The Compact Disc is increasingly becoming a delivery format rather than a playback format. It’s hard for me to say when this became true for me — probably in the last couple of years, during which time I can’t remember the last time I turned on, much less used, the CD changer in my entertainment center. When I listen to music at home now, it’s always through my computer (either on its own speakers, or channeled into the Xbox 360). I still listen to CDs in the car, but I could just as easily listen to MP3s or WMAs, as my CD player supports them — and actually, to be honest, I listen more to satellite radio now than CDs. CDs in my collection mostly exist for archival and ripping purposes now — my music listening behavior has changed drastically since college, where I would select some music and set it up in my changer before starting another activity like playing a game.
My brother ripped his entire (impressively large) CD collection to a media computer, and I’m starting to think that I need to do the same thing. Apparently he’s also already had CDs that he owns go bad, and I think that I may be in the same boat. (There are a couple of CDs that I have that I know act very strange in certain players, so I’m concerned that they’re decaying. Fortunately, the ones that are suspect are not irreplaceable…)