"Then there is the very human expression of cover art and the actual touching and preparation of the discs."
That is the thing I miss most with CDs specifically.
With digital music servers however, the various controller programs available these days are getting more functional and affordable in terms of providing access to internet-based content relevant to what is playing.
I use the VisualMR program on both Windows Laptop and PDA (see my system description) to access my music servers via Roku Soundbridge. It displays inforamtion on screen like composer, album art, and other information on a song while playing and has some capability to access album art from amazon and Itunes (though the Amazon access has had some issues of late). Each new version of Visual MR released gets better in regards to providing more relevant inforamtion. Holding a PDA or otehr hand held device to get to recording related information makes me miss 33 1/3 album packaging a little less than before with CDs.
If it were me, I would start marketing good digital source material (CDs or whatever comes next) in fun, readable packages similar to old 33/1/3 albums. That would provide both good sound and a functional package, unlike most CD packages today.
BTW my theory is the older and more sight challenged you get, the more you will tend to despise CDs because the packaging remains largely on of the most user unfriendly mass market creations ever conceived.
