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

1. Wal-Mart
2. Best Buy
3. Target
4. Amazon.com
5. FYE
6. Circuit City
7. Apple iTunes
8. Tower Records
9. Sam Goody
10. 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.