Over in the thread about the Midnight Oil remasters being prepared for digital download only, Baba O'Riley made an interesting point... "If it won't sell on iTunes they will be released on CD... Don't buy it and wait."

My gut feeling has always been just the opposite... that, if a release DOES sell well as a digital download, that's when the record companies will see the value in a physical release and will release a CD. The more I think about it, the more I am unsure how the RIAA probably sees this issue.

I know we all have to disengage our brains and dispense with all sense of logic in order to view things as the RIAA might, but how do you guys think the record companies see it? Will good digital sales encourage or discourage a physical release? Will poor digital sales inspire physical releases? Or will the record companies feel that there is no demand for any music that is not downloaded so why bother with issuing a CD?

I think if a release does well digitally, you're more likely to see a physical release. For record companies, a physical release is an investment. Strong digital sales make it appear to be a more sound investment, and hence would increase the chances of a physical release and/or better distribution/marketing.

I'm still trying to figure out the sales figures for some of these recent albums. Do they reflect physicals sales ONLY, or does the RIAA offer any sort of sales certification for a release that is downloaded a half-million times? It's all rather vague...almost as though the record companies are massaging these numbers somehow...that couldn't be, could it?

I'm pretty sure -- and I could be wrong -- that Apple does not report sales figures. At least not in the U.S.

That said, I seem to recall a single charting in the U.K. last year and doing so largely based on digital sales (or plays).

But my memory is foggy on this.

My gut feeling is that the fix is in: record companies have already decided to kill off physical releases (with the possible exceptions of best selling new releases) - they just have not announced it yet. Based on numerous recent posts by ICERs with obvious insight of the music industry, I'm hardly the first person to reach this conclusion.

Not long ago, new releases appeared in both physical and download formats. The mere fact that new releases are now leading off with downloads (with the "value" of physical releases to be evaluated afterwards) is the handwriting on the wall.

As to whether the future of physical releases will benefit from strong vs. weak digital sales, I feel that the industry will point to either scenario as "proof" that the time of physical releases has passed. On the one hand, strong digital sales will be seen as evidence that the public is happy with downloads and doesn't need the physical product. On the other hand, weak digital sales will be viewed as proof that the additional expense of physical releases is not worthwhile.

And on the other end of the spectrum, we've got Neil Young threatening to go high res only (dvd-a & Blu Ray).

Do we really want to see Neil Young in high-def? Hear, sure. See?

I was at a Best Buy a couple of months ago and they were demonstrating HDTV by playing concert footage of...Johnny Winter?

The first time I saw HDTV was at the Florida State Fair about 10 years ago, and they were showing concert footage of The Gypsy Kings. I like their music so it didn't seem odd at the time, but in retrospect I can think of a lot better ways to demonstrate HDTV.

Taft is right: poor online sales will do nothing to motivate a company to create a physical CD. But JL is possibly right, too: if it sells okay online, why incur the cost of a CD?

Maybe we will be looking at two different download tracks, cheap for mp3s and more expensive for CD quality files. All the liner notes will be on websites. There won't be a physical product at all.