Thread: MacNuggets
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Old 01-01-2009, 02:25 PM
michelej1 michelej1 is offline
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This is an article discussing the music industry's struggle to come to terms with new technology.

Boulder Weekly

http://www.boulderweekly.com/20090101/generalpage.html

But the transition from records to CDs wasn’t so smooth. “Almost everyone in the music industry fought against compact discs when they first came out,” said Knopper. “Producers, executives, distributors… even a lot of musicians. They hated it.”

And with good reason. Adopting the CD format meant changing the way everything was done in the industry, from recording to manufacturing to packaging the damn things. Visionary Arista Records founder Clive Davis wasn’t keen on CDs; artists such as Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac and the Cars wanted nothing to do with the new technology; and there was even an organization called MAD (Musicians Against Digital, not to be confused with the angry maternal prohibitionists Mothers Against Drunk Driving).

But in the end, the industry came around for one very good reason: money. There was so much more cash to be made in CDs that it was foolish not to jump ship. Compact discs were relatively easy to produce, and they took up almost no shelf space. Records and cassette tapes sold for a mere $8.98 apiece, but customers were willing to pay almost twice that amount for a CD.
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