Old CDs and records

I don't believe rvpiano is making claim cd's and lp's worthless in general, rather worthless to him. I'm in pretty much same boat, well over 7k cd's and vinyl, trying to determine fair value entails so much work, daunting task. Yeah, I could sell in batches, guessing at values of many within that batch, may screw myself by greatly miscalculating a hot stamper or other unknown to me valuable record. Most of my vinyl is likely first generation releases, having been purchased back in the day, I've found a couple worth some real money in doing research on just a few.

I like the idea of giving cd's to library or some charity.

I doubt many of us streamers will ever go back to physical media, once your streaming sound quality has equaled or exceeded cd over transport, that's done with. Vinyl has better chance to remain in my system although rarely used, I have to admit vinyl does have it's unique value for me. I do need to cull the herd on vinyl, takes up far too much space, and my taste in music has changed from when most were purchased.

Following on last sentence above, a great limitation of physical media for me is my tastes in music change over time, media remains static, media I no longer play becomes obsolete. Streaming dynamic, leads me down many paths towards new and exciting music.

 I don't think streamers are amongst those who've trashed cd sound quality, most have long incorporated digital in their systems. Its just once we discovered streaming and cd rips sound quality could equal or surpass playing cd's over transport that cd physical media became obsolete.

Sorry, but the vast majority of artists have always been screwed. Up until recent years, relatively few musicians could even enter recording studios, not to mention get signed by any label, get distribution deal, etc. Today, we have home recording studios, distribution via streaming, not a lot of money to create label. The chance of an artist being heard has never been greater, thanks to streaming.

Yes, most artist receive very little streaming revenue, but more obscure artists never made any money prior to streaming, and vast majority never even got recorded. At least the more obscure artists have a much greater chance of being heard by the general public today,  simply being heard must give at least some satisfaction. I know I've been exposed to far more artists via streaming, some I continue to follow. In recent years, I've attended concerts of some of these artists, live performance best avenue for generating revenue for most musicians.

I did say vast majority of artists always get screwed. I can't help we live in society/culture that doesn't value artists more highly. If we did, artists as a whole would have the power to alter supply/demand structure to favor themselves. As things stand only a select few have this power, this unchanged since before streaming. 

Streaming isn't the issue, power structures are, until that changes, things will remain as they always have.