Why The CD Is Going Away ForeverA reader commented on an article last week in which he asked how I’m so sure that CDs won’t be the predominant medium for selling music 10 or 25 years from now…or that they won’t make a comeback the way vinyl supposedly has.
Vinyl hasn’t made a comeback. I know it hasn’t because record labels and musicians aren’t selling vinyl. There are people out there who collect vinyl because they’re nostalgic about it, but that’s not the same thing as a comeback.
People are even beginning to collect CDs now. That’s one signal that CDs may become like vinyl some day in the near future. But it’s just a signal. I couldn’t base serious statements about CDs going the way of vinyl or cassettes on a weak signal like that.
So how can I be so confident that CDs are on their way out for good? One of the first things you look at to tell if an industry is changing permanently is the infrastructure that supports it. Generally, the more physical the product, the more friction you’re going to run up again to make changes happen.
Cars are a good example of this. We still don’t all drive around in electric cars—even though it’s a great idea—because there’s a massive amount of friction that needs to be overcome to make that happen. All the gas stations would have to be replaced with battery cell recharging stations. The problem with that right now is that big investment money won’t flow towards battery cell infrastructure until there’s signals that the market wants to buy up electric cars. But car makers don’t really want to risk too much money until there’s enough infrastructure to refuel all the new electric cars. Flying cars would be even harder to do because then we’d have to develop not just a vastly different infrastructure, but also new laws and regulations–not to mention the cars themselves. These types of physical products require risking lots of capital.
But music is a lot easier to experiment with because it isn’t physical. It’s easier to change or invent new platforms that make it available to the public. I haven’t seen anybody with a CD Walkman in years. Everyone I know owns some kind of mp3 player(usually an iPod). CD Walkmans and cassette players aren’t coming back. Ever. Mp3 players are the accepted medium to host and play music today. That’s part of an irreversible infrastructure change.
FM radio has also lost most of its ability to break new acts. So has MTV. That’s not so much because people aren’t listening to radio anymore or watching MTV. I listen to FM radio when I’m in my car sometimes. It’s more because radio has lost its authority to Internet radio, music sites and blogs. So have music magazines. They’ve been drowned out by all the noise out there, much of which is better.
The second way I know that CDs are on their way out forever is because of young people. They’re the ones who’ve adopted(and sometimes created) the new infrastructure. CDs still sell because older people buy them. But in 10 years, the world of business and commerce is going to be led by people who’ve never bought CDs or listened to FM radio or read magazines.
The CD will never come back the same way cassettes and vinyl will never come back. Psychologically, people don’t want to live in a world they never knew. Why would I want CDs if all I grew up with is iPods? Why would I want to get on the radio if the world I know lives online or on smart phones?
The world never goes back to the way it used to be because it’s too hard. There’s too much at stake. That’s why CDs will never come back. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still try to sell them at shows. By all means do.
February 26th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Mike,
I totally agree that CDs will eventually go away, and they won’t come back once they do.
It will take quite a bit longer than we “Internet People” think, though.
We see the graph with CD sales moving on a downward angle. That angle may flatten a bit once everyone who is only going to buy MP3 files has purchased their MP3 player.
A lot of MP3 files, perhaps the majority for all I know, still come from ripped CDs, which are then used to listen in the car and in the house.
In the current infrastructure, musical sound is primarily generated on CD players. Only the relatively smaller population of people aged 15 to 30 use MP3 players as their primary device for listening to music. And even many of those still pay CDs in their car.
Until there is no CD player in the car or house, there will still be CD sales.
I bet CDs will be at LEAST 30% of sales even in 2020, 10 years from now.
Just watch.
February 26th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
And it even takes longer for these changes to reach their way deep into the underground music world. Even though the INTERNET is a growing beast that will never stop and is a useful tool – it still depends on what part of the world the youth / people reside in.
Even now we have a record label in Germany re-releasing our entire catalog of albums on Vinyl format with bonus tracks. Larger artwork, with extra never seen photos. Embroidered logo patches to go along with the Vinyl. Of course it is a limited edition.
But – I see some interesting things happening with kids on a street level. They embrace and appreciate many such things of the past as they grow older. And once something becomes rare it becomes more valuable again. For instance – like a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 in mint condition.
Nothing ever really goes away for good. It may never be “mainstream” again with mass production. BUT – the value can go up for the original releases of the past. I have to say – it is nice to have been around making music for 25 years before all this. It all comes down to – Just make your music as good as possible and get it out there by whatever means nessasary.
February 26th, 2010 at 7:39 pm
@Glen
I think CDs will drop to 30% market share well before 2020. I wonder if a majority of CD sales today are generated because of cars; in other words, people buy CDs to listen to in their cars. But that’s going to change too. I was just reading a piece on wired today about how Google is going to tackle music. If you think Apple changed the music biz…
The only reason I even buy blank CDs myself is to burn music to them to listen to in my car…haven’t bought an album in years. I like Sade, for example, but I won’t be buying her new album(just 500,000 sold). I can hear her stuff on YouTube or P2P.
February 26th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Mika, You may be right. I don’t know…I picked the 30%/2020 number because it was a bit longer for CDs than I would at first expect, and that seems to be what happens with technology adoption, in my experience.
February 27th, 2010 at 2:29 am
Mr. Schiller…………(here we go again it seems
I know you and myself have ‘respectfully disagreed’ wit heach other, and gone ‘back & forth’ on certain, numerous topics for quite awhile now. (however, it has been fun, hasn’t it?
But this has to be the first time I’ve EVER disagreed with you at SUCH a ‘high level’ such as this, and you’ve just about left me somewhat ’speechless’ at the same time! And as usual, I say every bit of this with ALL due respect to you, and love ya to death my friend – but you are SOoooo way off on this one!
First off, “Where in the ‘HELL’ did you get your ‘facts’ on this particular subject matter? (especially concerning ‘Vinyl’ of all things?)
(Seriously ‘where?’)
Regardless, – let’s just start from here, ok?
(and just to let others of you know ‘a bit’ more of my ‘personal’ background & credentials here, (certainly NOT to ‘brag’ or offer any silliness such as that by any means) – but ONLY to just let you know that I’ve been in the music business for nearly 22 years now, and continue to produce & record bands/artists on a daily basis for 3 current record labels, and have produced 2 recent albums that have reached the top 100 on BillBoard. I also handle the ‘mastering’ on many other bands records, including 7 semi-well known artist, and somewhat ’specialize’ in various ‘formats’ of how music is heard & distributed. So, I am ‘fairly’ conversant with and educated on where things currently stand in the music industry right now, – if that helps any?)
Now, more importantly and moving-on…………………..
Let’s first start off with some of your ‘comments’ above Mr. Schiller, and go from there, shall we?
You stated: “Vinyl has NOT made a comeback. I know it hasn’t because record labels and musicians are NOT selling any vinyl.”
- Mr. Schiller, this could not possibly be ANY further from the truth, and I’m simply in absolute, ’shock’ trying to figure out ‘why’ you would even say something this insane, and where you even conjured up such an absurd statement like this?
Let me help you out here for starters: (since you seem to like ’statisctics’ so much – here’s a recent statistical outcome (in Fall, 2009) of how many Vinyl LP’s were just sold in 2009 alone: over 2.8 million (and that’s mostly including ‘new releases’ – not re-produced vintage LP’s)
Amazon, Best Buy, and over 14 other major media/music retail stores worldwide, (since 2007) – have already dedicated special, ‘Vinyl’ sections to their stores & to their consumers. Since implementing these sections, Vinyl sales for each of these stores have averaged nearly a 36-38% increase in music sales alone.
Hell, here’s a recent quote from TIME magazine: “according to Nielsen SoundScan-990,000 vinyl albums were sold just in 2007 alone, up 15.4% from the 858,000 units bought in 2006. Mike Dreese, CEO of Newbury Comics, a New England chain of independent music retailers that sells LPs and CDs, says his vinyl sales were up 37% last year, and Patrick Amory, general manager of indie label Matador Records, whose artists include Cat Power and the New Pornographers, claims, “We can’t keep up with the demand.”
Big players are starting to take notice too. “It’s not a significant part of our business, but there is enough there for me to take someone and have half their time devoted to making vinyl a real business,” says John Esposito, president and CEO of WEA Corp., the U.S. distribution company of Warner Music Group, which posted a 30% increase in LP sales last year. In October, Amazon.com introduced a ‘vinyl-only store’ and increased its selection to 150,000 titles across 20 genres. Its biggest sellers? Alternative rock, followed by rap, and classic rock albums. “I’m not saying vinyl will become a mainstream format, just like gourmet eating is not going to take over from McDonald’s,” says Michael Fremer, senior contributing editor at Stereophile. “But there is a very large growing group of people who are going back to a high-resolution format, such as vinyl.” Here are some of the reasons they’re doing it and why people may want to consider it:”
“Sound quality: LPs generally exhibit a much warmer, more nuanced sound than digital downloads. MP3 files tend to produce ‘tinnier’, thin notes, especially if compressed into a lower-resolution format that pares down the sonic information.” “Most things sound better on vinyl – period.” Album extras Large album covers with imaginative graphics, pullout photos (some even have full-size posters tucked in the sleeve) and liner notes are a big draw for young fans. “Alternative rock used to have 16-page booklets and album sleeves, but with iTunes there isn’t ANYTHING collectible to show “I own a piece of this artist,” says Dreese of Newbury Comics and records. In a nod to modern technology, albums known as picture discs come with an image of the band or artist printed ON the vinyl itself. “People who are used to Vinyl and CDs see the CD artwork and the colored vinyl, and they think it’s really cool.” Vinyl records, especially the full-length LPs that helped define the golden era of rock in the 1960s and ’70s, are suddenly cool again. Many young listeners discovered LPs after they rifled through their parents’ collections looking for oldies and found that they liked the ‘warmer sound’ quality of records, the more ‘elaborate’ album covers and liner notes that come with them, and the experience of putting one on and sharing it with friends, as opposed to plugging in some earbuds and listening alone. In a nutshell, very bad sound on an iPod has had a HUGE impact on a HUGE number of people nowadays, including mostly the new, younger generation going back to vinyl or CD’s.”
If that’s not enough Mr. Schiller – try this one on for size, courtesy of the ‘New York Times’:
NY Times: This spring, an employee intending to order a special CD-DVD edition of REM’s latest release “Accelerate” inadvertently entered the “LP” code instead. Soon boxes of the big, vinyl discs showed up at several stores.
Some sent them back. But a handful put them on the shelves, and over 40 LPs sold on the FIRST DAY alone!
The company, based in Portland and owned by Kroger, realized the error might not be so bad after all. Fred Meyer is now testing vinyl sales at 60 of its stores in Oregon, California, Washington and Alaska, and with much, much success.
“Other mainstream retailers are giving vinyl a spin too. Best Buy is testing sales at some stores. And online music giant Amazon.com, which has sold vinyl for most of the 13 years it has been in business online, created a special ‘vinyl-only’ section last fall that has shown nothing BUT major success.”
The best-seller so far at Fred Meyer is The Beatles album “Abbey Road.” But musicians from the White Stripes and the Foo Fighters to Metallica and Pink Floyd are selling VERY well, the company says.
“It’s not just a nostalgia thing,” says Melinda Merrill, RIAA record spokeswoman for the recording industry manufacturing association: “The response from customers has just been that they simply like everything about vinyl, and they feel like it has a much better sound than Mp3’s, including the highly detailed artwork that comes along with each vinyl package or CD as well.”
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), manufacturers’ shipments of LPs jumped more than 38 percent from 2006 to 2007 to more than 1.3 million, and the numbers just continue to accelerate each year”, claims Melinda Merrill. But it’s not just about the sound. Audiophiles say they also want the format’s overall ‘experience’ – the sensory experience of putting the needle on the record, the feeling of side A and side B and the joy of lingering over the liner notes. “I think music products should be more than just music,” said Isaac Hudson, a 28-year-old music fan standing outside one of Portland’s larger independent music stores.
The interest seems to be catching on. Turntable sales as well are picking up and the few remaining record pressers say business is very much booming. Many major artists – Elvis Costello, the Raconteurs and others – are issuing Vinyl LPs and encouraging fans to check out their albums on vinyl. On Amazon.com, one of the best-selling LPs is Madonna’s latest album, “Hard Candy.” Some artists package vinyl and digital versions of their music together, including offers for free digital downloads along with the record.
“We’ve definitely had some talks with the major retailers about exclusives on the manufacturing end,” Millar said of United Record Pressing, which focuses primarily on independent recordings.
An avid music fan, Millar says he has moved to vinyl in recent years himself.
“Once I got my first iPod … I’m looking at my wall of CDs and Vinyl trying to justify it,” Millar said. “The things I like – the artwork, the liner notes, the sound quality – it dawns on me, those are things I like much better on vinyl and CD’s.” He even welcomed back the ‘pops and clicks’, even some of the ’scratches”.
“People have been buying vinyl all along,” said Cathy Hagen, manager at 2nd Avenue Records in Portland. “There was a fairly good supply from independent labels on vinyl all these years. As far as a resurgence, nearly all major labels are pressing way more vinyl now.”
And these are just a ‘few’ examples Mr. Schiller…………
There’s plenty more info out there if you’d just take the time to actually ’study’ more of it, and not be in such haste to quickly dismiss Vinyl and CD’s as being completely ‘dead’ and useless to everyone.
You even just stated that the ’second’ reason you know for a fact that these forms of media are ‘on their way out the door’ – is because of the newer, ‘younger people’ of today – when in fact (according to the facts just stated above by these two HIGHLY reputable sources) – it’s actually in fact, the ‘youth of today’ that are the ones who are endorsing Vinyl & CD’s – not just us ‘older, nostalgic folks’.
The bottom line is this Mr. Schiller: – Vinyl records & CD’s offer several things that the current, lesser-quality Mp3’s will NEVER be able to offer:
First, (and as I’ve mentioned in other posts) – they are a ‘physical product’. They actually give you something that you can hold & treasure in your hand, share with others, and ‘yes’ – sell them at your shows too. (how do you ‘hold’, ‘touch’, or even sell an Mp3 at a show by the way?)
Secondly, – they give you really cool ‘bonus’ features, such as ‘liner notes’, poster-sized photographs, pull-outs, sleeves, written lyrics – kinda like the ‘bonus prizes’ that you used to find in a box of cereal when you were all little kid. (do you get ANY of this with Mp3’s?)
Third, – they simply ’sound better’ (much better actually) – period.
and not to mention, what about things like ‘DJ’s’ for instance? Most well-respected Dj’s from my understanding, won’t use anything BUT Vinyl for their ’scratching’ abilities & quality ’samplings’. If all of the actual ‘Vinyl’ records out there were to be eradicated completely – where would DJ’ing be in years to come? How would one ’scratch’ and create their art with just Mp3’s alone? I mean, they would still need ‘up-to-date’ Vinyl LP’s to continue on wit hthier ideas & work, wouldn’t they?
(yes, I fully realize that they could figure out how to ‘manipulate’ Mp3’s or get them to ’scratch’ somehow with certain, special programs and ‘Pro-Tools’ – but c’mon – you know what i mean……………)
I’ll go ahead and leave it at that for now Mr. Schiller – but again, I’m just really blown away at your previous statements above suggesting that Vinyl & CD’s are history, and nothing more than just scrap metal…..
But I am curious – “why are you always in such a hurry to ‘throw away the past’, abandoned all hope, and simply suggest to everyone of us, time & time again, to ‘get on board the popularity train as fast as possible with all the ‘new’ on-going fads & trends of today’s music & technology – because if we don’t – we’re all hopeless & doomed and going to be left-behind, clutching our Vinyl records & CD’s in our cold, dead hands……..and are doomed to die, if we don’t hurry up, ‘hustle’, and change for the better?
Seriously, ‘Why’?
You also stated:
“CD Walkmans and cassette players are NOT coming back. EVER. Mp3 players are the accepted medium to host and play music today. That’s part of an irreversible infrastructure change.”
c’mon……again Mr. Schiller – where’s is your ‘100% PROOF’ on all of this? Do you have a magical crystal ball that we don’t know of? How in this WORLD do you know where technology or things will be in 2,5,10,20 years from now? I still see people using CD players (walkmans) all of the time (including ‘myself:) – probably becuase some of us STILL value a lot of our hard-earned CD collections that we’ve spent a nearly a lifetime collecting, and a lot of our time (many years) & hard-earned money on – and don’t wish to throw it all away, just because it’s ‘old and useless’, and apparently ‘far too difficult’ to push an extra ‘button’ in order to skip to a different track? (and again, if you don’t know anything about homemade Mp3’s compared to a professionally bought CD – CD’s just ’sound better’, and much more ‘full’ – compared to the more ‘thin-like’ tone of a metallic sounding Mp3 file, which is just a small, invisible ‘computer file’, which has been severely ‘compressed’ and suffers in overall quality.
– and Finally –
Mr. Schiller, understand that I am NOT here to say that all Mp3’s or Mp3 technology is a complete waste of time – because it’s obviously ‘not’.
But I’m also here trying to say that we ALL should welcome, embrace, and make full use out of ANY and ALL musical formats (especially while they’re still avaibale to us) – and that’s it – period.
And to each his own!
If ‘you’ for one, ‘prefer’ just using or utlizing the current, trendy ‘Mp3 format’ over anything else – then knock yourself out and go for it! – You have that full right to do so.
- But do NOT go around making all of these comments and ‘articles’ of yours, claiming ‘this’ and ‘that’ is DEAD, and to not even watse one’s time on even trying to use it. ‘You’ of all people (being a writer and columnist for music & music technology) – should know better than this!
We should utilize and take full advantage of using ‘each & all’ types of formats out there, as long as technology still allows & permits us to do so. I just don’t see where the problem is in doing that?
And I still fully agree with Glenn Galen above, when he stated (not only on this post – but in a previous post as well) when he stated: “In the real world, most people have CD players. They have them in their cars, where they listen a LOT. They have them in their homes. As Jose’ said, most of the world cannot afford MP3 players and computers…or $200 cell phones with a 2-year $80/month data plan. That is what I tried to explain in my first post. CDs still FAR outsell digital tracks. Look it up. I fell for this, too for a few years, and then when I really looked at the real world… things were not what I thought.”
– this is such a very well made point by Mr. Glenn.
I’m by no means an ‘expert’ on human demographics – but Glenn makes a great point here: just because a lot of the ‘younger’ crowd out there uses ipods, cheap earbuds & cell-phones to listen to their ‘Fall out Boy’ songs and ringtones, we shouldn’t base everything, nor the future of music-listening as a whole on that generation of folks alone should we? I mean Glenn’s right! – there’s still an entire WORLD of folks (both old, really old, & even some of the young still) – that prefer to listen to their records on a really good car-system, boom-box, or even thier trusty, old walkman!
But regardless of ANY format – I just think it’s ludacris and far to ‘early-on’ in the game right now to start ruling-out various types of technology, mostly based on ‘what the kids of today’ prefer.
(and besides, we ALL know how we acted when we were in that same, young demographic – we liked one thing today, and by the next week – it was yesterdays’ news!
Use ALL formats for now.
I just can’t see where anyone could possibly go wrong with that – do you?
(now HUSTLE 2.0!! – run out and by you some Vinyl Mr. Schiller!!
February 27th, 2010 at 2:42 am
the internet makes music so much more avil. when was the last time music was leaked thru CDs? I love gettin leaked and new music hrs after the studio session. cd’s cannot do this. The Clipse btw had an internet release party for their album. lol CD’s for 1 cost to much i dont think it was mentioned in the above article but i am NOT PAYING 15 bucks for a CD when i can DL the mp3’s for 2 dollars at a webstore. the artist only makes a few cents of the cds anyways the plastic makers make the most lol so come on get with the times be innovative and if you dont like it then, innovate for yourself come up with another platform buy/sell music and get the world all charged up like steve jobs did, 10 billions downloads and counting..i dont like him but u gotta respect the movement he has created..
PS Barry cassettes and cd’s will never make a come back. its not like a ford mustang lol
February 27th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
@ b Morris
You make some good points. But when I talk about CDs disappearing and the industry changing, I refer a lot to the near future. Things take a while to change. But that doesn’t mean they won’t change irreversibly. That’s the point I’m making. Economic and technological history has directionality. Things don’t disappear and come back and then disappear again. They’re slowly displaced by new things. The fact that 1.3 million LPs were sold in 2007, as you cite, isn’t evidence that LPs are coming back. Those were 2 week CD sales for for top notch artists like Eminem several years ago. Those aren’t the kinds of numbers that support an industry. I’m looking at the big picture.
February 28th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Mr. Schiller,
I’m going to keep this particular post a lot more ‘brief’ than my last one, so to leave room for others to chime in – but just for the record (no pun intended:) – the stats I provided above for 2007 Vinyl LP sales were meant to be more of a ’starting point’ – not just a single statistic by itself.
My point being, is that ‘just’ since 2007 alone (and really, even way before that) – Vinyl sales have been ‘increasingly’ going ‘up’, year by year – so I can’t see where or why you would say, “that’s not enough proof or evidence that Vinyl is making a comeback.”
And just in case you haven’t heard or took the time to look it up: here’s the most recent statistics from the Neilson reports, as of just 4 moths ago:
“Sales of vinyl albums have been climbing steadily for several years, tromping on the notion that the rebound was just a fad. However, as of late November 2009, more than 2.1 million vinyl records had been sold, just in 2009 alone, an increase of more than 48 percent in a year, according to Nielsen Soundscan. That total is the highest for vinyl records in ANY year since Nielsen began tracking them in 1991, and overall vinyl sales continue to climb with each new year, continually being higher than the previous year.”
I’m sorry Mr. Schiller – but simple math speaks for itself here, especially compared to the 2007 stats I provided above. That is a huge, HUGE increase of Vinyl sales, just since then.
The numbers simply continue to go ‘up’ each year. I’m just having such a hard time in understanding why you can’t accept this – even ‘after’ you see these figures & stats before your own eyes – you still refuse to accept that Vinyl is in fact, making a very nice ‘comeback’.
I think the ‘real’ question at hand here is: “if Vinyl sales continue to increase each & every year like this, – then where will Vinyl sales be in say, 5, 10, 20 years from now?”
I’m sorry, but do the math. The numbers don’t lie.
You say you’re ‘looking at the big picture’………….but aren’t these statistics & numbers for Vinyl sales in fact, ‘the big picture’?
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:28 pm
itunes sell it’s 10 billionth download over the past weekend. nuff said
March 5th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
I have a small label here in the UK. We can’t sell any CDs – all the shops have gone. We’ve tried giving them away outside gigs – a few go but most people say ‘we don’t use CDs any more’. The CD is dead already here in the UK. Our last release was download only, as will all future releases. We’ll press up some CDRs for radio and promo or for individuals who ask, but the UK public doesn’t want them.
March 5th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Vince, That’s pretty intriguing. How do most people listen to music in their cars? That’s still a medium for CDs in the U.S.
March 5th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
i love a balanced heated discussion, Mika I Agree with everything Morris said, mp3’s can never replace cd or vinyl for the simple facts of quality and everything else Morris said, in fact they will become more valuable over time. Music is an emotional experience and true music fans will always want to experience it at its highest level and am disappointed Mika that you would wait and listen to such a talent as Sade on p2p/youtube then you will never fully appreciate the artistry of such an artist, me as a producer will tell you now alot of work goes into making these recordings every little sound and effect which processing/compression to mp3 takes away, how you can be a Sade fan and do that is beyond my understanding. Some one will come along one day and invent maybe a superior way of experiencing music at its highest level in the comfort of your own home, car or jog until then the proof is in the quality. what would you prefer a cola or a coca cola.
i would love to pick your brain Morris if its ever possible i run a production/label just started last year and i love listening to old pros like yourself with alot of knowledge do let me know if its possible.
http://www.nubianknightz.com
March 5th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Actually, Jay, I do support Sade by going to her concerts. She puts on one hell of a show…saw her “Lover’s Rock” tour in 2001. I can’t wait until she tours again. But I just see no reason to buy her CD.
March 24th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
I listen to my ipod in my car. It hooks straight into the stereo. If it didn’t i could get a transmitter at 7-11 for $20 that would work. (also i am poor $600 car, $129 stereo, used ipod) My ipod sounds better than the radio, and the same as a CD because i do not use mp3 format. I use an uncompresssed format, and i get my music by ripping other people’s CDs. BTW, if i am going to spend nearly 20 bucks on an album i WILL walk away with something in my hand. I don’t expect my computer to last forever, or my smart phone or anything else. I want to have my copy that i purchased safely tucked away where i will probably never see it again.
Vinyl is not making a comeback. The rising figures are not a trend but a niche market, nothing more. As places like Amazon make it easier for that niche market to find vinyl, their sales increase. No brainer. But i doubt it is making a comeback.
Somebody wishes it would, and those are the people producing the physical forms of music in whatever way. So, much like politics, if we watch the money trail we will see why some are so opposed to the reality that most of us see and accept. We will also understand why the argument is an argument instead of a friendly discussion, people get nervous when their income is drying up.
I have CDs for sale on CD baby.com. This last check i received there was, for the first time, more money from digital sales than from CD sales. I’m ok with that, my overhead is zero on downloads. We still sell CDs at shows but people ask if we are on itunes too, we are.
I say don’t fight it. If your people want vinyl, have them pressed. If they want mp3s make them available. Do everything you can to be successful.
But don’t forget to look to the future with an open mind.
And don’t trust ANYBODY who is in the music industry.