What is the future for CDs?

[awkwardbydesign]

I grew up with LPs, and resisted CDs as long as I could. But eventually I almost stopped buying LPs and concentrated on CDs. Recently I have succumbed to FBA, ripping CDs and streaming, via a Squeezebox Duet, and not bothering to move my lazy arse and put on a CD. Even though in my system they sound slightly better.
But although I buy downloads, I still buy CDs sometimes, and the other day I decided to buy a CD of the album I wanted, rather than download it. It costs more, but it includes a 36 page booklet, with photos and a history of the artist and his music. Looking at my CD rack, it seems more and more CDs are packaged this way, Fink being a good example; 4 out of 9 have booklets.
So I wondered if this is how CDs will survive in the download age, given that LPs have the hands-on, big artwork, this LOOKS like it's worth owning sector covered. CDs are boring little plastic things, too small for artwork, and being digital have been outpaced by newer formats.
I bought this CD for the book; it came with a lossless download anyway, and I have to admit I am pleased to have it. Plus it smelled of newly printed paper!
https://seckoukeita.bandcamp.com/album/22-strings
So what IS the future for CDs?

[Macca]

Check out 8 track. That is what CD will end up like. I don't know how long that will take but I suspect it will happen more quickly than we might think.

Plenty of people like me will still be using them in their own home and maybe still buying them second-hand - but at some point it will no longer be worthwhile for retailers, either high street or on line to keep them in stock. We can all remember this happening with vinyl. My local record shop had a whole floor for vinyl - it was replaced by a whole floor of DVDs. Then the shop closed alltogether.

Vinyl is back now but I can't see CD resurrecting from the grave in the same way. Vinyl was always cool but CD was only cool for about ten minutes three decades ago.

[Jimbo]

Ok for ripping or the car but I would not seriously ever use them as a main source again. I think they are another doomed media.

[Haselsh1]

I guess it really depends on the general public and demand. Who the hell would have imagined that vinyl would make a come back...? I have to admit though that vinyl is way trendier than CD ever has been. Like so many more, I'll wait and see.

[walpurgis]

I like and use vinyl and CD and will be keeping both. No reason to change.

[Rothchild]

Their future is to be bought up, by me, at stupid cheap prices from charity shops and ripped to my Pi.

I get 7 CDs for a fiver that not long ago folk paid 12-15 each for - It's kinda like charity shop crate digging for vinyl was 5 years ago.

[Pieoftheday]

I'll stick with CD's for as long as poss, I like having a physical copy, I don't have the space or money to reinvest in vinyl,though I do appreciate its magic, I tried downloads and found it an empty experience, SQ wise it was fine but I didn't feel like I owned the album. I would like to rip everything to something like a novafidelity x40, because I'm a lazy git, but I'd still keep buying cd's

[Stratmangler]

Recently I have succumbed to FBA, ripping CDs and streaming, via a Squeezebox Duet, and not bothering to move my lazy arse and put on a CD. Even though in my system they sound slightly better.

The Squeezebox Receiver (which is part of what you have - the Duet comprises a Squeezebox Controller and a Squeezebox Receiver) never was the best sounding piece of kit.
It's not even that great at being a transport either.
The Squeezebox Touch (with a decent linear PSU) is superior sounding by quite some margin.
It's also a superior transport.

The bit about buying downloads.
Where do you buy your downloads from?
I refuse to buy from Apple and Amazon - they do not sell losslessly compressed music for download.
CD Baby do have losslessly compressed (FLAC) material for sale, but the catalogue is not exactly huge, and the artist roster is not particularly comprehensive.
HD Tracks sell FLAC options.

Many artists are now starting to sell downloads direct from their own web store, so it's down to them to provide losslessly compressed material - if they do sell their own material and they don't provide FLAC downloads then it's up to us as consumers to put them in the know and tell them we don't want to buy music that has been subjected to lossy compression.
MP3 files @ 192bps are not acceptable in my book. I'm not that keen at having them at 320kbps, but they are more acceptable than 192 kbps.

For the medium term the only way to guarantee having losslessly compressed files is to buy the CDs (Amazon marketplace is somewhere I look at all the time) and rip them myself.
All of which means that I do, and will continue to buy CDs quite regularly

[Dane]

I hardly ever buy CD's because most of the time the new music releases I want to buy is out on vinyl. If it's not, I buy a CD. As long as I have a choice, I'll avoid streaming and downloads. I don't have the equipment for it and frankly, the streaming I have heard at audio fears from high end stereo setups way more expensive than my own hi-fi sounded a bit thin and clinical. I'll stick to to the CD any day. That said, I rarely listen to CD's at home, 9 out of 10 times I grab an LP, but when I do put on a CD, I enjoy the music sound from my quality DAC and old CD player.

[awkwardbydesign]

Vinyl is back now but I can't see CD resurrecting from the grave in the same way. Vinyl was always cool but CD was only cool for about ten minutes three decades ago.

Vinyl wasn't cool in the beginning. It was simply the only (realistic) game in town. It's cool now, but I think that is due, in part, because of DJs playing 12" singles in clubs. And there is a generation now who never used records (as they were called, they are only called vinyl now), so there may be a hankering for the good old days. So to speak. CDs were soulless, but now it's downloads. So can CDs provide "added value" with books, or something else?