The Rapid Rise (& Fall) of the CD

There are many independent, off label, small label, and self release artists out there releasing on file sharing platforms, but also media. Cassettes and CD's, because of the economies of production will be around for awhile yet. Some artists I follow only release physical media on cassette and CDr. Many also sell/publish digital files. Think R. Stevie Moore and his subscription cassettes, which blazed a trail still much followed, The Corporate Music Business will be just fine (for a time) without selling physical media, if that's how they want to market their commodity.

So in summary, CDs still can play a useful role (including coasters for drinks as mentioned) but sound quality should not be an issue. I still have hundreds of CDs but all are ripped to music server and I play them only from there via Roon these days (I used Plex in the past for many years). They are useful as a backup in case I should lose files in the future and there is not an option to stream some of my favorites from a high res streaming service (I use Qobuz).

Physical media including CDs and vinyl also come in packages with supplemental material that is not available (today) with streaming equivalent. As long as I have internet access to read up on whatever topic I might choose, I tend to not miss the supplemental info in records or CDs much. I can’t remember last time I went to a CD to find out something about what I was listening to. I do go to records however on occasion for that. 331/3 vinyl still retains the unique advantage of being a larger format that also often also includes interesting supplemental information and materials. CDs are smaller and less useful that way, though box sets and newer expanded editions make an effort to compensate for that in cases where the market interest supports such products. Demand for physical media is likely to not go away totally for quite a while yet, but these days it all plays a distant second fiddle to streaming and all the advantages and conveniences that go with it.

Oh another reason I find I still retain all my records and CDs collected over the years is sentimental value. I’ve been collecting these since a kid and I associate specific records and CDs with various experiences and events in my life. I suspect that matters to a lot of older guys like me. Not so much with younger generations. I have young adult children that love music and neither has much if any investment in physical media. Streaming rules. My daughter is a big Michael Jackson fan and does collect MJ collectable things including a few records that she never played, but that’s it.

Inspite of millions of music selections on streaming. I have some cd collections that are not on streaming. 

Also worth noting FWIW  that just because something is available on streaming today, it may not be at some point in the future if say there is no significant demand or perhaps even if legal issues were to arise that prevented access.