CDs are going to remain for a while for collectors. Not even LPs are dead yet.

I don't know why anyone would buy a full album, whether it's a cd or a full digital copy. I have heard maybe 3 albums in my entire life that were good from start to finish. I normally only like between 2-5 songs per album, so being able to download just those songs is so much better than paying $15 for 12 songs when I won't even like 9 of them.

I wouldnt buy a single on cd anymore but i would buy an album on cd. I like many others like to have something physical when i buy it.

Not yet, but most will agree that it's only a matter of time before pre-recorded media becomes little more than a minority niche market for collectors/hoarders.

Already, there really isn't any need for specialized retail outlets for recorded media, barring vinyl shops which represent such a small and specialized niche that it can hardly be considered relevant to any musician trying to circulate their music.

It's pretty safe to assume that the downward trend of the CD and optical media in general isn't going to change either.

Personally, even after transitioning to mp3 format with my first iPod back in 2002, my preferred format for albums remained CD, each of which would be immediately ripped and added to iTunes with the CD only serving as a back up copy. So CDs were good for archives that could produce adjustable quality mp3s without DRM restrictions.

Paradoxically, CD albums are often cheaper than digital albums due to sales being related to stock and inventory, so that's another advantage at the loss of the great convenience of the immediacy of digital distro.

I can't even remember the last CD single I've bought. There just isn't any point to them other than as collectibles for hoarders.

Music on demand/cloud service is most likely where recorded music is heading although there will always be those who insist on having their music stored locally or on a privately owned server.

I don't expect things to be any different for movies, TV, and video games in the not too distant future either.