In 1983 the Compact
Disc (CD) became generally available. Albums, 7inch and 12
inch singles were the formats of the day with cassette tapes
already being phased out. Apart from early problems with
purple ink the CD was very robust and had none of the clicks,
pops and scratches of vinyl. It started out as an expensive
luxury item and there were arguments for and against the
new format but it wasn't long before the vinyl album was
a rare site. Some specialist shops still sell new and used
vinyl even in 2008 but it has clearly had its day. After
25 years is the CD about to go the same way?
"In the 20th century people used to
go down to their local music store to buy albums as vinyl
records and cassettes until the CDs
came on the market."
"Later, everyone was able to afford
compact discs."
"People liked them because it
allowed you to skip from one track to another and it was
- and still is - a nice accessory to own."
"While this was happening, computers
were becoming more affordable and computer companies started
to reduce the weight of laptops and increasing the hard
drive storage capacity. Then people started to copy CDs
onto their computer and they also began to give copies
to their friends - sometimes as a CD but now also as anmp3."
"Then the music industry saw that they
were in danger of losing millions of pounds. That’s
when they introduced 'digital rights management' and produced
some CDs that couldn't be played on computers. This backfired
because customers went back to the shop to ask for their
money back as the product didn't do what they wanted. Again,
the industry saw that they were in trouble because customers
said that protected CDs are useless. They then decided
to remove the digital rights management software that blocks
people playing or copying the CD onto a computer."
In early 2001 iTunes was introduced, followed in October by the iPod and this later became a music store in 2003.
In 2008 there are many ways to obtain your
favourite music. CDs are still available to buy both online
and in shops but many of the music only shops are almost
empty or closed down. Very popular chart CDs are available
at supermarkets and it was this, that took a lot of the money
away from music shops at the start of the decade.
A lot of people now download music, legally
through iTunes and illegally via many different peer to peer
clients and the bit torrent network. Now most people share
music as mp3 and not the larger file type of the audio CD.
Of course people use CDs to record and give to friends too.
"In 2003 the music industry signed
contracts with Apple's Itunes to allow people to buy music
online - again with digital rights management (DRM). Finally,
in 2008 customer demands have seen record companies start
to remove the unpopular DRM."
Record companies are currently (2008) campaigning
to try to get Internet Service Providers to police the downloading
of copyright content. It is almost impossible and already
some have said that they won't do it.
So, with mp3s being downloaded and moved
around wirelessly and via memory sticks and phones does the
CD look set to be joining vinyl and audio cassettes in the
history books? We don't think so just yet - what do you think?
As a sideline we also discussed how downloading
music affects the music business as well as the CD format.
When people were taping music in the 1980s the industry
had a campaign called "home taping is killing music" -
this was parodied by a popular musicians' magazine as "home
taping is skill in music". Just as in the 1960s and
1970s when bootleg albums - usually of live concerts - actually
served to popularise not harm the bands, the cassette copies
people made didn't ruin the industry. Is it a coincidence
that both music and film industries are currently booming
but are also complaining that downloads are ruining their
business? It's not straightforward is it... and what about
the revenue that the record companies (and successful artists)
get from radio airplay, film soundtrack royalties, pub and
club MCPS licenses - as well as CD sales and download fees?
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