Wither the compact disc?

A couple people mentioned this story to me yesterday... Apparently the major labels are planning to stop mass producing compact discs some time next year.

This article appears to be the original source of the story.

I don't think compact discs will disappear entirely until another format, possibly Blu-ray, takes over as the dominant audio delivery format. There will certainly be demand for high quality audio... Perhaps places like HD tracks will take off. There are a few problems with a site like this... files won't necessarily play on all devices, and even if you could, what's the point if you're going to be listening off of laptop speakers? You'd need a proper player, cables, speakers, etc etc.

Too bad for the CD, but the labels really shot themselves in the foot when they didn't drastically bring down prices with the rise of digital downloads... for the big picture on that story, you should read Steve Knopper's Appetite for Self-Destruction. Great book on what happened to the industry.