CD Will Be Dead In Five Years!?

[Ian]

According to a new survey by NME, the CD will be dead in 5 years due to music downloads.

http://www.nme.com/news/ipod/25033

A new survey is predicting that CDs will die within the next five years.

The report, compiled by former NME writer Johnny Davis, found that up to six out of 10 under 24-year-olds believe physical formats will decline as people turn to digital methods.

The figures also suggested that the death of CDs will lead to a decline of high street record shops, with many foreseeing stores being frequented by over 30s only.

According to the survey, published by mobile phone nextwork 3, 85 per cent of under 24s believe that downloading music can help save the planet by reducing the amount of packaging, waste, and carbon emissions involved in producing and transporting CDs to shops.

Too bad they don't tell us what people over 24 thought or if they're talking about legal downloads or pirated music.

[Justin42]

Gotta love the wording-- they "believe" it'll help the environment. No real idea if it really will, they just think it will, so it must be a good idea.

Yay, we finally have accepted our DRM-ridden, lower quality overlords!

[jase]

I can believe it.

People who desire quality are a small minority -- CD will become a niche product in much the same way vinyl is now.

So it'll be termed "dead" as far as the layman is concerned.

No need to worry though, CDs will still be out there. Let the kiddies have their MP3. I'll stick to my tried-and-tested formula of downloading illegal copies of MP3s onto CDs, playing them in the car then buying albums on vinyl if they're any good, on my brilliant Linn LP12. All three formats have a place for me.

As for journalistic integrity, well this is New Musical Express we're talking about here!! A rag if ever there was one (I subscribe to it, so I know how rubbish it can be at times).

[CowboySlim]

Well, this is all conjectural speculation at its weakest.

They have failed to cite the ultimate criterion.
They have wrongly focused on the retail sector.
The retailing of CDs will only persist as long as there are players available.

This is the true indicator: When you can no longer buy a car with a CD player in the dash.

Slim
Who buys his 8-tracks on EBay now.

[MonteLDS]

i doubt the idea. we still have 12" and no death in sight for them. people who want HQ will not take downloads over a CD. this is just bunk

[[buck]]

If any one of the legit music download services would take the initiative to offer music in a lossless format, quality wouldn't be an issue. At the moment, legal music downloaders get screwed with low quality DRM-ridden crap.