Music is an ever-changing medium. Over the years, technology has made huge advancements allowing music to take a completely new shape, replacing earlier technology. Characteristic of technology, music is constantly evolving and becoming more and more portable.

“Vinyl was the predominant configuration from the ‘50s and the ‘60s all the way up through the early ‘80s, and then cassettes became the predominant format from the early-mid ‘80s to the very early ‘90s,” Keith Caulfield, Billboard senior chart manager and analyst, said. “Then CDs became the predominant format and cassettes really didn’t go away until a few years ago. It’s kind of a natural progression, to a degree.”

There are many reasons why one might opt for digital music over CDs, according to retrodj.hubpages.com. Digital music is still very much portable with MP3 players.

Downloading an album is cheaper and greener than buying CDs, especially without all of the packaging required. The excessive plastic that encompasses new CDs ends up in a landfill once you’re done wrestling it off the case.

Digital music enables us to listen to a song or album immediately and conveniently. While record stores are limited in their selection, it is easy to download any song online. iTunes even offers exclusive tracks that you can only find through them.

You also have the flexibility to only buy certain songs from an album while downloading digitally, as opposed to paying for songs you don’t necessarily want when you’re forced to buy an entire album on CD.

CDs are on the way out and digital music is on the rise. When people carry everything on a pocket-sized smartphone, music should be just as portable.