EMI Music's Alain Levy Admits that the CD As We Know It is "Dead"
Actually, this was the quote that is bandied about the net.. "The CD as it is right now is dead," said Alain Levy, EMI Music Chairman and Chief Executive.
With CMJ just around the corner, no doubt this will be talked about as music companies try to wrestle with YouTube and the dwindling sales of CDs. With Tower Records closing its doors for good, that means less ancillary revenue streams and more question marks into the holiday season. The plight of Tower Records sort of set off a warning alarm to music labels across the board -- from major to indie. The business must change and the physical CD as it is being sold today is not helping.
Alain Levy was speaking at a London Business School, discussing the state of the music industry and such. Levy admits that CDs being sold today don't have as much value-added features. I disagree with him in a way. Labels have released versions of a band's music on formats such as VCD, SACD and 5.1 Dolby Digital. In a sense, Levy is admitting defeat but still trying to push the public into believing that the physical CD is something that will be in market over the next 20 years. Perhaps, but like its vinyl predecessor it may be in limited quantities as more people gravitate to MP3 players and memory cards for music playback and storage.
The music industry isn't moving fast enough to meet demands of a digital marketplace. Its killing them. With YouTube and Apple dictating marketplace, the music industry has no choice but to follow. Which brings me to Levy's next comment, "By the beginning of next year, none of our content will come without any additional material." So, does that mean that the next Goldfrapp release will actually have music videos bundled with the audio CD release? Is that what he means by "value-added" releases? That's just a stop-gap. People will still burn the tracks onto their iTunes or some other MP3 player. And what's the difference if iTunes offers a release on their store site that gives the same features -- audio and music video bundle? Unless he's talking about something else, like a collectible book or something.
I think EMI is just dragging their feet. Meanwhile, rival labels allow their content to be shared as their artists gain more exposure through blogs, sites and mash-ups.
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