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- Newsgroups: rec.audio
- Path: sparky!uunet!peora!tarpit!bilver!bill
- From: bill@bilver.uucp (Bill Vermillion)
- Subject: Re: Sony's CD advertising
- Organization: W. J. Vermillion - Winter Park, FL
- Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 16:52:54 GMT
- Message-ID: <1992Sep11.165254.14797@bilver.uucp>
- References: <1992Sep8.153152@trc.amoco.com> <1992Sep9.151145.25486@bilver.uucp> <1992Sep10.172824@trc.amoco.com>
- Lines: 86
-
- In article <1992Sep10.172824@trc.amoco.com> znpt01@trc.amoco.com (Norman P. Tracy) writes:
-
- >In article <1992Sep9.151145.25486@bilver.uucp>, bill@bilver.uucp (Bill Vermillion) writes:
-
- >> In article <1992Sep8.153152@trc.amoco.com> znpt01@trc.amoco.com (Norman P. Tracy) writes:
-
- >>> They seem to have lost sight of the fact that one
- >>>of the reasons compact cassette became the worlds most popular music media is
- >>>that its CHEAP.
-
- >> Norman - I'm old enough to remember when the cassette first came on the
- >> scene. It was touted as portable recorder, and it was never thought of
- >> as a serious music device.
-
- > (Most of Bill's excellent history of music media and record company
- > greed from '60s on deleted.)
-
- >> But CHEAP wasn't the operative word. Convenience was.
-
- > Bill ...
- > ... Convenience is a good thing much lusted after
- > by the public. I'll agree with you and amend my history of the compact
- > cassette to show it was convenience and a reasonable price that made it
- > popular. But with portable CD players shrunk down to the size of three
- > stacked jewel boxes do MD/DCC really offer added convenience to offset the
- > inconvenience of buying new hardware & software at premium prices? I don't
- > see it unless the public is so enchanted with 'digital' that they are drawn
- > into the stores in a trance like state to flip down their overburdened charge
- > card for this latest new gee-whiz. Rather I think the public also remembers
- > 4-tracks & 8-tracks, and Beta vs. VHS, and RCA's failed video disks and will
- > thus be a hard sell for Sony and Philips in the middle of yet another format
- > war.
-
- I agree on that point. My own opinion is that consumers will forsake
- the tape format for the CD. That is because while the cassette gave
- them mobile music, it also brought snarled cassettes, tape eating
- machines, etc.
-
- The 'silver disc' is a lot more visually appealing than the tape, and
- unless they can give strong reasons to forsake CDs I don't think it's
- going to do it - at least not at this time.
-
- From an historical point of view, I can't see anything replacing the CD
- for about 15-20 more years.
-
- The music media has been generational. People don't like to replace
- what they have with newwer media for the same performance.
-
- Mechanical 78 players lasted until about 1940. Electrical 78 recording
- started about 1926, but didn't supplant all the accoustice for abour 4
- or 5 years.
-
- The electric 78s gave way to the 45's and LPs starting with their
- introduction in 1949. The cassettes came in the mid-60s.
-
- Each media's lifetime in the market was about one generation -
- generation typically defined as about 33 years - or at least it was.
-
- Put 25-30 years onto the introduction date of each media and you can
- see that the generational media concept holds true.
-
- Eletctrical 78s - 1925 + 30 = 1955 78 limited prod cont. until aprox '60
- LP & 45 - 1950 + 30 = 1980 both virtually gone by '90
- Cassette - 1965 + 30 = 1995 - and CD's are making inroads now.
- CD - 1982 + 30 = 2012 = well, we'll keep an eye on this.
-
- > I close out my thoughts on this subject with a story that makes the point for
- > me.
-
- > The day I wrote my first post on this subject one of the network 'morning
- > shows' was doing a piece on the greatest new technologies for 1992. The
- > guy doing the piece got to consumer electronics and the award goes to ta-da
- > the Sony MD! He holds up a walkplayer and sez its great and its digital just
- > like CD (no mention of data compression) and its recordable and its just plain
- > wonderful. The newsperson host lady asks in a somewhat pained voice "does
- >this mean you would have to replace all your CDs?" "Well ahh, yes." replies the
- > guy doing the piece, and he hurries on to the next technological wonder.
-
- Fits right in with my generational media concept, doesn't it?
-
-
- --
- Bill Vermillion - bill@bilver.oau.org bill.vermillion@oau.org
- - bill@bilver.uucp
- - ..!{peora|ge-dab|tous|tarpit}!bilver!bill
-
-