Is This The Death Of The Music CD ?

signs · 27-05-2008, 6:14 PM

It seems Woolies is to stop selling CD singles from August

http://www.t3.com/news/woolworths-to...singles?=35846

Beetlejuice · 27-05-2008, 6:19 PM

To be honest, I can't say I am suprised. I can't remember the last time I bought a CD single...

signs · 27-05-2008, 6:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by o Beetlejuice o

To be honest, I can't say I am suprised. I can't remember the last time I bought a CD single...

Me to , but is it the thin edge of the wedge ? Albums next ?

Pecker · 27-05-2008, 6:23 PM

CD singles cost the same to produce as an album. So an unsubsidised CD single will cost you £3 or £4 compared to maybe £10 for an 11 or 12 track album. The target audience for the single is much less well-off then the target audience for an album. On top of that we've had 25 years of singlesales being eroded by the 'Now' compilations.

In October last year Radiohead launched their In Rainbows album, effectively for free to download. In January this year they released the CD, which retailed for around £10.

It went straight to the top of the album charts.

CD singles have been dying for years. Album sales are still relatively healthy.

Steve W

y2k · 27-05-2008, 6:24 PM

I seen that earlier somewhere and thought to myself, this is the same company that said publicly that they will not be selling anymore HD-DVD's and guess what loads of HD-DVD's back in stock. Im sure most of the other retailers will continue to sell cd singles and get the sales that woolworths will loose out on.

wormvortex · 27-05-2008, 7:07 PM

loads of shops stopped selling singles years ago. You can hardly blame them, I haven't bought a single in 5+ years. If I wanted a song that badly theres iTunes where its <99p compared to a couple of quid and having to physically go out and buy one.

overkill · 27-05-2008, 8:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pecker

CD singles cost the same to produce as an album. So an unsubsidised CD single will cost you £3 or £4 compared to maybe £10 for an 11 or 12 track album. The target audience for the single is much less well-off then the target audience for an album. On top of that we've had 25 years of singlesales being eroded by the 'Now' compilations.

In October last year Radiohead launched their In Rainbows album, effectively for free to download. In January this year they released the CD, which retailed for around £10.

It went straight to the top of the album charts.

CD singles have been dying for years. Album sales are still relatively healthy.

Steve W

Not really. Total sales of some 'chart toppers' are scarily low in terms of physical media. Don't forget that a lot of the charts are counting downloads as 'albums' now, not just CD's.

As for pricing and cost of CD's don't get me started on that.............

Sonic67 · 27-05-2008, 9:04 PM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6284914.stm

But downloads still only account for 10-20% of the overall music market, and that figure includes formats such as ringtones

It tends to be quoted as all doom and gloom but I've noticed when Apple counts download sales they compare one track downloaded versus one CD sold. Not a fair comparison.

overkill · 27-05-2008, 9:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonic67

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6284914.stm

But downloads still only account for 10-20% of the overall music market, and that figure includes formats such as ringtones

It tends to be quoted as all doom and gloom but I've noticed when Apple counts download sales they compare one track downloaded versus one CD sold. Not a fair comparison.

True.

However, BMG were bemoaning a decade long drop in sales last year, and that in 2006 only one format (bizarrely) showed signs of increasing its market share.

If BMG don't know what their sales are like, well.............................

Sonic67 · 27-05-2008, 11:18 PM

Maybe it's down to the crap music we get these days. I had a look at BMG's music site. It was playing The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name. After that there seemed to be some rap.

marty2005 · 28-05-2008, 12:39 AM

Your right there, there isn't any good music around.

Most stuff is electronically produced, written by someone else or copied.

They don't write their own songs or play any instruments.

You have a handful of composers (!) and about 20 singers. They write a song and think who they'll let sing it.

I watched the Pink Floyd night on BBC4 the other night. Real musicians, they were discussing Dark Side of the Moon and how the music was written, then singing and play.

When I was down the shops the other day, a car went past and I could hear a rap version of Logical Song by Supertramp.

It sounded stupid, it was speeded up and it sounded like Pinky and Perky singing with high pitched voices.

marty2005 · 28-05-2008, 12:46 AM

Never heard Ting Ting before so went over to Youtube, what a load of testicles !

This is a comment left by someone:

this is so my fav song atm
brill

The sort of songs you forget about 5 minutes later.

davepuma · 28-05-2008, 12:59 AM

Probably the only CD singles I've bought since leaving school were Oasis and that's because the 'B' sides were stuff that wasn't on albums. TBH, the singles charts are for kids and if kids don't buy them, the shops will stop stocking them. Why buy a CD single unless it's a first single off a yet-to-be-released album? Maybe, I'm more patient in my old age and can wait for the album! I have never paid for any downloaded music and don't intend to. I will continue to buy CD's and rip to as many devices as I want and at a bitrate of my choosing, not apple's, microsoft's, sony's or napster's and so on, so for me CD is still the way to go.

Sonic67 · 28-05-2008, 2:01 AM

Various surveys have been done but this seems to come out a lot:

http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/pressrelease.cfm?id=3124

Existing CD collections continue to be the primary source of MP3 Player content among music downloaders. Nearly half (44%) of the content stored on MP3 players is ripped from the owner’s personal CD collection, and another 6% is ripped from others’ CD collections. Fee-based downloads (25%) and files obtained from file sharing services (19%) are also common sources of content.

The majority of music on MP3 players is the owners own CD collection. So MP3 players gaining in popularity doesn't mean everyone's buying off itunes. They are usually ripping their own CDs.

There's other things to consider. If I buy £500's worth of CDs at some point I can resell those CDs for at least half price. If I buy £500 worth of downloads who'd be interested? CDs have value. Downloads don't. I expect downloads to be popular, so will piracy for that matter, CDs are having to find a new level. A few years ago we didn't have broadband so downloads and piracy has shot up.

CDs won't ever be as popular as they were but they won't die off either. Wasn't vinyl supposed to have been killed off by CDs? Still seems to be around.

Reign-Mack · 28-05-2008, 5:34 AM

Did not even know that they sold singles there, always thought singles were a niche market i have loads of hard to find import singles mainly because they have instrumentals, remixes and stuff not on the albums they tend to cost the same price as the albums sometimes or more.

Pecker · 28-05-2008, 9:04 AM

My Year 11 class were a very decent bunch this year - not particularly chavvy, and with pretty decent tastes in music.

A couple of months back I asked them a few questions on this, and hardly anyone bought 'real' CDs, or even frequent record shops, and very few payed for their music.

But in recent years I've often bumped into former pupils in HMV. I think that the singles buying market is going mp3 far more quickly than the album market.

Steve W

WelshBluebird · 28-05-2008, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marty2005

Your right there, there isn't any good music around.

Most stuff is electronically produced, written by someone else or copied.

They don't write their own songs or play any instruments.

You have a handful of composers (!) and about 20 singers. They write a song and think who they'll let sing it.

I watched the Pink Floyd night on BBC4 the other night. Real musicians, they were discussing Dark Side of the Moon and how the music was written, then singing and play.

When I was down the shops the other day, a car went past and I could hear a rap version of Logical Song by Supertramp.

It sounded stupid, it was speeded up and it sounded like Pinky and Perky singing with high pitched voices.

Look outside the charts then.
While the charts may be full of computer produced rubbish, there are still a lot of good bands who write and play their own music around.