davidh777

He was referring to the several-month gap between physical release and Netflix streaming. But some major studios do have deals for Netflix not to make physical discs available for rent till a certain time after release.

slop101

Even though it'll be a shadow of what it is now, I'd be willing to bet that physical media for music, be it vinyl or CD will still be around for another 10 years. Another 20... maybe not.

WeeBey

Yeah, that's possible. It will be interesting to see where vinyl peaks.

orangerunner

I think CDs will still be around because they are so cheap to produce and they can be manufactured in quantities as little as 500 units.

slop101

I've heard from small bands that are starting out, that it's easier to get people to listen to their music by pressing and giving away CDs (or even charging a few dollars) than it is to have people listen online and/or download for free.

I'm old school, and most kids don't have this mentality, but if I've paid for something and have it physically in my hand, it's worth more to me and means something more than if I would've just downloaded it for free. And I actually think most people feel that way, but just aren't willing to pay for stuff they're not sure about.

PhantomStranger

The CD pressing infrastructure is dirt cheap and available to most every small company for pennies. What hurts Blu-ray's long-term viability down the road is that pressing them isn't particularly cheap and only a few companies are really manufacturing them.

The CD format will outlast both DVD and Blu-ray.

Josh-da-man

I can foresee vinyl outlasting the CD format as an audiophile and collector format.

Digital, as a format, has more appeal to the average person because of its portability and the ability to cerate playlists. It's easier to listen to music on the go when it's stored on your phone or in the cloud.

Also, anyone notice that CD players are getting really hard to find?

DVD Polizei

There are also CDs which are literally rotting from bad plastic. You won't know until you put your CD in the player one fine sunny day when you feel like playing your rare mixes....and it shows there is no data on it. Had this happen to a few discs of mine. Tried using dozens of programs but the data literally disappeared. I looked at the CD up to a light and I could see right through it.

My advice. Start duplicating your CDs every 5 years.

slop101

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I have CDs as old as 30 years, and this hasn't happened to them at all.

orangerunner

I have recordable CDs that are 15 years old and pressed CD that are 25 years old and I haven't come across any bad ones yet - although I know they are out there.

Falcon brand CDs have a recordable "Gold Archival" disc that claims to last for 300 years (!) and a DVD-R that lasts 100 years.

Of course if 299 years down the road you have a defective disc, they are only obligated to provide you with a shiny new blank disc. Certainly a low-risk warranty for the company.

morriscroy

For the most part.

The only places I see standalone audio cd-only players nowadays, are either thrift shops or really expensive high end audio/video stores. They seem to be entirely absent from places like BestBuy, Walmart, etc ..

I would guess these days, anybody who still wants to play audio cds can just use their dvd (or bluray) player to play them.

morriscroy

Assuming the company is still in business by then.

(ie. The company has not filed for bankruptcy, and/or the liabilities have not been expunged).

davidh777

It's more of a factor if you have multiple shelves of discs and aren't sure where everything is.

The digital equivalent is if you own titles on multiple services like iTunes, flixster, Amazon, etc.

orangerunner

I agree, vinyl is the '57 Chevy of the audio market. Even if the sound isn't superior, it's a classic format entrenched in nostalgia.

CDs are still the finest in sound quality and MP3 for affordability, easy access and portability.

If all three still serve a purpose and provide something the other two do not, I think they will all remain relevant for some time.

morriscroy

(On a tangent).

The strangest cases I came across are cd releases of old albums, which they used an old vinyl copy to digitize. Typically the excuses they use for doing this, are ones like:

- the original master tape is lost/gone/destroyed
- the record company won't let them have access to the original master tapes
- the condition of the original master tape is extremely decayed and degraded
- etc ...

dvdshonna

```

slop101

Fixed.

Because if you bother to look around even a little, you can find new CDs for $5-$10 each, which comes out to way less than the $1.30 per-song that iTunes or whoever charges. Not to mentions, a lot of CDs I buy on amazon also gives me that album's digital version as a free bonus.

orangerunner

I guess I meant affordable in the sense that many people still get their music by means of "sharing".

PhantomStranger

I hate to come across like this but this is crazy advice for pressed CDs. I am fairly certain I have the largest CD collection on DVD talk and two CDs in total have ever gone bad on me since I started buying them in 1987. A notorious batch from the PDO plant around the late 1980s is the only widespread example of defective pressed CDs.

CD-Rs can go bad, most don't seem to last beyond ten years. Those probably should be duplicated on a regular basis.

Gizmo

Who buys a CD and listen to (and enjoys) every single song on the album?

Maybe a few a year?

slop101

It's not many, but they exist. Even when each song's not a huge winner, bands I like make albums where the sum of the songs taken together are greater than them on their own.

WeeBey

Paid downloads are also declining. The only parts of the recorded music industry that's growing are streaming and vinyl.

In 2014, total revenue from streaming was $1.31 billion while revenue from paid downloads was $2.49 billion. That year, streaming grew 54% and paid downloads declined 9% for albums and 12% for songs.

Vinyl, for its part, grew 52%. It was 3.6% of all albums sold in 2014.

When the dust settles, it's plausible that on-demand streaming for the masses and vinyl for the enthusiasts are all that remain. That said, it will be interesting to see if vinyl continues to appeal to millennials as they get older and whether that appeal translates to their kids, many of whom have little experience with any sort of physical media.

morriscroy

Very very very few.

The only new titles I purchased in recent years which I listened to every single song on a cd over and over again, are studio albums from Iron Maiden which were released after y2k.

(I don't bother listening to their live albums released every few years since y2k. They all sound like a poor imitation of their classic Live After Death album).

BSTNFAN

Do you mind sharing the number?

davidh777

I have a large physical CD collection as well and haven't found a rot problem, but honestly I don't play them very often after I rip them. That's been a gradual process over the last few years so I was OK at least through then.