"The commercial debut of the compact disc was not publicly applauded as it turned 40. There was no ticker tape parade" - MBW writes on the CD's 40th anniversary. "The CD is being allowed – encouraged, even – to atrophy. There is no hipsterised rebirth being planned for it like with the cassette... This format made you as a fan. It built the business you operate in today (for good and for ill). You would not be doing what you do today without it. The least you can do is give it a decent eulogy so that it can roll off into the sunset with at least some dignity".

Rob Sheffield writes a lovely ode to the CD (not sure he really proved the CDs are back, although in 2021, CD sales increased for the first time in 17 years): "It’s an inarguable fact that music sales reached their all-time peak when the CD was king. No audio device did a sharper job of separating fans from their 20-dollar bills. People loved to buy those digital discs, in numbers that look crazy now. We all spent the Nineties going to the 'record store' ('CD stores' never existed, even though most record stores had no vinyl), browsing the racks, taking something weird home, listening all the way through. You invested time and emotional energy, instead of giving up quick as you do with streams. The disc encouraged you to turn off your 'meh' reflex and let yourself hear whatever weird shit was going on".

Is it safe to destroy our CD collection? - Guardian's Matt Charlton asks and answers: "With a monthly streaming subscription, or even the likes of iTunes, we are paying for a licence to listen to the music, not ownership of the music itself. What if, as happened last month with a number of K-pop songs on Spotify, the music we hold dear and listen to every day suddenly disappears?.. Of course, there are sentimental reasons for holding on to our CDs, too. For some of us, they are a physical manifestation of youth; a disc-by-disc autobiography... Amid our stressful lives and the fresh starts we’re about to embark upon, our CDs are scratched little time capsules worth holding on to".

Wired doesn't like how music sounds through Alexa loudspeakers and argues in favor of listening to some music - classical and classic rock in particular - on a CD, rather than streaming, for a simple reason - sound quality: "The zany operatics of all tempestuous evergreen musicians—you just gotta let them fly. Big emotions need big sonic landscapes. Loud bass is fine when you have your life together, but where would we be without the wide-ranging dynamics that alone can give voice—and thus solace—to the bipolar youth in ecstatic anguish?".

The physical media is still alive, despite all the convenience of the streaming platforms. Number confirm that the physicals are still here - by 2018, more people aged 30-49, meaning older millennials and younger Gen Xers, still owned DVD players than any other age group. On the other hand, vinyl records earned $224.1 million in the first half of 2019 and recently outsold CDs for the first time since 1986. Nearly 50 percent of record player owners are 35 or younger.

British artists, blockbuster film soundtracks, vibrant streaming growth & resilient demand for physical formats combine to fuel a near 6% rise in music consumption in 2018 – the fourth year of growth in a row. A total of 142.9 million albums or their equivalent were either streamed, purchased on physical format, and/or downloaded over the […]