Contraction of the Market for CDs

The latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine includes an article entitled, “Is the CD Era Finally Over?”  It reports that, in 2011, digital music sales outstripped physical sales for the first time ever.  The speculation, then, is that the CD, as a format, will follow predecessors like the cassette and eight-track tape into obsolescence.  In fact, news stories are starting to announce that major labels may be planning to discontinue the recording and sales of music CDs as early as late 2012.

The first album pressed on CD was "The Visitors" by Abba, and the first CD release was Billy Joel’s "52nd Street," recorded and produced by Sony in 1982.  The first platinum-selling CD album came in 1985 – Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms – and according to BBC News, it is still the world’s most successful album on CD.  Sales for music CDs of all genres peaked in 2000 at 2.455 billion.  In 2006, that figure was down to 1.755 billion.  By 2011, just 223 million CDs were sold.

Middle-aged and senior adults are least likely to have embraced the MP3 era of digital downloads.  As a specific example, Rolling Stone compared this month’s sales of an older musician, Leonard Cohen, and a younger musician, Lana Del Rey. Cohen’s latest album sold roughly 70 percent of its copies on CD, but Del Ray’s album just sold 26 percent on CD.  Likewise, lower income Americans may have more difficulty transitioning to all-digital music distribution.

Believe it or not, this Blind Bambi actually owns and uses an iPod.  I certainly appreciate and understand the convenience and portability of digital music libraries and cloud-based services that can make them readily available to a variety of devices at nearly any location.  I grew up in an era, however, when buying music equated to the purchase of something physical (e.g., an LP, a 45 single, an 8-track, a cassette, a CD, ...).  For that reason, I struggle a little with the on-going demise of the CD as a music format.  I'm not ready, yet, for the CD-stocked shelves of Best Buy, Walmart, Target, and other retailers to simply disappear.  But, then again, I still own a bunch of VHS videotapes.