Mp3 players have one greatness, they are lighter than air, and if you are into listening to the spoken word as opposed to the olde jingles, one can carry masses of valuable information...and such a tiny little battery. As I was reading your article I just finished loading up 6 Chapters of the Book of Hebrews, Alexander Scourby....to accompany the entire study by Chuck Missler on 70 weeks of Daniel...these gadgets are definitely where it all goes. Eventually, they will be able to insert one under the skin and you can access the encyclopaedia brittanic, answer your cell phone and ........hahahah........[don't you wanna buy a CD?]

Everything has its time to become obsolete.
But Audio CD are still needed because there's where regular, non connected people got their legal music from.

Once portable CD players became popular, the walkman quickly vanished. Now the portable CD player gives way to the MP3 player. Computers are also becoming integral parts of people's home entertainment centers as they can store tens of thousands of songs in a small space, something you can't do with CDs (lets assume an average MP3 is 4mb, 20k MP3s comes to just under 80GB. Now assume the average CD contains 15 songs, that's roughly 1333 CDs). It won't be long until the CD in general goes away. How often do you see cassette tapes anywhere anymore besides garage sales?

Even for the disconnected, soon the CD will vanish as people move to satelite radio and other on-demand music broadcast services. The number of disconnected people is also a lot lower than most people think anymore. It's becoming impossible to avoid computers and the Internet... Many people I know now have more than one PC in their homes even.

Yet, on the other hand, for groups of young teens who like to exchange music, CDs are the easiest and least detectable way to do that. I agree with you on all of your other points, but CDs will continue just to satisfy that evergrowing number of people. Think about it: there are no restrictions on music copied from CDs, while from iTunes and other similar stores it costs 99 cents a song and it can only be placed on 5 computers, all with authorization. It's just easier to use a CD.

Yet, on the other hand, for groups of young teens who like to exchange music, CDs are the easiest and least detectable way to do that. I agree with you on all of your other points, but CDs will continue just to satisfy that evergrowing number of people. Think about it: there are no restrictions on music copied from CDs, while from iTunes and other similar stores it costs 99 cents a song and it can only be placed on 5 computers, all with authorization. It's just easier to use a CD.

I think the whole "album oriented" concept is on its way out. Very few prog bands are still doing 20 minute songs, and mp3 technology is driving the market back towards individual tracks. I think paying for 15 songs, when all you wanted was 2 or 3 of them was a stupid idea anyway.

As far as "Illegal" mp3's, don't let the RIAA liars fool you. I have well over 4 gig of music on my computer, without a single illegal track among them.

hey guys, I don't kow why but I feel so special that you posted



anyway, I wonder what the next technology will be? Will it be music cell phones? The MP3 player that is also a cell and pda?

I think things tend to get more simple than complex. Computers SEEM complex, but in reality they have absorbed many tasks into one tool. I remember in the late 1980's in my dorm, I had a word processor, a photocopier, a stereo, a VCR and TV, a game console, etc.

Now, all that is in one box with a couple of periphreals (printer/scanner). Heck, if you look at how much I use the phone the Internet has really overtaken it, too.

So, I think music is just going to be absorbed by what we already have. Maybe cell phones, but my guess is portable computers, hand-helds, laptops, etc., will absorb both music players and home entertainment systems as well. I think we are just a few years away from seeing really powerful hand-helds, it's just screen technology and easy input that is mussing things up.