New iTunes Digital Cards, A CD Killer?

Have you seen the new, shiny cards that look like CDs while waiting for your cappuccino in Starbucks? They’re pretty. They’re about the size of a piece of notebook paper folded in half. But what are they? And will they actually work as a new form of digital media distribution?

They are essentially the ten dollar gift card for iTunes that sold so well last Christmas—stuffed in stockings across the land—picked up alongside bigger purchases while waiting in Best Buy’s long lines. But, they’re marketing specific albums. And did I mention that they’re shiner? Artists like the up and coming KT Tunstall and the ever present Paul McCartney have put their newest albums on the market using this new means of distribution. Oh, and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam has gone solo, and he’s doing it too. Eddie Vedder’s gone solo??? Nevermind. There is always a question with our nanosecond, forward thinking technology how long something will last, and how deeply a new form of technology will take hold of a buying public. The card simply replaces the actual CD as a physical way to sell music. Instead, buyers can download the album from iTunes using a hidden code on the back of the card which is underneath a scratch-off layer. According to the vice president of iTunes, Eddie Cue, the cards are "a way to leverage digital in the physical space."
This form, however, seems like a no brainer. But is it finally a CD killer? The compact disc arrived on the scene in 1982, surprisingly more long ago than I had thought, bringing with it a death blow to audio tapes. Those poor, cool tapes… with which you could just make a compilation of songs for someone you loved without worrying about Digital Rights Management software. However, due to the revolution of CDs, tapes stopped being sold in stores.

There was another potential CD killer out there for a time. It was called the MiniDisc. It was a small, enclosed CD that couldn’t be scratched and held more data. I still have a MiniDisc player lying around in my attic somewhere. So, I can empathize with folks who invest in technology that never takes off. I am talking to you Mark Twain.*

In any case, the CD has been on the shelves at Best Buy for too long, and while the .mp3 is a format that looks promising with record sales through iTunes and elsewhere, CDs can still hold mp3s really well. But then again, so can your computer. So selling you a cheap, but shiny, plastic card might be the new CD. It contains new marketing potential at least. I’ll just be interested about what’s on the shelves at “record” stores in 3 more years. Did I just say “record”? Don’t even get me started… but since you mentioned it, even with all our technological advances. Records are still the most accurate way to replicate sound.

*Mark Twain lost big when he invested in a printing technology that competed with the modern printing press.