Kanye Says the CD Is Dead, Won’t Release Any More Albums on the Format
Tireless provocateur Kanye West blew the minds of senior citizens everywhere today by declaring the CD a dead format. The proclamation came in the form of a trio of Twitter observations. With the first he stated, "I was thinking about not making CDs ever again... Only streaming," and then, "the Yeezus album packaging was an open casket to CDs r.i.p," and finally, "uuuuuuum, so there it is... No more CDs from me."
On one hand, it's hard to make a case for the continuing validity of the CD format, considering that its descent has been more widely attended than anything this side of the New Year's Eve ball in Times Square. And, in turn, streaming has certainly enjoyed the opposite success in the 21st century.
But then again, West is said to have lost $10 million to illegal downloads of his latest album, The Life of Pablo, at least partly due to it being available on the Tidal streaming service he's been shilling for. One can't help but wonder how much smaller that number might have been had a few hundred thousand CD copies of the album shown up on the market.
Still, who are we to second-guess Kanye? If he takes an outspoken position on an issue, there's no question that it's well-researched, carefully considered and in no way based on emotional impulsiveness. Right? Guess we'll find out if he's serious when that second album of the year he said he'd release this summer comes out.