Leaving aside the second point for a moment, as I agree entirely, if a file were distributed using P2P, would it take that long to download a 4GB file? I would have to check what the average broadband speed is across the country / world, but I know that it certainly doesn't take too many minutes on my connection.

As someone who both produces music for sale and buys a lot of it, there is an awful lot of nonsense being spouted here.

1. I don't think that any music format of the past 30 or so years is going to be dying off any time soon. It's just another buying choice. Vinyl and even compact cassettes are making a comeback even though the reproduction is demonstrably inferior to uncompressed digital formats and needs very expensive playback systems to get the best out of it. It's all about fashion. Expect a craze for low bit rate MP3 files in about 20 years time.

2. What will happen is that downloads will diminish in popularity as soon as mobile data coverage becomes ubiquitous and cheap, and as long as too many artists and/or record labels don't have hissy fits with the streaming services. Right now for the majority of people streaming is fine so long as they have a decent internet connection. However there are still plenty of places you can go where this isn't the case. I spent a week in Germany last year where there are almost no wifi hotspots and even if I had been able to sort out a data plan for my trip, for a good portion of my time I had no mobile signal at all. For me one of the big attractions of streaming services is that I can pick whatever the mood takes me at the time to listen to and not have to hope that I made the right choice previously when I downloaded music onto my mobile device.

3. Streaming service need to have everything on them. Last time I seriously looked, Spotify could barely manage 50% of my CD and vinyl collection. New releases are well represented, but, as people on here are indicating, it's the back catalogue that most of us listen to. Also regionality still seems to be prevalent. I can buy CDs and records from all over the world, yet many of the bands I want to listen to aren't available to stream or download in the UK. Also IME the desktop version (Mac OS) of Spotify is crap. It's a nasty resource hog that will eventually bring the Mac it is running on to a grinding halt. It needs to be lean and efficient over all platforms. After all if I can't have the same experience across all my devices what's the point?

4. Modern music is no more or less crap than it ever was. These days it might take a little more effort on the part of the listener, but I can guarantee that whatever your musical tastes there is new music being produced today that you will like. In many ways it's even better because fashion no longer rules outside of the "charts" - which are less relevant than ever today.

5. I still buy new music by new bands. I also buy new music by old bands and a lot of back catalogue. My preferred format is CD because it gives me a physical backup of the music I bought at zero effort on my part. I've bought a download once in my life when there was an album I wanted to listen to on my holiday and even the fastest CD delivery service couldn't guarantee to get it to me before I went away. The download has since been replaced with a CD copy.

6. IMO higher sampling rates and bit depths than CD are a bit of a red herring. A lot of the time music is listened to in less than optimal conditions - in the car on public transport etc, where you'll be struggling to hear the difference between 192BR MP3 and an uncompressed 44.1 16 bit CD. In a controlled listening environment all but the most golden eared of us would be better served by an upgrade in our D-A converters which will be of benefit to all our digital formats. Also for a lot of consumers 16 bits already has too much dynamic range. In the car the quiet bits on CDs can be virtually inaudible unless you are prepared to be deafened by the loud bits.

7. A lot of audiophiles would be horrified if they saw what happens to their beloved music in the recording studio. How many miles of very ordinary screened cabling the audio signals pass through between the musicians and the recording devices. And even analogue purists can't guarantee that their recordings are digital free every step of the way. The only way you are going to get a digital free recording made since 1990 would be if it was a performance of acoustic instruments captured direct to vinyl with a stereo pair of microphones. My band made a mini album recored live onto 24 track reel to reel and released on compact cassette, but every stage in between had to be done digitally because either we couldn't afford it (mastering) or because none of the suppliers supported analogue formats - the actual cassette duplication was done from digital files.

Ultimately the format and processes are irrelevant. What matters is whether or not you like the music that has been produced.

True, but a lot of my MP3's are still 128BR from back in the day when space was at a premium. Naw with that, you can tell a difference. I'd rather not have to into the loft, dig out my CD's and re-rip them one by one.
Like you said, online catalogues suck. Whether it's streaming like Spotify or HD music stores.

The last 4 album purchases I've bought as actual CDs from Amazon as it was cheaper than the digital copy from both Amazon or iTunes, which is just mad.

I thought a big selling point of digital purchases used to be that they're cheaper than the physical copy - no disc to press, no packaging, no print costs for the paper inserts, no transport/delivery costs etc. To find that the digital copy is £2-4 more expensive than the CD - and you often get free delivery if you buy 2 CDs or something else you want to get the order over £20 - means there's no incentive to go down the digital purchase route.

You'd think the music industry would have learnt it's lessons from its past, wouldn't you?