The future will no longer be etched in silver and sealed in plastic. It's official - the CD will soon be history. Industry figures are proving that sales of CDs are plummeting faster than an airliner in a volcanic cloud. How do you even play these things anymore? Although it pains me to say it, the next Hopkinsville Goblins release will be online only.
Why the pain? Well I kind of like them. You get a neat little package you can fit on a shelf, with a booklet to flick through and a nice picture disc. Plus you can fit 80 minutes of music on them in pristine, uncompressed digital stereo. Despite all that, they will soon be landfill. Vinyl, on the other hand, is making a come back.
It amazes me that vinyl sales are growing given their limitations. Size, cost, turntable maintenance, vinyl vulnerability (ever left one in the sun?), limited length. Don't get me wrong - I own a few vinyl LPs. A thousand or so at last count, some of which are shown in the photo on the left. But I don't play them that much because they are such high maintenance. And at 45 minutes tops split over two sides it severely restricts your creativity. Hell, my little guys are in full flight after 45 minutes and in no mood to stop.
So we're moving with the times, getting our ducks in a row, cutting overheads and thinking outside the box. But I'll take heart from previous prophets of doom who said new technology would bring the death of a medium. That's what they said about books when TV arrived. That's what they said about vinyl when CDs arrived. That's what they said about movies when VHS arrived. That's what they said about VHS when DVDs arrived - oh hang on, that was correct.
Anyway, gotta go. The online platforms are calling, demanding my metadata.
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