Love you CDs but your time is over

CDs once seemed so precious.

Packaged in "jewel cases", there was indeed something gem-like about them.

The way they caught the light in their mirrored surface was just so pretty - they contained rainbows!

The technology behind CDs to this day seems something closer to magic. How is it possible to lace music into a thin silver disc, and then tease it out again with a laser?

It makes no sense at all, and I've never met anyone in my life remotely smart enough to figure out such a thing.

Then again, I move in pretty stupid circles.

Anyway, I haven't bought a CD in years, and I suspect that you haven't either - which probably explains why Gramophone and HMV are dropping like flies of late.

The last disc I actually purchased was for my son's fifth birthday, Blondie's Parallel Lines Deluxe Collector's Edition.

Putting aside the fact that it's weird to buy a five-year-old a Blondie CD, it's an absolutely gorgeous object.

There's a little booklet with stunning pictures and quotes from the band.

There's an extra DVD containing music videos for Heart Of Glass and other hits.

There are bonus tracks.

Something so beautiful should cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars!

Alas, you probably couldn't give it away these days. I suspect that you can also remember the last CD you bought, whether it was last week, last year or even a decade ago.

Music is pretty much the most important thing in the world (aside from movies) and it's so deeply personal to us. With CDs, you had the feeling that you actually OWNED the music.

The money you paid made you feel like it was YOURS.

Nowadays, things are different, as is often the case with things nowadays. We don't go to record stores and buy enchanted musical circles.

We press a couple of buttons on our iPhones and simply download songs.

I've got about 100 "albums" on my iPhone, which might seem like a lot or a little depending on your own rate of music consumption.

The "album art" is about 3.4cm high and 3.4cm wide, which is to say it's pathetically puny.

They're like albums for hamsters.

I still have my CD collection, even though I never, ever, ever listen to CDs. I can't imagine giving them away. But I must admit that I love my iTunes more.

I am, at this moment, listening to Hawkwind's Warrior On The Edge Of Time, a "space rock" album from 1975.

I discovered Hawkwind on the Internet, and then downloaded the heck out of them.

None of the few record stores remaining on Earth would bother carrying them now.

Without iTunes, I would have missed out on the psychedelic adventures of the eponymous Time Warrior and that would have been a shame.

I will miss you, CDs, but the digital mists beckon beyond your rainbows.

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