I can't understand the appeal of vinyl. Its such an elitist habit its gross.

I'm weird in this area because with music, I can't have the thing. Its sound, so for me, digital is logical. Where as things like the Kindle and eBook readers disappoint me. With a book, I can always go back and read whenever I want. I lose one book and I don't lose them all.

I could never really go back and listen to music without technology, and as technology advances, it becomes closer to a thing that I would value like the literary medium. (I'm comparing the two I guess, from here on in.)

The Kindle was created for ease of travel, but musical advances make it so that we can have a more intimate relationship with the music. Who hasn't listened to the same 5 to 7 seconds of a song over and over again in their car?

With music, if quantity was an issue, it was a minor one and certainly not the only one. Obviously, the forms aren't meant to be compared, but I think walking backwards with one has merit, the other has only nostalgia.

The more I seriously think about the comparison between the Cd and mp3, the more I support the download . As I recall B.B. King quoating years ago, "you either change with the times or find yourself looking into an empty audience". I guess I have to change wih the times, too. The music outlets charge an adverage of anywhere from $12.00 to $16.00 for a current CD where the same album can be downloaded for $9.99. And in today's economy, some of us have to find a way to cut costs. I used to have hundreds of CDs and less room to store them. With the mp3 I can store my entite collection on a single player. It's more convient and you don't have to change disc constantly. I still purchase CDs on occasion, but 90% of my music today is downloaded. There is no way I want nor need hundreds of CDs. Especially when It comes to moving. I have observed that a lot of 'out of print' music are available through the likes of iTunes. While browsing through cduniverse.com I'm redirected to the mp3 store when an album isn't available or directed to amazon.com. It seems like these online stores are in favor of the download. So, I guess mp3 are hear to stay until something else replaces it.

I honestly can't see a future where you can still get CD's outside of auction or collector websites.

I've always been a vinyl lover. I never really like the appearance of CD's but, furthermore, I like the sound of vinyl. I'm not one of those freaks that thinks cracks and pops belong to vinyl. I really get angry when my vinyl develops 'extra' sounds. I really think the music, apart from the background noise, sounds better. So I really don't mind CD sales going down. The problem is, they are being replaced by mp3 downloads and that really really bothers me. I can hear the difference and I do care. I hope that in the future there'll be enough audiophile idiots left to keep CD and Vinyl sales going. Or I'll be having a problem.
Luckily more and more people are getting into losless (WAV, APE, FLAC) digital music. That's a good thing. The internet is getting faster, harddisks are getting bigger. I'm hoping (and expecting) that anytime soon digital music kicks the crap out of CD quality (most affordable 'high end' already support higher sample rates than a CD does).
I'll just have to wait and see, I guess. In the meantime, I'll be buying vinyl if you don't mind ;)

I don't know what it's like in your country, but where I live vinyl is actually a bit cheaper than CD's. So I can't really think of it as elitist in that way.