The Future of the CD

Murdock037 writes "Nice read at the New York Times (free reg. req.) on the CD, and how it's getting crowded out of the marketplace by gaming and DVDs-- the basic conclusion is that music executives aren't rewarded for rocking the boat, and they wouldn't know how to do it if they were. (And included is a flabbergasting claim from RIAA head Hillary Rosen that only 3 percent of consumers polled are buying less music because prices are too high-- of course, you can come up with a statistic for anything, as 72.5% of all people know.)"

Comments

Another old saying...

[boaworm]

There are lies, damn lies, and then there's statistics.

There are even books on the topic "How to lie with statistics". (Uses as course literature for to-be journalists).

Re:Another old saying...

[jvlb]

"Lies, damned lies and statistics. . ." is a quote from Mark Twain wherein he detailed the three kinds of lies he had observed. He overlooked (excusably, as it is the modern context that has created the inclusion) the worst form of lie, the resume.

Re:DVD-A and SACD aren't much better anyway

[MtViewGuy]

I respectfully disagree on this.

Listen to a recording of a regular symphonic orchestra on a normal Compact Disc and then listen to a recording of a symphonic orchestra with SACD or DVD Audio disc; the CD recording sounds quite harsh because at treble frequencies as CD's doesn't sample the higher frequencies smoothly. Because SACD and DVD Audio can sample treble frequencies far more cleanly, the result is that the harshness of the violin, woodwind instruments and cymbals are missing, resulting in a more natural sound; that's why some people have noted that SACD and DVD Audio discs have a warmer sound due to the lack of treble frequency harshness.

No-registration link in Taipei Times

[David Gerard]

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2003/ 02/23/195662

Taipei Times shortened version of the article.

200% of Nothing

[sczimme]

There is an interesting book called 200% of Nothing: An Eye-Opening Tour Through the Twists and Turns of Math Abuse and Innumeracy.

I believe it is out of print, but it is available from Alibris.

(The parallelism between 'illiteracy' and 'innumeracy' is interesting.)

Cassette track locators...

[freeweed]

And this would absolutely destroy your cassettes after a while (and not a long while, at that). Basically, you're rewinding/fast-forwarding WITH THE TAPE HEAD ENGAGED. As the deck slowed down to play the next track you were looking for, it stretched the tape itself slightly - this lead to some pretty amazing popping sounds on a lot of my old cassettes. There's a reason this technology didn't become more widespread :)

Personally I'm glad to be rid of my cassette tapes - I had over 300 at one point, and shudder to think of actually having to use one again (like the odd time I'm in an older model car). I'm darn close to that same feeling with CDs - just imagine only having 10 songs to choose form before changing the actual media! What kind of stone age is this? :)