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Re: Fw: The CD Format and the Possibly Dark Future of the Music Industry

The next format will probably be some sort of mini-Flash card. Millions of devices read them, they come in huge storage amounts (so as not to compromise sound quality) and they're getting cheaper by the day. A 700MB Flash card sells for less than a CD today. The real question is probably, and not surprisingly, packaging.
The media companies are very good at stepping all over their own crank, you see - did you ever wonder why you either purchase CDs shrinkwrapped with the cases open or in one of those long plastic racks? Huge packages like that are hard to shoplift. A tiny Flash card would be really easy to steal, and huge new packaging will draw the ire of the green movement, as CD packaging did on a smaller scale (fewer people cared then) and as it should. What's killing the CD is the same thing that killed DAT and Beta, and HD-DVD to a point - the ability to copy it easily. Instead of creating a business model for music that works, they're too busy trying to protect the model of the past.
IMHO, the music companies could best take advantage of digital music by offering it at kiosks where people listen to music - parks, public events, gas stations (for drivers), anywhere, really - put these machines on the internet and sell Flash cards like vending machines - load up to 20 on a card for $1 a track if you need a card, or $0.75 if you have space on one you already have. Buy albums if you want, singles, whatever, but the files would be arranged by artist and album with discounts for buying whole albums, have the machine take cash or plastic, and your distributors' job becomes collecting cash and loading blank Flash cards. Offer a bin to recycle old worn cards in each machine, and voila. Instant music industry. Think of the types of new clubs that could be created - posh listening rooms with drink service and touchscreens that allow you to network with others in the room listening to your type of music in virtual chatrooms with streaming audio and filesharing, and the feature to buy tracks for others and gift them? A room DJ selecting tracks spinning in the ether, or you could wear headphones. I had a thought that all this could be done via Bluetooth. But that would be expensive. The physical card keeps the hardware cheap. One day when we're all wearing Bluetooth Oakley Thump sunglasses, we can install that tech into the kiosks. So the system is evolvable. 
Why ain't I a music exec?
TimD

Dan Copenhaver wrote:
I remember reading about 5 or 6 years ago that the next format that music will be released on would be some kind of card type thing. They went on saying that CD's were almost extinct as soon as they were invented. They used the same concept that lp's used meaning a disc that spins round and round and the music being read off the spinning disc. This "new" technology that they claimed was in the works was a card similar to the credit card shape but a little thicker which there were no moving parts or things spinning around and it would just read this card and play whatever was programmed into it. Well I never saw this come to be but one could say it did too in the form of thumb drives or whatever you call those things that plug into a USB port. I just wonder why MP3 won the love and respect of most when it is well known how crappy it is! Why not have FLAC players instead of MP3 players? Yes I know FLAC's are larger than MP3's are but with hard drive storage space getting bigger and bigger and smaller and smaller in size, I see no reason why this is a problem any longer. I will be one of the first in line to buy one if they would make a FLAC player. I could dump all my shows right into it and be set for months at a time in my truck with new music at my fingertips. But it probably will never happen.. Its like the VHS tape won over BETA. even though BETA was better. 
Dan