I think the CD probably is going to die, but what bothers me the most about
this is that it means the death of the *album*. If we go to an
all-downloading model, it means that people will just be picking and
choosing individual songs they want to hear. It will no longer be possible
for an artist to release a unified album of material -- I mean, you could
release a whole batch of songs all at the same time, but there's no way to
ensure that people will hear them all together, or in the order you want.
And there is no way to do transitions or links between songs. No more Abbey
Roads or Dark Side Of The Moons.

Of course, it's possible that I'm deluding myself and the album is already
dead. Even people who buy CDs today are likely to play them in shuffle mode,
or burn their own mix CDs. I guess we'll be going back to the way it used to
be before the 1960s, when the song was the basic unit of currency.

But I'm gonna miss the album.

Robert R. Berry