Web & DVD Kill CD? WMG Release New Act SUN Sans CD

"When Ohio-based rock band the Sun releases its first full-length album next month, it will be available on DVD, online and on vinyl record. But not on the medium that’s still the biggest seller in the music industry today: the compact disc," reports WashingtonPost.com

"It’s a tip of the hat to the past and the tip of the hat to the future," said Perry Watts-Russell, a senior vice president at Warner Bros. Records Inc., which signed the band.

The label expects the Sun to be the first of many artists to embrace a no-CD, video-only strategy. And that is part of a larger move away from the traditional album concept that some experts say is steering the CD the way of the hand-cranked gramophone.

The full-length CD format, which debuted in 1981, last year sold 766.9 million copies, down from a  high of 942.5 million in 2000, according to statistics from the Recording Industry Association of America. At the same time, online sales — championed by the popular Apple Computer Inc. iTunes Web site — is picking up part of the slack: 139.4 million tracks were sold online in 2004.

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