All of the signs seemed to show themselves to me at the same time. Just yesterday my boss and I were discussing ideas for a new blog post and stumbled on the topic of compact discs. We started reminiscing on our old CD collections and talked about what music genres we typically had for our CDs. Then we really stopped to think about it, “when was the last time we bought a CD?” In my case, the last CD I bought was somewhere around six or seven years ago. I got a Zune when I was in eighth grade, and once I got into digital music, I never looked back. That was toward the beginning of the digital music era and yet people were already ditching their once loved compact discs. It was obvious that the age of the MP3 player, mostly the iPod, was up and coming. Surely, I am not the only one who has abandoned the CD. Here are three signs that prove the demise of the CD is here.
1) LAPTOPS ARE DITCHING THE CD ROM
The MacBook Air has never had a CD / DVD player, however the MacBook Pro line always has – until now. I went to buy a new Macbook Pro recently and the first thing I noticed was that there was no CD / DVD drive. Of course, Apple is renowned for their simplicity in design, but I couldn’t help but take this as a sign that CDs have become a thing of the past. Apple is known for being innovators and maybe they are just trying to fuel the process of getting rid of CDs. These two indicators made it that CDs and DVDs were gone. clear to me and as I was plugging my phone into my car to listen to music, another thought popped in my head.
2) BLUETOOTH CONNECTION IN CARS
Remember the days when every car came equipped with a cassette player? I was born in 1993 and although that makes me a millennial, I still remember the days riding around in my dad’s van blaring his favorite John Denver cassette. This was around the time when cars started to have both a cassette player and a CD player. When the next phase began, cars only came with a CD player. Then the digital music age began and a lot of cars now typically come with a CD player and bluetooth connectivity so that you can listen to music that you have on your phone through the car speakers.
3) MUSIC STREAMING APPS ARE ON THE RISE
Technology in all areas is always advancing rapidly and the digital age of music is upon us. You can now add whatever music you want to your iPod or iPhone through iTunes and listen to it wherever you want. You can even download apps like Spotify and Pandora to listen to songs that you don’t even have to purchase. You can also go to Youtube and look up whatever song to play from your favorite artist or genre of music. The data shows that the convenience and ease of digital music is pushing CDs closer and closer to becoming a thing of the past.
The history of music has transitioned from record to 8 track to cassette to CD to iPod to streaming. A generation of people are growing up without having to wait to go to Wal-Mart to buy the newest “album.” In the 80’s, Generation X wanted their MTV. Now, the millennial generation is tearing down the barriers of when, where and how they access music. Will you join the innovative movement?
Scientifically Speaking, of course.
