For people who remember back when vinyl records, eight-track tapes and even reel-to-reel recordings were the best way to listen to music and audio, it's a strange new world we live in. In the '80s, compact discs replaced vinyl, and audio cassettes have become scarce. And now peer-to-peer file-sharing networks let people download music for free -- despite the best efforts of the music industry to snuff them out. Apple's iTunes store and various competitors offer legal music downloads, while Napster and Rhapsody offer unlimited listening via the Internet for a monthly fee. Plus, you can now listen to digital audio through satellite radio, or hear streaming music on millions of Internet radio channels online. So how long will we need CDs or physical packaged music? Are the days of Tower Records numbered? And what will we miss if packaged music dies?
What's the shelf life of CDs and packaged music?
by Mark Glaser, February 1, 2006
Multimedia
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