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Yes someday or the other CD media is gonna die i guess thats gonna happen by 2009.

I don't think anything like this will happen unless sales fall off completely. I do think CD media will get a lot cheaper than it is even now though.

It makes for an interesting thought. Whenever i think of why companies should do better legal download services (like for movies), my first argument is always for environmental reasons. A service where you could re-download a film as many times as you wanted after you purchased means you wouldn't have to back up the film to a disc (ok so my point is about DVDs maybe, and not CD's as such), you could just re-download. Internet connections are ridiculously fast so thats no excuse.

It would save so much material and reduce emissions etc. I think the whole "wanting a physical copy with boxart" argument is getting a little childish now. I changed my entire collection of music into MP3 format, sold off the physical discs and i buy from legal download services. Give me the same thing for films for a decent price and i'll do the same for those to.

i don't quite agree with crustyteacup, for many reasons.
CD/DVD are cheaper, still cheaper then hard drives and longer lasting. We still need a cheap backup media for computers, and DVD is good for that, but bluRay and HDDVD are better, they to are optical discs. Point being that optical media will ALWAYS out price any other storage media. Then we have sound and video plus speed, Not everyone in the USA has High speed internet or can get high speed. I am in a decent populated are and we have no high speed. I also am not a big fan up bad sounding compressed audio, so i prefer the physical cd, however i do like Mp3 for the fact that it is portable and good for work outs and the car. Now if i could get my CD collection uncompressed in a ipod that would be a blessing in it self, but the idea of no optical media in the future is very far away. I like the idea of ipod based devices and are all for them, we just need 1TB sized devices for audio and video.
And consumer electronics need to get more computer based too so you have the compatibility. I saw a pioneer DVD recorder which has a 160GB hard drive, what is cool about this device is it lets you store Divx and Mp3 files to its hard drive from a USB connection, and then play it from there, no need for CD/DVD discs, if more electronics would do this, then it would be possible to eliminate optics, providing HDs would get cheaper and more reliable. God knows the speed is better. Then for people that cant download, you could have them use a reusable chip or RW based disc, go to the store and burn/write the content you want to the media and then bring home to transfer to your computer and home electronics. But when you talk about low income people. this then causes problems since most of them don't have computers. All of us here always forget that not every person in the world has a computer, and when it comes to Audio/video based stuff the walmart $300 spacial computer just doesn't cut it. Computers are still to expensive when it comes to all the software you have to buy to run all these media files. So it will be quite some time before optical media ever disappears completely.

You'd have to be a fool not to make a backup copy of a song or film you buy on the Internet. The ability to re-download is not a right and it is not guaranteed.

re: slinko,

I hope when you say CD Media, you mean pressed (store bought) CDs, and not CD-Rs. CD-Rs are only going UP in price!

I agree with you applegodel8. i made it sound like i thought everybody was able to take advantage of these services, and not everyone can. My point was that if there were for instance legal download services available that were any good, then the people who are in a position to take advantage of these services would hopefully do so.

I mean lets face it, most users won't need lossless stuff. Sure its brillant to have a CD quality album on your PC, but i settle for mp3 as my collection is already 30gb in size, i would hate to think about what size it would be if it was all lossless!

But good point about burning re-writable discs in store, i forgot about that. I'm not against optical media, its a life saver sometimes.

No, I don't think CDs will die. It's mass storage you can hold in your hand. Anything that valuable, is gold.

Interesting green theory for wanting to download but CD's are uncompressed and so far downloading is good quality but not as great as CD or multi channel DVD.

Servers for downloading still pollute the environment, the question is which one is worse?

I call BS! No way in 5 years, maybe it will taper off, but too many of us count on our high end CD players for our audiophile fix, let alone everyone out there who has CD players in their car & living room, or everyone who does not use computers or portables for audio/music.
I don't think everyone who's spent $$$ on their CD collections over the years is ready to buy the replacement technology.
And what is that technology ? What device will replace a CD player in a living room stereo system where there is no computer and no network/wifi ?

OMG Three said it, it must be true!
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I remember when DVD-R first came out everyone was saying "The end of CD Media" and it's still going strong!

That survey is the most ridiculous thing as if everyone under 24 is now part of the "Green Party" which is certainly not acurate.

Sonce Blu-ray and HD just came out it's about that time again to start with "CD Media" which they have to before picking on "DVD".

It took a long time for floppy's to completely die out, and with so many "Redbook" players still in use it is doubtful CD media is going to die out anytime soon.

BTW why everytime that CD is going to die is it "5" years? How come not "2" or "3.5" it is always 5 years!

I personally think it is time for CD to die, i would like something new. The reason for this, is i think in the portable world CD really sucks! Once MP3 came out, i think ALL CD players should of had that compatibility. CD are great in your home, and the quality is great, but portable wise BAD! most of my friends have CD players in there car, but no Mp3 and it drives me nutz! Have people ever noticed CD changers are kinda dying out! I have had hard times trying to find good changers, the reason MP3. You can stick up to 12 CD's worth on to 1 DISC! WOW so why do we need changers? Well i still do! 12 albums plus 5 discs gives me 60 albums (Most of my mp3 10 albums to a disc) or 50 albums. WOW. What i would like to see is ALL optical devices DVD/CD and ALL with Mp3 on ether DVD/CD. i have a DVD player and it only does Mp3 on CD and i will be getting a new one that should do DVD for mp3. So what i am trying to say, is we don't need to persay replace CD but add to the mix, all discmans handle DVD for audio and stuff given for storage, and all cars to be Mp3/DVD compatible! Period. I think in a car its a waste to put just 1 album on a disc when i can stick 10/cd or 80/dvd! they need to standardize Mp3 in ALL machines. they must except the fact that portable stuff is a mp3 world. you can not hear much of a sound difference with mp3 or cd in a car. so mp3 is great for on the road and out of house. Mp3 is cheap to do now, lets bring it on.

pfft how long did it take 8 track and cassette tapes to finally die..well cassettes are still around but impossible to find 8 tracks anywhere. As long as people want the media, they will make it available for sale.

CD-Media will probably never die, maby in 50 years time. Reason for that is the huge amount of music CDs out there. However CD-Media might become rare, or not produced in large numbers. More expencive but it will be around for sure.

CD Media compatibility will never die, since its a disc all future machine can be made to play them, and for that reason they will not die any time soon. But we can't expect them to stay around forever! if i had to guess, i would say maybe 20 years. but do to compatibility they will be playable for just about forever.

The end of CD discs is the Label companies Holly Graal...complete dematirailization of the music industry...the possibility to charge the same fares without the production/marketing/distribution costs to sell the discs...compressed lossy (even if they say the contrary) files to spare bandwith costs...easier implementation of DRM policies...changeable even after we "buy" the files...at the end we would only buy the right to listen to the music X number of times and to keep it in a specific acrvhive they can control and ask us to pay to "renew" our listening rights...
That's why SACD never found its way.

I can't believe that this old chestnut is being rolled out again, just like the paperless office we were promised with the advent of computers!
As the floppy is at last dead (well nearly)what device will be used to boot up the computer and supply software?

i'd argue that we're stuck with CDs for a long time. People aren't ready to accept having just an mp3 collection with no physical CDs along with the fact the "next generation" audio CD was supposed to be SACD/DVD-Audio but that fell flat on its face. We're stuck with CDs whether we want it or not. Personally i'd say get rid of the things, although i would miss them when there gone, much like i miss floppy's.

CD's will have a long life, guaranteed! Recording Studios around town generally only master to CD-R, with the exceptions being the big boys who master to 5.1 DVD Audio or SACD

Most studios and musicians feel that 44.1Khz, 16-bit, stereo channel audio is still quite high on the quality list.

As "crustyteacup" above replied, they have sold off their entire physical CD collection, and burnt it to mp3...all I can say is why, why, why?

I want something to hold and treasure for my music buying dollar! (not to mention quality!)

I do agree that music/audio will evolve again, but it will take a system that is designed for film and music to all play on the one system, before that really happens!

Cassettes are only just mid next year being fazed out at the major plants (here in Australia), and that is a non optical disc format, whereas CD is, so it will always be backwards compatible and therefore will be catered to for a long, long time!

For the record, I'm a 27yo, who only downloads rare live tracks or similar, and will never download a full album in place of having the physical thing!

Just my opinion!

Bah... look how long vinyl has been around for. It ain't dead yet. Why don't these fools get real. Base your estimations on past experience rather than silly surveys. For instance i don't see all those people with CD players in their cars upgrading their sound systems anytime soon nor do I see the car makers selling them with DVD audio players as standard. Hell Ford still sell tape decks as standard when you buy a cheap car!