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story category Digital Music Sales Surpass CDs At Atlantic
Make up more than 50% of music sold for first time ever...
(old news - 03:47PM Wednesday Nov 26 2008)
tags: bundles
For the first time ever, digital music sales via broadband have passed CD sales at Atlantic Records, making up more than 50% of the label's music sales last quarter. The New York Times notes that Warner Music Group, Atlantic’s parent company, saw slightly less robust digital sales of just 27%. Piracy means overall music sales are down (at least according to the RIAA's own numbers quoted by the Times), with $10.1 billion this year compared to $14.6 billion in 1999. As the article notes, the labels are (very) slowly figuring out that the largely unstoppable piracy of their product is turning albums into promotional material for other money makers like concerts and merchandising.

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Forums » Digital Music Sales Surpass CDs At Atlantic
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amungus
Premium
join:2004-11-26
America
clubs:

so, when will they...

Stop acting like a**holes and suing regular people?
Sure, bootlegging is wrong and all, but the legal catastrophes aren't helping anyone except the lawyers, who laugh at both sides.

So they've proven people will buy digitized music online. That's great. Too bad most of those were probably lossy formats. How about offering FLAC with pdf files for art?

Oh, and getting some good bands out there instead of total crap would be nice. I think the last good band WB signed was the Flaming Lips... but I could be wrong...

ARGONAUT
got ping?

join:2006-01-24
New Albany, IN

Old School

I still like having that factory CD in my hands and it's been proven that blank CD-Rs have a shortened lifespan.

N3OGH
Bear patrol must be working like a charm
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
·Verizon FIOS
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Re: Old School

I rarely buy music in a brick & mortar store anymore. I'm pretty satisfied with my experience buying music from iTunes.

As far as burning songs to CD-R's, I rarely do that either. The nav system in my Silverado has connectivity to both my iPod and Satellite radio, so the DVD drive in the navigation unit is used really only for the navi DVD...
--
Petty people are disproportionably corrupted by petty power…
amungus
Premium
join:2004-11-26
America
clubs:

Yes, indeed they do. CD-Rs might last a few years, they might last 50, it depends on their quality. Most that are made in Taiwan these days, for instance, are about the lowest quality that allows for them to even work... I'd be surprised if those last five years.

Factory discs are supposed to endure for ~100 years in proper conditions.

Vinyl trumps all (storage time, sound quality, and full size art), however, and is still my preferred format

nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
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Alexandria, VA
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Re: Old School

said by amungus See Profile :

Yes, indeed they do. CD-Rs might last a few years, they might last 50, it depends on their quality. Most that are made in Taiwan these days, for instance, are about the lowest quality that allows for them to even work... I'd be surprised if those last five years.

Factory discs are supposed to endure for ~100 years in proper conditions.

Vinyl trumps all (storage time, sound quality, and full size art), however, and is still my preferred format
Given the both the sound quality and musical quality of commercially available MP3s and MP4s, who's going to be able to bear to listen to it in more than five years.
--
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. -- Bertrand Russell
tdouglas22

join:2001-09-25
Memphis, TN

Re: Old School

What a lot of people don't understand is that the "average consumer" is perfectly fine with the current quality of MP3 and MP4 recordings. That's why they are still selling so well now and piracy is showing no signs of slowing down.

BF69

join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN

Re: Old School

said by tdouglas22 See Profile :

What a lot of people don't understand is that the "average consumer" is perfectly fine with the current quality of MP3 and MP4 recordings. That's why they are still selling so well now and piracy is showing no signs of slowing down.
People are cheap. They can't use DRM as as excuse to pirate as you can get DRM-free songs. 99¢ must break their bank. I remember 25-30 years ago buying 45s for that much. That would be like $2-$2.50 in today's money.

jmn1207
Premium
join:2000-07-19
Reston, VA
·Verizon FIOS

said by ARGONAUT See Profile :

I still like having that factory CD in my hands and it's been proven that blank CD-Rs have a shortened lifespan.
I had no problems buying records or cassette tapes, so I don't think you will catch me complaining about the lifespan of a CD-R. I mostly use CD-Rs to store the songs in case of a hard drive catastrophe. I might throw 100 songs on a CD to play in my car, but I use a Sharpie to label it and I really don't care what happens to it after a couple of months. I just make a another with new songs when I need some fresh sounds.

Cthen

join:2004-08-01
Ypsilanti, MI
·Comcast

said by ARGONAUT See Profile :

I still like having that factory CD in my hands and it's been proven that blank CD-Rs have a shortened lifespan.
Here is how I see it, I can buy 100 CD-Rs for $20. That 5 cents a CD. Now if you have to replace your "factory" (I thought they were all made in factories?) CD, would you rather pay $14.99 again or 5 cents?
--
"I like to reffer to myself as an Adult Film Efficienato." - Stuart Bondeck

jmn1207
Premium
join:2000-07-19
Reston, VA
·Verizon FIOS

Re: Old School

I know what you are saying, but the CD's he is talking about have actual physical pits pressed into the CD for the laser to read a 1 or 0, while the CD-R uses a darker region that was "burned" onto the surface and will fade over time. In some tests, under certain conditions, that time is relatively short.

CD-R's are still my best option, but $20 for 100 CD's? You are getting ripped off.

Omega
Displaced Ohioan
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said by ARGONAUT See Profile :

I still like having that factory CD in my hands and it's been proven that blank CD-Rs have a shortened lifespan.
That's why I have all my music in mp3 format on my hard drive, and archived on DVDR's.

Sure, a CD-R may go bad, but that isn't a problem when you can burn it again!

fireflier
Coffee. . .Need Coffee
Premium
join:2001-05-25
Limbo
True, but music stored on HDD backed up to other HDDs have really nice shelf lives too.

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
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Tulsa, OK
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I wonder.

You have the CD, you have a possession that has value.

You can sell it. (maybe for not much, but hey, you can.)

If it gets stolen, or burned in a housefire, it's part of your personal property and your insurance will have to payout on it.

Now skip to digital downloads.... Your laptop is stolen. You had $1500 worth of iTunes on there. You file insurance claim.... you think your Insurance company will recompense you? Yeah, right! Download = zero value.

A step further... being somewhat dilligent, and wondering if your LT hard-drive might crash, you made backups of your downloaded iTunes on DVD-R.

One day a tornado destroys your home and the LT and your backups are gone. When you file your insurance claim, you list $1500 for music you paid for and downloaded. They won't pay. Even if you could produce hardcopies of your credit card charges or whatever, I think they'd still not pay on the grounds you can't prove the loss.
--
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini

jmn1207
Premium
join:2000-07-19
Reston, VA

Re: Old School

With digital downloads, you just have to provide your name and account information and you can simply redownload the songs.

not at home

@verizon.com

their product?

last time i checked, the **AA use other peoples products and make their money off of other peoples hard work.

Oleg
Bellsouth Fastaccess
Premium
join:2003-12-08
Birmingham, AL

CD prices

music CDS cost around $10 and older CDS cost $8,but if CD is not all that good only has tow or three songs good i better download those songs.

BloodRoses
Gods lend wings to tainted hearts
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1 edit

Re: CD prices

I'd love to get CD's for 10$. I'm generally happy to find a record for 20$, and I've seen them charging as much as 80$ for 1 CD in the U.S.

It's often cheaper for me to have a family member buy the CD in Great Britain, and ship it back to me. Quite often, when I go there to visit them, I go on a huge CD shopping spree. £8.99 per CD.

Oleg
Bellsouth Fastaccess
Premium
join:2003-12-08
Birmingham, AL

Re: CD prices

said by BloodRoses See Profile :

I'd love to get CD's for 10$. I'm generally happy to find a record for 20$, and I've seen them charging as much as 80$ for 1 CD in the U.S.

It's often cheaper for me to have a family member buy the CD in Great Britain, and ship it back to me. Quite often, when I go there to visit them, I go on a huge CD shopping spree. £8.99 per CD.
O you are getting ripped off send me PM with albums and artists you want to buy.

BloodRoses
Gods lend wings to tainted hearts
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2 edits

Re: CD prices

Well, I've learned to buy what I can from local, American independent distributors and labels. Some examples.

»www.adifferentdrum.com
»www.metropolis-records.com
»www.nilaihah.com

Also, »www.CDBaby.com is always good. But I still pay upwards of 16$ for a record, and this is indie stuff.

The rest, I just have to download until I can buy it from or in Europe.
--
Faerie Blessings,
Stephanie - www.GlitterFaerie.com

Oleg
Bellsouth Fastaccess
Premium
join:2003-12-08
Birmingham, AL

Re: CD prices

In this case this site is the best for this kind of stuff »www.musicstack.com/
Vtr_Racing

join:2006-09-04
Pflugerville, TX

Wake up!

Video is next. There was a article on here about Blockbuster and their CEO not liking steaming media! Step up or step aside and get blown away!
zod5000

join:2003-10-21
Edmonton, AB
·TELUS
·TekSavvy Solutions..

I don't think piracy is entirely to blame.

These music companies like to continually blame piracy for slumping sales, but how popular were dual casette decks in the 80's for copying tapes?

The internet has definately increased piracy, but I think there's other factors in the downfall of the music industry.

I think a big factor is the decreased quality in music. Most modern rock music is a shadow of what it used to be. It's generally washed down and over produced. Even hip hop is a shadow of its former self.

They used to focus on finding talented artists, who could create whole albums and have spanning career. Thats long gone.

Now its one hit wonders, or lame-ass bands. I would guess alot of the money these companies are making now are from back catalogs of more popular bands. Itunes and simlar online digital retailers, increase the problem, because now these bands that only have one or two good tracks on a cd can only sell one or two tracks. They can't sell a whole album, drastically reducing how much money a record company can suck of them.

They also make alot of money when people turn over their catalogs. IE records to tapes to cd's. Now you can turn a cd into an mp3, you don't have to rebuy your catalog. They made huge money when people convert their catalogs, movie companies too.

Another reason is DVD's are similar in price to CD's and you get a 100 million dollar hollywood movie for the same price as a disc of music. I don't think video tapes were that competitve against cd's 15 years ago.

I think piracy results in a small number of lost sales (most stuff download probably wouldn't of been bought in the first place). The quality of music has declined, and their selling crappy product and the kids aren't going to buy it.

idonthtinkso



Re: I don't think piracy is entirely to blame.

I think the better question is, how popular were dual cassette decks in the 2000's?

Pushing obsolete technology like the CD out of step with todays trends (as evidenced by Atlatic) will always lead to ruin.

Anybody want to buy a state of the art dual cassette player/recorder?

SykChyld

@bellatlantic.COM

(most stuff download probably wouldn't of been bought in the first place).

This is the key part of this whole paragraph. I still find myself purchacing albums that I know are good, but must of the stuff you find on peoples harddrives is music that no one would have listened to to begin with, if anything piracy is giving more exposure to artist who other than the easy downloads would have never been heard, or would have no one show up at their concerts. T-Pain anybody?
Forums » Digital Music Sales Surpass CDs At Atlantic


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