Actually if it's digital audio the present is files too. CDs contain files. Hard drives, flash storage, etc are also containers for files. Even a SACD contains files but in a vastly different format than CDs and requiring very different handling. They all require some physical storage. What you are searching for is: the distribution system and the physical file storage are moving towards no longer being the same thing.
Count me in for Ore and Dunlap. That was the first Monk I ever heard, on Two Hours With Thelonious (a 2LP repackaging of the Riverside France and Italy recordings, picked up for like $.57 from a J.M. Fields cutout bin in the early 70's).
Um, "in time" what will? I live in the present. I have in excess of 30,000 discs. I am blessed with a system that amazes me every day, and amazing music to listen to. I don't need to make any changes. Again, whatever way one is happy to listen is fine with me--I'm in it for the music as fully listenable as I can get and respect love of music no matter what format or even genre.
Back to the CDR thang.
At first I was annoyed getting a few Chronogical Classics in CDR form but then I realized I was happy to have the releases.