Car audio is stagnant. As I was leaving work, I had an epiphany about this.

Right before the whistle blew at work, I was sampling some tracks from Queensryche’s Tribe album on iTunes. I only found one track that I liked; Losing Myself. So I bought it. Then I copied it to my home computer (via VPN) so that I could listen to it there. I really wanted to listen to the track on the way home in my car; that’s when it hit me. In order to listen to the track in my car, I would have to burn it to CD. Seems like a terrible waste of a CD for one track. This happens to me all the time. I become fond of a song, I download it and then in order to listen to it in my car, I have to burn it to CD. Why can’t I have a car audio deck with a USB interface, Firewire interface, SD/MMC card interface? Why haven’t the car manufacturers jumped on this?

I rarely ever listen to CDs…the actual media. I buy CDs all the time but the first thing that I do when I get them is slap them into my computer and rip it to iTunes and then I put the CD back in the case. The only time that I’m forced to use a CD is in my car. I would love it if I could buy a deck with a USB interface; something that I could plug a USB keychain into or my iPod into and listen to all the music that I want. If I want to add a track, I add a track without wasting a CD. Truth be told there are some manufacturers that seem to have the foresight to start adding USB and SD/MMC inputs into their car audio decks but these aren’t the majority of them. Most of them still have their head in the sand making CD decks willy nilly.

I personally think that CDs are a dying media. As people grow up with the ability to buy music from iTunes, MSN, Napster, etc. they won’t buy as many CDs. Only hardcore audiophiles that want the CD liners will care to buy CDs. It will take some time but CDs are on the way out.