CDinosaur

I knew it had been a while since I'd set foot in a brick-and-mortar music store, but wow. Here's what I ended up taking home from Zia Records tonight:

• Awolnation, Megalithic Symphony: new, $9.99
• The Lumineers: new, $12.99
• Beatles, Rubber Soul: used, $3.99
• Beatles, The White Album: used, $16.99
• Shawn Colvin, Fat City: used, $2.99
• Shawn Colvin, A Few Small Repairs: used, $2.99

At the checkout counter I asked, "Is it me, or have prices gone way down?

The guy ringing me up confirmed that they had. Especially for used CDs.

"The digital download crisis has been going on for so long," I said, "that I figured it would never happen. That the music industry would be in denial forever."

The guy said, "There's a rumor going around that by the end of this year, nobody will even make CDs anymore. Of course, it's only a rumor."

Googling around later, I found an article from Side-Line Music Magazine claiming that except for special limited editions, the CD format will be abandoned by major labels by the end of 2012. They say they can't get official confirmation, but they seem pretty sure it's going to happen.

I dunno. While the demise of the CD is bound to happen eventually, it seems like someone would have announced it if "eventually" were less than a year away.

On the other hand, the timing seems right. CDs at reasonable prices? Can't have that.

Once an album, always an album

Commenting on my last post about whether our music is happy or sad, Leigh said of two of her favorite Cinder Bridge songs:

And yet both are not on the cd (which I initially typed as "album", showing my age :) ). *grumble*

OK, first, Leigh should be unashamed of her verbiage. Highways and Hiking Shoes IS an album. An album is simply a collection of musical tracks, released together in a certain order. The White Album by the Beatles is still The White Album. It is not, as one DJ rather appallingly called it, The White CD.

Second, Leigh is showing her age (mine too), but not for the reasons she thinks.

A friend of mine once told me that half of people under 16 have never bought a CD. A lot of those people will probably never buy a CD. They get all their music online.

So if you insist on associating the word "album" with vinyl, then you may have to call recent releases "MP3s." Except that MP3s are individual songs. You can download them separately, or you can buy a bunch of them together as the collection known as ... wait for it ... the album.

ALBUM ALBUM ALBUM! S'there. Also, get off my lawn!