Located in Pitman, New Jersey are just under 9,400 residents, a historical museum, the University of Glassboro, and one of two CD manufacturing plants owned and operated by Sony. Come March 31, 2011, you can scratch that last one off the list, CNet reports.
“In light of the current economic environment and challenges facing the physical media industry, Sony DADC is taking additional steps to reduce cost from our supply chain network in order to remain competitive,” Lisa Gephart, a Sony spokeswoman, said in a statement earlier this year.
Or, as one employee put it, “the CD is dying.” Here’s a quick history lesson. Audio CDs have been around in commercial form since 1982, or nearly three decades. Sony at one time operated three CD manufacturing plants, closing one down in 2003 and will shutter a second two months from now.
With all that said, don’t take this to mean that CDs are, in fact, dead. They’re not, at least not yet, but there’s no doubt interest is waning. Citing Nielsen’s figures, CNet points out that while digital track sales grew by just 1 percent last year, new CD sales dropped 16 percent.
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