the fate of blank cds

[coonsanders]

hi
i just heard that panasonic is starting to phase out cd players..so what does this mean for
blanks cd?what will replace blank cds?

lenny

[NuGuy]

I'm thinking that USB Flash Drives will be the "New CDs." (As an example of popularity, the home page / new products announces three different flash drives just in the last few days.) I think they would be easier to store, easier to transport, hold a lot more data/files, and I suspect that they would not be so susceptible to long-term degregation and loss of data as CDs and DVDs. I do not know what the effective storage life of data on these would be. But doesn't the data on flash drives and HDDs have a near-infinite life providing the flash drive or HDD doesn't get physically damaged? I've thought about memory cards, like SDHC cards, but I think that USB flash drives are now more universal. It seems like every electronic component has an USB port.

PS - So what would this mean for the music and video industry? No more discs. Buy your music at a kiosk if you don't do it at home over the nternet. Movies would be sold as a download or on a "pre-packaged" flash drive (the "New DVD"). No more renting DVDs -- download the movie file, and it will self-destruct after two viewings. Or just buy the movie download at a higher price. Well, that's my vision of the future. (Cds will be as popular as 45 rpm records are now.)

PPS - There's this bar/bingo place that I eat in frequently (great Philly cheese steak sandwiches). They had some sort of electronic juke box -- it was about the size of an old style one, but apparently the music/songs that the customer purchased for one-time play was downloaded from the internet. Well, I was in there last week and that "old" digital jukebox was gone (opening up floor space.) Now they have a flat panel "iTunes" touch screen hanging on the wall. It is about three inches deep or so, just deep enough to accomodate receiving money. Each song costs $1.00. (Seems like a lot, since you can buy a song for that much at home as a download, can't you?) Anyway, this has nothing to do with CDs; just sharing an observation about our digital world.

[Ian]

The sales of blank CD's have already been on the decline for a number of years due in part to media players (iPod, etc) and, as NuGuy pointed out, the popularity of flash drives.

That being said, there will always be a market for them. As with those who love vinyl, there are going to be audiophiles out there who'd rather listen to music on CD than low bit rate MP3's. I'm sort of the same way with movies. Despite the popularity of streaming video, I'd rather watch my movies on Blu-ray or DVD and get the full audio/video experience.

[NuGuy]

I recently read that there are a couple of places on the 'net that sell lossless versions of songs. I may do this, as it would be a good way to get particular songs without having to buy an entire CD.

[Dartman]

Yeah, I prefer full bitrate versions of everything A/V so I prefer to at least have a physical disk around even if I end up making it into a ISO or something so I can play it on my media players.
Some of the downloads around for audio are full bore though and I have found a lot of cool 5.1 audio downloads around that sometimes actually sound pretty darned good with good affects.
If you want the best audio try to find some SACD or DVD Audio disks and something that can play them. I have found downloads of DVD Audio music around too and those are nice.