I do not agree with the author, because it maybe that in the US the Cd is declining, but not in the rest of the world.

There is nothing wrong with teenagers carrying around CDs and you must be economically challenged if you don’t. These days kids still carry around CDs and Walkmans. iPods are very expensive and CDs are cheaper to buy. There is also nothing wrong with Disney’s singers. They are just young talent waiting to hatch into the big business. They sing perfectly fine and better then most of you probably can sing. There is no need to critisize them and you might as well critisize yourself.

There is no reason to be hasty about all of this. I tis a matter of if the CDVU+ will work on all computers or not. That is the real issue, as for all of the unneeded rude comments on Disney’s singers, stop. We should be speaking of the computer/cd issue instead of critisizing Disney.

OK, this is Disney, whose artists are, shall we say…vocally challenged? In other words, the music Disney puts on these CDs is not as important as the pics of the ‘artists’ are to the 9-year-old consumer. So sure, this will work for the garbage being packaged under the “Hannah Montana” name, but it’s for actual musicians and artists, still going to be the usual: more downloads, fewer cds, and lots of ‘burn me a copy’.

Interesting. I’ve been on the receiving end of all the good and bad that the music industry has to offer over the last eight years. While I admire a big company finally getting on board with something many indie’s have been doing for a long time, I think it’s time that a lot people need to face the music that when we want something, we generally want it now. In five years, I don’t believe anything in this domain will exist to buy in a store apart from data. The stores will become huge PR machines with each client pushing for space - much as magazines do now.
We probably only have ourselves to blame - even bringing the prices crashing through the floor will not help. For every one person I know who buys something, 3 more are downloading it for free. That number is only going to increase unless the industry admits it has a problem, works together and solves it. New bands will use this to their advantage eventually by using free music as a means to get people to the shows and sell merch. It’s already happening. Nobody should be surprised.
I think it’s called evolution, but there’s just too much money involved for anybody to want to let it happen.

This ‘news’ is just an e-cd which we’ve been making for years.

At our company http://www.CDman.com (yes we make CDs) we are selling ‘merch kits’ for indie bands. We are now printing posters, t-shirts, download cards, mugs, stickers and other branding services to go along with their discs. The indie scene is awash in very good bands looking to take advantage of the digital revolution so you just have to roll with the punches and adapt to the changing demands. We’re always available to talk opportunities which we see many out there.

my last comment: you don’t have to look any further for the slow death of the CD than most (if not all) Tower Records stores closing, all Music Warehouses closing (western usa), and many small indie CD shops and used used CD stores closing. they can’t compete with mp3 downloads, and your guaranteed to see more CD stores close over the years. plus, a lot of people buy CD’s in multi-purpose stores like Wal-Mart, Starbucks, etc where they can get other services than just buying CD’s. not as many people are passionate enough to make a special trip to a CD only store. they want to be able to buy toothpaste, a latte, or book at the same time.
people should stop using this to post your stupid personal sites or blogs, this is not a marketing post for you to sell junk, puff your ego, or advance your agenda no one cares about.

Funny, so many references to ‘mediocre’ music. If prices for music keep going south, as hoped for by many of these comments, about all you’re gonna be able to get is mediocre music.

This may be my unofficial ‘armchair poll’ but based on the number of people I see walking around with iPods and other music players, it looks like more people than ever are listening to music all day, every day. And I’ll bet most of those people arn’t wasting their time listening to ‘mediocre’ music. Given the number of rude people walking around blathering into their cell phones in public, who wouldn’t rather listen to music?

Like johnmora, I sure hope the CD isn’t dead too. Why? Because I like having choice. CD fidelity is still better and a 5 x 5 inch image just doesn’t rock me the way real, printed CD liner notes do. Digital downloads are great but I’d rather have a choice so that I can choose between easy, instant gratification or a more in-depth experience.

As far as what a CD is worth? I’ll bet NURREDIN doesn’t mind overpaying for a grande decaf mocha latte but he doesn’t want to pay more than six bucks for 60 minutes of music that can be played over and over again? Wouldn’t we all love to know what you’re paying the musicians who agree to be produced on your label? Just because you have a bone to pick with ‘the majors’ doesn’t mean you need to devalue the content created by legitimate musicians who arn’t out to make a fast buck but rather create something of value that resonates with their audience.

Please don’t lump all music producers and labels in the same camp. Yes, I have lots of CDS with filler junk but there are lots of indie labels cranking out consistently good stuff.

Just the other day, I saw a banner ad on a website for a shampoo company encouraging people to “burn a CD and give it to a stranger”. Guess what, when you ‘give away’ intellectual content, you are stealing. And the more you steal, the less incentive music producers will have to take the time to offer and market good music.

Jan Liverance
Creative Director
At Peace Music
http://www.atpeacemedia.com
AtPeaceMedia

Anther attempt to save the CD. Music distribution companies should just accept the fact that the internet is revolutionizing the way we obtain data. And entertainment is acquired through certain data. By resorting to selling whole albums (not single songs) on their own business websites they can avoid the costs (and eventually, losses) of producing and stocking the CDs.
Of course, this would also result in the failure of music stores, and the lack of official physical propriety of these albums.

I guess we could eventually enter a steady age of entertainment distribution (a single method), but even that is not promising due to technology’s tendency to evolve.

Still, I’m impressed by Disney’s attempt with CD-VU. It shows how much they are willing to lose to try and bring back CDs. Or maybe they don’t realize that they will probably lose money trying to market these new CDs?

I really hope that the CD isn’t dead. As has been mentioned previously, it’s still the highest fidelity you can get without resorting to the all-but-defunct formats of DVD-A and SACD. Many MP3s from digital downloads are so-so. Nevermind that I usually want to listen to albums all the way through, in the order they were intended. And what about packaging? I love having a hard copy of my music, along with attractive packaging to go with it. It’s the collector in me. Digital music simply doesn’t have this.

As President of an Internet only record label “VEGAS FLAVA RECORDS” I can tell you that cd’s now are of low artistic quality and extremely overpriced. The major labels are stuck on an old paradigm that doesn’t work anymore. A cd isn’t worth more than $5.99- $7.99 , and the practice of creating “albums” with “one hit and a bunch of s***” has been around since the fifties. The majors are trying to stop digital distribution because 1. they controlled the old way of doing it,2. they deliberately limited the amount of product available. That’s the real reason they are attacking web radio now. It makes everyone who has a cd on an equal level with the majors. I’d buy a cd if it had 10 quality songs on it, but the majors don’t care about music fans,only their dollars.This enhanced cd isn’t going to mean diddly if they don’t enhance the artistic quality of the product!

Holy deja vu Batman, we’ve been here before! Betamax anyone, I rest my case.

Michael Morgan

http://www.michaelmorgan.co.uk

This will be as successful as the CD+G… just another forgotten format.

The problem with most downloads is mediocre sound quality. While this is not a problem for most listeners, used to mid- and low-fidelity music reproduction, and using their music as sonic wallpaper, for people who prefer to listen to and hear their music, the cd remains the easiest way of getting that quality, whether listened to on a cd player or ripped using a hi-fidelity codec, to a computer.

On a slightly different note, the concept of an album depends on the content. If musicians and producers create collections of singles and call it an album, there’s no reason to not cherry pick the songs you like. If the album coheres in a way that makes sense, then that will be the preferred way to buy it.

I think it’s not such a bad idea actually… If you got the job, to come out with something, that can replace cds in the shops, what would you make for your bosses so that they won’t fire you? Still better than nothing!

I don’t think this new format will catch on. CDs are expensive. I can go buy the few tracks that I like on iTunes, and if I want more content or information, a quick Google search will get me more than enough information and content.. Or Myspace.. Or Wikipeida.. or YouTube… You get my drift.

I have worked in entertainment for the last five years from a marketing stand point. The real issue is not the method of delivery of music, rather simple supply and demand.

People thirst for music but the music industry is notorius for selling a few hits with alot of filler in between. People are plain unwilling to purchase a product of this nature. You do not pay a painter to paint half the wall or a bugg killer to kill some of the bugs. The demand for albums $18.99 is nearly no longer exists. While the concept may slow this process, they are still delivering filler.

Until the industry address’s the gouging issue of album sales and holds artists to a higher quality, CD sales are over.

This is but a small portion of the grand issue. It is easy to solve. Put me on CNN for 5 minutes and I will expose it all!

Jerry R. Reynolds
The Alimoe Group
Alimoe Developing
Blog: http://alimoethegeneral.wordpress.com
Website: http://www.alimoedeveloping.com

The real problem is that the music industry for so long has gotten away with bundling mostly mediocre content with a few desirable tracks and calling it an album. Now that the Internet has enabled “unbundling”, the industry is having trouble coming up with a way to keep forcing pedestrian music on us.

Travis is right on. Disney is grasping at straws; no way this CD format catches on. Music consumers are never going back to “albums.”

I’m 38, well past the Disney demographic, but “Digital magazines, videos, photos, song lyrics”? With the exception of posters, aren’t all those available via YouTube, the artist MySpace page, and you stated iTunes offers digital books. Why would a 10-16 year old (or anyone) want to pay $15-20 for those when you can download from iTunes (or other) for $8-10 and get the other items for free and without being forced to plug in a CD? These kids want easily transferable and portable music to plug into their mp3 player, listen at school, in the mall, on the bus, etc. Most people in general can’t tell the difference between a song at 160 kbps or 256-320 kbps, so no need to buy a CD for higher quality. And once iTunes makes all their music DRM free and 256 kbps the CD is even more useless. Even music deejay’s don’t buy CD’s anymore, they have quality music mix/scratch programs that allow you to mix & scratch mp3’s directly from an iPod or laptop. I give the CD 10-15 years and it’s down to a small niche market like vinyl records are now.

If you are a teenager and carrying discs these days, you’re a considered a loser or economically challenged….

I don’t have enough time for CDs. iTunes works just fine, except for the DRM but you can just burn the music to a CD then rip into MP3 if you don’t have an iPod.

It’s funny that in the 3rd to the last paragraph you finally use the term “enhanced CDs”.

Yes, we’ve been there before.

CD sales peaked a long time ago. They aren’t going away, but they will be reduced to a much lower (yet sustainable) volume.

They’re the only format of choice for people who don’t download due to quality issues or tech knowledge/accessibility.

“Enhancing” a CD, as “exclusive” as they market it isn’t improving the quality of the music or making things easier/better for the tech challenged. Most enhanced CDs are pretty lame with poor/slow interfaces as well as poor quality videos.

Try searching for Jonas Brothers with Google, YouTube, Flickr, Myspace and Wikipedia. You’ll find lots of existing content on each. It’s total overkill.

Reasonable prices are what the labels should be focusing on to help CD sales. Then again, what they really should be doing is focusing on justifying their existence.