LONDON (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — CDs are dead, proclaimed Alain Levy, chairman and CEO of EMI music during his keynote address at the London Media Summit.
Alain Levy told conference attendees that "The CD as it is right now is dead." Levy then went on to acknowledge that the control over the means of distribution for media content was shifting away from the traditional channels and that in the electronic age, the "consumer is king."
With over sixty percent of music consumers now rip music and store it on computers and digital audio players, Levy seemed to acknowledge the inevitability of change. His solution to this challenge however seems to be at odds with this insight.
According to Levy, the solution is to make CDs more valuable to consumers by adding additional content that induces people to purchase and retain the physical media.
"We have to be much more innovative in the way we sell physical content," Levy told his audience "By the beginning of next year, none of our content will come without any additional material."
It remains to be seen however, if additional material will create demand for more compact disks. Levy seems to at once clearly grasp the problem facing the recording industry while simultaneously embracing technology that is rapidly approaching obsolescence – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
