Napster and the like hurt the music industry but didn't land the killing blow to CDs. The murder weapon was the cheap DVD player. In the mid-nineties, my cool

Napster and the like hurt the music industry but didn't land the killing blow to CDs. The murder weapon was the cheap DVD player. In the mid-nineties, my cool friends with money had huge collections of CDs and listened to a lot of music. It was not uncommon to see shelves with scores of CDs proudly displayed in the living room next to an expensive stereo system. By the early 2000s that was gone, replaced by a DVD player, the largest TV they could afford, and a stack of DVDs. Maybe a game console or two as well. All the disposable income that a decade earlier was being poured into music was now going toward the film and gaming industries. Sure there was plenty of piracy but I would argue not enough to explain the drop.