Phasing out of Compact Disc

Ivan,

I don't know the contractual dynamics behind the decisions to shut LP production facilities in 1982/1983, but I do know that LP sales had been essentially flat for a decade by that time. Over the course of that same 10 year period, cassette sales went from less than 10% of the market to more than 50% of the market (units sold, long play capacity). Given the pending introduction of another "playback only" format (cd), it's easy to see why the record companies would shift resources to CD production. The opportunity to resell the catalog in the new format was surely compelling, but it doesn't change the fact that LP sales were long stagnant when the changeover occurred and that cassette sales were growing rapidly. I'd still characterize the dynamic as cassettes killing LP and CD killing cassettes (especially once CD gained usable recording capability in the early 1990s).

I, too, think the cassette format (as it existed in from the late 70's to the mid 80's) was vastly underrated. It's just that I never met a prerecorded cassette that I liked, and you have to have a format you can record from (besides radio).

Martykl,

"I don't know the contractual dynamics behind the decisions to shut LP production facilities in 1982/1983, but I do know that LP sales had been essentially flat for a decade by that time. Over the course of that same 10 year period, cassette sales went from less than 10% of the market to more than 50% of the market (units sold, long play capacity)".

Agreed, certainly.

"The opportunity to resell the catalog in the new format was surely compelling...".

Could be...but I'm not so sure. We take it for granted any more that such a formula is tried and true, however at the time it may have seemed a little more risky to those involved, than today. What if it flopped?..and all that. I even suspect that the more record plants that closed early on the more incentive was created for the remaining ones to stay open and play for the money that they believed was left on the table as a result, but that's just a suspicion of mine.

"I'd still characterize the dynamic as cassettes killing LP and CD killing cassettes (especially once CD gained usable recording capability in the early 1990s)".

I'd say all that had to be a contributing factor...however, due to copyright problems, CD recording actually never got off the ground sales-wise and still hasn't...but, if I recall, the perception, at least, that it would allow users to make "perfect" copies was in the air in those days.

Political economy - a calculated decision to shut LP production down? Where did it come from? I don't think the casette was such a big factor here in Europe. Could it be, mainly, that the world went slightly mad, buying into the hype of the CD and the digital medium?
I mean, I did so myself. I was a great enthusiast of the "PC revolution" in the 80s, and became a programmer at my spare time. I thought, a bit is a bit. I had recorded analog, on a Revox A77, for twenty years - but I now thought, digital is the way to do it, and bought DAT recorders. Digital means perfect! I was under the spell.
Happily I also invested in a better analog system - and discovered my errors.

O_holter, yeah, I suppose it's possible I could be nuts on all that, but I just haven't come across anything that I could say that fits the facts any better for me, so far anyway. But, that sort of thing is fairly typical of big money. (Rush fans remember that song??)

I do remember my first CD player: a 2nd-generation Pioneer 6-disc changer in '83. All the magazine articles I'd been reading had been shouting: "Do CD's sound better than vinyl, or worse?" and never really seemed to pick a side. Excited and eager to unwrap and take my first listen, it took all of about 5 seconds to realize in my mind that it was all apparently a pretty sad joke, Lol. And I recall my vinyl rig at the time (also a Pioneer), with cartridge, weighed in at about $250. But, somehow I decided to be a trooper and carry on...maybe someday they would improve things with it. Very recently I believe I've now persisted in getting CD to sound as good as, or even better in most ways, to vinyl (not without a Ton of electronic noise reduction, though)...but, that has only taken me, what?...about 30 years?...Lol!

Thanks Ivan - political economy and music is interesting. Nuts? No not at all. And - I respect differerent ways to get good sound. The CD was not all bad. It was bad only from a certain cut point and upwards in the existing audio systems / consumer market / class- and status-divided society. If you were below that cut point, the CD did sound 'objectively' good. For example, if you had a $250 analog rig - or even a 1250 rig. What happened was, this cut point gradually went up, and for those below, the CD really was a good thing. First, in the 1990s, analog specialists (like Lyra) learned how to go beyond the digital sound. Next, in the 2000s, how to make this better sound for less money. Thats why the vinyl market has a rebirth. If you factor in Michael Fremer, this causal model should be just about 99 percent right!! :-) Enjoy your music!