What a sad world we now live in.......

I do all my CD and LP shopping on EBay.   I usually buy used. Thousands of titles available! Most any music one wants can be found via a smartphone! And often with free shipping! No need to travel to a store and look through a limited stock. This is the 21th Century!

The only thing a store can offer over the 'Net is instant gratification - if what music one desires is on the shelf/bin! And of course, the matter of sales tax!

It would be interesting to do a blind test playing the same song on a CD player Vs on Tidal.  Wonder if some would pick Tidal over a CD.  Then run a placebo test.

The smartphone/’Net has radically changed people’s buying patterns for music/movies. Along with a home computer/cable. New technologies are inevitably disruptive!

Did they stop selling dial telephones and Elcassettes as well?

Don't knock dial telephones - at least they work in a power failure when land lines don't and after cells run out of juice.

I still buy CDs to rip to my server and keep them as safe back-ups, but I guess the same thing happens with downloading - unless your digital backup crashes, gets stolen, or corrupted.  All of my buying is new/used online at prices that generally beat any retail source quite handily.

Ironic that while the CD is now on the way out, vinyl LPs seem to be actually increasing share a bit - and they are a 'safe' storage medium.