very sympathetic to that thought. In some ways, CDs are surrogates for LPs, similarly shaped and packaged buckets of those new fangled digital thingies. Many of us like the sleeve notes, the browsing/buying and the getting up & selecting & listening thing.

Those digital files offer prospect of delivery in other than CDs, in two respects:

1) as (physical) distribution means

2) as replay device

with some attention to choice of

3) storage device.

On the first, the Internet is the key means of accessing digital files, including music file.  This has implication for distribution.  We can play/view something from afar; we can download/copy onto local media.  However, as observed above, consumers (including our good selves) often want more than just the files - we want the 'metadata', the sleeve notes, the sense of a concept album etc. Independent of sound quality, I'm sure that is part of the appeal of vinyl.

On the second, we want to limit interference to reproduced sound quality: whether 'accuracy/realism' or 'truth/beauty', to overplay those contrasting objectives. 

On the third, we want a mix of qualities associated with keep-safe and ease of retrieval.

The cost incurred in using CDs for the first is needlessly high, and so often is the pricing to the consumer. We know only too well about the limitations of CDs for the second.  And we trust to CDs for the third.

Do we see a time when the consumer visits a download station in the shopping mall (or in the home  for those who don't like to meet other people ;-) ) with their high capacity memory stick, decide to buy a bundle of tracks (and maybe the whole 'album') having listenned to the pre-pay replay, replays back from that stick in/on the car/bike/sneaker on the way  home, before transfering the stuff onto the media server (which seamlessly, as they say these days, does the archival thing).  The 'album' lives on through the (optional) sale of sleeve notes in the form of an A5 notelet with the tales and photos of the band/composer and the lyrics/score, all of which is also available for download from the Internet - but, hey, its nice to have something quality thing to refer to when listening - and it has the track code you can use with the handset for your media server - and it takes up space and shows visiting friends and family what you are into.

Whether Red Book remains dominant is a bit like the 80 column card and the like.

just a thought ...