CDs still 74% of sales in 2010. Long live the CD!

Yes, music is becoming digitized, streamed and downloaded. But a surprising amount of money is still being spent on old-fashioned CDs.

Nearly three-quarters of U.S. music sales in 2010 were in the form of discs, according to Tom Silverman, a board member of the Recording Industry Assn. of America.

Among some genres, the percentage of CD sales is even higher -- 93% of Latin, 85% of gospel and 84% of country records were physical discs.

"CDs aren't doing so bad," Silverman said during opening remarks at the New Music Seminar conference in Los Angeles. "People still like CDs."

Yes, CD sales are declining, Silverman said, "But we don't have to accelerate that process."

-- Alex Pham

Twitter: @AlexPham

 

Comments

[john gray]

i'd like to add my view

CDs suck

you have to drag em around in big cases, they get all scratched and unlistenable at a certain point,

THEY ARE IN 44,100/16 bit audio, when it has been common practice to record at higher sample/bit rates for many years..(as a music producer, this one always messes with me)

if at the very least, CDs should have turned into dvd audio discs many years ago, that provide the fidelity of the original recordings with surround as common place. stereo is the new mono.

for me, the best case scenario is that every music player in cars, home listening and home theater should come with a jack (analog audio + usb) to plug in any external players. this could have been happening on a big scale for many years.

side note, processing is getting faster all the time, so the naysayers of mp3 need not worry. when processing gets fast enough and storage gets bigger, you wont be able to tell the difference from an mp3 to a high res wav. they'll both rip and download fast.

anyways, what im really trying to say is when innovation in any field is not allowed, the business it tries to support will wither. it's a very simple idea and it rings true with anything

i say we should always embrace the next wave. Cds have already given way to ipods and mp3s. I cant wait to see whats next. It's going to get so much cooler and you guys are still stuck with pong. seriously wake up!

[Walter]

Every year CD sales fall 20% or more. The CD will not be long-lived.