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Sony Closing 18M CD/Month Plant
coondoggie writes "Sony this week said it was shuttering one of its largest CD manufacturing plants — citing the impact of digital downloads and other economic issues. The plant, which has been in operation for some 50 years, first producing vinyl records, will close on March 31 and about 300 people will lose their jobs. The 500,000-square-foot warehouse began producing vinyl LPs in 1960 and moved to CD manufacturing in 1988. At its capacity, the plant was making 18 million CDs per month, according to its website."
What I don't understand is why people are surprised when shelf-space in a retail store is no longer given to a product that doesn't sell well. I know it seems weird ordering a physical CD online, but at this point, that's the best place to go from both an availability and price standpoint...depending on shipping, of course.
Living With a Nerd
I too prefer to order CDs and rip my own MP3
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300 people are responsible for making 18 million CDs/month. I saw another story about a sleeping bag factory cranking out 20 million bags a year with 500 empoloyees for the whole company. I read somewhere that American manufacturing capacity is the highest it's ever been. What are we going to do with all these people. I keep hearing 'Well, the world needs ditch diggers too'. No, no it doesn not... I guess we can let them starve to death in the streets.
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a CD manufacturing plant in a country with an actual working EPA is far, far better for the environment than the toxic waste dump that we are creating in China right now,where environmental activists get thrown in prison as 'enemies of the state'. . Thats what we do to make all of these iphones, ipads, iwhatever, which seem to get thrown out every 2 years for the 'new generation'. Close your eyes, stick your head in the sand, pretend that magic fairys give you printed circuit boards. also, where do you think the energy comes from to power the servers for downloads? it ain't some wind farm. i don't see any "renewable offset purchasing" logo on the apple istore. that 'clean tech' is powered by dirty, dirty coal dug out from the innards of a mountain and burned in a giant plant that pours smoke into the air
I'm not sure this is the most effective use of condescending quote marks. Usually when you use those, it is to imply that the thing in quotes is false, not that the thing in quotes is true elsewhere also.
www.wavefront-av.com
Then you dont buy CD's as well. All CD's are compressed hard (audio compression, not data compression) so all the life is sucked out of it. When CD's first came out most were incredible as the engineers tried to make them fantastic. Companies like Mobile Fidelity sound Lab released albums that stunned people. I have several Ultradiscs of old analog recordings that blew away the best turntable setup I could find. I have a all digital mastering of Information Society's first album that was released as an MFSL Ultradisc that used the full dynamic range that CD had in it and it is incredible even on a cheap $99.00 CD player.
Today, ALL CD's are mastered to sound good on a $2.99 piece of crap car stereo. The Audio compression is cranked up to make it "louder" and all the soul is sucked out and discarded. I cant find a CD today that is sold by a major label that does not suck in sound quality.
Honestly, if you ever heard a very well done CD, you'd be pissed at the utter crap they are releasing on CD now.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Yah, that is so cool! I'm sure every one of them has credentials for senior positions. And with the current economy and competing with their fired coworkers I bet there are 300 great jobs just waiting for them.
"Hi, I operated a cd making machine for 10 years."
"Ummm, no one is making cds anymore. Next."
If they could make more many just switching by jobs don't you think they would have before this? When I got laid off it took a year to find a job after intense effort and then it was only with a substantial pay cut.
I'm not saying they should keep the plant open just to keep paying them but don't make it sound so pollyannaish, like it's a good thing.
Stop beating around the bush and just come out and say you pirate your music. Continuing to use your license after you've sold it to someone else is no different than not getting a license in the first place.
The default position on a copyrighted work is that you do not have permission to make copies. Fair use may give you license to make copies for your own use (backup, play on different devices, etc). If you sell the original copy, you no longer have any fair use rights, thus no license at all (since, as you pointed out, you get no other license).