CDs for music - yes - especially if its from an artist or group who I like and I want physical media.

I was thinking about this today, oddly while walking with my iPod. Why, I thought, are we still using CDs and DVDs. By now, even a well encoded album or film could be distributed on a flash drive. The larger file sizes for non-lossy music files and full HD with 7.1 digital sound would fit on a memory stick, but would be prohibitive for download at the moment could easily be stored on a flash drive. Plug that into your music player, and off you go. You could even include iPod (other MP3 players are reportedly available) ready files.

I remember the days of games being supplied on cartridge and came to the conclusion that using CDs and DVDs etc. for that kind of product has become a retrograde step.

Generally, no.

I use my iPhone in the car and I only listent to podcasts these days, or the radio if the girls are home.

I bought Tina an Apple TV for playing her music, but it is too complex and she still wants me to install a CD player in the lounge...

But you could extend that to say that there's no need for books. However, I much prefer reading a book than reading online and you also have the extra stimulus of having a tactile input from the book itself.

That could extend to other media to a greater/lesser extent.

<me>agrees</me>

I haven't used a disk in a fair while apart from DVDs that I rip onto my Mac. When I bought my Mac Pro I got one with two optical drives, I've not really used one let alone two...

I would extend that to books. I'm far more likely to read longer articles from a screen than I am from printed material.

Mark

It's always nice to have a hard copy for the collection.

A novel? Really?

Had a dozen or so CDs in the car for a 5-hour trip to Devon just this week - that was the first time we've used them in ages and I'd forgotten what a pain they were; 12 albums filled the whole glovebox. I'm sure the next car will have some kind of iPod connection, but other than that we don't use/haven't bought music on CDs for about four years - about when we finished ripping our CD collection (about 3k CDs) to MP3. Still mostly buy movies on DVD but rip them for convenience - though the kids mostly buy downloads. Haven't willingly bought a paper book for about three years - aside from one or two that weren't available at the time as eBooks.

Digital world, innit - and perhaps just as well that we're easily pleased

Pete

I listen to CDs in the car all the time. mp3 for most stuff (320 CBR) but I still use either originals or rips of extremely well recorded stuff like MJ, Jamiroquai, Stevie Wonder, Finley Quaye, John WIlliams etc. AND stuff that just sounds phatter in CDA than mp3 like The Prodigy, Jill Scott, a lot of hip-hop.

I have some serious audio in the car and the difference between 320 and CDA is audible on a lot of material (but not all). Anything less than 320 is notably gash.

If music was offered in lossless masters, digitally, for a reasonable price, perhaps I would switch. But it's not, so I won't. And tbh, how much music these days is worthy of such a format? With the arrival of the iPod as the primary source for many people, most music these days sounds [LIFTED] and is no different in a crappy car, or the kitchen Bose, or proper hi-fi. I think the 90% figure is an underestimate....

Agreed plus it is less of a problem when it comes to the legality of a music collection if it is ripped from your own CD's.