The Death of the CD: Is it closer than we think?

When did you last buy an actual physical music CD? Something you could hold in your hands, nurture and cherish?

Now think about the last time you downloaded a track from the internet. I could probably bet money on the fact that 9 times out of 10, you’re more likely to download MP3’s from the internet, than buy a CD.

The fact is, this is how the current generation of teenagers acquire most of their music.

But why purchase MP3’s online? There are a whole variety of reasons we turn to the internet to satisfy our musical cravings. Mainly, because it is so easy! Us teens go round trying to make out our lives as being ridiculously busy where we have work coming out of our ears. The “ohmygod ohmygod I have an essay due in tomorrow, what am I gonna do now ohmygod ohmygod.” situation is one I’m sure many of you know too well. All this results in little spare time dedicated to travelling down to the local supermarket or record shop (bet there are some out there going: “What’s one of those?”) to check over the latest new releases in the UK Top 40 charts. But is it really that hard to get to HMV to acquire that physical album copy? Apparently it is when your just a “few clicks away” from a purchase online.

Then there is the “small” matter of money. Students are always on the hunt for that little bit of bang for their buck. Albums typically cost around £15 when you get them from places like the local supermarket. Head to iTunes, and its available either on a track by track basis, allowing us to pick and choose the tracks we want to download, as well as a cheap rate whole album download of around £10. That’s a WHOLE £5 we can use for good causes. Like partying. But there is a major problem with this "pick and choose approach". Where is our sense of discovery if we just download the tracks we know and love? If everyone just stuck with the music we love now, we’d be stuck in a monotonous loop and the word “progression” would fly out of the music industry window. Essentially, the whole of the UK would end up like Kiss or Capital FM. Playing the same 15 tracks over and over again on loop.

So MP3’s are easier to purchase that CD’s, usually cheaper… and they can’t get scratched, can be easily shared with friends, are simple to stick straight on an iPod or MP3 player and take up a lot less space in your room! With this evidence, it’s no wonder we’re all turning into the “MP3 generation”.

Back at the start of November, the Official UK Charts Company, who manages all the statistics of UK music sales, released data that showed digital albums now represented a 26.2% share of total album sales in 2011 so far, up from 17.5% during the whole of 2010. A prime example of the increasing turn to online sales was Coldplay’s latest album “Mylo Xyloto”. It sold more than 80,000 digital copies in its first week alone – accounting for 40% of the band’s first week album sales. Overall figures from 2010 state the market for CD albums declined 12.4% to 98.5m from 112.5m in 2009. All facts, that while not a major drop, suggest a slowdown in the desire for physical CD sales.

Needless to say record labels globally are getting very worried about the potential “impending death” of the CD. Illegal downloading is a major issue that the industry dedicates vast amounts of resources, time and effort into trying to eradicate. This practice reduces legitimate music sales and causes major headaches for music producers everywhere. The introduction of the Spotify software has started to reduce this problem, but the ever increasing file-sharing culture on the internet is spreading at a truly astronomic pace.

There are however a few aspects that are in favour of the CD living on. Audiophiles with extensive home hi-fi systems will always go with the higher quality that you get from a CD, compared to the compressed files that are available from the internet. Club DJ’s also use CD’s a lot of the time, but even here the move to MP3’s and laptop usage is increasing steadily. The transfer from vinyl to CD happened in the club scene around the turn of the millennium, so are we going to see something similar with CD’s being dropped for MP3’s? The future life of the CD is limited as we increasingly turn to the internet to quench our musical desires.

The demand will still be there for the purists amongst us, put whether the demand from the general public is still there in 5 or so years, is another matter.

Except for NOW CD’s. They’ll keep on going until the end of time

Author: Leigh Last