Best Buy to cut CD & DVD space!

[Geoffcin]

The end of the disk is nearer than you think!

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/company-news/best-buy-cut-cds-dvds-as-google-apple-prep-for-mus/19635476/

[poppachubby]

It should prove interesting watching the CD types sweat this one out...

[pixelthis]

YEAH, I read that Walmart was cutting DVD space, went in one day and theres only
one aisle!
WHERE racks of DVD and blu used to be, bottles of apple juice, etc.
MEANWHILE, our last video rental store(besides movie spot and a place where they rent adult titles to those who havent discovered the net) is selling DVDs on the front sidewalk at firesale prices. THEY HAVE MADE NO ANNOUNCEMENT but I think they are cutting
inventory before they go outta business.
LASER died a lot faster than most thought it would when DVD came on the scene,
now with the net and on demand, and BLU, DVD is going down like the HENDENBURG.
Really amazing.:1:

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

In the three Best Buy's in my area, CD space has already been shrinking. They were not restocking titles that much, and slowly but surely other items have been creeping in to the space it occupied. The same goes for DVD, which has been replaced by more titles of Blu ray discs.

This whole Idea that the disc is going away sooner than we think is quite ridiculous. Yes, some very mature disc formats are going away, but not all disc formats. Digital downloads have taken quite a hit this year, with Apple Itune sales down 20%, along with most of the movie rental downloading sites as well. It is just a tough market for everyone, but Blu ray is still making inroads against DVD with every major release. With the largest retailer of the DVD format cutting space, it will further head the market towards the Blu ray format, as shrinking space gives an impression that the technology is on its way out.

The reality is, the public as a whole still is not ready for digital downloads to take over, as there is still a strong attachment to owning a physical product, as opposed to a digital file.
AV hobbiest and collectors still see the disc as the highest quality presentation, and there is no indication that downloads are capable of changing that viewpoint, at least when it comes to movies.

Music on the other hand is seeing a small growth in high resolution downloads, as audiophiles are starting to embrace wireless technology(DAC's and Media players), and hard drives for storage as a way of moving away from CD, and that is further eroding the CD as the major carrier of classical and jazz music. Gospel and other genre's of music are still behind the curve in this respect, but I see them catching up next year.

Another big deal is we are seeing more high resolution music on the Blu ray format, and with millions of players already out in the field, and a standard that supports those players, this could be the next area of growth for music.

Things are definitely changing on the music front, and there is no doubt about that.

[TheHills44060]

It should prove interesting watching the CD types sweat this one out...
Yeah this sucks...

[bustamove]

I'll miss reading the liner notes from the jewel cases using my magnifying glass. Outside of that, I haven't walked down a CD aisle for more than 5 years.

[pixelthis]

I'll miss reading the liner notes from the jewel cases using my magnifying glass. Outside of that, I haven't walked down a CD aisle for more than 5 years.

HARD TO FIND ONE...:1:

[E-Stat]

The end of the disk is nearer than you think!
The ease of downloading the most popular musical content (albeit at low quality) has overtaken the failing economics of producing, shipping, and inventorying jewel cases with a relatively low capacity disc. Since most of what I buy is not Top 40 material, I end up ordering what I want through places like Amazon anyway. I just hope there will not come a time when even CD quality versions of the vast historical catalog of music cannot be found.

It will take a while for that to be the case with the BR format given its huge data capacity which as yet is not practical from either a download or storage standpoint. When gigabit bandwidth fiber cable and petabyte capacity drives are the norm, I suspect even that will change.

rw

[Geoffcin]

Well there's a LOT more than "top-40" available for download, and most of what I have stored digitally is lossless or 320kb mp3, so I would say that quality is not an issue for downloaded music at all.

The DAC in my CD player is maginally better than my M-Audio soundcard on some recordings, but when you think that a good soundcard like mine can be had for $100, and a decent stand-alone DAC will set you back a grand or more, the math becomes stacked in favor of the soundcard.

I'm not selling my disks off yet, butI'm sure that within this coming decade the disk will see it's demise as the principle form for audio playback.

[E-Stat]

Well there's a LOT more than "top-40" available for download, and most of what I have stored digitally is lossless or 320kb mp3, so I would say that quality is not an issue for downloaded music at all.
Really? Tell me where I can download albums in lossless format. I recently bought Diane Arkenstone's Aquaria

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[Geoffcin]

Sure, I should say I've ripped most of my library in lossless, but there are many sites now offering lossless download. This is a pretty good list, although there's several more in operation now.

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/state-of-audiophile-music-downloads

I've downloaded from a couple of these sites, and I got a free pass for the B&W site when it opened several years back. You might like the HDTT site.

[E-Stat]

Sure, I should say I've ripped most of my library in lossless, but there are many sites now offering lossless download.
Such is still offered for only select artists and albums. Downloads shouldn't limit one's musical choices for what is already available on CD.

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[audio amateur]

Such is still offered for only select artists and albums. Downloads shouldn't limit one's musical choices for what is already available on CD.

rw
Maybe if you weren't so picky about the quality... :wink:

[Geoffcin]

Hey, and whos fault is that? The problem is that we (consumers who care about quality) are about 1%-2% of music consumer market and and a deeply fractured bunch at that. If audiophiles demanded 24/192, or 24/96 hi-rez downloads instead of settling for inferior CD quality then we would have it, although probably at a premium price.

[E-Stat]

If audiophiles demanded 24/192, or 24/96 hi-rez downloads instead of settling for inferior CD quality then we would have it, although probably at a premium price.
Hey, I think it would be nice to download mere CD quality for a wider catalog of content!

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[Geoffcin]

But why? When they can give yout BETTER than CD quality downloads!

I think more audiophiles are making the jump every day to high-rez downloads, the problem is our numbers are too small to atract any interest from the major labels. Still, you can get a decent selection from providers like HD Tracks;

https://www.hdtracks.com/

I think they are still offering an initial free album download.

[audio amateur]

E Stat is saying that more CD quality downloads should be available to us. If they offered higher rez that would be nice, but at the moment even CD quality music from popular artists is hard to come by. Am I correct?

[E-Stat]

E Stat is saying that more CD quality downloads should be available to us. If they offered higher rez that would be nice, but at the moment even CD quality music from popular artists is hard to come by. Am I correct?
Exactly. If physical media disappeared tomorrow, we would be left with only low rez for 95% of musical content.

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[Geoffcin]

Yes, but 85% of that would be top-40 and "Hip-Hop" so you wouldn't be missing much.

I really don't want CD quality downloads, not when high-rez digital music is available to replace it.

[pixelthis]

Really? Tell me where I can download albums in lossless format. I recently bought Diane Arkenstone's Aquaria

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hdtracks.com:1:

[E-Stat]

hdtracks.com
None of the albums I've purchased this year are available there.

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[TheHills44060]

Why are we being forced to have an internet connection to listen to music? I don't want to turn on a computer or some sort of weird internet streaming device to attain new music. I hate the way this hobby is headed.

I want to go to a store and by a piece of media and play it at home. Amp/preamp/player and 2 speakers. No need to complicate things with the internet!

[Geoffcin]

Still living in 1991 are we?

[TheHills44060]

Still living in 1991 are we?
Eh, more like 1988 but close enough. Luckily I have enough records, tapes and cd's to last the rest of my lifetime without getting bored lol.

[Ajani]

Why are we being forced to have an internet connection to listen to music? I don't want to turn on a computer or some sort of weird internet streaming device to attain new music. I hate the way this hobby is headed.

I want to go to a store and by a piece of media and play it at home. Amp/preamp/player and 2 speakers. No need to complicate things with the internet!

You could just load all your CDs to a standalone music server such as the Olive 3HD:

http://www.olive.us/

Then you wouldn't need to access the internet or turn on a computer...

Also, it's not so much that the hobby is moving in this direction, but that the world in general is moving that way... So short of spending the rest of your life in an underground bunker, you may be forced to embrace new tech anyway...

[Ajani]

I really don't want CD quality downloads, not when high-rez digital music is available to replace it.

That I agree with... I wish the major download providers like iTunes and Amazon would just skip lossless quality as the next step and go straight to High Res...


Yes, but 85% of that would be top-40 and "Hip-Hop" so you wouldn't be missing much.

This I don't agree with... The genre of music has nothing to do with the quality of the recording... Many audiophiles appreciate how much better a well recorded top-40 or Hip-Hop album sounds (especially on a quality setup)...

[TheHills44060]

You could just load all your CDs to a standalone music server such as the Olive 3HD:

http://www.olive.us/

Then you wouldn't need to access the internet or turn on a computer...

Also, it's not so much that the hobby is moving in this direction, but that the world in general is moving that way... So short of spending the rest of your life in an underground bunker, you may be forced to embrace new tech anyway...
In that case I would just continue to use my cd player. There would be no reason to transfer cd's to a music server if the server was simply acting as a player.

In the late 90's I used to download trance and techno tunes from Mp3.com only because they weren't available on cd. That was fine because it was new at the time but I have probably downloaded a total of 10 songs from the internet in the last 10 years.

[Ajani]

In that case I would just continue to use my cd player. There would be no reason to transfer cd's to a music server if the server was simply acting as a player.

In the late 90's I used to download trance and techno tunes from Mp3.com only because they weren't available on cd. That was fine because it was new at the time but I have probably downloaded a total of 10 songs from the internet in the last 10 years.

The major benefit of using a Music Server is actually not to download music from the internet.. It is to play music... 95% of the music in my server is from my original CDs (only 5% is downloaded music)...

I have playlists for just about every genre of music or mood that I feel like... So if I feel for early 90's reggae, I just press play and listen while the server goes through 40 songs... Now imagine if I had to be actively changing CDs instead to hear those 40 songs (from various albums)...

[TheHills44060]

Ahhhh now I see what you mean. Yeah the playlists seem like a really neat function but not enough for me to ditch a trusty cd player...especially one that sounds really good to my ear.

I could see myself possibly buying something like the Olive to play music in a room where I did a lot of entertaining but it would never find it's way into my main listening rig. That still doesn't help my qualms about being forced to "download" new music in the not too distant future though.

[Geoffcin]

This I don't agree with... The genre of music has nothing to do with the quality of the recording... Many audiophiles appreciate how much better a well recorded top-40 or Hip-Hop album sounds (especially on a quality setup)...

It might not have anything to do with the recording of the music, but the CD's I've gotten that were "top-40" were engineered to be compressed so it will sound good played in a high ambiant noise enviroment like a car. Audiophile quality reproduction is wasted on these CDs.

[E-Stat]

Yeah the playlists seem like a really neat function but not enough for me to ditch a trusty cd player...especially one that sounds really good to my ear.
I agree that convenience alone shouldn't replace quality. It shouldn't have to. I use a Squeezebox Touch as transport only connected to a Manley DAC. Admittedly, I use an existing Wi-FI network for connectivity. Even the latest $25k EMM Labs XSD1 player offers digital inputs to use its DAC separately.


I could see myself possibly buying something like the Olive to play music in a room where I did a lot of entertaining but it would never find it's way into my main listening rig.
I'm with you in that when I listen to the main system, I tend to be more focused and don't mind changing discs (or LPs for that matter).


That still doesn't help my qualms about being forced to "download" new music in the not too distant future though.
I confess my perspective differs based upon the convenience factor. You mean that I can instantly have any music I want without having to hunt down multiple stores or wait for Amazon.com to deliver a week later? This assumes one can still get at least CD quality.

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