With the recent bad news of more store chains like HMV
closing on the high street, Dischromatics has commissioned a short documentary
film produced by Dischro Creative to investigate this important aspect of our
lives.
With the recent bad news of more store chains like HMV closing on the high street, Dischromatics has commissioned a short documentary film produced by Dischro Creative to investigate this important aspect of our lives.
With the increasing popularity of digital downloading of
music and games along with illegal copying, surely the end is in sight for
CD’s? We have certainly seen the continual year on year decrease in sales of
DVD with advent of Blu-ray discs with the ability to hold HD and 3D films as
well as some fantastic games with their subsequent special effects and features
so that DVD now has no place in future for movies and high quality games. DVD’s
will almost certainly be used solely for specialist markets where low numbers
are required and DVD Duplication using recordable media will prevail albeit on
a relatively small scale.
The documentary film includes interviews with people in the
various industries related to these products including Spillers Records in
Cardiff, HMV and Music Wales, as well actual artists and members of the public
and gives a most interesting insight into people’s thoughts. Furthermore, their
opinions are mixed with a certain feeling of loss if music CD’s ceased to be
available. There is a feeling that by having the CD with its packaging in
physical form there is an added value and that the playback quality is far
better than the quality of the same music downloaded digitally over the
internet. Equally, for some the convenience and the ability to store great
volumes of music on portable devices like IPods have a better value for them.
Is there a parallel here with vinyl and in fact we are experiencing
a similar small revolution when CD’s came onto the market almost obliterating
the demand for vinyl. Only for the resurgence in demand for vinyl to re-emerge
when not only the purists who remained loyal to the product continued seeking
out the vinyl alternatives but new demand was generated from a small but
growing group of enthusiasts and once again there are various brands of new
decks available to play your records on.
There has been an undoubted drop in the sales and demand for
compact discs but unlike DVD where there is an alternative physical media like
Blu-ray, CD’s do not have a physical rival. The decrease in demand is purely
down to piracy and digital downloads but there can be little doubt that CD’s
will see life continue for a good number of years yet. Cost of downloading
music from the internet is of course much cheaper than the physical product but
as some of our interviewees have expressed they like to read about the artists,
have the lyrics at their disposal as well as having the feel of a CD.
Bizarrely, many games downloads are more expensive than the actual physical
product.
We see the future of CD changing, where similar to DVD in
the short term, orders for lower volume Music CD will be the norm, leaving the
only alternative to full manufacture to be CD Duplication, we are seeing many
groups and bands looking towards this recordable medium as a way of promoting
their music and this is set to continue and increase. Smaller volumes also
allow them to produce new albums at less cost with much more flexibility.
Dischromatics is well placed to work with all these groups and bands as they
have the ability to produce the whole package and help to promote through their
creative arm Dischro Creative. Consequently we believe CD’s will be with us for
many years yet.
Go to: http://youtu.be/V5daimJ1rqE to see the Documentary
