the CD will be dead by 2007

I've been arguing this myself for a couple of years and it's good to see music industry analysts starting to agree. Having a physical cd is of little interest to me these days. They just clutter up my house. If I am going to buy music, I would rather just be able to download it, either onto my PC if I am at home, or onto my Zen if I am in a store. I'll create my own back-up, so I don't need the physical media at all. When vinyl was still the thing, getting the artwork meant something, but today the artwork on a cd is pretty pointless. Even getting the lyrics is pointless, because I usually want them digitally anyway and I can google them in seconds. What extras do I want when I pay for music? Something of value. How about free lifetime membership to the artist's website so I can participate in online discussions with the artist about his or her work? How about behind-the-scenes features online?