What will become of my beloved CDs?

@elizabeth - Your scenario reminds me of the SETI organization and their search for extra terrestrial radio signals. If a civilization is a million years ahead of you, MAYBE they use a communication protocol you don’t understand (compare analog radio to digital - ever dial a fax machine by mistake? Does the sound it makes make any sense?).

folkfreak,

Wow, I stand corrected big time. I had no idea anyone would make 78s these days. It may be a niche market, but it seems that it is a market. The secret is that I actually always want a turntable with 78 although I own exactly zero records like that.

At the same time, I have a probably very dumb question. Tell me that they are not made of shellac but something more durable.

Issuing 78s is a bit of a gimmick really -- they're pressed on vinyl not shellac and while there might theoretically be an advantage to the faster speed (a la 45rpm issues) most motors running at 78rpm are noisy as heck so that kind of defeats the purpose! 

They're fun nevertheless if you have 78 in your player, and you don't need a dedicated stylus -- Jack White is a big proponent
https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6538682/jack-white-third-man-records-first-elvis-presley-rec...

Of course mono is a much bigger and realer thing -- the market for mono only carts and expensive reissues of rare mono discs -- like this which is one of my faves
https://www.discogs.com/Johanna-Martzy-Radio-Recordings/release/9966202

Oh and to the OPs question -- keep your CDs, do not dump them, in fact buy more. I've never heard an streaming or downloaded file that sounded better than the original CD played on my DCS stack, plus by buying direct from the artist (which you always should if possible) you are putting $ as directly in their pocket as you can

dweller
@elizabeth - Your scenario reminds me of the SETI organization and their search for extra terrestrial radio signals. If a civilization is a million years ahead of you, MAYBE they use a communication protocol you don’t understand (compare analog radio to digital - ever dial a fax machine by mistake? Does the sound it makes make any sense?).

>>>>If a technically advanced civilization attempted to communicate with a much less advanced civilization it would understand that it must find a common means of communication. They would almost certainly assume that anyone listening for such signals would comprehend digital. Or they could use prime numbers or Finonocci numbers to get our attention. They could send ANY kind of signal as long as it’s not naturally occurring if they were simply trying to communicate that they exist. We could figure out where the signal was coming from with ease, just like they did in the movie Contact.