When it was invented, it was hailed as the future of purchasing music. Before iTunes was around, it was the most popular way of getting your hands on your favorite band’s album. Now it is often forgotten or comes second hand to iTunes. What I am talking about is the CD. Over the past few years, CD sales have plummeted due to the breakthroughs of downloading over the internet. What does this mean? In the near future, the production of CDs may cease forever.

Before the invention of mp3’s and such software as iTunes, there was only one way to buy music. You had to go to a record store. This process seems foreign to most people today. Why would you waste time and gas money to drive to a store to buy a CD when you could just turn on your computer and buy any song you desire for 99 cents? This is exactly why CD sales have dropped billions of dollars since the creation of iTunes in 2001.

While few have taken notice, the effect of more and more people downloading has taken its toll on the CD. The first change is that large chain stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy have drastically shrunk their CD catalogs. These stores used to have a massive selection but now have resorted to halfheartedly stocking their shelves or shrinking their CD sections considerably to just new releases instead of a multi-genre operation.

However, these chain stores are not affected by the decrease in CD sales because they do not rely on them as a major part of their profits. The stores that are in trouble are independent record stores or chain record stores such as f.y.e. This is also bad news for
music fans who love these stores because of their great selections that you cannot find at a Wal-Mart or Target. For the past few years, these stores have been struggling to hold on and slowly but surely are disappearing off the map. Most recently, the f.y.e. at Willowbrook Mall had a blowout sale with huge discounts and price cuts. Days later, the store closed for good. If this trend
continues, it is obvious that these could be completely gone within a few years.

While most people could not care less that production of CDs could potentially stop, there are quite a bit of people who shiver at the thought. For die hard music fans, there is nothing better than buying and owning a CD. There is just something about owning the actual disc and the foldout booklet that is much better than downloading an album off of iTunes. Because of this, fans spend years building up collections of CDs from all of their favorites artists. Others argue that CDs just sound much better than downloading music files off of the internet. Whatever the case may be, there will always be select group of fans who stand by CDs until the end of them.

The decline of the CD is just another example of technology evolving our world. When the DVD started to replace the VHS tape, people argued that it would just not catch on. However years later, the world has completely converted to DVDs and VHS tapes are
practically nonexistent. Who knows? Will the world switch to downloading music over the internet or will the CD stick around for a little longer?