A major retailer here in Australia who specialises in CDs/DVDs etc has recently began to dump their CDs on mass via bargin sections and clearance tables.

This is a huge concern to me as the sales guy told me they are reducing their stocks of CDs, in particular are CDs that are not top 40 such as Jethro Tull, Hawkwind, many other rock related acts.

As someone who only buys these such bands I will be forced to use sites such as Amazon.com who charge huge postage fees to Australia. We don't have a Amazon or such ebased retailer to buy discounted music or DVDs.

I also see here on Imwan a lack of decent re-issues and even new released material.

The new Bob Dylan CD is an exception (thank god for Bob)

Very sad to see

Quality cd dumping by chain stores has been going on in the US for at least 10 years; I've frequently used it to stock my business. It's actually slowed way down in the US the last couple years; I think much of the inventory has already been "disposed of" here.

I remember 8 or 9 years ago getting up at 6 am most weekends to try to get to as many Future Shop stores as possible; they would put hundreds of quality import titles out many Saturday mornings for a couple dollars each........

Which one? If you're talking about JB; yeah, my local DOES have bins and bins of markdowns, but 90% of the items are cheap budget comps or things that were big sellers 2 or 3 years ago (like old Pink & Kelly Clarkson albums) that records companies have probably reduced the wholesale price of, causing the retailer/s to buy up big lots of those items....

I DO think the CD is dying, however, I think Australia is still one of the stronger markets for physical music product (speaking in relative terms, obviously).... and I agree that stores not stocking much variety of non-top 40 CDs is a problem, but IMO that's been going on for about a year and a half already.

No shipping from all of their sites:
http://www.cdwow.com.au/

Lots of free shipping promo codes:
http://www.secondspin.com

From what I've been reading, CDs will still be around for a good 5-10 years or so, largely because millions are still sold each year and reissues/remasters/boxsets remain profitable for most labels to the 30 and up crowd.
I'm not saying that CDs will be huge and most likely won't be available in any stores, just online, but I don't see CDs vanishing in the next few years-at retail, yes, but completely, no.

I agree. I think those of us in a certain age group will always prefer to have our music on something we can hold in our hands, with graphics and liner notes that don't have to be read off of a computer screen. I think younger people have a totally different set of interests, but I'll bet sooner or later some of them will get bit by the collecting bug too.

One things for sure. You won't get deep catalog at stores anymore. You'll get the latest hits and some of the bigger albums but the days of pouring over thousands of CDs in a store in alphabetical order is soon coming to an end.

Most of us already have tons of CDs so this slow erosion dosen't affect us so much but future generations will look at these silver discs as strange. We are fully in the download world now.

Just bought an IPOD Touch and with it I can download music thru its iTunes/Wi-Fi connection. That is pretty neat.

I think CDs will be around for quite a while. The people who want a physical product will PAY for one. If it becomes "download only" the record companies will really screw themselves.

I'll say this-I have no iPod, I want no iPod, and once (if it ever happens) it becomes a download-only world, I'm done. I have plenty of music to keep me going for the rest of my life. I truly enjoy collecting catalogues of certain artists, especially the remasters, and so many of my favorite artists have been getting the overhaul lately it's been awesome. As long as the remastering and packaging doesn't suck, I'll keep buying them (yes, even the Stones remasters as loud as they are).

I'm comforted by the fact that, all of a sudden (it seems), Best Buy is selling vinyl--something that I never though I'd see in my adult life.

Besides the high-priced new vinyl pressings, some areas of J&R are crammed with boxes of LPs from the 70s and 80s, selling for $1-$10. This is a recent development. Vinyl is hip with some younger listeners.

Yes it is JB Hifi

They are cutting back on stock, from a reliable source.

IP - I have an Ipod - I've never downloaded a tune, and you and I share a lot of the same "values" when it comes to future of the music industry. It was gift I never asked for, never 'wanted', but once I started using it, wow! I will say this, the IPOD (or any other mp3 device), is a massive improvement to the Portable CD player, etc, if your life style is active, and you want to have music along for the ride...
Working Out
Walking the dog
When I do network migrations where I have to touch a gazillion machines

I still listen to albums on the Ipod...not much of a shuffler in general.

I also have an Ipod and pretty much never download (only if it's a 1 hit wonder, and I don't like other songs surrounding it on compilation CDs).

Getting an Ipod had an opposite effect on me......since buying one, I've actually increased my spending on CDs (which was alot to begin with) in order to put songs on the Ipod I want to hear. I sort of created my own shuffle/"radio station" of 60's/70's/punk. I listen to it at work, great for 6 hour plane rides too.

Rider:
If I was given an iPod, I'd probably like it, but it seems like a lot of work to get everything on there, and I've had friends lose everything when there's a crash or whatever you call it. I'm sure, someday I'll be walking around with one (but when I walk it's with my wife and that might seem a bit rude if I wasn't listening to her, but an iPod!), but for now I'll sound like those old dudes on the Muppets and groan and complain!

I buy CDs and lament the fact that they will eventually go away in the digital world, but I love my iPod. It is a fair bit of work getting everything on there, but I'd rather take one iPod on a trip rather than all those CDs! I really enjoy having my essential musical library with me ready to go.

I will add that downloading has also allowed me to get lots of music that I otherwise would have to do without... plus discover stuff I would have missed. Rarities, mashups, unavailable imports, indie bands, etc.

newlywed, huh?
kidding! Yeah, when the Ipod is not around when I'm with my wife as well.

Maybe not your whole life. My friends in the recording world tell me CDs begin to lose data after time and the earliest CDs are just reaching that point. They are busy trying to back up all their old recordings. I haven't noticed it on any of my CDs yet, but I didn't get into the market until the 90s. Has this happened to anybody here?

I've heard that too....but haven't experienced it yet. I have a fair amount of CDs bought in 1987 (The 1st 4 Beatles CDs led me to buy a CD player), and they still play as of now.

Ah, I'm not worried about that. Plus, I have vinyl, and so much music on DVD (both boots and pre-recorded) that I'll be fine. And I'll always go to live shows.

We've been together 13 years, and believe me, I bet there's plenty of times we'd rather hear music than listen to each other, but the kick in my ass I'd get if we were walking as I was listening to music instead of her telling me about how we're going to clean out the garage would be most severe!
Now, the cleaning out the garage part-an iPod would come in handy.

The only thing I've heard on factory pressed cd's going bad were some early UK pressings that were well publicized at the time.

I sure hope this isn't really an issue; if it is I see class action law suits followed by a GM style "bankruptcy"; i.e. the consumers get screwed again.