I just read the following on Dave Kusak's site:

In South Korea, the market for music has already shifted to the future. There the vast majority of the population have broadband network connections, the cell phone is the primary information appliance and download revenue for music is over 5 times larger than total CD sales. The shift has already happened.

Ironically, South Korea is in many ways like America—America 40 years ago when rock was big and labels were booming. Back then, like South Korea now, the U.S. music industry was heavily focused on live performance, the release of hit singles, and the active cultivation of loyal fan bases through direct promotional activity. It’s the artist as brand: In Korea, consumers don’t buy music; they buy a product relationship that reaches across every media platform and entertainment genre.

Korean impresario Jin-Young Park has created a new music company J.Y.P. For J.Y.P., music sales are nearly a rounding error. It’s everything else that creates the success. According to a report from the Korea Times and business portal Chaebul.com, J.Y.P.E. generated $16.3 million in revenue in 2006 and $10 million in the first six months of 2007, of which music sales were the smallest part. The report estimated the company to be worth in excess of $100 million, making it the most valuable independent entertainment company in Korea.

Take Park’s most recent phenomenon, the Wonder Girls—a quintet of winsome teens whose addictively breathy vocals and synchronized dance steps have taken Asia by storm (their song “Tell Me” was one of the bestselling singles in Asia last year, and the band has generated about $5 million so far for Park’s company, J.Y.P. Entertainment, with only half of that coming from music sales). Fans of the group can buy tickets for their live concerts at $110 a pop; purchase a growing array of their merchandise (the names and faces of top K-pop stars adorn everything from $5 phone cards to $500 cell phones and music players); download ringtones featuring their songs ($2); and even make bids on a charity auction for a dinner date with the girls on the popular social-networking site CyWorld (five fans paid between $3,800 and $6,000 for the privilege last year). And if all that’s not enough, fans can always tune in to the Wonder Girls’ reality TV series, now in its third season as one of MTV Korea’s top-rated programs.

Say Park “We don’t make music, We make stars.

Rather annoyed at this, I replied with:

See, this stuff might be the future of “entertainment music” but is hardly a feasible model for more serious music. Branding coffee mugs, action figures and making a reality TV show? Please, call Britney and let her know. For the rest of us, we will no doubt need to discover new ways of making a living from our music, but - aside from live concerts - the stuff you mention in this post is frivolous nonsense. And the CD won’t be going out of business for a while depending on which genre you operate in. For those in the business of releasing one-off commercial singles the CD doesn’t make sense - fine. But the point everyone misses, is that CDs aren’t going out of print because they are obsolete qua CD, but because it never made sense in the first place to sell a few radio hits bundled with 35 other minutes worth of crap. Single downloads are awesome to prevent that ludicrous markup of extra baggage.

But for many artists the CD makes sense because the 45-60 format makes sense. The artwork can be a big value-addition, and it’s still a convenient medium for many people who aren’t into online music downloads, which minus kids and very young adults, is virtually everyone currently alive on earth.

I’m sick of people slamming this or that medium, whilst announcing the new messianic times. It’s banal drivel, and not productive. The Asian markets consuming music via cellphones is no more indicative of world-wide listening trends, as are their habits of producing and watching horrible TV game shows, drinking out of talking coke bottles, and eating trippy seafood.

Calling the CD “dead” is like calling Hillary Clinton’s bid for presidency “over”. We hear it a million times, and yet it remains only wishful thinking.

Anyhow, I was wondering what do you guys and girls think? I mean, the guy has a point, but do you really think the CD is dead?

-Mark (www.theenrighthouse.com)

No I do not think the CD is dead...but it is slowly dying...but only to give the larger format DVD a turn at new life.

Those little plastic data discs are fairly useful still and there is still a whole lot of hardware out there that likes to use them.

Now about that Hillary thing...wishful thinking? (no further comment)

Ah I see how that came across wrong... I'm totally an Obama supporter. I meant wishful thinking about her dropping out :).

-M.

...actually the no further comment was leaning away from her...I just didn't want to say too much else.

I thought for a moment that it might matter who I voted for and that my vote would count...then I remembered I lived in America....Sure we can have an opinion, sure we can voice it but i really don't know how free we really are or that our opinions or votes have anything to do with why my F*#@ing gas costs so much!

....oh, I digress. Sorry about that.

Oh yeah....and DVD's are nice, as I mentioned above.

Funny thing the oil is mentioned ... as the oil price goes up so the plastic gets more expensive because it's made from oil ... DVD, CD, and all plastic media is going to get expensive ... doesn't look good for CD and DVD...

Sorry. CDs are dead.

30 Years ago here in the Fort Worth/Dallas there were music stores almost on every corner and as a young consumer I was often in one with my friends spending part of our paychecks. Back then there were many big “record store” chains and dozens of mom and pop stores thrived. They are now gone.

The buildings they once occupied are now coffee shops (where you can listening to and downloading music), shops and other businesses. The last stake-out for music stores were in malls and movie rental stores and most of those businesses are gone. The CD section in the Walmart used to take up a section of the store but now is only one rack and sometime a bargain bin at the front.

Yes, the CD is dead. It is just taking a while to dispose of the bodies.