Will audio streaming devices push out computer audio?

On the contrary, the faster advancing digital technology enables computer audio. Physical media will be phased out. Audiophile nowadays are very lucky with streaming media. Like digital camera and film camera, digital audio will be the only survivor. No one is shoot film camera now. Audiophile equipment company will have to adopt the new technology. The so called cloud computing translates into music streaming.

Before albums you had 78’s. Albums became possible because of RIAA compression and electrical amplification and the 33 speed meant you could get close to an hour of music on two sides of vinyl.

Currently the CD is the physical media that determines an album (just over an hour or enough to fit Beethoven’s 5th)

Once physical media disappears then the concept of an album will likely whither and we go back to individual tracks like 78’s or complete performances of a work or live show in a digital package.

i just bought Otis Redding Live at the Whiskey in 96KHz 24 bit as one complete digital package with 65 tracks.... it is already happening.

I think computer audio is here to stay and will even grow once the availability of CD’s becomes limited. Too many people have made the investment of time and money to ditch their hardware and music collections. And music files will survive due to iPods, tablets, and other portable devices.
Streaming is the future, but will coexist with computer audio. The younger generation will stay with streaming since many of them have never owned a CD. Many have never even paid for music since they share files with their friends and online associates.
And I’m afraid albums won’t matter anymore to the listener, even though I think record labels and bands will still present their music in an album form for download or streaming. Or as stated above, music will be available in some kind of digital package.

There are a lot of people like myself who will not commit exclusively to streaming due to the fact that you don’t own any of the music. If you stop paying the music service, you lose your playlists.
The reason I have kept my collection of vinyl and CD’s is that I like to own these recordings and their various packaging; it’s something tangible. I also like to have a music collection on my computer. With streaming, it’s paying a monthly fee to lease the music.

ps: It was Beethoven’s 9th that needed to fit on a CD; 76 minutes. But this story may only be folklore.

All interesting and insightful comments to be sure. I understand many people will not steam, since they like the idea of owning music files, to include CDs or albums. I myself do, on occasion, buy and rip CDs into my Itunes library. Therefore if I listen to something I like on Spotify, I will try to find it on CD to buy and rip. Still have a computer for this, still have a hdd for digital music files. Also I understand the album or analog Iuv, even though I have had a few turntables and don't like to fuss to extract the great sound, ie cartridge match, tonearm selection, cleaning record albums.
It seems the cost of quality digital streaming is really coming down. In a separate post I ask about the Bluesound products, with a Node 2 at a very attractive $500 price point. Really good turntables and computers as a comparison go well over that price!

Network players have already replaced computer audio for the most part, at least in terms of performance and value; that goes for both streaming content and privately owned libraries stored on NAS devices.

For those of us with sizable collections of non-released material (e.g. live concert recordings) NAS drives & network players won't be replaced by streaming services, but they surely make some sense for the future of commercial releases. My skepticism about the long term health of these companies is a problem not yet overcome. Cheers,
Spencer