March 22nd, 2006
The CD and other dying media
A recent report tells me that CDs continue to plummet in popularity. Check out this recent poll showing who sells the most music (mp3s and hard copy music as well):
TOP 10
- Wal-Mart
- Best Buy
- Target
- Amazon.com
- FYE
- Circuit City
- Apple iTunes
- Tower Records
- Sam Goody
- Borders
Source: NPD
Walmart, Best Buy and Target are now the biggest sellers of CDs? Can you believe that? Amazon will continue to rise in usage I predict. I’m embarassed to say I have no idea what FYE is. Circuit City is in the same category as the first three. And then look who is next: iTunes! What is most shocking to me, is that iTunes is above Borders, Sam Goodies, and Tower, all three of whom I would have thought to be in the top three positions.
See how out of touch I am? If I buy a CD these days, I’ll always see whether iTunes has it first. Then I’m tempted to check Amazon. But if I must have it NOW, I’m spoiled in that Virgin Megastore (who wasn’t even on the top ten list) just might have it in its shrinking Classical offerings, and if they don’t, Tower on Sunset Boulevard will likely have it.
But then I’m one of those weirdoes who has held on to his LP collection and has an entire wall full of them. It’s not that I want to tell you LPs are better than CDs, my turntable works, and I and when I want to listen to one, I do. And I never felt compelled to replace them all with CDs. I have the technology to digitize my LPs, and have a few times.
I have a metal closet where all my old reel-to-reel master tapes are. I really should get them digitized someday. Wow, that’s a lot of work…
I have a laserdisc player with probably 6 laserdiscs, 4 of which are on DVD but the other two aren’t so I have to hold onto that player.
I have some old family videos on some format not used any longer that I really should get transferred to…I also think I have a box of beta video tapes in the basement somewhere. Oh yeah, they are right next to the big box full of cassettes: cassettes that I spent hours compiling and dubbing, now silent in dusty boxes in the crawlspace under my house.
March 22nd, 2006 at 7:08 pm
what, no 8-track tapes, Roger you disappoint me! *smile* I must say that the instant gratification that i-Tunes affords me is preferrable to waiting for Tower.com to deliver a cd two weeks after I order it. I refuse to enter a Walmart and I don’t like looking for music in a BestBuy or Circuit City. I really miss browsing the record aisles at the local head shop (Buffalo Bobs)when I was a kid. The torn peices of carboard shoved between albums delineating the alphabet and musical category and if you were lucky an artist’s name was written on one. God I miss liner notes!…feeling quite old at the moment.
I wonder how many times you could circumnavigate the globe with all of your un-wound cassette tapes? maybe you could do an art installation with what you have in the basement, call it “from reel to reality” or something. (ok that was just stupid, sorry)
March 22nd, 2006 at 7:46 pm
A beautiful response pucks_soul. Thank you. I resonate with every image you’ve just repainted for me!
But no, I never did 8-track. I remember house sitting for some guy in Palm Spring who had drawers of them and ONLY an 8-track player in the house.
March 28th, 2006 at 9:47 am
FYE is “For Your Entertainment,” a store that sells music, DVDs and accessories. It used to be called “The Wall,” I think. We have on in the mall here….
April 14th, 2006 at 11:04 am
Thanks Rhaps: we don’t have them to my knowledge on the West coast.