I just took took my wife to see P.S. I Love You (probably the best date movie I’ve seen this year). After the movie we stopped at Wal-Mart and grabbed the soundtrack to the movie. I did this because I don’t have the cable for my iPod with me and wanted to enjoy the music from the movie on my way home (we’re on vacation in Texas).
Here’s the problem though…the CD cost me $14.88. After listening to the whole album I realized I only like 4 of the songs…that means I paid $3.72 per song…for songs that I could have purchased on iTunes for $0.99 each. Or…I could have purchased the whole album for $9.99 on iTunes skipping the inevitable step of loading the CD into iTunes so I can have them on my iPod. I made the comment to the three other folks in the car with me, "I don’t think I’ll ever buy a CD again." Is music packaged as albums and sold on CD’s really dead…probably not yet, but I think it will be soon.
I have a lot of friends who are professional musicians…I think this change has significant implications for the way they should be creating and packaging their music.
Jon Dale 
And this just in from Charlie in TN…
“Hey Jon,
Interesting to hear your comment about CD’s since the news in todays
Tennessean (Nashville) is that CD sales are way down. On the way to work,
the guys on WSIX were talking about the death of the CD
Charlie”
Here’s the text of the article…
U.S. album sales down, digital sales up
By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer
Article Launched: 01/03/2008 12:40:21 PM PST
LOS ANGELES—U.S. album sales plunged 9.5 percent last year from 2006, continuing a downward trend for the recording industry, despite a 45 percent surge in the sale of digital tracks, according to figures released Thursday.
A total of 500.5 million albums sold as CDs, cassettes, LPs and other formats were purchased last year, down 15 percent from 2006’s unit total, said Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks point-of-purchase sales.
The shortfall in album sales drops to 9.5 percent when sales of digital singles are counted as 10-track equivalent albums. About 844.2 million digital tracks sold in 2007, compared to 588.2 million in 2006, and digital album sales accounting for 10 percent of total album purchases.
Last year, Apple Inc.’s iTunes Music Store became the third-largest music retailer in the U.S.
Visit http://origin.mercurynews.com/business/ci_7873114?nclick_check=1 for the entire article.