People tend to look at technology for what it is at the moment, they do not look ahead to what it can become.

Vinyl is hardly "thriving". It is a niche market at best. Unless they start marketing turntables as strongly as MP3 players, you will not see vinyl take up much market share.

File based sources for music have huge advantages over CD's or other "tangible" media.   You CAN get liner notes, lyrics, and all the details that you desire - MP3's and other audio files have the ability of capturing all that in metadata, just as easily as they do the name of the artist and song.   The problem is, the record labels and artists distributing files do not bother adding it - because the demand isn't there, and most players do not recognize all this data. The technology IS there to create an MP3 player - or other audio file - that will give you access to this, but the demand from most consumers has not been felt.

Forget to charge your Ipod or Kindle, data loss from an MP3 - of course it can happen.   If you have not had a CD player crap out on you during your lifetime, consider yourself lucky. How about a broken needle on a turntable that scratches your records?   Anything can go wrong.   With audio files, you can create a backups - and the cost to do such is become cheaper by the day.

At this moment in time, CD's are a much more desirable format. If we allow ourselves to think about what we want - and if corporations wake up to the needs - you can solve every single "negative" that has been posted here. I do not see a single complaint that cannot be resolved.

Files can allow us greater freedom - easier access, significantly less storage space, better sudio quality - it just takes continued advancement in the technology, which I'm convinced is coming.

We just need to think of the new model and how we can use it as both consumers and business people.