The CD is Dead Long Live The CD?

The EMI President's comment is taken out of context here, and unless one reads the full article it's easy to get the wrong intent. What he said was that the CD "as we know it" is dead, but there is a need for physical content versus downloads. This is a significant difference.

Here is a more compete quote from the article.

The CD as it is right now is dead," Levy said, adding that 60% of consumers put CDs into home computers in order to transfer material to digital music players.
EMI Music is part of EMI Group PLC (EMI.LN).
But there remains a place for physical media, Levy said.
"You're not going to offer your mother-in-law iTunes downloads for Christmas," he said. "But we have to be much more innovative in the way we sell physical content."
Record companies will need to make CDs more attractive to the consumer, he said.

My pet peeve about CDs (OK, and cassettes too), from the very beginning, wasn't to do with the disc itself, or even the sound per se, but the fact that there was no way to included additional (printed) content/lyrics/notes/artwork -- at least that could be enjoyed with the naked eye! And we who had come to enjoy that content as an extension of the album itself felt cheated of the missing info, photos, and liner notes.

Where do young people today get all the backup info on their favorite artists/albums? Don't they care? I'm sure it's online, but do they actually slow down long enough to take the time to go get it? Anybody? (I don't have kids.)

I would be very happy if CDs came packaged in 10x10 booklets that had some real content. Could that be what Mr. Levy was referring to. I hope so. I remember how much fun it used to be to buy a new LP and sit reading the lyrics and liner notes while listening to it for the first time.

I just bought the new Dylan CD. It took about ten pages to print out the lyrics, which I first had to find online (no photos or production notes of course!) before I was ready to settle down and listen -- so NOT classy!!
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Ahh yeah, those were the days. I would get bummed when I bought an album that had no lyrics or very little art work to look at while listening. But, those WERE the days.
Now my daughter has tons of music on her ipod. No lyrics, no liner notes, as far as I can tell. But she is constantly finding new artists and seems to know the words to songs I've never heard. She also has quite a bit of information about the bands which I'm sure she finds online. I have gone out and purchased CDs after hearing music from her ipod. The latest artist she introduced me to is Regina Spektor, wonderful singer/songwriter. She even tried the lp thing (cool) but once the newness (been there done that) wore off she went back to her ipod.
It's a crazy new world. I personally am resisting the move to put all of my content on a hard drive for various reasons. I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

the increased marketshare of the lp is too small to mean anything.....even the beat selling lps are 2000 pc globally. many don't reach procuction runs of 1000, and the limited manufacturing facilities are beginning to show flaws in the quality of pressings. creating a new lp with a first class analogue master(and getting a license to do so) is not cost effective, even at the incredibly high retail prices.

CDs are being used as storage transfer devices. Highend audio will follow this as well.

You should try a computer setup as transport($1k). It simply excels as a transport feeding usb (e.g. bel canto dac 3) or with a output device, spdif, etc.

Any money spent on traditional transports is a waste. Computers are significantly better and cheaper. Software is largely opensource.