What threatens the CD now?
People don’t erase data anymore and they want more space. In 2006, a study by International Data Corporation, a technology market research and analysis firm, estimated that computer users generated more than 160 exabytes—that’s the number 160 followed by 18 zeroes—of raw data. That amount has been compared to 12 stacks of books each reaching from the Earth to the Sun. With music libraries and video files, we will soon need to back up computers to other computers. Digital music players and flash drives hold as much as 100 CDs, are smaller, and won’t scratch, so they are very appealing to the consumer. Computer hard drives are more portable. These technologies have caught up with and stripped the CD of its advantages. It’s becoming our day’s floppy disk. I still like my audio CDs, but they typically act as the backup to my main media library. Does the rise of other digital devices mean the CD will vanish soon? Not exactly. What determines a technology’s future is if it is cheap, convenie