2008: worst year ever for CDs?

 

Ah, 2008! The year of banks' insolvency, Obama's ascendancy, Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy and ... calamity for CD and radio.

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Analysts have predicted that 2008 will boast both the "worst [sales] decline in the history of the CD" and the worst year for radio since 1954 – "when The Lone Ranger had its last new radio episode and Senator Joseph McCarthy was railing against hidden Communists".

CD unit sales this quarter are down an estimated 27% from 2007, according to Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield. "Q408 is shaping up to be the worst decline in the history of the CD," he wrote this week. These figures are substantially worse than the previous record-holder, the first quarter of 2007, when sales declined 21%.

Although music sales are falling in general - down 15%, according to Greenfield - compact discs have been worst hit. The decline is partly due to the economy, but particularly to the switch to digital formats. And it doesn't help that several major 2008 releases - including albums by U2, Dr Dre and 50 Cent - have been pushed back to next year.

As for radio, CL King & Associates analyst Jim Boyle wrote that American radio revenue has seen a 7% drop in 2008, the biggest since 1954.

"October was the 18th consecutive negative year-over-year revenue month and 2008 is the eighth straight struggling year," Boyle wrote in his report.

On the bright side, er, ringtones?

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