, they cried the music industry would die. They said the same thing when recordable CD's came out, and again with the rise of digital downloads. It never happened, never will. It took the casette tape to replace the vinyl (sad in some ways) and it took the CD to replace the casette. The CD is and will be alive and well until its physical replacement comes along. I don't buy music online. I stream new music off the internet, and if I like it, I go out and buy the CD. What a concept.
  • kazzyD, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Here's another take on the story:

    http://www.computers.net/2006/10/the_cd_cant_be_.html
  • vprasad1, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Uh... maybe you won't want them on Flashdrives after reading this...
    http://www.hak5.org/wiki/USB_Switchblade

    As to CD sales being dead, they're not dead... people still continue to buy them like crazy. The RIAA's ability to juice people for money on them (ie. overpriced albums; cramming crappy music down people's throats) is dead.
  • sjbdallas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Get a satellite radio or hit some local clubs. I've come across a ton of bands on XM that I wouldn't have ordinarily heard of. Plus you should support your local music scene. Sometimes, the only difference between a band you'll see at your local bar and the ones on MTV are luck.
  • yfph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1last.fm and pandora.com are your friends..
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