Digital Home Thoughts: 25 Years With Our Beloved CD

"So the Compact Disc turns 25 today (the first commercial release was produced August 17th 1982). It’s pretty much de rigueur to cite the CD’s imminent demise, but the bottom line is that there isn’t actually anything in place to take its throne. As a physical format it still does a really decent job. It’s sturdy, high quality and cheap to manufacture. Crucially it has essentially universal interoperability and similar adoption. Its two key weaknesses in the current digitally focused market place are: Form factor (it’s too large for portability compared to MP3); Interactivity. Consumers increasingly expect a more interactive experience with media. Though CDs are increasingly being packaged with added value content, that is essentially using the disc as a data storage unit for PC usage. Most CD interactivity does not work with most CD players. Digital has failed to show any signs of supplanting the CD as the dominant recorded music format (see chart below)."



On the one hand I find it surprising that the CD is dying at the incredible rate that the graph indicates, because music and movies are still sold pretty heavily in CD form. And on the other hand, I am also surprised it has not died completely yet due to the relatively ubiquitous rate of adoption of alternative technologies. Do any of you feel this duality as well? I wonder if the slow decline is due to the fact that most of the people that have relied on the CD technology are slow to move to the various different formats.