Korda Marshall - now head of the UK arm of Warner division Atlantic Records - has suggested there might be a time when CD pricing would vary according to the anti-piracy technology included on the disk. Anti-piracy technology often (sometimes intentionally, sometimes as a side effect) prevents consumers from playing their CDs on their PCs or car stereos. Marshall says that discs which has such limiting technology on them might be cheaper than those without. Speaking on BBC Radio 2's Great Music Debate he said: "Maybe there's a point in the future where you'd buy a copy-protected CD at a lower price".
As for the future of the CD as a format on which we buy music he commented: "The industry's in a very, very healthy state and CDs are in their middle age. They've got a long, long way to go. It's not going to go anywhere".
Apple boss Steve Jobs, participating in the debate in his capacity as founder of iTunes, felt the CD might have another ten years of life expectancy. He said: "The traditional record stores are already having a tough go of it. But things don't happen that fast. I believe someday all music will be delivered over the internet - but that someday may be a decade a way."
Discussing the future of digital music, Jobs questioned the long term business models of some of his competitors. Confirming that Apple make most of their money on the sale of iPods, rather than by selling tracks via iTunes, Jobs said: "We basically make only a little bit of money on [iTunes] - we break even to make a little bit of profit, somewhere in that range, and we're the largest by far. So everyone else must be losing money. I don't know what people that don't have an iPod business are going to do because there's not a lot of money to be made running an online music store."