Great post, S.

Metal is the only genre in which the fans actually buy the CDs... so for us, i don't think we'll be seeing any 'download only' albums from our bands anytime soon. I think this only affects the mainstream stuff. Since when was metal mainstream anyway?

Also, for some reason, Country fans still seem to buy CDs in decent numbers...I don't know why.

I bet your right FF. I've noticed too that country cd's seem to be cheaper or on sale more.

nevermind

The selection at the local Asda is appalling, save for a few cheap compilations, they have no metal, rock or any respectable music at all. If it's not in the charts, they don't sell it. The only other alternative is HMV and well, they're a rip-off (charging £20 for a back-catalogue album is ridiculous).

Just my $0.02 on this subject:

1) The main reason why the sales go down is right in the core: The quality of music is on a lower basis than it used to be. The old bands simply can't do anything nowhere near as good as their old classics, and for the newer bands, there's a) just too many of them and b) even the ones that sound good are mostly so unoriginal that it hurts. I'm talking just about metal here, but I'm quite sure that it's similar in other genres too.

2) Sure the CDs are selling for kicks in USA (obviously you even don't know how cheap it is there ), but new CDs around here are priced from 15-20€! And most of the people who work earn 700€ max. monthly ... It's hard to imagine many people spending 15-20€ on some crappy new Judas Priest album then ...

I don't think that CDs in general are dying - check the ebay and you'll see tons of people who are interested in all kinds of CDs. I couldn't care less about the mainstream stuff or people, who are willing to pay to get something which includes both cons of different sides: you have to pay for it and you don't even get a physical copy ...

I still buy CDs of the band if I want to hear the band, I support them. E-Piracy isn't just happening to bands it's happening to writers. I know because a version of my memoir got pirated by some jackhole who rushed me into getting the book done without the cover art or the cool controversial artwork. I don't have sound on my Computer so I can't do the whole Mp3 thing. I would rather by the CD so I can help the band make their royalties and feed their familes -- I just wish they do the same with print on demand authors. Everyone want's e-books, and we can't sign e-books.

I personally think the Vinyl comparison is a valid one, back when CD's started to become big most people assumed that it was the end of LP's and yet, as has been pointed out already, they hung on and have gradually been making a comeback. Now that may not happen with CD's but it is a possibility.

Also the quality of digital music will improve, the MP3, and most formats currently available for download, discard some of the data in the song to produce the small file size that makes downloads convenient. As connections improve and high speed connections become more prevalent I expect to see a move towards lossless codecs like FLAC which doesn't discard any of the data, so you should get a better sound for an admittedly larger file size.

The Reason why the CD is dying is because the King Hasnt endorsed it. Exact needs to have a conversation with the King and get music hoppin again

heheh

cd is dying because it has become a half way house. a jack of all trades and a master of nothing.

mp3 - more portable than cd but worse sound quality

cd - average sound and average portability

vinyl - best sound (imo, of course condition of record is an issue) but least portable

i listen to pretty much only vinyl at home and mp3 when im out. i honestly have no need for cds.

with the resurgence of vinyl and the explosion of mp3, the cd feels like a jaded and tired format. who wants to pay a shed load of cash for a cd which often has very poor quality packaging and rubbish cheap cases. i have purposedly avoided buying pink floyd cds because of the poor presentation and i think they deserve better (not to mention the price, im skint as.)

Vinyls don't have better sound quality and CDs don't have terrible packaging. Nothing can be worse than a crappy MP3. As i've already said it's not the CD that's dying, it's stores. The internet is a much better option for collectors with cheaper prices, rare and out of print items and convinience. People aren't as foolish with money during recessions.

Okay, speaking from a strictly "audio" standpoint here....

Vinyl is analog, it has no "word-length" limitations, thus it can hold all the frequency spectrum thrown at it. The same goes for any type of analog recording medium. Vinyl does require a special EQ curve based on the medium itself, but no original information is lost.

CD is digital, 16 bit word length. It can "barely" handle the information between 20hz and 20khz. Digital audio is not "seamless", it has gaps in it, but your ears fill in the holes. With today's mastering techniques, CDs can sound pretty incredible. However, in the end, the limitation of the bit rate and the low sample rate mean the CDs do not completely capture the information from the original source tape (if analog recording was used).

DVD-A/SACD & DVD Audio are all superior to CD, the word length (24 bit) allows it to contain infinitely more of the frequency spectrum than CDs can.

.mp3s are a "lossly audio format, which means that as part of their compression scheme they have to remove some of the frequency information to make the file smaller...mp3 encoders have made incredible advancements over the past several years...a high quality mp3 file is DAMN hard to distinguish from the original source on an average stereo.

.flac files are a "lossless" audio format. They are compressed, but they do not remove frequency information. Thus a .flac file, though smaller than a .wav, still contains all the information from the original CD.

In my personal opinion, sound quality goes in this order...

1. Analog Reel-to-Reel tape playing at 30ips.
2. DVD-A's, SACDs, etc.
3. Vinyl
4. CD/.flac - tie
5. .mp3

Cool discussion going, my main problems with the analog formats is how the medium themselves can wear down and it affect the quality.

One other thing to remember about comparing digital formats is if it *matters* or not, from recording to recording, what of the frequency is there........in other words, an old King Crimson record will do far better with the 24 bit treatment than say the latest Pagan's Mind album....because of the vastly different ways in which the master came about to be in the first place.

I wish everything was SACD, personally, but that will never happen, everyone will not go out and get these players and also be able to have that audio transferred to every peripheral they own in convenience, unfortunately..