Slashdot Log In
EMI Exec Says 'The Music CD is Dead'
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Oct 27, 2006 01:36 PM
from the thanks-egon dept.
from the thanks-egon dept.
Anonycat writes "Alain Levy, the chairman of EMI Music, made a speech at the London Business School declaring 'the end of the music CD as it is.' He went on to say that most CDs are simply used for ripping onto digital audio players. Levy adds that by the beginning of 2007, all EMI CDs will come with additional material to make them more attractive to the consumer. Revenue from CDs still outranks revenue from downloads by better than 6 to 1. Would it take 'additional material' to get you to keep buying CDs? What material would you like to see?"
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
EMI Exec Says 'The Music CD is Dead'
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 528 comments
(Spill at 50!) | Index Only
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
What Is He Smoking? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/~eldavojohn/ | Last Journal: Tuesday October 16, @03:26PM)
There are three letters that keep me buying CDs: DRM. As long as the only legal route to purchase music online is DRM encrypted music, I won't take part in it.
Granted, there are a ton of people out there that don't realize that they rely on iTunes to decrypt their music for them, I don't know how people can spend so much money without physically receiving anything. They aren't even getting a guarantee that they can play that file for the rest of their lives! They would have to burn it to a CD to ensure that.
I'll appreciate the added content to a CD but you don't need to do that to convince me that I should keep buying physical media. Hell, if you want to win back people, maybe you should get the word out that the iTunes TOS is downright shady [macnn.com]?
I will admit that the first thing I do with a CD when I buy a new one is CDex [sourceforge.net] it to high quality MP3 format. Then I put it on the shelf never to be played again. Why? Because that's my master copy that won't ever be scratched or stolen or lost. I may use MP3s to play my music, but I don't distribute or download them illegally. I'm well aware that I am copying them without consent but the only person that ever uses those copies is myself so I'm not afraid of a court case. Not one bit.
If the CD format is dead, you're going to have to figure out some way to get a physical master copy to me or I'm going to be upset mighty fast. I think if you remove this from people, some will start to miss it. And the second people realize that Apple's 99 cent deals were set by Steve Jobs & guarantee you nothing, I think there will be quite the demand for the 'ancient' physical media.
Is this just a case of 'I have it so hard! We need to change our business model, please feel sorry for us!' or am I the only one that thinks this dude is crying that the sky is falling?
Re:What Is He Smoking? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.sugapablo.net/)
Or until record companies stop producing them.
Re:What Is He Smoking? (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Monday December 05 2005, @10:17PM)
Re:What Is He Smoking? (Score:5, Funny)
He's smoking $100 bills (Score:5, Insightful)
It looks like the record execs finally found a way to profit on this new business opportunity that everyone was saying to evolve to. They did, but only because they found a way to squeeze us a little harder.
Re:What Is He Smoking? (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://offthegrid.1337hax0r.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday October 18 2006, @12:56PM)
Re:What Is He Smoking? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.tanningbeds4less.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday November 05 2006, @07:23AM)
Isn't that all was Sony was trying to do, give you some free software when you bought their CDs?
Re:What Is He Smoking? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.lanemcfadden.net/)
Novel idea (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://nizo.deviantart.com/gallery/ | Last Journal: Thursday November 08, @09:27AM)
Instead of including a pile of other useless stuff that I don't care about with the CD, how about charging less than $20 for something that I (as someone who buys music online) consider to be worth at most $6, and can probably download for roughly that amount? This is of course assuming I actually want all of the songs on a given CD, which is rarely the case.
They keep calling themselves record companies, which pretty much explains the problem: just like records, they are trapped way back in a time before the age of the internet.
What material would I'd like to see? (Score:5, Funny)
disconnected from reality. (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://timgray.blogspot.com/)
I guess the guy is either mential or chooses to ignore the millions of people that make below $40,000 a year and cant afford a new stereo with ipod and ipod adapter or mp3 player plus rf transmitter...
Most everyone at my kids highschool still uses CD's in their CD player.
Bullshit (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.kabong.ca/)
EMI Moderation System (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.bleepsoft.com/)
These ivory tower execs should have realized almost 7 years ago with the advent of Napster that the CD was dying. Frankly, I don't think the iTunes Music Store should have ever happened, they should have realized the market then and adapted, now they'll have to play catch up to those innovating the non-physical media market.
Lawsuits are not value added (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Monday September 19 2005, @12:52PM)
If this is what they see as value added, I think they got the eqation backwards... it's supposed to be value added to the consumer's experience, not the record company's legal squad.
Simple: (Score:5, Insightful)
And while I'm dreaming, I'd like a pony.
If they know 60% of their users.. (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.phpgd.com/)
If they realise that 60% of CD purchasers are ripping content then why on Earth are they trying to make it more difficult? If this guy is correct then increased anti-piracy measures will alienate more than half of their target audience.
Either he's wrong (I doubt it) or the music industry is trying to commit business suicide.
But I suppose we already knew that when they signed Ashlee Simpson.
Hmmm (Score:5, Interesting)
Good music? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:statements... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think they are. The average person on Slashdot may be, but not the average consumer. I think a more accurate set of statements for most customers is:
- I will pay for music that I like.
- I do not know what DRM is.
- I do not know how to remove DRM, and don't know why I would.
Probably the biggest boon for the record companies right now (at least in regards to DRM) is iTunes. For most people, iTunes just works. It's easy, it's cheap, they can listen to their music on their iPod which connects to their car and home stereo, etc. Most people don't have the issues with iTunes that are pointed out on Slashdot all of the time. And as long as iTunes works, the record companies can point to it as a successful, consumer-friendly implementation of DRM.My wife doesn't know what DRM is. My mom doesn't know. Neither do most people I know. As long as the average consumer can access his/her music the way they normally do (via iPod/iTunes or on a CD), they won't know and won't care about DRM.
-dave
Bye bye Ms. American Pie. (Score:3, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Tuesday December 19 2006, @05:12PM)
Besides, I'm not sure what CD profits being 6 times online profits actually means...I buy one CD, that's going to cost the same as what? 10 songs on iTunes? At least? So, maybe it's just that online sales, being mainly single songs, are exposing the obvious fact that most albums only have one or two good songs.
Rather have leprosy (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.wdogsystems.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday October 06 2005, @10:10AM)
DVD: $9.99 Soundtrack CD: $17.99 (Score:5, Insightful)
Easy Sony (Score:4, Funny)
Why rootkits and virii for my computer of course!
Three letters... (Score:3, Funny)
(http://paperlined.org/)
Anything that's not DRM'd.
I know, what are the chances of that, huh? On the other hand, what's the point in including extra fluff that's DRM'd in a package where the primarily content isn't DRM'd? "Here's the cake you ordered, sir. And to thank you for your patronage, we've included a bonus poisoned pill. It's sugary though, yum!" "Umm, thanks... I'll just eat the cake."
A fair price would be nice. (Score:3, Insightful)
I still buy CDs. Now, let me say, what would attract me to purchase more of them would be a more justified price on them. I'd buy a hell of a lot more CDs if they were $5. I like album art. I like having a physical copy of my music... and I like albums, not just songs. My biggest worry about the explosion of downloadable music is that it will forsake the album in favor of mass-produced, repetitive singles.
The record labels keep trying to add shit to CD packages (dualDisc? yuck) and cut costs by using crappy cardboard cases, when they could just stea-- I mean, charge less money. I mean, how much do you think it costs to stamp a CD? It's not like a lot of that money gets passed on to the artist anyway...
CD alive, CD PLAYER is dead (Score:5, Insightful)
Traditional CD players may be dead, but the CD continues to be useful as a distribution medium. Clearly online distribution does not eclipse the traditional CD, in quality, in fundamentals (no DRM so you can rip to any player in any format, copy on all of your players at once [car, portable, PC], you get a permanent high-quality copy, particularly in DualDisc options, printed jacket + lyrics), and in extras (promotional material such as special editions with included DVDs etc).
The fact that listeners continue to buy CDs only to rip songs from show that the CD medium is very much alive and that online distribution can not match the value of CD-ripped music.
The traditional CD PLAYER on the other hand, may be dead.
Material (Score:4, Insightful)
How about starting by discontinuing litigation against your customer base? I stopped buying CDs when the lawsuits started. Granted, I was helped out by the music business itself. The stuff being sold today sucks so badly that I may not have bought it even if there weren't any lawsuits.
How could anyone ask for more? (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Sunday November 06 2005, @05:24PM)
It feeds me proto-literate lyrics, expertly Photoshopped images of poseurs, titillating videos that don't make any sense, the instrumental talent of digitized samples and vocal harmonizers, and -- if I can afford it -- maybe a ticket to a lip-synched World Tour performance with a team of 30 dancers and some fireworks.
People who download music miss all of this. They aren't cool. They hurt the Artists.
That's why Mariah Carey made "Glitter", you bastards. She was hurt.
What about quality? (Score:4, Interesting)