I'm not a Levy fan but I do agree with a lot of this; key sentence; the beginning of the year. Thousands of major label employees will be getting fired for Xmas. Mark my words.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- EMI Music Chairman and Chief Executive Alain Levy Friday told an audience at the London Business School that the CD is dead, saying music companies will no longer be able to sell CDs without offering "value-added" material."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.

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.

"By the beginning of next year, none of our content will come without any additional material," Levy said. CD sales accounted for more than 70% of total music sales in the first half of 2006, while digital music sales were around 11% of the total, according to music industry trade body the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. CD sales were worth $6.45 billion and digital sales $945 million, the IFPI said.

Levy said EMI is continuing to hold talks with Google Inc. (GOOG) on an advertising-revenue sharing partnership with the community video Web site YouTube, which the Internet search giant acquired in October for $1.6 billion in stock. EMI's rivals, Warner Music Group Corp. (WMG), Sony BMG - a joint venture between Sony Corp. (SNE) and Bertelsmann AG - and Universal Media have all signed content deals with YouTube. "The terms they were offering weren't acceptable," Levy said, adding that EMI continues to be concerned about copyright issues.

At a friends house recently, I envied his lack of clutter, I sit amongst piles of vinyl and cds, and would I buy my Mum downloads for Xmas? Well yes, it`s not a bad idea actually, an MP3 player with download vouchers, but you can`t do the same every year, in theory. There still is a key thing missing on the cd issue though, for every single copy sold, they can be pirated limitlessly in many ways. It seemed to not occur to anyone to charge a copyrighting royalty on a blank CD-R anymore than it did on cassette tapes when they came out. I believe the cd will die for a while, but then return.
The packaging is very important, the jewel case is such an 80`s piece of design, I had a message from an artiste this morning, who is doing an independent release, and was desperate to find a company that made a cardboard cover for the work. There you go, an attractive product. I also hate, pulling the little booklet out of the box, and being unable to put it back in. I have gone for slimline cases on the singles, but know that the download sales will outstrip demand of the cd.
Its dead, but like anything on Halloween, it shall return...[i]enter Vincent Price stage left:evil:

Downloads - for the young and technically minded ... and CDs (mainly budget releases) for the older generations who are not going to start using iTunes.

The last single I bought was Lil Chris and it was on the limited edition vinyl and wonderfully off-centre. Brought back so many fond memories when the off-centre was a part of life.

Where vinyl is available I favour that over CDs. I don't have an mp3 player so no point in me buying downloads - unless that becomes the only way to obtain new music.

Then there's me... older than dirt and technically savvy

I like mpeg or similar for some uses, CD is less lossy but lacks *something* over vinyl. Vinyl does have the problem of wearing out... not a problem I've had with CDs ('Raindancing' by Alison Moyet and 'A Kind of Magic' by Queen being my first CDs in 1985 and still playing as well as the day I got them free with my Toshiba CD)So I take the hit on CD 'depth'.

TBH, I like Ogg Vorbis for 'MP3' for much of my archiving, since it's least lossy of the digital , smaller footprint than MP3 and Open Source, which appeals to my egalitarian streak. AAC I don't like the way the licensing is done... It's the nerd nature coming to the fore...

I`ve mentioned this before, but last year when the new Kate Bush album came out, I bought the vinyl copy simply because it was BIG!! The quality is excellent as well,but some of the new vinyl singles coming out are not that high quality, for example, I bought Air Traffics single on a 7", but when I play it, which is quite often actually, I actually play the track from their Myspace site, so we have a daft situation in which I bought the track and play a streaming version.It sounds better.
There was another act, I liked (name escapes me), on the same label as the Streets, I didnt buy the album, as the entire thing was in streaming format on the record companies website, I listened to it for a week, whilst pottering about, probably about five listens in all, the same as if I had bought it, completely legally, and they lost at least one sale. But how many more I ask?
The shotgun was firmly pointed at the foot years ago.
As for distribution in the indie retailers, and I can speak from first hand expierience, the time it takes to continually put five copies in little retailers is ridiculous.
Which ever format wins, it will be web based.

One of the things I liked about Napster in the 'frontier' days was the ability to 'try before I buy'

Blink 182 springs to mind (like them or not, I'm so far out of their core demographic that I'd make music execs blanche with horror, so it's a good example) I'd seen a single video on The Box (Netherlands, since I was contracting in Amsterdam at the time) so, I logged into Napster, DLed half a dozen MP3s and dropped them on to my player for bus listening... a common Sunday activity. The following Saturday I bought the CD, and it's still a favourite of mine... thus they made a sale. Much of my expanded collection from the 1999-2000 period was on the back of Napster.

TBH, home taping and sharing were never 'killing music'. Thriller killed the singles market in the 1980s... so its more around cynical marketing by the industry than some scrotty student burning a sampler, or recording a C60,for his mates, that the market dropped.

If I'd been asked 'Grandpa, what to do about music sharing?', I'd have suggested capping quality of rip to below CD quality... you get the taste of the stuff and if you want to hear it in all it's glory, you go buy it. But no, they killed the goose, and didn't even manage to eat it. Bloody Luddites!

My nephews and nieces have a handful of CDs between them (probably bought as presents by elders), whereas their music folders are overflowing. They also both "consume" ring tones. My father lives with them. So I now send (legal) MP3s of nocturnes and Erik Satie to the kids, asking them to add them to his folder on the computer they share. He doesn't moan about lossless formats or the fact that he can't read the liner notes. He enjoys getting all this music that he wouldn't have the time to find in a record shop (which wouldn't sell him one track by John Field anyway).

Apart from discussions about the relative quality of vinyl and AAC, it is simply the relevanace of computers and mobile phones that is determining the current switch. I'm a bit surprised we're actually still debating this here, in Oct 2006.

I have 78s of Elvis, Doris Day, Vera Lynn and Piaf (great dynamics). I wouldn't swap them for the world. But in terms of discovering and "consuming" music today, there simply is no discussion.

Hi All,........Well the Virgin Megastore in Boston is closing its doors, in a town with 250,000 college students so what does that tell you? Its location is the virtual 1 Piccadilly of Boston, and Richard threw a grand old party upon its opening where we almost got killed hugging each other as we were on opposite up down escalators and plastered from too many Virgin Red Martinis.

I really hate to see these flagship stores go. I must have spent a month of my life in Tower 1 Piccadilly.

This is the business we live in. I still think the revolution will be much more narrowly defined, which leaves tremendous opportunity to those a step ahed for real.

I don't believe CD's will die in the same way that vinyl hasn't been killed off.

It's just that the way people access music has changed. I know lots of people who have itunes but have never bought a download in their life, they simply copy any new CD they buy and play them on thier PC's because it's quicker and easier to access their music that way. Why spend time searching for a cd, getting it out and putting it into a CD player when it's there at a click of your mouse on your PC?

Same with vinyl, I get asked a lot about these new record decks that plug straight into a PC via the USB port and you can easily copy your favorite albums to your PC.

It's not just the music biz that is seeing the changes, if I get told about a TV programme that I have missed I can simply go to one of many bittorrent sites and download any programme for free to watch when I want.

It is an exciting time for consumers, I'm just glad I own my own IT support company and don't work in the music biz!

All true... but there was a certain thrill of vinyl that's lost. I still remember the print smell of the new copy of Foxtrot by Genesis... or the Desk fold out and paper panties of School's Out by Alice... not forgetting the Muscle of Love greasy cardboard box and 'Phonograph Record', one of the last 'Avenue of Palms' Warner labels, another Alice special...

The last time I have a full album sensory experience was with the new Evanescence CD "The Open Door" even though it was jewel box size... I like the card CD covers. They feel like a

I thought some magic was gone from the world with the advent jewel box... now with MPEG, OGG and AAC its stripped the last little bit of fun from owning some of that stuff...

I know... I'm a Luddite... if you need me I'll be smashing Steam Mules and Spinning Jennies...

Having said that, I recall a sudden frission of pleasure when it struck me that I was reading 'The Age of Reason' by Thomas Paine, while travelling over the North Sea at a sizeable fraction of the speed of sound, on a device that held five books, most of my life at the time and was about the size of a Policeman's note book (the version I have now can hold three DVD movies and has room for some audio to spare...) Thom would have been amazed...

CDs are only dead because they are much too expensive.

And you don't change this by adding "value", only if the prices are much lower (under 10 dollar/pound/euro).

There is only a small market (less than 10 per cent of the music market) for music videos and dvds. Most people couldn't care less about CD/DCD-bundles or the most stupid idea (so far) of DualDiscs (from the resident geniuses at SonyBMG).

Another problem here that has been touched on, but not headed home, is that the cd does not actually HAVE to be filled up with the whole 76 minutes. My favourite albums are still 35-50 minutes long, with no boring fillers, which so often deter the listener.
There must be 100`s in my collection, of which the last part of the work has been seldom if at all played.
Less is more in my opinion, I hate album fillers, which the cd has made an essential element of retail.
And here is a picture of a cd, shocked by remarks:ohmy:

Martin wrote:
My favourite albums are still 35-50 minutes long, with no boring fillers, which so often deter the listener.

Agree there! The rubbish they tack on as bonus tracks beggars belief.

Who on Earth thinks I will replace my vinyl copy for a few tracks fished out of the bin.