Is the CD and DVD/Bluray going away?

CDs and DVDs aren't going away, but they are no longer the sales behemoth they once were. The top sales year for CDs was 2000 when they sold almost 800 million of them. Now CD sales are less than half that, around 300 million. (Vinyl sales, while up, are still only about 1% of CD sales.)

Now, that's still a lot of CDs and record companies are still going to serve that market for a long time. While some people have moved to downloads, there are still a lot of buyers who don't download and aren't going to start anytime soon.

(One other aspect to consider -- while downloads are generally cheaper than new CDs, there is a tremendous market for used CDs. You can often buy a like-new CD for less than the lossy format download. But, the used market also depresses new CD sales.)

So, yes, the trend is toward download, but CDs are going to be around for many years to come. The same is true of DVDs. There is a trend toward streaming, but there are still a lot of buyers who prefer the physical disc.

Levchappy, I have always thought that the thumb drive/SD type card would be such a great solution. Physical Storage, no moving parts, cost of production, little tiny thumb drive racks,no concern about scratches, Clocking issues, the list goes on. But for retailers it might be a theft problem. But I am sure they could come around to a solution for that as well. As far as down loads my concern is what happens if your drive crashes, will they maintain a license that allows you to re-download. I would rather have a tangeble product that I can dictate where and what I play it on. Unless we settle for a pay per use download then that would suck in my opinion. I am giving a Thumbs Up on Thumb drives:)

According to Nielsen SoundScan for 2012:
193 million Cds were sold
4.6 million Lps were sold
118 million Digital album downloads were sold

Cd sales were down from 224 million in 2011
Lp sales were up from 3.9 million in 2011
Digital album downloads were up from 103 million sold in 2011

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/04/the-nielsen-company-billboards-2012-music-industry/

So cd sales continue to decline but they should be sold for a while yet.

Interesting the differences noted in sales between sources. The numbers I noted above were from a Reuter's article based on Billboard magazine figures. See
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/05/us-albumsales-us-idUSTRE8031NY20120105.
(These are 2011 figures, but I'm not sure how much I would trust 2012 figures so soon after the close of the year.)

However, the trends noted are similar and the comments agree. CDs are going to be around for many more years.

However, another impact that many have noted the past few years is the loss of local stores with a big inventory of CDs.

shiny discs aren't going anywhere. Their demise is much exaggerated.