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Originally Posted by fatcat28037 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I buy CDs because they are the best sound quality available. Also I'm a collector, I like to hold the physical media in my hand, read the liner notes, log it in Music Collector and admire my collection. I just can't find pride of ownership in holding an iPod.
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I am a music fan, and a video gamer. So let me veer off topic briefly, and then bring it back -
trust me, this will make sense.
Digital distribution is everywhere, but even before it was a success for music, it was a success for games. Steam was a hit, and set the standard. I signed up as soon as you could pre-order HL2.
But, I ordered the collectors box where they shipped me a package with a hat, posters, soundtrack CD - everything but the game. The game itself was still digital, downloaded, and played without a bit of it ever being read from plastic.
To this day, I have kept a rule - If there is a collectors edition (yes, I bought MW2 with the goggles) I will buy it, copy of the game itself included or not. I got Halo 3 with the spartan helmet, even though you can't really put it on a cat. I'm a sucker for tin cases, figurines, making-of DVDs, custom DLC, and odd shaped boxes that don't fit on my shelves right.
I'm also, obviously, not alone. Almost every major release has a collectors edition with some sort of value add, from the minor to the ridiculous (MW2 goggles, God of War box.) They always sell out. An original Bioshock with big daddy statue goes for 200 - 300 aftermarket now.
Back to the topic;
Music hasn't quite figured this out. Sure, every now and then there's a collectors/limited run of something, such as the GhostsI-IV box I mentioned earlier in the thread.
Honestly, the last CDs I remember buying were Emilie Autumn's laced/unlaced because it came in a hardback book, and Tool's 10,000 days for the holographic cover. Almost everything I've wanted since then hasn't had a collectors edition, or if so it's been anemic and not worth it. Having the physical media seems pretty unimportant if there's no extra value to enjoy - nothing that can't be perfectly replicated on the PC[*].
We are a market. And, not a small one. We spend stupid amounts of money for marginal increases in audio fidelity - we're pretty likely to spend an extra $15 for the limited edition box release of an album. And we are just a small portion of that potential market, which includes many "average consumers" who love the artists enough to pay $60 for a concert ticket, $45 for a t-shirt, and 15$ for posters - and, again, would pay for a special album release.
With this obvious demand, why are new CD releases so (pardon the pun) stereotypical, so germane, so.. bland?
I'll answer the OPs question with my opinion; Regular CDs are nearly obsolete, because they don't offer anything that's not digitally available in the majority of their market. There is a place for physical media, but to continue to be relevant it has to attain a higher level of differentiation. Jewel cases are bland. Neat packages are neat! Simple as that.
On another point brought up on this page - backups. Back to the games thing, Steam, D2D, Gamestop, Live, all keep your IP licenses tied to your account. As long as you're you, and this major business doesn't collapse and abandon it's millions of customers, you can get your stuff back - even if you lose every computer, every backup, every bit of data you own.
Most online music stores have the same model. Sure it's a pain to re-download, but it's there. I've embraced the cloud, ephemeral as it may seem.
[size=xx-small]* I'm not talking about bit rates, since this varies by store, artist, etc - Assume for purposes of this statement that everything is FLAC or 320kbps.[/size]