The Downfall of the CD Industry: A Theory

Today, I received, with great joy, a CD in the mail.

I bought it off of Amazon.com, and eagerly awaited its arrival today at work, excited to play its aural goodness to keep me from losing my mind due to boredom. It finally arrived right before I left for lunch, so I held off on leaving until I could open it up and blast it like a madwoman in my car. I brought the package to my desk, slit the tape, and excitedly removed all of the plastic wrapping and cardboard from my precious compact disc.

However, instead of the quick process I was hoping for (I was very hungry - apparently, dieting does that to you...but I digress), it turned into some sort of open heart surgery-esque process involving scissors, finger maneuvering, and way too much complexity for simply opening a package.

And that, my friends, is what lead to the downfall of the non-digital music industry.

Oh sure, the argument can be made for the advent of Napster and the free music craze taking away from over-priced CD sales ("Why pay go to the store and $20 for this CD when I can get it at home, on my computer, for free?"), but why was digital music so appealing in the first place? Because it has no wrapping on it. Now I'm sure you're reading this and scoffing, but think back to the last few CDs or DVDs you've bought recently (however long ago that may be): was it not the most aggrevating process to remove all of the plastic and stickers from the case without either partially destroying the packaging and/or making a mess out of extremely sticky little pieces of plastic? Yeah, that's what I thought.

The fact that CDs (and DVDs for that matter) are really expensive is, of course, a factor in the downfall of the music industry, as it seems almost silly to buy something when you can just get it for free; however, what it really comes down to is convenience. You don't even have to leave your home or office to get whatever song or album or movie you want on a complete whim - but that's only half of the convenience. A digital file has no wrapping. No labels, no stickers, no scissors, no packaging disasters - in other words, no exceptional frustration after spending your hard-earned money on something you could have just gotten for free.

That, my friends, is how the music industry slaughtered their cash cow: everyone is just way too impatient for those pain-in-the-ass wrappers.