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MV, if CDs do kick the bucket one day and labels still don't have download rights, is that the end of LLL?
Most likely...at least as a record company. We are dabbling in the film making market. Got our feet wet with the documentary King Cohen. Working on some other ideas now. Plus, we aim to have our first Blu Ray out later this year.
MV
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Back in the day before Amazon had cornered the market Best Buy used to be a pretty decent source for soundtrack cds. The ones I used to go to often had almost as good of a selection of the major label releases as Tower Records, and cheaper prices. That said, I can't say I am surprised. A few months ago I was looking for some shelving to store cds and went to Best Buy in hopes that they might sell them. The salesperson seemed completely confused and after several attempts at explaining what I wanted, he ultimately tried to sell me an entertainment center.
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OMG that's hilarious! 
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It's interesting Sony will no longer be manufacturing their own format: Blu-ray discs.
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Bill, you make a good point.
I have long told friends and family as well as members here that discs are really only obsolete when players are no longer made, not the discs themselves.
I hope folks keep that in mind.
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Well made CDs come with fun packaging and sound terrific. What else is there to explain, right? 
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This is no news here. Best Buy was my last place to get big label mass market releases, but when STAR WAR : THE LAST JEDI came out, they never got a copy in store. I wanted to see if it was a digipac or jewel case. All three times I stopped in to check (2 weeks after the release), they did not have it and told me I could order it on-line. I told them if I had to order it on-line, it would not be from Best Buy. They did have 14 copies of Pitch Perfect 3! I will now only order from Amazon and a few other small labels.
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Posted: |
Feb 5, 2018 - 11:08 AM
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By: |
ryanpaquet
(Member)
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Read this recent article about how CDs still have a bright future.
Not dead yet: Record executives making sure the compact disc still has a future
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/dead+Record+executives+making+sure+compact+disc+still+future/16515996/story.html
TORONTO — Adrian Doran knows he's clinging onto what many consider an obsolete music format, but for him there's still plenty to love about compact discs.
Not long ago he made browsing the CD aisles of HMV Canada part of his shopping routine, but when the retailer went bust last spring he was confronted with the possibility of migrating to a streaming music service. He chose to start picking up CDs at his local independent record store instead.
"I just bought into them big time," the 52-year-old Toronto resident said of his appreciation for CDs.
Whether it's the inferior sound quality or the inaccessibility of rarities, Doran finds streaming music services don't stand up to his extensive CD collection. He tried Spotify but couldn't see past its shortcomings, particularly the missing albums in artists' back catalogues that were substituted by "greatest hits" packages.
"There's huge holes," he said of the selection. "It really surprised me."
Despite becoming what some dubbed "the year of streaming," 2017 proved those shiny little discs still have some life left in them. But it isn't necessarily because of strong consumer demand from holdouts like Doran. It's because the music industry is trying to stave off the demise of its golden goose any way it can.
CD sales were boosted this year by a trend that saw some concert tickets for big arena shows — including tours by Arcade Fire, Shania Twain and Pink — bundled with a copy of the band or artist's latest album.
Many concertgoers were offered the choice between a digital download or a CD sent through the mail. Whether those CDs were ever unwrapped is anybody's guess, but each ticket sale helped rocket those performers to the top of the album charts in their first week of sales.
Compact discs were also a huge part of Taylor Swift's launch of "Reputation," her latest album which came packaged at Walmart Canada stores with an exclusive magazine about the singer. Streaming platforms didn't get the year's top-selling album until three weeks after its release, which meant many Swifties were dusting off their parents' boomboxes to get a first listen.
Other albums like Gord Downie's posthumous "Introduce Yerself" also saw sales heavily weighted in the CD format. About 9,700 copies were sold on CD, thousands more than its digital and vinyl sales combined.
Preliminary numbers from Nielsen Music Canada show that while CD sales fell 18 per cent over the past year, still selling roughly 10 million units, they were relatively strong compared to the more dramatic erosion of digital album sales through stores like iTunes.
Digital album sales tumbled nearly 25 per cent for the year to 6.2 million units, extending what is expected to be a steep downturn as more listeners embrace streaming services.
David Bakula, who oversees Nielsen's industry insights operations, said the changes in digital habits mean the CD is representing a larger share of the declining album sales market. He believes that writing the obituary for the CD is premature as labels look to bolster album sales however they can, while older listeners stick to their usual buying habits.
"We're not seeing this flight from the format," he added.
But it's impossible to deny that CDs took an irreparable punch to the gut in Canada when HMV's 102 store closures left many communities without a music store for months. Sunrise Records eventually picked up the slack by reopening many of those locations with a stronger focus on vinyl albums.
Walmart also dramatically scaled back its CD selection while fellow retail giant Best Buy recently scrubbed music from its stores entirely.
All of this certainly hasn't boded well for boosting sales figures, but music historian Alan Cross is confident record labels will follow the dollar.
"If they can't get people into the store to buy a CD, well then (they'll) just send the CDs directly to them, whether they want it or not," he said, pointing to expectations that the success of ticket bundles will only lead to other artists experimenting with the strategy.
"By nature a lot of music fans are collectors and that means they need a physical thing to collect."
It's possible an established act like Bruce Springsteen or the Rolling Stones could try to up the ante by pairing scarce concert seats with an exclusive CD box set.
Proposals like those seem catered to loyal listeners like Doran, who picked up Serena Ryder's latest disc from the merchandise table at a Toronto concert a couple of weeks ago. He hopes shelling out the money in person gave Ryder a little more of the profits.
But even in his household, the CD isn't as prominent as it once was. Usually after buying a disc he rips the tracks onto his computer before tossing the physical copy into a box he's marked with an ominous label: "Dead CDs."
"That was kind of bleak humour," he added.
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Kind of like what MV said, CD's aren't going anywhere. As long as we buy them, they'll be made; we surely don't want to see a label like La La Land Records stop making soundtrack releases, right???
We may end up paying a little more for them, but it's a small price to pay.
I do, however, think there is room for improvement with CDs. If they held twice as much (or so; still one side), were scratch-proof like some cellphone screens these days, they'd certainly be more valuable (at least to me).
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