Is the CD and DVD/Bluray going away?


I've been hearing grumbling that the shinny plastic disks will be shortly disappearing from the market in favor of HD downloading for music and video.

I guess my hopes on a new Oppo 3D Bluray may need to be reconsidered. I wonder if the web apps will include 3D movies which can be utilized in our Home Theater

Some say the new HD down loads might be more "realistic" than vinyl. Not sure I can agree with that.

Please comment as it seems the by forcing everything to downloads, it puts the marketing advantage to the big Moguls who will jack up the costs to the music/video consumers.
levchappy

Showing 3 responses by mlsstl

CDs and DVDs aren't going away, but they are no longer the sales behemoth they once were. The top sales year for CDs was 2000 when they sold almost 800 million of them. Now CD sales are less than half that, around 300 million. (Vinyl sales, while up, are still only about 1% of CD sales.)

Now, that's still a lot of CDs and record companies are still going to serve that market for a long time. While some people have moved to downloads, there are still a lot of buyers who don't download and aren't going to start anytime soon.

(One other aspect to consider -- while downloads are generally cheaper than new CDs, there is a tremendous market for used CDs. You can often buy a like-new CD for less than the lossy format download. But, the used market also depresses new CD sales.)

So, yes, the trend is toward download, but CDs are going to be around for many years to come. The same is true of DVDs. There is a trend toward streaming, but there are still a lot of buyers who prefer the physical disc.
Interesting the differences noted in sales between sources. The numbers I noted above were from a Reuter's article based on Billboard magazine figures. See
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/05/us-albumsales-us-idUSTRE8031NY20120105.
(These are 2011 figures, but I'm not sure how much I would trust 2012 figures so soon after the close of the year.)

However, the trends noted are similar and the comments agree. CDs are going to be around for many more years.

However, another impact that many have noted the past few years is the loss of local stores with a big inventory of CDs.
Tomycy6, would just point out there is a difference between "product shipped" and "product sold". It take more time to accurately determine the latter.

But, we're quibbling over accounting details. The trend is the same.