In the 1980’s the recorded music business embraced the open source movement, albeit through ignorance. These record companies stopped selling embedded software (vinyl recordings) and switched to open source digital format CDs. These companies virtually killed the LP as a format.

Now the tried and true CD is coming under assault. Due to declining sales, the established music business is declaring the CD is dead. The trend of abandoning the CD in favor of downloading could be the biggest mistake these music companies make. It rivals suing music fans unsuccessfully.

Selling 1s and 0s over a high speed phone network is just another sales option, not an industry salvation. There are cries of greed from all sides of the current digital sales equation. The Lunatics know killing the CD won’t increase digital downloads.

The CD is still the preferred medium of the majority of music fans. Stories of music consumers losing their IPod containing thousands of dollars of downloads are becoming common. For your $10.00 you can buy downloads that don’t play in your friends’ CD player, or you can buy a CD that can make an infinite number of MP3s. Couple that with the obvious fact that the MP3 is compressed and doesn’t have the sound quality of the CD’s WAV format, and the CD becomes an even better value equation for music purchasers.

If the major record companies don’t consider their fan’s value equation, they are headed for even tougher times ahead. The Lunatics warn that chasing this downloading dream and scrapping the CD will further erode the record companies’ fan base, and music sales will continue to decrease.