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Shops selling mp3 in future?


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Old 18-04-2010, 12:30
Charcole911
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Your going round Tesco / Sainsburys. Half way round you stop at these booths, put in your £2.50, plug in your mp3 player / ipod, and select the 5 tunes you get.

You then take your reciept from the booth and use it to get your clubcard points at the checkout. (you either scan the barcode or the shop assistant does it for you)

Do you see this happening? Or do you think its more likely they will start selling mp3 CD's with 50 tracks for £10. or perhaps USB sticks with 200 tracks for £40??

normal 120 minute CD's must be approaching their last legs.
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Old 18-04-2010, 12:48
gagafan2010
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Good idea! I could totally see that happening actually It would get more people able to purchase download only songs
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Old 18-04-2010, 12:53
kutox
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Yes I thought about this once. One of the basic problems with mp3 as it is now is that you need a credit card. How are young people under 18 (who are the people most likely to buy songs) meant to buy songs off iTunes or other download sites? They have to use their parents credit cards which just makes things awkward.

That's something the industry never used their brains to consider. No wonder so many young people download illegally.
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Old 18-04-2010, 12:56
markmc2k5
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Good idea in theory and I would certainly be for it but I see one glaring problem with the booth idea. The vast majority of mp3 players are from Apple, either the iPod or the iPhone therefore Apple are notoriously precious with their platform so I'm guessing the would be wanting a license fee for each booth or block them altogether.

Best idea is the USB stick one, it has already been trialed in some instances and seemingly went well. Chart albums on USB sticks won't be too far away I would guess.
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Old 18-04-2010, 20:45
darakinss
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Thats very interesting actually! However, i am pro CDs and dont want them to die out i just prefer having it physically in my hand and the quality is obviously so much higher. It is inevitable that they will die a painful death though
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Old 18-04-2010, 21:35
shackfan
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Thats very interesting actually! However, i am pro CDs and dont want them to die out i just prefer having it physically in my hand and the quality is obviously so much higher. It is inevitable that they will die a painful death though
Totally with you on this. I regularly get songs from Youtube, but if I really like it I will buy the cd. There will be many people who in years to come will have absolutely NOTHING physical in music terms, to leave their kids or sell on if they get short of money. Very sad
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Old 18-04-2010, 23:19
10000maniacs
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normal 120 minute CD's must be approaching their last legs.
120 minute CD's are ridiculously difficult to get.
But you can still buy the 70 minute ones.
CDs will never die out. Audiophiles can even buy new SACDs and DVD-A's even though they were supposed to be "dead" years ago.
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Old 18-04-2010, 23:43
PhilH36
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I've never heard of a 120 minute cd! It was always a maximum of 74 minutes for starters,later increased to 80,but I know you can get 90 minute blanks for recording.
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Old 18-04-2010, 23:55
javjamoll84
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I'm sure you could get these types of machines in Hong Kong. IN the underground you get a machine at the stations where you were able to plug in your mp3 player, or usb based cable/item and download songs to it.

I'm sure I've seen them about a few years ago...

SO I guess they could implement these in stores?
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Old 19-04-2010, 02:34
L'russe besuhof
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Why take a step backwards, and introduce a middle man?
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Old 19-04-2010, 08:37
ginock
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I thought of something like this many many years ago but it wasn't for Ipods (for at the time such a thing did not exist) but for Mini-Discs where you could slip in a blank Mini-Disc and record onto it anything you wanted however I never fealt it would come off as it would be too easy to copy from one to another but you never know, it might work for the iGeneration.
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Old 19-04-2010, 09:04
Iceman09
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Bring back vinyl! FFS
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Old 19-04-2010, 09:08
David Tee
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I'm sure you could get these types of machines in Hong Kong. IN the underground you get a machine at the stations where you were able to plug in your mp3 player, or usb based cable/item and download songs to it.

I'm sure I've seen them about a few years ago...

SO I guess they could implement these in stores?
Yup, they were there in Hong Kong and many other places in the Far East a few years ago. I was involved in one of the trials. Despite a lot of attempts, the idea never took off properly.

I can't speak for vending machines (i.e. machines in underground stations) but when it came to stores, the problems were:

1) People were already used to / comfortable with downloading MP3's from their computer.

2) Initially people were curious about downloading in stores - a few of them tended to browse but few people ever bought. Of course, only one person could use a machine at a time. You could put several machines in, but it would cost you more to do so.

3) No-one went into a store looking to download something. If it was available in a store, it was an impulse purchase.

4) Apple make it extremely hard for any downloading service other than itunes to link directly with ipods (the market leader). They've also threatened litigation with companies that have tried to link directly.

5) The costs of implementing it at retail level are huge. Not only do you need all the equipment (which is prone to failure btw), you also need to build, maintain, update and refresh the interface (the bit that people use to find stuff) as well as running a sophisticated high-speed network (which requires more costly equipment) allowing files to be transferred quickly. You can contract with a third-party service to do all that - but the costs they will charge you will leave you with next to no profit. In short, it'd be far more profitable to do something with that space instore other than put in equipment that enables customers to download.

normal 120 minute CD's must be approaching their last legs.
The CD is living on borrowed time that's for sure. I'm with the Bring Back Vinyl solution - the best format ever. Did you know that they can now manufacture Vinyl so that the majority of the problems that plagued it thirty years ago (skipping tracks, wear and tear etc.) are almost eliminated?

BTW - I think 82 minutes is the longest they've made CD's so far. Anything over 74 minutes is pretty dodgy...
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Old 19-04-2010, 11:39
mimicole
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Thats very interesting actually! However, i am pro CDs and dont want them to die out i just prefer having it physically in my hand and the quality is obviously so much higher. It is inevitable that they will die a painful death though
I know what you mean. I love having CDs.
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Old 19-04-2010, 12:22
ginock
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I know what you mean. I love having CDs.
I agree to an extent, I will buy albums of Itunes if I can't find them on CD, a lot of standup comedy doesn't seem to be avaliable on CD but can be found on Itunes. I also like looking at the sleves you get with CDs where someone has clearly taken some time and effort. The best example I have ever seen was for "Hello Rockview" by Less Than Jake where all the songs were put into a specific order on the sleave to make the form of a Cartoon strip. I liked that fact that they took the time to do it.
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Old 19-04-2010, 21:07
Angurdaval
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I know what you mean. I love having CDs.
I agree! I like being able to hold it in your hand, and I like looking through the artwork/photos/lyrics in the booklets. It also means that if your computer decides to die you still have something.

You can also get CDs pretty cheaply nowadays
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Old 19-04-2010, 21:39
Mostly-Harmless
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They're actually doing this in HMV. There are little booths with places to plug in your devices. I don't think you can use them yet; they say 'coming soon', but they definitely exist! There are two in the Guildford HMV, but I know they're not in the Woking or Portsmouth one yet.
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Old 19-04-2010, 21:46
Carmen Queasy
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Surely anyone with an MP3 player needs a computer in the first place? With internet not really being rare, there seems to be little business sense for this.

I see the only real reason for it is so people can use cash instead of a card, and even then you can buy things such as iTunes vouchers anyway.
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Old 19-04-2010, 21:59
Mostly-Harmless
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I love CDs and I never download. I listen to CDs in the car most of the time, and I buy them and put them on my iPod rather than downloading from iTunes.
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Old 19-04-2010, 22:12
ginock
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Surely anyone with an MP3 player needs a computer in the first place?
Not necessarily. Its only really mp3 players like iPods, Creative Zens etc that require to have a connection to the net for use of the installed software, you can still get players like the cheaper models from Argos that still work on drag and drop from you folders on your pc so its not always needed.
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