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Posts with tag cd

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Wal-Mart Cutting CD Shelf Space to Make Room for Blu-ray

by Darren Murph, posted Nov 4th 2008 at 10:31AM

Remember the days of watching big box retailers like a hawk to see if more shelf space was being given to Blu-ray or HD DVD? Yeah, epic times. Now, however, a new report is suggesting that Wal-Mart may be giving more of its packaged media space to Blu-ray Discs rather than music CDs. The reason? A 23-percent decline in CD sales during the first four weeks of Q4. Richard Greenfield, analyst with Pali Capital, believes that Wally World is "increasing its exposure to consumer electronics, video games and Blu-ray, and reducing floor space devoted to CDs and standard DVDs."

Furthermore, it's reported that John Fleming, chief marketing officer with Wal-Mart, insinuated that "electronics would be getting space expansion in stores due to the decline in physical packaged media." We'll be keeping an eye out to see if we spot any shifts in our local Wal-Mart stores -- won't you do the same?

[Image courtesy of TeamSugar]

Starbucks Eliminating CDs and iTunes Gift Cards From Its Shops

by Tim Stevens, posted Jun 26th 2008 at 11:48AMBreaking News

Starbucks Feels the Music Industry's PainWith file sharing, the death of independent radio, and out of touch record labels, the music industry hasn't exactly been flourishing lately. CD sales are way down, and while online music sales are way up, they're not exactly filling the gap. Unsurprising, then, that coffee uber-franchise Starbucks is scrapping its foray into the music distribution business, focusing instead on what it does best: coffee.

Starbucks had aspirations of turning into not just a cool place to get hot Venti Lattes in the morning, but also a place to check out new artists and buy a CD or three while you sipped and chatted. Those plans started with a rack of CDs at stores, along with iTunes gift cards, and a new music label. But when it was revealed that each store was selling only two discs per day, it was clear that people were coming for the caffeine kick and little else.

The chain will still continue to sell a few CDs here and there, but its upstart music label has been sold off, leaving fledgling bands with one fewer venue to get their music out there. And thus the cycle continues. [Source: Silicon Alley Insider]

iTunes is #2 Music Retailer, CD Sales Continue to Plummet

by Thomas Houston, posted Feb 27th 2008 at 5:57PM




Apple's iTunes Music Store, the leader in legal online music sales, overtook Best Buy to become the second largest music retailer in the country. Older music fans age 36 to 50 -- not teens -- are at the root of iTunes' growth, and iTunes now trails only Wal-Mart in music sales.

The music market continues to reel under the changes to distribution brought on by the Web. NPD Group, a market research firm, recently released a new study documenting music sales and purchasing trends in the US. Online music downloads continue to grow, and listeners of all ages are moving away from compact discs.

NPD found that although music purchasing is up among 36 to 50 year olds, less than half of teens bought a single CD in 2007. Overall, CD purchases dropped 19% last year. According to the report, over one million teens stopped regularly purchasing CDs in 2007. Music fans of all ages cite price, convenience and choice as reasons for moving away from CDs to online downloads. Last year, 29 million users regularly (and legally) downloaded music online.

From LA Times, Engadget and Macworld



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It's a CD! It's a Record! It's a CD/Vinyl Hybrid!

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Nov 8th 2007 at 2:31PM

Vinyl/CD Hybrid
There's a small group of us who, in this digital world, has developed a fetish for all things analog. This obsession is particularly strong among musicians and music lovers. Vacuum tube amps, vintage synthesizers, and, of course vinyl records.

Optimal Media Productions is appealing to this fascination with good ol' records by adding a little value and novelty to your average CD. The comapny's new combo vinyl CD is a standard CD on one side and three-and-a-half minutes of pure vinyl goodness on the other.

The combination of the convenience of a CD and the coolness of vinyl isn't quite perfect, since there is only enough room for one song on the vinyl side. Even so, that little vinyl strip could provide the perfect place to add a bonus track.

From Wired

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In-Car CD Players May Face Extinction

by Tim Stevens, posted Sep 24th 2007 at 11:13AM

In-Car CD Players May Face Extinction

In-dash CD players have been a staple of car audio for nearly two decades now. But, with CD sales declining and digital music sales soaring, it seems the in-car CD player is going the way of the cassette deck (and the 8-track before it). German car audio manufacturer Blaupunkt -- popular with the 'Pimp My Ride' set -- has ditched the CD player in its new Melbourne SD27 head unit in favor of a slot for SD or MMC memory cards.

The unit will play both MP3 and WMA songs directly from the SD card, displaying song information on a 30-character front-panel display, which, to be honest, we find a bit small by today's standards -- especially given the room freed up by the lack of a CD slot. It won't play AAC songs, so iTunes fans who don't want to convert their tracks will need to hook up their iPods through the line-in jack, which also works with any other media player, of course. The SD27 is also Bluetooth-compatible, so it can do hands-free calls and even stream music directly from other Bluetooth-compatible devices.

The Melbourne SD27 goes for $159.95 -- a small price to pay for freeing your glove box up for what it was really meant for: napkins and ketchup packets.

From Gizmag

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Play Your Old Cassettes on an iPod

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Sep 13th 2007 at 3:24PM

Play Your Old Cassettes on an iPod

Many of us have piles of cassettes laying around -- relics of days in which you expressed love by way of the mix tape and in which "stealing music" meant dubbing a friend's copy of 'Night Moves.' But, the rise of the digital revolution has relegated these magnetic mementos to storage bins under our beds.

Sometimes, though, a little bit of nostalgia takes hold and listening to those old cassettes can be a very satisfying experience. The problem is that many of us ditched our cassette players long ago. Thankfully, there's a company waiting to cash in on your inability to part with the past.

Send Cassettes2CDs your old tapes and the company will dump them onto a CD or straight to MP3 for easy loading on your iPod. The tracks are split, titled, tagged and "volume maximized" if a little on the quiet side. And if the tape won't play, Cassettes2CDs fixes it for free.

Cassettes2CDs offers prepaid mailers in the continental U.S., with prices starting at $79 for a package of 10 tapes. And despite the name, the service will do the same for your old LPs and 45s.

From Retro Thing

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Are Your CDs and DVDs Rotting Away?

by Tim Stevens, posted Aug 20th 2007 at 1:15PM

Are Your CDs Rotting Away?When the CD was invented (25 years ago), it was sold as a replacement for audio cassettes and records not only because of its higher quality audio, but also because of its longevity. Unlike a cassette or LP, they told us, there's nothing that rubs against the CD as it plays, meaning -- in theory -- it could last forever. Turns out that's not so true. Web designer Dan Koster has discovered that 15% of his collection of 2,000 CDs has suffered from what is called "CD rot."

CDs are made of multiple layers, with a reflective layer sandwiched in the middle between two layers of clear plastic. Rot occurs when that metallic layer starts to corrode or when the plastic layers separate. This results in a disc that looks like it has tiny holes in it when you hold it up to a light, or a more noticeable discoloration spreading from the outside edge inward.

Regardless of the cause, the result is the same: unplayable music and unreadable data. Frighteningly enough, there's no reason to believe modern DVD, Blu-ray, and HD-DVD discs won't suffer the same fate.

What can you do? Creating backups is your best bet, which means ripping every CD you buy to your computer and making copies of software. But given the nature of modern copy protection, creating backup versions of many things impossible. You can also make sure you keep CDs and DVDs out of the sun, in cases, and in a cool area.

If you thought that burned CD of pictures from your honeymoon was going to outlast your marriage, you might want to think about another means of preserving those pics.

From Newsvine

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Fun Facts About the CD on Its 25th B-Day

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Aug 17th 2007 at 3:06PM




The mighty CD has hit the quarter century mark. That flat, round optical disc that has brought us so much great (and terrible) music over the years, not to mention loads of software and video games.

The format, originally developed by Sony and Phillips and intended to last 20 to 25 years, is still alive as it passes the upper stretch of its originally estimated lifespan. And though the CD has served us well, its birthday is no occasion for present-opening or piñata-slapping. At 25 years young, the CD is a sickly old man. Sure, it'll survive as a music format for a little while as slower technology adopters finally come around to buying iPods -- let's not forget that you can still buy blank cassette tapes some 20 years after they were first eulogized -- but the CD is still alive and well as a storage format and a means of distributing software and video games (despite the increasing preponderance of higher-capacity DVDs and Blu-Ray discs).

Looking forward, the whole concept of the hard copy as a means of distribution of entertainment content will eventually lose out to MP3s, downlodable movies, games and other digitally transferred media. All the more reason to celebrate the CD's birthday with a few of its milestones and fun facts:
  • Originally, the expensive new format was marketed towards audiophiles, jazz lovers and classical music fans, who were generally more well off than pop or rock fans
  • The first commercially available CD player was Sony's CDP-101 (pictured above), which cost $900
  • The early prototype CDs were only 60 minutes long but were bumped up to 74 minutes to accommodate the entirety of Beethoven's '9th Symphony'
  • The first CD produced was 'The Visitors' by ABBA
  • The first CD produced in the U.S. was Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA'
From The BBC

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Is The Compact Disc Format Dead?

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jun 26th 2007 at 2:10PM

CDs for sale in Los Angeles
It's no secret that the music industry is hurting. Bad press, easy-to-find free music, and a release calendar consistently filled with nominees for our most irritating song list have cost the major labels dearly. At the same time that the industry as a whole is being yanked down by plummeting CD sales, digital music sales have increased enough to make iTunes the number 3 music retailer behind Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

Apple has taken 9.8 percent of the music market, rolling right past Amazon and Target. We do, however, have a slight issue with how this was calculated. In the study, single song downloads were converted to album sales by assuming every 12 songs sold equaled one album. This isn't an absurd way to calculate the total, but we can't help but feel it's inflating iTunes percentage of the market place.

On the plus side, indie bands are seeing more success. Whether this is part of a backlash against the major labels and their continuous output of safe, bland music, or simply a byproduct of the new reach they have with digital music and iTunes is hard to say.

Some experts are expecting digital music sales to climb 47 percent in 2007 and another 28 in 2008. However, overall music sales are expected to drop by nine percent in each year. What's more, experts estimate that CD sales will drop by 20 percent in the year 2008.

All of this begs the question, is the CD really dead?




From Forbes and Audioholics via Slashdot

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PlayStation Is a $6,000 CD Player

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jun 5th 2007 at 11:04AM

PlayStation
Every once in a while someone discovers a truly unexpected use of old technology. In this case, it turns out that inside a particular version of the original PlayStation (Version SCPH-1001/2 to be exact) sits a high-end audio CD player.

A reader at Destructoid wrote in to tell the editors about his father's search for "the perfect sound." Among his father's very expensive audio toys was this PlayStation. He discovered that part of what makes that console so great for playing back audio is the inclusion of RCA jacks on the back. These days, game consoles use multi-format output jacks that send both audio and video over tiny wires and then split them out to your various connections. This original PlayStation had its audio outs coming directly from the sound processing board, a more direct connection (and a golden goal for audiophiles). What's more, the RCA jacks that Sony used in the original PlayStation are said to be of superior quality.

An article on 6moons suggests that serious 'philes would pay over $6,000 for a CD player of this quality. You may want to run to eBay and stock up before the rest of the world finds out. They're still a steal with plenty of listings going for less than $20.

From Destructoid

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