We've seen it before - the demise of the reel-to-reel tape recorder and the cassette recorder as a means to save and share our music or other sound recordings. Now we have phones capable of making such recordings, and MP3 (or FLAC) files for sharing them, but the CD is still widely accepted as a medium. I use CDs for music or podcasts that I want to listen to in my car. I could use USB "thumb drives" or a Bluetooth connection from my phone for the purpose, but I still find the CD preferable in many cases. But the problem remains: CD-writing drives are becoming more and more rare, and even the blank CDs are more difficult to obtain.

Which leads to another question - what will be the next medium for these files? Will MP3s and FLAC files become obsolete as well, and will those of us who have adopted this technology be isolated once more by new developments? How will we ever manage to keep up with the accelerating pace of technology?