CDs a casualty of the iTunes age

Bruna Martins is skeptical about the future of CDs. A junior at Pitt, she believes that the… Bruna Martins is skeptical about the future of CDs. A junior at Pitt, she believes that the CD is outdated and rarely purchases them.

“I usually don’t buy CDs unless I really like the artist. Music is so easy to access today online that I don’t think that there is a very big demand for CDs,” Martins said.

Statistics seem to support Martins’ claim. CD sales across the country have declined 20 percent from a year ago, according to Nielsen SoundScan. At the same time, digital sales of individual songs from programs such as iTunes have risen 54 percent from last year.

There are several reasons for the decline in the popularity of CDs, according to Ahmed Amer, a professor of computer science in Pitt’s School of Arts and Sciences. One of the most compelling reasons is the sheer size of CDs.

“Do you want to keep a CD holder with few hundred CDs in it, playing only the tracks on an individual disc, or would you rather have a disc that held 10 times the number of tracks or no disc at all and have the same music available to you with complete freedom to listen to whatever you want?” Amer proposed.

Another factor contributing to the popularity decrease of CDs is undoubtedly the proliferation of file-sharing programs, both legal and illegal, that allow a user to download single songs instead of purchasing an entire CD album.

“The fact is that you could either pay $20 for a CD with one or two songs that you like and 10 other songs that you don’t like or just pay two dollars on iTunes for those two songs,” Martins said when asked about why CDs have declined in popularity.

Nevertheless, not all signs point to the imminent demise of CDs. Martin Weiss, associate dean of Pitt’s School of Information Sciences, notes that the CD still has some value as a form of data storage and music playback.

“There are many music systems that accommodate CDs, such as home stereos and car systems, so CDs will remain until they are retired by consumers. Also, CDs tend to be a more durable format in that they are not vulnerable to disc crashes or X-ray erasures the way hard disks or flash memory are,” Weiss said.

Although the CD is not likely to completely disappear within the next few years, it may be wise to look into the future to see what technologies may replace the CD, and Weiss has a few ideas.

“In audio applications, cheap digital media players have usurped the CD’s role in the digital world. In the case of data applications, a combination of cheap storage and increasingly widespread broadband Internet access have taken the place that CD’s once held. Also, DVDs have supplanted CDs for multimedia applications and large data storage needs,” Weiss said.