Compact disc era may finally be entering its hospice stage

[boscy]

Internet streaming companies such as money hemorrhaging Spotify, consolidated media companies that made regional radio stations into outlets for the same homogenized playlists, and overpriced CDs may have caused the decline of sales.
 
The labels could have tried to raise the bar on CD quality by moving towards dual-layer hybrid SACDs (with actual DSD quality recordings on the SACD layers).

SACDs could have been the next generation of CD if only the makers of CDs and electronics makers of CD players wanted to make it so.  The market could have been changed in the same way the industries moved the public from LPs to cassettes to CDs, in the same way the movie companies moved the public from Laserdiscs to VHS to DVDs to BluRays to streaming.   SACDs just were not pushed and supported.  The earliest SACDs were overpriced and the public heard no improvement.  SACDs players were ridiculously overpriced.  Sony didn't make portable SACD players or make their car stereos play SACDs.

HDCD could have helped improve the quality of redbook CDs, but Microsoft inexplicably bought HDCD just as it was gaining popularity, and did nothing with it.  Quality HDCD recordings on the best current HDCD players or using the best HDCD Digital to Audio converter could sound better than regular CDs, but such gear is too expensive for most consumers.

The public went on to listen to tinny earbuds plugged into their smartphones that played compressed lossy audio recordings and choppy streaming.

The compact disc era may finally be entering its hospice stage


Why Super Audio CD Failed, December 30, 2016

[Gary]

OK Super Audio CD failed but CD's themselves remain the primary means of owning physical music. Even if sales continue to decline, CD's are not away. (see vinyl -- presumed dead for years but is starting to see a bit of a resurgence)

[Chelsea Press 2]

If some of these streaming giants were to somehow go under, what would happen? Assuming digital download stores also start going away too, and CDs go away, what is left? YouTube? Or something new?

[Deleted]

CDs may not be totally dead in any of our lifetimes, but that doesn't mean they'll necessarily be readily available (or available at all) from some labels and/or artists. Much like vinyl - it's not an all-inclusive format anymore and hasn't been for decades now. Meaning, you can't buy anything you want on vinyl. It has never completely died, but it's been much more of a novelty/collector thing since its glory days. Hipsters of recent years have brought on a resurgence of the novelty. It's cool and all - I'm a collector myself - but that doesn't mean it's fit for everyday and very common uses anymore, let alone something that can support an industry.

Ultimately, in my opinion, vinyl and CDs (and cassettes) are relics to newer generations - cool little relics of inconvenience and taking up space. They're "fun" for some in a "something to do" kind of way. But compared to digital and/or streaming, they're just not nearly as convenient or versatile. Nobody wants to lug around their discman and CDs when they can have a number of other options that are either much smaller and have much more music, like a watch or built into your phone. And if people are buying CDs and/or vinyl only to convert them to mp3 for the everyday usage/convenience, that, to me, means they are collectors. That's not sustainable. These formats are being replaced by something far more convenient for everyday use.

I don't think a streaming giant going under would have anything to do with streaming as a format - it just means they did some bad business deals as a company. It's comparable to a label going under. It doesn't necessarily mean the industry is done too, it just means that label wasn't able to make for any number of (often internal) reasons. Other labels just take more of the marketshare and that's that. If streaming somehow loses popularity - which sounds absurd but just for argument's sake - then I'm sure digital would be readily and easily made available.

I can see a time in the future when major labels don't exist anymore, at least as they do today. Another part of this whole slow shift I see happening. But that's another discussion.

[Gary]

CD sales since 1983 --- declining...but still here


With Best Buy and Target dropping CDs, it may fall a bit further

[Unhinged]

^Cool graph...so CD sales are pretty much where they were in 1987...interesting.