With MP3's and such starting to grow in popularity, I worry the CD will become obsolete. My main reason for me hoping this does not happen, is that I like to have a physical object. I currently have about 450 CDs and If they were downloads, What if my hard drive crashed? What if my MP# player gets lost, stolen or breaks? My last 10 years of music collection is gone. true, my current CDs can be stolen or scratched or lost in a fire, but it is less likely than to have it stored in a palm sized device. Sure, I could do backups, but thats a pain. Also the quality on a cd is much better, and I like the artwork and the notes. Same with DVDs. I hope our future is not downloading movies or relying on pay-per-view type viewing.

OK, Im off my soap box

I don't think we have to worry about that for awhile, but I agree.
I think I would stop listening to music If all I had was crappy MP3 compression.

There was a hugh article recently about the death of the full length album due to the rise in downloads. It seems that as people only want "the hits" they will not get the full release by an artist, therefore we may never know a "great album" as we have in years past. I applaude the Beastie Boys and other artists that require you to purchase the entire cd and not just one or two songs. I hope they set the standard for MP3's and music downloads

I hear ya, but I wouldn't have a problem with my discs taking up less space. Full CD quality, but with say... all of Led Zep's albums on one disc sounds pretty sweet to me.

I thinkpart of the problem is that there are very few 'great albums' anymore. There aren't many Beatles "White Album" or Stones or even King Diamond's storyline-oriented albums [except for his]. Music is turning into singles, AOR-oriented, disposable commodity. Whether that's the fault of the record companies for wanting to milk every last cent out of the current fad, or the average consumer for wanting only 'the good stuff' [ie, what they heard on the radio] and not being open minded, or both, I don't know.

But I agree in part with the OP--there's definitely something about opening a CD, reading liner notes, lyrics, along with listening to it, and having an actual product. Of course, I currently have 400+ cd's I wouldnt mind getting rid of, but resale value is nigh-non-existent.....

I personally think downloading movies, at least right now, is a fad. I want to put in a dvd, watch it on my big screen from my comfy couch, and get my DD sound from it. If I'm going to pay money to download a movie, I'd rather rent it.

But the thing is, not all CDs have only 1 or 2 good songs.
For the most part, If I like an artists current popular song,
I buy the cd, and more times than not, I enjoy the entire CD.

Granted, there are times that the whole CD sucks and I am let down, but if I like an artist I am interested in hearing what
other songs they have to offer.

I have 752 reasons to agree with you.

I will stay open-minded toward a shift in medium as long as we don't become a song-oriented consumer society like Great Britain (what with their exorbitantly priced albums forcing many people to just buy singles). I want to hear albums, not songs. If a band can't put out a good album, I don't want to hear them.

We'll see what they think when consumers avoid purchasing their full CD because they only want 1 or 2 songs. I'm thinking they'll change their attitudes when they see their revenue decrease.

Less people are interested in the entire CD anymore... which is one of the reasons why compilations CDs and greatest hits continually wind up hitting the top 10 CD sales.

Consumers want more flexibility with their music - and that includes purchasing only the songs they want.

As a medium I expect full-length CDs will be around for a loooong time (look at the recent resurgence of vinyl albums). The issue comes when a certain (growing) percentage of new releases come out as downloads only; there have been a few of these in the past, I think the first was a They Might Be Giants release. I suspect this will happen and yes the "album" will disappear though there will always be "collections" of a sort. This will be compounded by an obvious drop in fidelity (from CDs) - if the only equipment you listen to your downloaded tracks on is a PC or portable, who needs CD quality or better sampling rates? None of this is helped by competing SACD/DVDAudio formats. I personally will keep buying CDs (versus downloads - for the price I want a hard copy that lasts) and would seriously consider SACD if it weren't for it's competition. As a music lover/CD collector it will be very interesting to see where all this goes in the next 5 years...

-Gunshy

I have no emotional attachment to CDs as physical objects. I couldn't care less if the medium goes away, or not.

I used to have a strong emotional attachment to vinyl LPs. I guess I still do, to be honest.

I don't see CDs or DVDs going away in the foreseeable future.

They're just too popular in the Mainstream.

There are still great albums that are albums... You just haven't been paying attention.

I love the good ol' vinyl albums. There was somthing more exciting about buying an album on vinyl, than any other format. I don't think I would shed to many tears if CD's went away, but I do see the point of the thread starter. If the music device one is useing crashes or becomes lost, all the music is lost with it. I would much rather have somthing physical like a CD, or even better, a vinyl album, than to have something that only exist's as code on a hard drive.

Another problem would be gifts. Now, personally, I would rather receive a gift certificate or cash because usually I get something I don't want, but a lot of people have a problem with just giving someone currency instead of picking out a gift. If CD's were to go away, how would people buy music as a gift? A physical object like a CD is certainly more attractive to give than a card with an access code to download music with.

This is true today. But if Pink Floyd came out with another CD I would buy it right away. I am sure there are Pink Floyd fans out there and they know that one song leads to the next.

By the way Powerbomb Cowboys are getting there butts kicked. Currently it is 29-10. Maybe next year.

Is this some cool band? Are they duking it out with another band a la Battle of the Bands © ? Or is this just another ubiquitous OT football reference?

-Gunshy

I'm not really sure what people want in order to stay away from downloading music and purchasing cds. Some stores or maybe just Best Buy are selling cd's for 9.99 now. I seem to remember price being an issue. So if you can buy a cd for ten bucks why continue to download?

Another problem I see is not just downloading but burned copies of cd's. I can see this being a bigger problem than downloads.