[Yardstick]

the volume of physical albums sold dropped by 19% in 2007 from the year before

Strange to think that CDs might be the end of the line for physical formats. I wonder if there's a new format in the works to replace them, or if it's just accepted that downloads are the future and CDs are the last of the physical Mohicans.

[Wonder Warthog]

"I wonder if there's a new format in the works to replace them, or if it's just accepted that downloads are the future and CDs are the last of the physical Mohicans."

I think it inevitable that downloads WILL be the wave of the future, and not just for music, but for ANY recorded/recordable item. And at that point, ALL media will be the "new format", depending on the listeners/viewers need/desire of the moment.

[Spktyr]

Sony has tried to introduce a successor format in Super Audio CD (also known as DVD-Audio), but it’s never went anywhere. The last big push for it was last year.

[Mr. Blonde]

Vinyl is making a comeback actually. Almost all indie labels produce vinyl in addition to CDs and digital downloads. And the factories that make vinyl are all producing as much as possible. Vinyl is still considered to produce the best sound.

I got a turntable for Christmas and am beyond excited about it. My mom said the salesman told her they had sold three of the same model she got me that day.

The problem with downloads are that mp3s are really not high quality facsimiles of what was recorded. And this is having a negative effect on music.

[proxy_user]

“Strange to think that CDs might be the end of the line for physical formats. I wonder if there’s a new format in the works to replace them, or if it’s just accepted that downloads are the future and CDs are the last of the physical Mohicans.

Well, SACD and DVD-A failed in the marketplace.

However, LP sales continue to increase. So perhaps the LP will be the last physical format sold.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Strange to think that CDs might be the end of the line for physical formats. I wonder if there's a new format in the works to replace them, or if it's just accepted that downloads are the future and CDs are the last of the physical Mohicans.

On a related note, I won't be buying a Blu-Ray player. The writing is on the wall for HD video at home, and it reads "digital transfer over fast Internet connection". What has happened to the recording industry is also happening to the video industry, albeit at a slower pace due to the larger size of video files.

[MarkL]

Strange to think that CDs might be the end of the line for physical formats. I wonder if there's a new format in the works to replace them, or if it's just accepted that downloads are the future and CDs are the last of the physical Mohicans.

I rip my music CDs to MP3 (at least 320 Kb/s), then burn them to CD-R. This allows me to get at least 7 music CDs on a CD-R. But I'm starting to think that the next time I'm in need of a new car stereo (mine works fine with my MP3 CDs), I've seen that some of the newer ones actually have USB ports on them, I've been thinking that it might be nice to have one of those, especially given the fact that 4GB thumb drives are so cheap now, less than $25.

Mark