I can see the thinking there if you go buy the hard sales numbers. I can agree that today especially younger people tend not to want or be able to afford owning things older generations do or did. The article only pertains to the listener. I would ask what about the artists. Sure with today's technology it is easy to have a home studio and put out music and become known. Does that provide the artist with a means to earn money like in the past? Will you play a stadium concert because your youtube following has hit 10,000? I doubt it. You can't own streaming. So it may be easier to become known but easier to be forgotten as well.

Does buying a hard format such as vinyl or cd constitute an investment? Do the music artists and acts or yesterday have the ability to draw a crowd today because they sold albums and cds. Will that be the case with the new artists of today? I don't believe so.

I will say in a way that I do agree there is a slow dying of hard formats even though with a vinyl resurgence but at 30 bucks a record how long will that endure. Can the same also be said for longevity of artists who would hope to have a long and prosperous career. No investment could indicate a why care when you can just stream the next hot thing.

Great article, and I say wonderful!!!  I've always hated CD's and in the 1981 to today experience of it, I've learned the digital format for recording and mastering works, and is not a problem.  The consumer playback mechanism - crude plastic disk that degenerates over time with cheap transport = jitter so while casually the sound was clean and convenient, for the audiophile it was like someone pissed in the cool-aid and no one could figure out who did it.

When it takes 30 grand to make a transport and dac good enough to remove these handicaps the price itself becomes a handicap... I mean when a $1500.00 vinyl rig can blow the snot off a $8000.00 CD player you have to wonder how successful was it.  Successful to who?

Interestingly enough the format could have been easily replaced by memory cards which would eliminate the transport and subsequent jitter almost entirely if not entirely.  Cost to manufacture = same.  Problem is, medium too small.  Not enough room to print on.  

While streaming is great you never own the music.  There is no tangible connection.  If your power goes out or the internet goes down in that greatest time of stress where some music would be most appreciated there will be none.

I always hoped that the format would move to SD cards with DSD quality recordings of each track.  No more 16/44, everything 24/192 or higher, it makes a big difference and eliminating the transport makes about a 20,000.00 difference in sound quality potential because all jitter can be eliminated.

Then for the holy grail my fantasy was to be able to purchase the same album on the same SD card in the same DSD resolution but with all 24 tracks.  This way the tracks can be fed into a mixer that you own, and mixed to your perfection in your room for your speakers and taste. That would be worth the 275.00 that a single reel of master tape can bring, because once you have it mixed for your own liking it will sound like 275.00 was a real bargain.

This would be a natural progression if the focus was about sound quality.  The focus is about marketing.  It's so unfair to both the musicians and the listeners... and the manufactures of fine audio gear who get to hear so many disappointing CDs make their gear sound like junk.

I have ripped all of my +2,000 CD's onto a hard drive into FLAC files using dbPoweramp software.  These are also backed-up on a WD portable hard drive, just in case.  I prefer listening to the ripped files, as opposed to direct CD play.

I still keep my CD collection and will occasionally listen to one of the shiny plastic discs.  

These days most of my listening is TIDAL streaming and ripped files thanks to Steve's ZDAC2 and Loney Raven's music personal computer, as well as vinyl playback.

I will be fortunate to beta test a new production Modwright PH 9.0 Tube Phono Stage, MM/MC 48dB/68dB sometime this summer thanks to Dan Wright.  I am looking forward to comparing it with my Dynavector P75MKII phono preamp. Here is a link to additional information.  https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=156920.0

HK