Penny, This is a very favorite topic of mine. The economic and cultural ramifications of download versus physical disc fascinate me personally and professionally. It represents the first time that an advancement in technology has made it possible to completely bypass the retail deliverer of purchased content.
About the time that iPods came out, I noticed an immediate drop in sales of CDs. It wasn't dramatic, mostly because most classical music was not broadly available for download at the time. But the combined purchase/download effect of Amazon, Napster, iTunes, eClassical, and all the many and various web sites that now offer a quality digital format (debatable point, I know) have caused physical disc sales to plummet. And the publishers are well aware. The owner of a fairly well known label told me a few years ago that he is in a constant turmoil over whether to trade his "CD dollars" for "download pennies". The decision will be made for him. Download is not merely here to stay, it is the main medium for transmission of digitally-delivered content. Cover art and liner notes can be offered for a download, as well, as a .pdf file. Almost nothing you get with a CD is lost in the era of transmitted content. Most of the real thorny rights and reimburesment issues have been worked out, about as well as can be expected. Players of downloaded content are now ubiquitous - they're even standard equipment in automobiles! Negatives of download: users expect a low cost download, and usually prefer unbundling of tracks. And the net revenues are low. Some labels want exclusive distribution rights. Positives of download: instantaneous access to content, and as broad a market as there is. And the kids love it. I think the CD, just like vinyl, will never go away. It will just become a boutique kind of thing. And a huge number of your potential customers will no longer even have players, so you will almost certainly be forced to offer a digital download somewhere, somehow. Disc with no download is a poor way to go. Download with no disc is viable. Download with available disc is probably the best of all possible worlds because there's still a significant (for now) customer base that will want the disc. As long as the quality of the content and the master recording are high, you can distribute through any medium you think is best. -- Regards, Dave Weiner Brass Arts Unlimited _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
