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Posted: |
Jun 14, 2014 - 4:36 PM
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By: |
Mr. Popular
(Member)
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If anything specialty labels may cut back on the amount of releases at some point, but for those who watch their bottom line, they can survive even if the CD becomes a niche collector format much like vinyl.
What good is a CD if you can't use it? Car manufactures don't put CD players in cars anymore. Apple took the optical drive out of their computers. How long will manufactures continue to make CD players? I suppose one will be able to special order a CD player or external optical drive like we can a turntable. I don't know, does anyone sell cassette or 8 track players anymore?
People still buy blu ray players and PCs with burners. Portable burners still sell for those Apple users who want one. PLUS most people who listen to soundtracks will have their players. What people seem to be forgetting is that there are still more than enough players in homes and elsewhere to keep the format alive for the time being, hence why I use the word "niche".
I see the sales numbers regularly. The decline is happening YET all the doomsdayers who said the CD was done years ago have stopped predicting the end. The end will come but vinyl has proven a good niche business can be had if managed properly.
Somehow people found ways to play vinyl when turntables all but stopped being sold in regular stores. Same thing is happening with the cassette.
BTW (nobody is saying this will ever come close to vinyl but it is amusing to see the hub-bub):
Cassette Store Day is back. Following an inaugural run last year, the unrelated
companion to Record Store Day returns to the U.K., Europe, and the U.S. on Sept.
27.
As announced on its Tumblr on Monday, the event will again feature London cassette
labels Kissability and Suplex running things in the U.K. and E.U.; this time, however,
Fullerton, Calif.'s Burger Records will be helping out stateside.
Bringing Record Stores Back to Black: Record Store Day's Carrie Colliton on U2,
Retail Celebration and... Cassettes?
When the World First Met the LP, Cassettes, CD and other Physical Formats (From
the Billboard Archive)
Chart Moves: Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines Makes Solo Debut, She & Him Bows
on Cassette“Burger Records loves tapes!," said the punk and garage stronghold in the post.
"We’ve built our foundation on the forgotten format and have been preaching the
merits of warm analog cassette culture for years. We’re honored to be ambassadors
of Cassette Store Day 2014 in the good ol' USA! We plan to bring some of our
favorite labels to the table and invite everyone to the party and partake in the fun
phenomena of releasing top shelf music on cassette tapes in pop culture today!”
Added Kissability's Jen Long, “When planning this year we really tried to keep
cassette labels and fans at the heart of the event. Last year grew far bigger than we
had expected so we are thrilled to have Burger involved to help us cover the US
side.”
While CSD 2013 (which took place on Sept. 7) warmed the hearts and ears of
listeners both nostalgic for music journalist Rob Sheffield's "Love Is A Mixtape" era
and hopeful for analog's growing sweet spot in the music industry, it did not inspire
strong sales: in the week ending Sept. 8, 2013, cassette albums sold just 1,000 -- up
1% compared to the previous week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. To boot, those
numbers represent a miniscule 0.02% of the total 289 million music units moved sold
in 2013.
But CSD co-founder Steve Rose is undaunted. When asked if cassettes will make as
big a comeback as vinyl has -- which last year's RSD drove to the highest sales since
Nielsen Soundscan started tracking in 1991 -- he told Billboard, "The reception to
CSD has also been overwhelming which seems to go hand-in-hand with the rising
popularity of this accessible, affordable audio medium...The cassette is still a very
current format in DIY and underground scenes due to its affordability and ease. I also
think physical formats will stick around in music as when you are a fan you want
more than a digital file. You want something you can interact with that holds a greater
worth and reward."
This year's CSD participants have yet to be announced, but last year saw releases
from the likes of the Flaming Lips, At The Drive-In, and Deerhunter.
http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/retail/6114189/cassette-store-day-2014-announced
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I too prefer CDs (and SACDs when they're available -- and they're still making them with better dynamics and sometimes multi-channels). But I find that many newly composed soundtracks from the past year or so require, for me at least, only a handful of cues to satisfy me, and I'm buying less and less on disc. Of course I continue to buy the elaborate expansions put out by La-La-Land and Kritzerland and Intrada and SAE and Tadlow and others, but they are usually from periods when film composers provided a wealth of musical ideas for their soundtracks.
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