Physical Formats

[renegadefm]

Without going too far back in the dark ages, wax, 8 track, etc. 

I'd like to focus this topic on the relatively modern formats for music such as Vinyl Cassette , CD, Mini Disc. 

 

But here comes the question. Out of all the formats in our generation and in terms of physical formats, nothing has really superseded CD's.

So we have USB, or memory cards which can play music in the newer cars, and vehicles, or indeed USB boomboxes etc, even soundbars. 

But USB never took off commercially, by that I mean artists never as far as I know have ever sold their album's on a USB stick, when you think in terms of portability USB's would be perfect to buy new albums on, and could be fairly priced.

 

Ok streaming has killed any chance of the physical format to be king again, but something tells me streaming won't be the leader in music forever.

 

In some cases consumers have actually ditched their Spotify accounts for a more wholesome relationship between the artist and the music, and ditched Netflix for Bluray. 

 

We have to remember not all areas in the UK and other countries have great Internet speeds, certainly not good enough to stream a movie, so there is still a place for the physical format. 

 

Its hard to believe are CD'S really the last physical format of our time?

 

Some would argue vinyls actually last longer, as in time CD'S naturally deteriorate, I have a few already that has done that, and they are now unplayable. But I have vinyls that are over 50 years old and still play.  Which would argue vinyl is still the most robust if looked after correctly. 

 

When I first discovered USB's I actually thought this is going to be the next format we see artists releasing their album's on, but the internet had other ideas and streaming took over.

 

So is that it? Is streaming really the future, or will something attractive and portable actually reign again one day? 

[Buenchico]

>>> We have to remember not all areas in the UK and other countries have great Internet speeds, certainly not good enough to stream a movie

Only one in 500 homes have download speeds below 10 Mbps.  As only 3 Mbps is required to view Netflix in HD quality, the number of homes unable to access Netflix will therefore only be one in several thousand.

I like browsing through world music CDs on Oxfam, et al, simply because it's easier to choose from a limited selection of music than it is to trawl through the millions of tracks that are available on the internet.  However I fully understand why many physical stores are no longer selling CDs or DVDs and why many music publishers and movie distributors are no longer using those formats.