When will the last CD be pressed?

Flash drives maybe?

It's sad, but I know that progress moves on. I remember in college CD collections were such a great conversation piece. I guess the same is probably true for digital music collections, but I'll miss the tactileness of CD's. There was something ... substantial about the tower of CD's. Tending to it was an accomplishment, like gardening, whereas now everyone owns 30,000 songs.

 

CDs will hang on for a while, thanks to luddites like me who still buy them. But vinyl records will outlast them, and probably this generation of iPods, too.

Why? Because vinyl records are durable. Sure, they get scratches and can get warped if you store them wrong, but if you do basic things to take care of them, records can last 50-plus years.

Seriously. Go into your parents (or grandparents?) den, go to their stereo console and put on an old Elvis, Beatles or Johnny Cash record ... it will still sound decent.

Tapes or even 25-year old CDs? Too easy to damage.

 

I still buy CDs, although with two young children and thus much less disposable income, only a couple per year usually.

My wife won an iPod that she hardly ever uses except at the office from time to time. I've tried to use it, but for the life of me, no matter how long I try, I can't get the little touchpad menu thing to work.

I've loaded iTunes on my laptop, and ripped almost all of my CDs into the library, and I use that a lot.

But I've never downloaded a single song, or podcast, or anything else.

Maybe I'm just getting old enough now that I'm not as likely to feel the need to keep adapting to the next technology just because it's new. CDs work just fine for me, and until they disappear completely, that's what I'm sticking with.

Also, I'd rather play Atari 2600 games than just about any new video game. Seriously, pretending to play the guitar is a video game? And 3D TV? Stupid.



I feel a strong need to step outside and tell the neighbor kids to get off the damn lawn.

 

I thought iPods were cool. I got one as a gift about a year after they came out. I got a video one right when those came out and I thought it was pretty good as well.

I'm not usually the guy who has to have the latest gadget, but the day I saw the iPod touch, I had to have one. It's just so insanely cool and I don't go anywhere without it. The bulk of the movies I watch are on my iPod and I don't feel even the slightest bit badly about not getting to see them in the theater or even on my TV. It's an amazing gadget.

 

cd sales are still far, far, far and away the sales leaders over downloads

 

I've always had a lot of CDs (my oldest ones are almost 25 years old. Ouch.). I'd been toying with ripping them all, getting rid of them and going all digital. Until I got a bad virus on my computer, had to get a new one and my backup drive failed. Now I'm afraid to go all digital. I'll be holding onto the CDs for now.