There is a difference. However, if you take out the pops and clicks which are from damage to the product...then the difference is like that of a pink lady apple and a fuji apple.

I had no problem getting rid of my jazz albums in the early nineties to go with CD for space/convenience.

The bigger difference for me is production and quality of music. There's not much great music today. It's getting dumbed down more and more every decade. More and more over-produced. Gone is something that actually sounds fresh and real.

Re: mp3's and streaming. That's another huge problem. No product. Nothing to hold in your hand. No touch or smell. No liner notes. Very easy for an mp3 song to get lost in some giant digital musical dump collection on your hard drive.

Because it's no longer a physical product it has also devalued the music too.

But that's not gonna stop me from releasing mp3's and streaming. If you can't beat um join um.

It's sad though because this is yet another example of how technology doesn't always improve our lives.

It's exactly the same thing with non-fiction books too.