Has Itunes really "killed" CDs?

[Firestreak]

When people talk about how digital downloads are going to pick up so much speed that they're going to bulldoze Blu-ray, I wonder why, when you consider that CDs are still thriving. CDs are obviously not dead, so it's pretty obvious that physical media for movies won't be dead either.

In fact, Blu-ray is around 8% of movie sales, while digital downloads is what... 10% of music sales? While they're not directly competing, it's a fair point that Blu-ray is after 2 years looking to take more of a chunk of movie sales than DDs are going to have of music... after what, 5 or 6 years since itunes(which is 88% of digital downloads) launch?

Consider that downloading music makes so much more sense than downloading movies...

Bandwidth issues.
Portability issues.
Practicality issues.
DRM issues.
Storage space issues.
And generally people being a lot less picky about the compression of music compared to movies.

You have to wonder, even in the wildest blu-ray doomsayers imaginations, how physical media would actually die out anytime in the next 20 years.

If it takes digital downloads 5 years to get 10% of movies, 90% is still in discs. The assumption that a majority of people are going to jump into the digital download isn't really based on anything other than a guess. Even if 10 years from now, more than half of those sales were digital, 40% on disc is still enough to keep discs a very healthy market. Hell, 20 years from now, if it was 10% still on disc sales, which is... yet again, mostly just an insane wetdream for Bill Gates, that 10% is still going to be keeping discs printed.

If nothing else, digital downloads will entrench blu-ray even deeper, by crowded the market, making it harder for a new disc based format to get any foothold.

[ZackL]

Never bought music in my life.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by ZackL

Never bought music in my life.

I haven't bought music in close to decade.

Of course the music that's been coming out since then isn't much of a motivation to open my wallet.

[tommyboy81]

Well you have to look at it this way. What was once a great 1st week was 1 million CD's sold. Now it's around 200k to 400k

[Anthony P]

while digital downloads is what... 10% of music sales?

no, it is much higher then that but not 50%, after 7 years it is around 10% of album but most digital buys are not albums but singles and CDs don't sell singles. On the other hand this makes it harder to make a comparison with movies, people will never just buy scenes or chapters so what is popular for itunes will never exist for movie DL but if what people buy has moved from albums to songs is it 100% fair to compare album sales?

[hc666]

I buy 20ish CDs a year still. Hate mp3s and ipod stuff with a passion!!!

[tommyboy81]

Originally Posted by hc666

I buy 20ish CDs a year still. Hate mp3s and ipod stuff with a passion!!!

Same here. I like the hard stuff. ......CD's i mean

[jd213]

CD sales still seem pretty big here in Japan, and CDs have been available at rental shops even before downloads and iPods came along.

[tommyboy81]

Originally Posted by jd213

CD sales still seem pretty big here in Japan, and CDs have been available at rental shops even before downloads and iPods came along.

Yeah so are action figures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I4JbadANOQ

[jd213]

Originally Posted by tommyboy81

Yeah so are action figures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I4JbadANOQ

I don't get it...

[tommyboy81]

Originally Posted by jd213

I don't get it...

You said CD's are big in Japan. Well thats a video of people trying to get to a store a get an action figure that just came out.

[jd213]

Oh, OK. I thought you were trying to say something about the escalator breaking.

PS: That's actually a video from a toy convention, not a store

[tommyboy81]

Originally Posted by jd213

Oh, OK. I thought you were trying to say something about the escalator breaking.

PS: That's actually a video from a toy convention, not a store

oh.

[glenn-bob]

no i tend to think mp3's in general have killed CD's. but not in my house. you can't beat the sound. that's not to say that I do not have an iPod or anything it's just that I prefer to pop in a CD whenever I can.

[Chevypower]

No, it enhances the CD experience. Get a 120GB iPod Classic, and rip all your CDs in to iTunes using Apple Lossless encoding, and put your CDs away in the closet. You won't regret it! :-)

[buckshot]

i buy cds, vinyl, sacds, dualdiscs, and dvd audio discs.

mp3s and downloads are for kids and people who don't care about music sounding good. which when i listen to the radio seems very apparent

the only step in the right direction i've seen was NIN high quality downloads from the new album via bit torrent. if itunes began releasing music in a quality that exceeded cds or had multichannel mixes (like sacds) i'd be all over it. til then nope. besides i still like having a physical copy of the album, with artwork and liner notes. makes me feel all comfy and happy.

[Galley]

I'm buying more CDs than ever; about 10 per month. I'm up to 950 so far.

[Chevypower]

There is talk that Apple will do a Lossless iTunes. So, same as CD quality.

[Clark Kent]

I've bought 20 cds...in the past week alone.

[Firestreak]

It seems to me that if anything is taking "marketshare" that it's pirated music. While it does hurt CD sales, it doesn't help digital download sales.