another interesting take on the future of CDs

[taylordeupree]

interesting article here.. talking about how CD drives are being phased out of computers.... even if the CD is alive and well.. but no one can actually play them.... could be a problem..

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2011/02/with-mobility-rising-macbooks-looming-dont-assume-optical-discs-for-distribution/

of course, people DO have CD players in their cars/home stereos.... but a lot of people use their computers as CD players and, of course, to rip the CD to MP3...

just never thought about the topic from this angle before...

[Orphax]

interesting thought, but I don't think it will go that fast...
but maybe I am wrong.

[Koda]

We've made it this far without 8track cassette, I'm sure we'll survive another media format obsolescence.

I really wish MD would have taken off...Way better than CD's.

Is there way I can install a MD player/burner into my late 2005 G5?

[haesslich]

at least the MD formfactor is/was convenient, but the audio is coded with a lossy, proprietary ATRAC-3 codec. i don't trust codecs i don't understand ;-)
in my opinion, the market has to offer one non-lossy audio format. i cannot tell exactly why, but it's my deep belief.

i don't think the cd drives and players will vanish completely that fast. it makes absolutely sense to leave them out of some new computers, since they're not needed that much any more. the fact that apple is the first or the most radical one to do so does have, however, a different reason: while other manufacturers replaced cd by dvd and are now replacing dvd by blue ray (which can play audio cd as well as far as i know), apple does not. there's a licensing issue with the blue ray standard, so apple hardware can not, as far as i know, play back video blue ray discs. i think apple tries to oppress the users crying for blue ray by marketing the loss of a optical disk player as a step forward in product development.

However other manufacturers will follow. There's a need for slimmer and lighter notebooks. But i think there'll be the option to get an external drive for a long time. Even today you can easily get a usb 3.5" diskette drive.

[darren mcclure]

yeah, i was reading views on another forum a few weeks back about apple phasing out optical drives, and making their media completely dependant on itunes.  weird thought.  but entirely possible, albeit quite a bit in the future.  no more hard copy delivery of media, it's all digital files, like the way the app store is going.  games and music could be affected in the same way.

i suppose it's good for the environment etc etc, no boxes etc, but a downer for those who collect/enjoy tactile stuff and apprciate nice design.....

[runningonair]

I think the article puts it in the proper perspective at the end, blue Ray is the standard optical drive now and it's backward compatible (DVD, CD etc).  I guess some people won't need an optical drive but it depends on the level of quality you require.

I'm still into CDs and expect to stay that way for the foreseeable future.