Digital Distribution didn't kill CD, it won't kill Blu-Ray.

[theBishop]

I guess we should've seen it coming: HD-DVD fanboys (most of whom are Nintendo/Microsoft fanboys in disguise) are now decrying ALL packaged media in favor of digital distribution.

We already have digital distribution and it hasn't killed media.

iTunes Music Store has been a huge success for 5 years, and yet audio CDs show no sign of death. Sure they are slowing down (likely due to piracy), but its going to be years before retail stops carrying them. And unbelievably, sales of Vinyl are actually on the rise.

Get used to it, kids. Blu-Ray will be the standard for the next 10 years at least. Even if digital distribution for HD movies does take off, Blu-Ray won't go anywhere.

[jccca]

IMO we could already consider CDs dead.

[Beta-guy]

Originally Posted by jccca

IMO we could already consider CDs dead.

it's still used to distribute software for computers, to maintain legacy support for dirt old computers that still don't have DVD drives

[theBishop]

Originally Posted by jccca

IMO we could already consider CDs dead.

Uncompressed, unencrypted PCM that can be converted to any format killed by 128k AAC?

I think its time you left your underground bunker.

[bowl-o-rama]

I think the difference is that people take music with them (gym, work, car) a lot more then they take movies with them. The ipod is very sucessful just as the walkman before it was. Portable DVD players aren't nearly as popular because people like to watch movies comfortably on their couches. There is currently no need to kill physical video media to the majority of the population.

[tranzparentl]

I definately considers CDs dead as far as purchasing music on them.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20169342,00.html

CD sales down 15% in 2007. That's on top of being down every year the last 5 years.

Almost half as many CDs sold in 2007 as in 2000.

And the only reason they sold that many is they had to cut the prices on CDs to $10 and under.

[garak]

Not to mention how many people actually have an internet connection with enough bandwidth to download HiDef movies?

Additionally, downloads would be at significantly lower quality. (Well I know that won't really matter, because J6p won't care about the lower quality if it's cheap).

[mikemorel]

Originally Posted by theBishop

I guess we should've seen it coming: HD-DVD fanboys (most of whom are Nintendo/Microsoft fanboys in disguise) are now decrying ALL packaged media in favor of digital distribution.

We already have digital distribution and it hasn't killed media.

iTunes Music Store has been a huge success for 5 years, and yet audio CDs show no sign of death. Sure they are slowing down (likely due to piracy), but its going to be years before retail stops carrying them. And unbelievably, sales of Vinyl are actually on the rise.

Get used to it, kids. Blu-Ray will be the standard for the next 10 years at least. Even if digital distribution for HD movies does take off, Blu-Ray won't go anywhere.

From yesterday, a direct rebuttal of your OP:

Album Sales in the U.S. Falls, Digital Sales Rise

In 2007 album sales in the U.S. fell by almost 10 percent in comparison to 2006. This further continues the downward spiral that the recording industry finds itself in amidst the 45 percent increase in digital tracks sales. This is what new figures released by Nielsen SoundScan on Thursday is saying.
..
Digital tracks sales in 2007 were just under 845 million and this represents a significant increase from the 588 million recorded in 2006. Of the total album sales, digital albums made up about 10 percent of total.
...
For a number of years there has been a drop in CD album purchases and the recording industry has been suffering because of this. The drop has been attributed to the increase in file sharing and consumers spending mainly on entertainment including video games.

[redfirebird2008]

Originally Posted by theBishop

Uncompressed, unencrypted PCM that can be converted to any format killed by 128k AAC?

I think its time you left your underground bunker.

No, killed by torrents with much higher quality audio files than iTunes. Illegal downloading is far more widespread than CD purchasing. The CD as a form of consuming music is pretty much dead in the water compared to illegal downloading. Legal downloading is just a cherry on top for downloading. It boosts downloading's lead over physical purchasing but isn't the main component of its field at the moment.

[jccca]

Originally Posted by theBishop

Uncompressed, unencrypted PCM that can be converted to any format killed by 128k AAC?

I think its time you left your underground bunker.

I don't by any way mean that CD has been killed by the utter crap iTunes is.
I think it's been killed by people who simply don't buy CDs.

[jccca]

Originally Posted by redfirebird2008

No, killed by torrents with much higher quality audio files than iTunes. Illegal downloading is far more widespread than CD purchasing. The CD as a form of consuming music is pretty much dead in the water compared to illegal downloading.

^ That's what I meant :P

[tranzparentl]

Originally Posted by garak

Not to mention how many people actually have an internet connection with enough bandwidth to download HiDef movies?

Anyone with a broadband connection can download a 720p HD movie. Most of them clock in around 4GB and would just take about a day to download.

For a full Blu-ray or HD DVD its like 25-30GB which can take some time but probably about the same amount of time Amazon's free shipping would take...

Not to mention anyone who has FiOS can probably cut that time by about 1/3.

[Amalgamutt]

The OP is in severe denial. To say something like CDs aren't dead, is beyond ridiculous. Yes, theyre still around, but everyone knows theyre dead and have been dying a slow death for MANY years. One only has to search the net for thousands of reputable stories, news articles, and facts about how CDs and the music labels are on their last breath.

iTunes? Laughable, anyone into music doesnt use iTunes, its the equivalent of music for dummies. The overwhelming majority uses torrents, usenet, P2P, pvt networks, FTP, and many other sources. Please wake up.

[slappynutz]

Quality audio downloads at 5-6 MB per track and 70-80 MB per album, which can be had in under a minute on a decent connection, certainly helped to stall CDs. The format isn't dead, but it's struggling. No one can deny that. But only because of the ease of downloading music.

Quality HD video downloads at 25-50 GB per movie, or 7-10 GB per highly-compressed 720p movie, take absolutely forever on a decent connection. The internet backbone in the United States, the primary movie market, is under tremendous strain already and until the majority of HDTV-owning homes have fiber connections HD movie downloads will have little to no effect on Optical storage.

Besides, any HD content available via download will be horribly crippled by DRM and usage restrictions.

Apples and Oranges.

[theBishop]

Originally Posted by Amalgamutt

The OP is in severe denial. To say something like CDs aren't dead, is beyond ridiculous. Yes, theyre still around, but everyone knows theyre dead and have been dying a slow death for MANY years. One only has to search the net for thousands of reputable stories, news articles, and facts about how CDs and the music lables are on their last breath.

What labels?

Posters claiming CDs are dead are effectively arguing that music is dead. Its not the case. And like I said, Vinyl is up this year, so just saying "CDs are on the decline" doesn't mean much. Lets compare the number of songs sold on CD versus sold via digital distribution.