As if issues like oil, food and security weren’t enough to worry about, now we have another format war on our hands. Unlike past format wars — vinyl vs. 8-track, Beta vs. VHS, HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray — this one is deep-seated, widely splintered and continually scrutinized. Yeah, there’s a lot of opinions about digital music (online streaming, MP3s, etc.) and physical music (CDs, cassettes, vinyl).
It’s not so much the format itself that’s at the heart of the matter; instead, it’s the distribution. Despite its inferior fidelity, the appeal of digital music lies in its ease of accessibility. A couple of clicks of the mouse, and presto! You have music booming out of your computer speakers or headphones.
Physical music, of course, takes a little work and patience, but you have a few choices. You can borrow a CD and copy it. Not such a big deal, but you need the media, the software and the hardware to do it. You can purchase a CD from Amazon, E-Bay or some other online retailer, pay a little extra for shipping, and wait by the mailbox for the next week. Or you can drive around searching for a proper record store, eventually succumbing to the local Wal-Mart of Best Buy where you hope they’ll have the CD you want in stock.
Living in a fast-paced world where tastes and trends wither and fade with each new dawn, digital music has its place. But when nostalgia and tangibility creep in, holding an album adorned with a colorful artwork is worth the hassle for some people. Continued existence of either form relies solely on sales. And this is where things get dicey.
The amount of disinformation on the web is already rampant; as for the recording industry, the spin cycle has been running in a thousand directions, backed with tons of contrasting statistics and figures. One report says, “Digital music sales represented 10% of the total worldwide music market in 2007, up from 6% in 2006. We expect that by 2012, digital music sales will represent an impressive 40% of all music purchased worldwide.” Another report says that by 2012, “digital music sales will have surpassed CD sales.” Gee, I wonder who’s behind these reports?
On the flipside — no pun intended — you have research specialists claiming “file-sharing usage has failed to fall while the percentage of music fans regularly paying for downloads is shrinking.” This same “research” says the percentage of music fans regularly buying music downloads has gone down from “16% in 2006 to 14% by the end of 2007.” In other words, digital music sales are either going up or down, depending on which report you believe.
Where does this leave the CD? According to one blog I read, Wired editor Nancy Miller said the CD is “dead and gone.” The same blog stated that, according to the RIAA figures, 511 million CDs shipped last year. Seems like it’s in Miller’s best interest that the CD takes a dive, so she and her staff can fill their pages with content on new and innovative technology, instead of ancient, archaic storage devices like the CD. Naturally, the RIAA is staying on top of the numbers, no matter where they land.
Throwing in its weight into the ring like an independent breaking up the Democrat-Republican chokehold, vinyl is even getting props as a formidable seller. On yet another blog, I that the RIAA’s 2007 sales report says the American music industry sold 36.6% more Extended Play (EP) and Long Play (LP) records than it had in the previous year, increasing vinyl sales revenue by 46.2%. The blogger has all but declared a “vinyl resurgence.” Funny how the blog I got this information from is part of the Wired blog network. Even an editor and a blogger from the same publication can’t seem to get on the same page.
All I know is I have a lot of old factory cassettes I’d love to unload. Any takers?
