Market Stabilization?

Well, I haven’t noticed since I haven’t bought any physical media in years but suspect prices, with the possible exception of vinyl that’s a relatively small part of the market, will continue to fall as more and more people embrace streaming music.  Buggy whips got cheap fast as the car replaced the horse and carriage.  Nobody in my circle of friends and family under the age of 70 spins a disk of any type anymore, and one need only look at the number of DACs versus CD players available today to see where things are and where they’re going.

I don't think it will change much, vinyl just sounds too good

Vinyl and CD sales have been on the upswing for quite some time now; just check out the industry trade publications, increase in number of pressing plants, etc. 

I agree

I see more sales too 

Vinyl and CD sales have been on the upswing for quite some time now; just check out the industry trade publications, increase in number of pressing plants, etc.

@larsman Not sure what numbers you’re looking at, but this just flies in the face of common sense as to what’s actually been happening over the past 25 years in terms of CDs.  CD shipments in the US peaked at 943 million in the year 2000 and have steadily and significantly declined since and were only 33 million in 2022 (a 97% decline!!!) and are back down to the levels of the mid 1980s when CDs were first introduced.   From Statista…

“Amid all the talk of music streaming and the renaissance of vinyl, the continued decline of CD sales hasn’t been getting a lot of attention in recent years. According to the Recording Industry Association of America(RIAA), CD album sales in the United States have dropped by 95 percent since peaking in 2000 and are currently at their lowest level since 1986, when Whitney Houston's self-titled debut album topped the Billboard charts.

Having been hit by the rise of filesharing and MP3 players in the early 2000s, CD sales nearly halved between 2000 and 2007, which is when smartphones and the first music streaming services emerged to put the final nail in the compact disc’s little round coffin.”

As I mentioned above, vinyl sales have likely been improving but represent only a tiny share of the physical music media market while CDs have just continued in a downward spiral and in all likelihood will continue to do so.

I stand by what I said. More CD transports and players are coming out all the time, too. Things have changed a lot since 2022 in this regard. 

This is not the place for political rants. There are plenty of other forums online for that.

And from a practical standpoint, you're unlikely to change anyone's mind in this highly polarized political climate. 

you definitely are in the twilight zone, free of any facts. (but I should have just stuck with @stuartk +1 😂 )

Completely misinformed and clueless on global economics among other things. Thanks for bringing up unrelated topics nobody asked about and that don’t belong here.

@grislybutter ​​

Well, it's hard not to respond to such outbursts.   

@soix 

+1 

Obviously outlandish, obviously super-dumb and clearly trolling posts are easy to ignore…you just…don’t engage them.  
This type of media (whether so-called ‘news’ media, podcasts, social media posts, everything) is undertaken with a dirt-simple purpose: to get you riled up and get you to attend to it.  
If this stuff is not attended to by would-be clickers and commenters, it starves and goes away.

Now, to the topic at hand:
My hope is people who just buy crap gear for vinyl playback and overpriced, terribly mastered vinyl (i.e. the majority of vinyl buyers these days) are starting to realize they’re wasting their money and filling their homes with cumbersome, burdensome dead weight, and will stop buying vinyl and go back to digital media for it’s many advantages.  
This would drive the prices of vinyl down and allow people who know what the hell they’re doing when they buy/listen to vinyl to no longer pay silly prices for every slab-o’-wax they want.  
As I say this, I wonder if this is selfish of me.  
I don’t know, but I would guess the vinyl trend these days is what keeps brick-and-mortar stores open. I would guess the stores are kept open these days largely because people, in lieu of scouring the “used” racks, walk in and and say, “do you have the new (insert current top pop artist) album on vinyl?” They want the new (blank) LP on vinyl because they think it’s “better” than streaming it or buying a CD.
Sound-wise, these contemporary vinyl masterings and pressings typically are, at their very best, just as good as streaming only far more expensive. At worst, undeniably worse than their digital counterpart (this occurs frequently) on top of being way, way more expensive than streaming.
I would like to think that brick-and-mortar stores would still exist if this vinyl trend subsided, that they could still survive with well-curated “brand new” selections and well-curated “used” sections, but I don’t know.  
I certainly don’t want brick-and-mortar stores to go away.