It would be nice if they replace the CD with a download that is the same quality as a CD. I mean, downloaded stuff doesn't sound as "full" to me....or is it just ME?
To be honest, I haven't listened to cds since probably the year 1999. Every cd I've bought, gets ripped to my computer and gathers dust on the shelf from that day forward.
I agree about the sound quality of downloads. You can blame iTunes for this. AAC format is horrible. It's not as good as a 320k mp3, which even then, is not the best sound quality you can have.
So then you get these FLAC formats, which are supposedly lossless (even though they are still compressed) and you still can't play them on an Ipod, nor can you play them on good ol' Windows Media Player without getting some weird codec for it first.
It would be better for everybody if they simply released music via the original WAV files direct from the studio masters, and then you could convert it into whichever digital format you prefer. While also, providing alternative download options (mp3, aac etc) for those with slower or heavily-capped broadband connections.
I'm not going to lament the loss of the cd. It never sounded as good as vinyl anyway. They always got scratched even though they were originally billed as indestructible - that you could eat your dinner off them. The amount of cds I've lost due to 'cd rot' is crazy (including my 'Beatles For Sale' 1987 mono). And the album art never looked as good on a cd compared to a record. Cds really are a pain in the neck these days with all the shelf space you need to house them. It's just so much easier having them all on your pc as a one-stop jukebox, perfectly tagged with album art and all the genre/year details etc. Back the whole lot up with an external hard drive the size of your hand, rather than carting boxes and boxes of the darned things and sitting on shelves doing nothing.
