What do you think will replace streaming media?
Dunno. That’s always a surprise. I first read about the compact disk in the “What’s New” section of Popular Science, probably 1975? I didn’t see one until circa early 1984, when I joined a CD-oriented record club because there weren’t any CDs around that A) interested me or B) thrilled me with their pricing.
They remained hard to find in retail for a long while, but I’d find them in high-end stereo shops (my first two were *used* copies in one of those stores), and after I finally got a player, heh, I’d make an occasional trip to East Lansing, a place called “CD Emporium”.
The proprietor was a busy guy, everything was on anti-theft if memory serves, it was a big place, second floor?, the 531 building (?) on East Grand River. He stocked by his own acc’t, better part of a million dollars of inventory.
It wasn’t around long. CD retailing suddenly popped up everywhere. The CD long box width was two-to-one vs the vinyl LPs, making adaption of display simple. That’s what the regional big chain (Meijer) did, and when it hit, it was suddenly nearly the entire LP space, minus a couple of rows. Didn’t take long for CD remainder bins to appear, I remember finding Best of Humble Pie in one, no cutout. It’s, uh, around here somewhere.
So, to make a short story long...