The death of the CD is here

The traditional method of releasing music is broken, and the CD is almost dead. Portable MP3 players like the iPod, Zune, cell phones and playing music on your computer are the preferred methods of music listening today. Music retailers like Tower Records are going out of business and iTunes is now the #2 music retailer behind Wal-Mart which shows that the days of CDs and traditional music stores are numbered.

I am a disappointed that the proposed successor to the CD with higher quality multi-channel audio with formats such as HDCD and DVD Audio never took off. Instead the public chose space and portability over quality. To simplify the technical, CDs are recorded at 16-bits, 44.1 KHz. The more bits and the higher the KHz, the better the quality. MP3s which are created when you "rip" a CD and AAC files like those from iTunes are less quality than a CD. High quality formats such as DTS used in high-end home theater use 24-bit, 96KHz, much higher than a CD. While I can tell the difference and would prefer higher quality audio, a properly created MP3 sounds just like the original CD and most people find today's digital formats adequate, especially considering most people listen on sub-standard speakers or headphones.

With that $16 CD of yours, the artist only gets about $1.60 of it. The recording industry has been fighting to keep themselves alive and relevant. With the internet, the ability to make a professional album at home, and online self-promotion, the record labels know they are out of a job, and are fighting the inevitable future. In fact, the latest Prodigy album was composed on his laptop using the off-the-shelf software package "Reason". Major artists are dumping their music labels and going independent such as Madonna, Nine Inch Nails, Prince and Radiohead. Nine Inch Nails is releasing their new album in digital format online for as low as $5.

While I like NIN music, I have not always liked their lyrics, but either way I applaud Trent Reznor's forward thinking and method of distribution. CD sales are declining, digital sales are increasing, and music free of digital rights management (DRM) is becoming more of the norm thanks to Amazon's excellent MP3 music store. The CD had a great run, but the consumers have spoken: we want instant access to our music, we want it al-la-cart, we want a fair price for it, we want it anywhere on any device, and we want it ours without restrictions. Too bad we took a step backwards in quality.