CDs ... MP3s ... Christian labels.

Have been thinking about the future of the CD.
Now the economy is not doing well it must have influences on the Christian bands too.
This should have consequences for the Christian labels too.

For bands it is very expensive to release their music.
Consequence, band try to find other ways to spend on their music.
( Kick starter projects.)
Bands can't find a label to release their music. ( Rose, Under Command).

What do you think will be the future for Christian labels?
Or labels disappear and you only can buy MP3?
I am a fan of CDs, I love reading the lyrics and read what a band has to say.

What are your thoughts over this?

Possibly a huge company will arrise that houses all music labels - They will sell only digital formats of albums new and old. With these digital downloads will include all the cover art, inserts, lyrics, band info, and even available videos.
Future music players will display all insert info and art, being fully interactive.

If someone's computer crashes and they don't have their purchased albums on other music devices, the company will allow re-downloads (similar to the way iTunes works... but only much better )

our grandkids will see CDs as our kids see records. Digital will be the norm, and just as some bands are releasing their albums on vinyl today for a nostalgic effect, bands in the near future will release an album on CD for collectors.

I could be wrong, but this is where I see the current pattern leaning towards.

(There are obvious Pros and Cons with this... one con remains the same: pirating is so easy with digital music and video.... they'll need to address that more aggressively if this scenario takes place.)

I don't know. I still buy CD's and books and when the digital form showed up everyone said the physical form would disappear.

John Grisham said in 2007 or 2008 that with the invention of the Kindle that physical printed books would disappear by 2015. Well, it's 2012 and I've bought a few books this year and I'm willing to bet that just the Hunger Games Trilogy reprint that occurred around the time the movie came out was in the millions of copies.

I don't think physical media will ever die. period.

just like magazines are still around.. and still sell.

Magazines are still around, but not all of 'em. I miss being able to take a CCM mag or HM mag to pass the time in the john.
I sneak my notebook in their to read the issues online, but my wife always looks at me weird when I head off to the bathroom with a computer in my hands.

ok.. then.. books... DVDs .. Blu-Rays ...

I dig getting CDs because I can play them in the car and read liner info/lyrics while I'm listening. Plus, they can have some collector value, depending on the CD.

I hope it doesn't all disappear, although I can possibly see it happening in like fifty years or something. But I much prefer to have a physical book, DVD or CD in my hands rather than just some file on a screen saying it's there.

One day computers will take over the world and we'll have to fight them back. Where's John Connor when you need him!

Fundy

The good thing of downloading MP3s is you don't have to wait till you get the ordered CD in the mail.
The disadvange is, you can't looking forward to find a new CD in the mailbox.

Also, if I buy an mp3 album and decide a year down the road I don't want it, I get nothing for it. With a CD I can sell it or trade it.

good point

ishmael81 wrote:

Also, if I buy an mp3 album and decide a year down the road I don't want it, I get nothing for it. With a CD I can sell it or trade it.

True dat!
But if you shop wisely you can get 3 entire MP3 albums for $16.....at those prices I don't really care about trading.

Staybrite wrote:

ishmael81 wrote:

Also, if I buy an mp3 album and decide a year down the road I don't want it, I get nothing for it. With a CD I can sell it or trade it.

True dat!
But if you shop wisely you can get 3 entire MP3 albums for $16.....at those prices I don't really care about trading.

Depends on the artist, for me.

Well once the robopocalypse happens the only music we will be able to listen to will be the sweet mechanical sounds issued from our robot overlords.

^ Then I suppose we'll just have to wait to get to heaven to hear some metal...

What if there is no metal in heaven? (I know dumb question...but I thought it was kind of funny)

I think the time will come where only certain artist will get a physical release..and even then there will be only one pressing of a certain number of cds and records. I think the mp3 websites like itunes and amazon will eventually be where the majority of music comes from. I do think eventually most artist will include a digital book. (Even when I download I burn a cd)..
I think the artist will also sell their downloads and a limited number of cds from their websites. I also think alot of bands will do away with labels and go directly to downloads and will have the digit book info on their websites. Some artist already do this.
Mardels bookstore where I live is already doing away with cds. They have computer stations where you sit down, look up an artist, purchase what you want and take the ticket up to the front where they burn the cd of the songs you chose and print all the artwork while you wait on the spot. Interesting idea but I can do that at home using amazon.

Two years ago, I was diehard about CDs. Now, I only do digital downloads unless there's a compelling reason to get a CD. My kids are already looking past CDs. It's only a matter of time.

when all the computers crash people will be sorry they only had digital music...

Quote :

when all the computers crash people will be sorry they only had digital music..

Thats why I always burn a backup cd and load everything on my mp3 player as well.

I will stop buying cds, once bands start releasing their songs as Lossless files instead of just MP3's.

Don't want to loose sound quality in the process of converting to digital.

I actually like mp3 format. Everyone talks about sound quality. I grew up in the 70s and 80s and bought mostly records and some cassettes. I still have almost everything I bought back then and still prefer to play the records over digital formats. The mp3 format sounds fine to me because I prefer the same quality of sound from the 80s. (Guess thats the old guy in me )...I have actually started getting rid of alot of my cd's. I load them onto a micro sd card and put that in my mp3 player. Some things I burn to a cd. When at home though its records and cassettes all the way. I wish I could find a nice walkman cassette player in good working condition. My wife went all digital about 2 years ago. She sold all 125 cds she had for $300. Our car has an input jack so we can listen to our mp3 players in the car...and she plugs her mp3 player into a bose radio system in the house.

If you have any CD's to get rid of, PM me. I know a guy...