Will the CD format follow the vinyl LP

[3db]

and move towards a niche market?

I know this is a premature statement based on the link below but I can't help but think that many other bands will follow suit..

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/03/decemberists.html

 

[mtrycrafts]

and move towards a niche market?

I know this is a premature statement based on the link below but I can't help but think that many other bands will follow suit..

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/03/decemberists.html

Bound to happen The question is when. As the young generation grows up that is what they will know how to use and want. As the old folks die off, not much need for the CD or such mediums.

 

[Rickster71]

Bound to happen The question is when. As the young generation grows up that is what they will know how to use and want. As the old folks die off, not much need for the CD or such mediums.

Ten to twenty years from now, young hip 'vintage' CD users will claim they sound better than MP3's

 

[rnatalli]

I have no problem with getting rid of CD's so long as music for download is available in lossless format and electronics have decoders.

 

[Geno]

I have no problem with getting rid of CD's so long as music for download is available in lossless format and electronics have decoders.

Same here. I'm waiting for music servers to get more friendly, cheap, and available, then I'll jettison my CDs altogether. I have a pretty large collection of multi-channel DVD-As and SACDs, and it doesn't look like anyone has a server solution for those, so I'll be holding onto my universal players for the forseeable future.

 

[Pyrrho]

I will give up on CDs when they pry them from my cold, dead hands. I like having something physical. And I like something that is not a format that throws away data to save space.

Of course, CDs will eventually end, just like everything else. It is trite to say it, but nothing lasts forever.

 

[lsiberian]

I will give up on CDs when they pry them from my cold, dead hands. I like having something physical. And I like something that is not a format that throws away data to save space.

Of course, CDs will eventually end, just like everything else. It is trite to say it, but nothing lasts forever.

agreed. Of course CDs are still really around if you think about it. What is a blu-ray? It's a type of CD. A very advanced CD, but a CD nonetheless. So it's easy to read a cd with a blu-ray player because it uses the same basic pit track technology.

 

[Kai]

Of course cd's will go the way of dinosaurs at some point.
I am from the time of the "8 track" and have seen them come...ooh and ahh over them...and watch them go as the new format takes over.
I remember people saying they would never give up their 8 tracks. I laughed at them remembering how much fun it was to wiggle the tape in the player so it would play properly...a book of matches came in handy too lol.
I remember how cool a cassette tape was and had a nifty splicer so I could make compilation tapes and cut out the extra tape.

I would presume that the next format will be pure internet download, etc. It seems to be the direction that many use now and may prove to be best. I'm not sure how it will work out for home audio though. Hopefully the quality of the song, etc. will be as high as possible. For the car I have everything on my ipod nano 16g. It holds all my music in varied playlists to suit my taste. I also love podcasts and it holds all my podcasts as well. I and many others literally can carry most, if not all, of their music catalog in their pocket with instant access at all times. I no longer steer the car with my knees while sifting through my cd case looking for something that interests me while my wife clutches the seat and complains that I am going to kill us all LOL. Now it is just a click.

Generally there is no downside to new formats if done correctly.

 

[Biggiesized]

I hope they go the way of vinyl.

Maybe we'll get some better mastered CDs this way.

 

[sholling]

I think it's actually an opportunity - if someone runs with it. CDs were never intended to be a hifi medium. The technology of the time was to too primitive to stuff enough data on a CD to give true hifi quality so the designers settled for midfi. People accepted the downgrade and bought billions of them because they offered pretty close to vinyl quality in a convenient package - without the snap crackle pop.

Technology has moved on and with dropping costs and the ease of building a media server I've invested the time to move my audio collection from a CD to hard drives using a flac format. The convenience of being able to to queue up weeks of music at the push of a few buttons is hard to beat and I will never go back to playing CDs. But the really cool part for us is that because it's all just software lossless formats have the potential to offer true hifi quality well above and beyond CD and vinyl. That is if artists will invest the time and money into the recordings and the mix. And unlike a fixed hardware CD standard, the investment required to offer ultra high fidelity versions of their works online is tiny. In fact the limiting factor becomes the quality of the recording equipment.

 

[skizzerflake]

Another question is whether SACD will last out the month. With its 5 channel hi-res sound, SACD is a superior successor to CDs but only exists in niche audiophile markets. There's no question that it's a better medium, but in a consumer culture that values convenience over quality for pretty much everything, it's days are numbered.