Many public libraries are ditching physical media for downloads from clouds.Here is an example from the Washington,DC library system.
http://dclibrary.org/downloads
Roger
> Date: Fri, 16 May 2014 09:34:04 -0400
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] [MLA-L] RE: the end of the CD and DVD (and the CD and DVD player)?
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Jay, for libraries, what's the alternative? Despite the drawbacks (mainly the fact that librarians
> and customers tend to rough-handle 5" discs so they become unusable relatively quickly), US
> copyright laws make other alternatives non-viable for many libraries and patrons.
>
> I hate to say something too nice about cassettes, but those were the most bullet-proof
> library-circulation medium. The local librarians are forever bitching about how quickly expensive
> audiobooks get unusable because one CD out of many has been ruined by a clumsy patron or librarian.
> They tell me that in the cassette era, it was rare to have to replace a tape. The audiobook
> publishers are not always cooperative about replacing a single CD. It's the same with music -- one
> jerk can wreck a CD in his car with one careless handling move, and then the library has to pay full
> frieght to replace it. Cassettes were harder to render unusable, as bad as they sounded.
>
> I was thinking about doing the following as charity for my local library system: having a bunch of
> rolls of stickers printed up that list concise and clearly-stated guidelines for handling CDs --
> don't touch the surface, don't put the disc face-down on a surface, don't scrape the disc over any
> rough surfaces, insert and remove from players carefully, etc -- and handing out rolls of stickers
> to each library in the system so they can stick them on CD cases.
>
> Same points apply to DVDs, but even more so since they become completely useless when they're
> scratched up.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Music Hunter" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, May 16, 2014 9:23 AM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] [MLA-L] RE: the end of the CD and DVD (and the CD and DVD player)?
>
>
> > Hi Tom,
> >
> > I can tell you that our CD/DVD sales to libraries are better than ever,
> > literally great.
> >
> > Jay
> >
> > Your search for sound & video ends here!
> > Jay Sonin, General Manager
> > Music Hunter Distributing Company
> > 4880 North Citation Drive, Suite # 101
> > Delray Beach, Florida 33445-6552
> > [log in to unmask]
> > 561-450-7152
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
> > [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tom Fine
> > Sent: Friday, May 16, 2014 8:58 AM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] [MLA-L] RE: the end of the CD and DVD (and the CD
> > and DVD player)?
> >
> > Hi Jay:
> >
> > We keep hearing pundits and prognosticators talk about the "coming end of
> > physical media," but as you say the record companies keep cranking out CDs.
> > As far as I know Sony, and maybe other record companies, still own and
> > operate CD manufacturing plants, so it may be in their interest to keep CDs
> > going at least until plants and equipment are well amortized.
> >
> > Also, can anyone point to a musician or group that garnered tremendous radio
> > play and/or record-music sales WITHOUT a CD release? Yes, you can break
> > through with a song made in your basement and placed on YouTube, and you may
> > sell a few thousand downloads DIY'ing it through iTunes (and make a few
> > thousand pennies on the deal), but I think you still need physical media for
> > mass market penetration. I may be wrong on that, but I'd like to hear some
> > specific facts and examples that prove me wrong.
> >
> > Now here's what's changed. If you're Led Zeppelin in the late 1990s, you get
> > together with a remastering engineer, comb your vaults and maybe put out
> > "Anniversary Edition" multi-CD sets with some studio out-takes and some new
> > artwork. You could count on brisk sales, because the first CD edition of
> > your albums probably sounded like garbage and probably wasn't cut from the
> > first-generation master tape. Fast forward to 2014, and you can't just do a
> > CD release. You need to go multi-media:
> > http://www.ledzeppelin.com/buy/
> > I think it's called "multi-platform" nowadays. At multiple price points,
> > with multiple content configurations. There is a download component, but
> > notice that it's in the background with the marketing. Physical products are
> > still front and center.
> >
> > What I'm not so sure about is, how does this all play out with
> > less-mainstream (ie slower-selling) artists and genres. In classical and
> > jazz, the strategy in recent years has been to stick with CDs but greatly
> > reduce the price-per-disc of content. So you have, for instance, the Mercury
> > and Decca and RCA box sets selling for less than $2 per disc, vs. more than
> > $10 per disc when the material was originally released in single-disc
> > format. At these price points, forget about margin for deluxe remastering
> > like Led Zep can do. The most popular classical and jazz titles, the ones
> > proven popular over time and the rare break-out "hit" of more recent
> > vintage, do present a business model enabling high-resolution mastering and
> > multi-format sales.
> >
> > I know from experience that these record companies watch the money like
> > hawks, and if something is out of print or hasn't been remastered since the
> > dawn of CDs, it's because their previous sales figures and future sales
> > projections tell them it won't be profitable to go any further with that
> > content. Sometimes, there is a niche player like a 3rd party vinyl reissuer,
> > who can make hay with specific titles ignored by the parent company, but
> > these are exceptions to the rule.
> >
> > Long and short, I think you'll be selling CDs well into old age, but it's
> > entirely possible that the universe of available content on CD will shrink
> > over time.
> >
> > -- Tom Fine
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Music Hunter" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Friday, May 16, 2014 7:57 AM
> > Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] [MLA-L] RE: the end of the CD and DVD (and the CD
> > and DVD player)?
> >
> >
> >> Hi Tom & friends,
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Is there any evidence pointing to that happening?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I am still enjoying CDs obtained when CDs were first introduced in the
> > early
> >> '80's with no sign of self-degrading in over 30 years. I'm trying to think
> >> of what other products we have that have that still work as well as they
> > did
> >> when brand new.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Talk about value...
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Jay
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Your search for sound & video ends here!
> >>
> >> Jay Sonin, General Manager
> >> Music Hunter Distributing Company
> >> 4880 North Citation Drive, Suite # 101
> >> Delray Beach, Florida 33445-6552
> >> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> >> 561-450-7152
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> From: Stephen Thomson Moore [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> >> Sent: Friday, May 16, 2014 7:33 AM
> >> To: Wagstaff, D John; Edmonds, Amy; [log in to unmask]
> >> Subject: Re: [MLA-L] RE: the end of the CD and DVD (and the CD and DVD
> >> player)?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Dear all,
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Another concern with the end of the CD and DVD seems to be that our
> > immense
> >> collections of Cds will self-degrade and be nothing more than shiny discs
> > in
> >> a few short years. What about that?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Best, Tom Moore
> >>
> >> FIU
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> From: <Wagstaff>, D John <[log in to unmask]>
> >> Reply-To: "Wagstaff, D John" <[log in to unmask]>
> >> Date: Thursday, May 15, 2014 5:54 PM
> >> To: "Edmonds, Amy" <[log in to unmask]>, "[log in to unmask]"
> >> <[log in to unmask]>
> >> Subject: [MLA-L] RE: the end of the CD and DVD (and the CD and DVD
> > player)?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I think maybe the issue is that, once we reach a tipping point with
> > e-books,
> >> the publishers might decide to move to an I-Tunes account-type
> > distribution
> >> model, i.e. a "one individual/one account, no libraries need apply thank
> > you
> >> very much have a nice day but get lost". We're already seeing this with
> > some
> >> textbooks, after all. Print surrogates will then become impossible to
> >> obtain, libraries are cut out of the equation, and first-sale doctrine is
> >> sacrificed to licensing agreements.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I don't write this in a "the-publisher-is-the-enemy" spirit, they clearly
> >> are only trying to make money and keep their businesses afloat, and
> > arguably
> >> if the roles were reversed we'd be doing the same. But I suspect that
> > that's
> >> definitely the commercial motivation behind the push towards e-books.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> John
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> John Wagstaff
> >>
> >> Head, Music & Performing Arts Library
> >>
> >> Interim Head, Literatures and Languages Library
> >>
> >> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> >>
> >> 1114 W. Nevada Street
> >>
> >> Urbana IL61801
> >>
> >> Tel. 217-244-4070
> >>
> >> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> From: Edmonds, Amy [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> >> Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2014 4:40 PM
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >> Subject: [MLA-L] RE: the end of the CD and DVD (and the CD and DVD
> > player)?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> The same thing that makes it easy to crank out e-books makes it easy to
> >> publish in paper! Why are they whining?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> I do read quite a bit on my kindle but for anything that I will be working
> >> with intellectually, I have to be able to put my sticky notes in it
> > (shhh!)
> >> and flip through the pages at will for the bits that I will recognize
> >> visually but can't remember well enough to do a good search on a device.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> From: Wagstaff, D John [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> >> Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2014 5:09 PM
> >> To: Stephen Thomson Moore; [log in to unmask]
> >> Subject: [MLA-L] RE: the end of the CD and DVD (and the CD and DVD
> > player)?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> To answer this question I'd pose another, which is: For how many years
> > have
> >> we been seeing magazines with the question "Is this the year of the
> > e-book?"
> >> on their cover? (my answer: at least 15, and my answer is always "no"). In
> >> spite of publishers really, really wanting to push e-books, we're still a
> >> long way from having anything like a decent amount of e-books to offer in
> >> the performing arts.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> IMHO.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> John
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> From: Stephen Thomson Moore [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> >> Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2014 7:09 AM
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >> Subject: [MLA-L] the end of the CD and DVD (and the CD and DVD player)?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Dear CW,
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Have you all seen any responsible prognostication on what the time frame
> >> might be for the end of CD as a commercial format for music, and of the
> > DVD
> >> as a commercial format for video? Do you individually have any wise words
> > in
> >> this regard? I already heard in 1995 that the CD would soon be history
> > (not
> >> yet).
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Inquiringly, Tom Moore
> >>
> >> FIU
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
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