Whatever technology ends up being dominant in the coming years, there still has to be some sort of recording industry to support it and provide content. That's the part I worry about, since the major record companies have been such enthusiastic participants in their own demise. What we seem to have at the moment is a patchwork of world-class musicians scrambling to find distribution for their excellent recordings. Many have begun issuing their own, which may well be the wave of the future and has the advantage of providing a much better financial return to the artists themselves, but has the disadvantage of the absence of marketing and support. As a performing musician, I know that a physical CD is a very handy thing to have in hand to sell at concerts. Also, I was involved in the CD industry at the retail end from the mid 90s until just a couple of years ago. I'm still on board with CDs and I think there's still a future for the CD player. One day they'll probably go the way of typewriters, yes, but that's some way off. And one day (we'll all probably be dead by then) I predict an entirely new, as yet unimagined way of reproducing music will emerge, rendering our present digital universe obsolete.
