Going the way of the 8-Track?

Ok, again, due to some pressing personal matters, I have not been as active on here as I would have liked the past few weeks. Hopefully, that has been rectified and I am free again to contribute to the project. Now, on to this week's topic.

My preferred listening music tends to vary with time. The past few weeks I have found myself on the usual musical/showtune kick. But as I listened I started thinking about the "hey day" of musical theater and vaudeville. Now we all know that vaudeville has all but disappeared in America. Why was that? Because of innovation in radio and personal listening equipment, which lead me to think of today. There are many people who dream of making it big in music, tv and movies (see american idol and the like) But with new developments in the internet, you can get all of those genres online (and with music and movies, you can find ways to get them without paying any fees) This isn't about whether you should or not (but you can comment on that if you like) my question is will the internet send cds and dvds the way of the cassette tape? You can still find cassettes, but mainly blank ones for making copies... I could see a future where the only cds and dvds are blank and used to copy and save files found on the net. Do you think this will happen? Or is there too much money and people invested in these industries to allow it to happen? I mean, sure we all love the movie theater experience... but for $10 a person on average? Most people would rather just get a hacked version online. Feel free to send your thoughts. Thanks for your time.

-The IR Herald