Bye-bye, physical media? Sony closes CD plant

[Caviar]

Sony Corp., the company that brought us the Walkman and parent company of music label Sony Music Entertainment, plans to shut down a CD-manufacturing plant in southern New Jersey in March.

About 300 employees will be laid off once the 50-year-old Sony DADC plant in Pitman, N.J., is closed. Sony said it plans to shift CD-making operations to a facility in Indiana. The company moved DVD manufacturing from the plant about a year ago.

Lisa Gephardt, a Sony spokeswoman said in a statement: "In light of the current economic environment and challenges facing the physical media industry, Sony DADC is taking additional steps to reduce cost from our supply chain network in order to remain competitive."

Who couldn't see these kinds of closures coming? The music CD has become nearly a relic. The emergence of digital music and music players, as well as the rise of illegal file sharing, helped to hasten the demise of the CD as the main music distribution format.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, U.S. music sales fell 2.4 percent last year and digital track sales grew only 1 percent to 1.17 billion. But CD sales fared far worse. When it came to albums, sales of both newer CDs and catalog titles dropped by 16 percent and 23 percent respectively--these two categories also saw double-digit losses the previous year, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The CD was a boon for the record industry. Not only did record labels cash in when music buyers replaced their cassette tapes and vinyl records with discs, but the CD also helped prevent unauthorized copying--at least initially. CDs also discouraged people from buying singles, prompting them to purchase full albums instead.

The plant closure is just another sign that physical media's days are numbered. In addition to music, the film and book industries are amid their own digital transformations. Netflix and Apple are helping to fuel the emergence of Web TV. The Kindle and iPad are helping to drive consumer interest in e-books. How far this goes is anybody's guess but one has to wonder how long printed books and DVDs will be with us.



Read more: news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20028334-261.html#ixzz1AwfXXdft

[Adonis the DemiGod!]

Good article!

[FSUmcIL]

Jan 13, 2011 14:28:17 GMT -5 Caviar said:

How far this goes is anybody's guess but one has to wonder how long printed books and DVDs will be with us.

Printed books will ALWAYS be with us....I hope.

[kt1990]

Jan 13, 2011 18:47:30 GMT -5 FSUmcIL said:

Jan 13, 2011 14:28:17 GMT -5 Caviar said:

How far this goes is anybody's guess but one has to wonder how long printed books and DVDs will be with us.

Printed books will ALWAYS be with us....I hope.

I hope so.

This is so scary. I never want physical CDs to die out. :shaking+crying: :'(

[Lockheart]

Jan 13, 2011 18:47:30 GMT -5 FSUmcIL said:

Jan 13, 2011 14:28:17 GMT -5 Caviar said:

How far this goes is anybody's guess but one has to wonder how long printed books and DVDs will be with us.

Printed books will ALWAYS be with us....I hope.

Printed books will always be with us. They are more readily available. Even those who own ebook and laptops or ipads find it a hassle to carry them around.

DVDs on the other hand, I feel like they're on the way out as well, but as long as you have game consoles and dvd palyers, they're here to stay

[Hook]

DVDs might be on the way out, but I think Blu-ray discs will be around for a while. The file sizes of HD videos still seem to be a bit high to completely eliminate the physical media, depending on how fast your Internet connection is.

[Lockheart]

It's kind of frightening, the transition from physical to digital media. I honestly don't want to be a person who's a slave to technology. I'd still want to be able to pick up a magazine or newspaper, but nowadays even that you can read online. I have a huge DVD collection, but I admit though that it's been more than a year since I've played one movie

[Choco]

Jan 13, 2011 18:47:30 GMT -5 FSUmcIL said:

Jan 13, 2011 14:28:17 GMT -5 Caviar said:

How far this goes is anybody's guess but one has to wonder how long printed books and DVDs will be with us.

Printed books will ALWAYS be with us....I hope.

I hope so too. Music is more comfortable on the iPod instead of carrying a lot of CDs everywhere, so I'm ok with that.

[Kishi KCM]

I'm upset with this dependency on technology.

[Rodze]

We have always been dependent on technology.


(But I know you mean information being stored on rather abstract and impersonal 0s and 1s.)

[Deleted]

I dont have a problem with this at all. I find CDs to take up unnecessary space and inconvenient. I havent bought a hard copy of music in the past 2 years

[Hefty Hanna]

DVD is definitely on the way out with Blu-Ray taking over.
Books will eventually die out but probably not for a very long time.
CDs will definitely be the first to go. Which is sad, because I still purchase physical CDs from my favorite artists.

Everything dies out and fades in popularity. Some things just last longer than others do.

[badrobot]

I say bring on the death of CDs! Digital music has exposed me to so much more than I would have ever been able to encounter otherwise. And the fact that you can now carry with you *every song you own* in something smaller than a deck of playing cards remains amazing (and wonderful) to me.

[🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾]

I think CDs will continue to be available for some more time. It's not completely over and done yet.

I prefer buying CDs instead of digital downloads because of the quality issue. I do buy from Amazon and Masterbeat for individual tracks that are unavailable on CD. But I have the option of buying better quality at Masterbeat and even lossless (like WAV which is equivalent to CD quality). Most people don't care about the sound quality of the music they buy, but there are people who do. Much of what comes from iTunes and even sometimes Amazon sounds like total crap on headphones and/or a big sound system. There was a time when that didn't matter, but now that I know better, I am more particular about that. If CDs cease to be easily available in the U.S., I will either buy the album in WAV format from a digital store that sells it or just order an import version if possible. I think iTunes and Amazon should carry lossless versions of songs and albums so people who want to purchase those can do so with little difficulty. It would cost them a bit on hard disk space and bandwidth, but other than that, it wouldn't be too much of a burden on them financially. The former can easily be expanded.

For $9.99, you can purchase a 256 KBPS quality album from iTunes, and for the the very same price you can buy the CD of that same album in 1411 KBPS quality, plus the booklet with liner notes, lyrics, etc. While the music is the same, the quality of it is not.

[areyoureadytojump]

I want to know why cassettes are still being sold. Whi is making them and who is buying them?

[Peaches. [Ch, r. is]]

I think it's just a classic case of supply and demand. People are buying less physical CDs, so there really isn't any reason to make as many as they have in the past. I used to buy blank CDs 2500 at a time (I <3 Costco), but there's no need anymore, now that I can put all the music I illegally download on my iPod and play it in the car directly from there.

Jan 13, 2011 22:04:31 GMT -5 @jazzysoul47 said:

I dont have a problem with this at all. I find CDs to take up unnecessary space and inconvenient. I havent bought a hard copy of music in the past 2 years

Digital is also better for the environment

[nightshade]

Jan 13, 2011 18:50:02 GMT -5 @kt1990 said:

This is so scary. I never want physical CDs to die out. :shaking+crying: :'(

Agree. I love my CDs! >:(

[pnobelysk]

Jan 13, 2011 22:41:41 GMT -5 🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾 said:

I think CDs will continue to be available for some more time. It's not completely over and done yet.

I prefer buying CDs instead of digital downloads because of the quality issue. I do buy from Amazon and Masterbeat for individual tracks that are unavailable on CD. But I have the option of buying better quality at Masterbeat and even lossless (like WAV which is equivalent to CD quality). Most people don't care about the sound quality of the music they buy, but there are people who do. Much of what comes from iTunes and even sometimes Amazon sounds like total crap on headphones and/or a big sound system. There was a time when that didn't matter, but now that I know better, I am more particular about that. If CDs cease to be easily available in the U.S., I will either buy the album in WAV format from a digital store that sells it or just order an import version if possible. I think iTunes and Amazon should carry lossless versions of songs and albums so people who want to purchase those can do so with little difficulty. It would cost them a bit on hard disk space and bandwidth, but other than that, it wouldn't be too much of a burden on them financially. The former can easily be expanded.

For $9.99, you can purchase a 256 KBPS quality album from iTunes, and for the the very same price you can buy the CD of that same album in 1411 KBPS quality, plus the booklet with liner notes, lyrics, etc. While the music is the same, the quality of it is not.

cds are far less cheaper digitally on amazon then u find in stores, espcially around where i live, cds are very expensive

[Kishi KCM]

Jan 13, 2011 21:55:22 GMT -5 Rodze said:

We have always been dependent on technology.


(But I know you mean information being stored on rather abstract and impersonal 0s and 1s.)

That's what I meant. I don't have an iPod and I prefer albums over singles.

[spooky21]

Time to start buying those CD players and leaving them new in boxes for collection because they are going vintage soon.

20 years from now, busting out a CD player at a party would be akin to someone having an 8 track player at their house today.

[stevyy]

I don't think that CDs will die out completely. Maybe they will experience the same status as vinyl. I for one will always buy CDs.

[at40forever]

What about the demise of VHS videos and VCRs along with it?

Try explaining that!

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

VHS was a tape, the way audio cassette were tapes. And 8-tracks were tapes. Their qualities gets poorer over time and plays. CDs don't really. I think CDs will go the way of the vinyl as well.
The only reason why DVDs may die out is because it's being replaced by another hardform version in the BlueRay, which is still a disc and not in digital form.

[jamrock16]

^CD's also degenerate after continuous (and heavy) play. Digital files don't. There's definitely pro's and cons to both sides.

[Deleted]

Jan 15, 2011 6:30:59 GMT -5 stevyy said:

I don't think that CDs will die out completely. Maybe they will experience the same status as vinyl. I for one will always buy CDs.

Yeah CDs wont be comparable to 8 tracks. 8 tracks were not around long and they were never the dominant format. They are more comparable to cassette tapes and CDs are more comparable to vinyl.

[Honeymoon]

I'm more concerned about album sales to be honest than the decline of CDs. The way we enjoy media evolves over the years just like anything else, and digital is the way to go right now. I just wish Apple would introduce some groundbreaking service that somehow revitalized the album market.

[$uperb@tDuDe]

Jan 16, 2011 16:09:57 GMT -5 Honeymoon said:

I'm more concerned about album sales to be honest than the decline of CDs. The way we enjoy media evolves over the years just like anything else, and digital is the way to go right now. I just wish Apple would introduce some groundbreaking service that somehow revitalized the album market.

Yeah the industry is long overdue for an innovation to revitalize sales

[badrobot]

The record industry is no longer the "record" industry. They are a music industry making much more money off of touring, merchandising, and licensing.

Frankly I think this focus on album sales is misleading. Labels are still making plenty of money, it is just not through direct sales in the way it used to be.

[Deleted]

Jan 16, 2011 14:43:10 GMT -5 jamrock16 said:

^CD's also degenerate after continuous (and heavy) play. Digital files don't. There's definitely pro's and cons to both sides.

CDs last basically forever if you take care of them. Scratches and fingerprints and so forth will cheapen the value of course

[Adonis the DemiGod!]

Stores will eventually cease to carry Cd's when everyone stops buying them. I think comparing Vinyls to cds is not an oranges to oranges comparison.