There may be a number of files in 44.1k and a number of vinyl mastered in digital and reduced sales overall, but I still get the feeling physical media will be around for a while...practically indefinitely, no matter how low prices drop.
More than 5 yrs ago now, the lawyers that run the world were in the throws of globally getting ready to switch to 'files in the cloud' and ditch physical for good. It should've all already taken place a while ago, according to them at the time. What happened? China...in particular, post-COVID China. Before COVID, the international lawyers were maybe a little leery of China's reputation for intellectual copyright. They decided, apparently, to get everything in position to go ahead with their deal and wait for the international community to perhaps put enough pressure to reign in China's tendency in that regard and, if that had happened, they probably felt they could greenlight the project.
All that was necessary because the music and media companies, if they committed on that too early with China, stood to lose an unacceptably large portion of profits to pirating...a loosing proposition. So what the music industry, for example, did was to "test" the validity of the concept by allowing a very few file titles to be released in true hi-rez, while the rest were actually 44k (no matter how they were otherwise marketed). Not the lion's share of the total amount of titles available overall...just about, say, 10-15% or so to prove to themselves that the market was there should they decide to commit...should the conditions in the market ever allow them to commit.
But along comes COVID. Everybody's mad at China. And China drops all pretense of international cooperation. So much for greenlighting this worldwide project anytime soon. The music industry can't afford to commit to financial suicide...which means they are forced to hold off indefinitely their plans to turn off the spigot for physical media. If they stop production now, they will have nothing left they can safely sell. They'll now have to wait who knows how long until they can see the situation has improved...if ever...
So I wouldn't expect the music industry to suddenly "embrace" hi-rez files across the board anytime soon. And, whether they like it or not, they may be stuck with physical media for the next good while, no matter what the pricing.
More than 5 yrs ago now, the lawyers that run the world were in the throws of globally getting ready to switch to 'files in the cloud' and ditch physical for good. It should've all already taken place a while ago, according to them at the time. What happened? China...in particular, post-COVID China. Before COVID, the international lawyers were maybe a little leery of China's reputation for intellectual copyright. They decided, apparently, to get everything in position to go ahead with their deal and wait for the international community to perhaps put enough pressure to reign in China's tendency in that regard and, if that had happened, they probably felt they could greenlight the project.
All that was necessary because the music and media companies, if they committed on that too early with China, stood to lose an unacceptably large portion of profits to pirating...a loosing proposition. So what the music industry, for example, did was to "test" the validity of the concept by allowing a very few file titles to be released in true hi-rez, while the rest were actually 44k (no matter how they were otherwise marketed). Not the lion's share of the total amount of titles available overall...just about, say, 10-15% or so to prove to themselves that the market was there should they decide to commit...should the conditions in the market ever allow them to commit.
But along comes COVID. Everybody's mad at China. And China drops all pretense of international cooperation. So much for greenlighting this worldwide project anytime soon. The music industry can't afford to commit to financial suicide...which means they are forced to hold off indefinitely their plans to turn off the spigot for physical media. If they stop production now, they will have nothing left they can safely sell. They'll now have to wait who knows how long until they can see the situation has improved...if ever...
So I wouldn't expect the music industry to suddenly "embrace" hi-rez files across the board anytime soon. And, whether they like it or not, they may be stuck with physical media for the next good while, no matter what the pricing.