Contrary To What One Thinks, The CD Is Not Dead Yet

Most people believe that the days of the CD are numbered or even that they have passed, as happened with other formats that have been replaced by digital downloads and streaming. However, a recent report indicates that those silver discs may still have some life.

A few days ago, Billboard published a report indicating that, earlier this year, the outlook of the RIAA showed a fall of 46.9 % with respect to the previous year.

But it seems that the picture is not so grim. As a counterpoint, the article points out that what was counted are the shipments to the record stores, not the final sales, so these numbers are not real.

"A look at the actual sales of Nielsen Music tells a different story," says Billboard. "Nielsen's mid-year figures show that for the week ending June 29, 2018, CD sales totaled 34.8 million, or almost double what the RIAA says. In addition, that figure has dropped by 19.7% year after year, not the 47.4% indicated. The actual sales in the same six-month period of the previous year totaled 43.4 million, while the albums of downloads have 28.6 million, a greater decrease than the CD."

The amazing difference between the numbers of the RIAA and Nielsen is due to the fact that the first subtracts the shipments that are returned, which usually return in large quantities to the main record labels after the holiday season. That has been a problem for decades; Do you remember the solo albums of Kiss? In 1978, there was a lot of press about the fact that the four albums, one for each member of the band, had been platinum certified in September of that year. Less widespread were the consequences, which saw that more than half of those copies were sent back to Casablanca Records after the holiday season. In total, the albums as soloists of the members of Kiss sold just over a million copies in total.

There are other reasons why RIAA has reached that number that generates panic in the record industry. R&B/hip-hop is, by far, the most popular musical genre in the United States at this time. However, 25 of the titles released in that category that reached the Top 10 on the charts did not even have a physical CD available for sale in the first week. In addition, more than half of them still do not have a manufactured compact disc.

Newbury Comics' purchasing manager, Carl Mello, told Billboard that "if we had CDs from those albums, the sales numbers in the format would tell a different story. When 90% of the most popular music [hip-hop] in the United States does not appear on CD, of course sales will go down."

Rock is the second largest genre, which recorded a much lower decrease in CD sales, with a drop of 8.7% in the first half of 2018: from 13.5 million copies in mid-2017 to 12, 56 million copies in this year. And while many retail outlets such as Best Buy have stopped selling CDs, there are almost 2,000 independent record companies that continue to press the format. Along with vinyl, the record companies seek to attract a niche audience; and most of that niche audience are rock fans.

Among the other causes that may lead to think that the CD has a foot in the grave are more difficult to measure, such as the effect that the modification of the date of the launches in the United States has had, which happened from Tuesday to Friday, or the decision of notebook manufacturers that have stopped offering a CD player as standard. But if anything comes out of the Billboard report, there is still a market for CDs.

"It is important that this article questions some of the other misleading articles that have been published lately about the definitive disappearance of CDs, which is simply not true," says Stephen Judge, owner of Schoolkids Records. "We have the opportunity and the obligation to further develop the demand and work with those people in our business who see it and fully accept it. Many of whom have been in this business for up to five decades and have seen the trends come and go."