What's a Blu-ray DVD disk then?
If there still was a mass market for music on physical media, CDs would have been superseded, either by an optical disk or some kind of SD card.
But there isn't. so it hasn't.
The format and equipment exists, it's called "blu ray audio"
The fact that it's not in widespread use is my point exactly: the mass market isn't there any more.
> Every car has a CD tray,
I think that will go the way of a headphone jack on a iPhone. Cars have bluetooth.
> my laptop has one,
CD players on laptops literally have gone the way of a headphone jack on a iPhone. They're rare to non-existent on new models.
> I have several players at home.
So do I - they're in a box somewhere.
You're not refuting my point at all - there's not successor to CDs, not because it's a perfect, modern medium for physical music. But just because there is no longer a mass market for music on any physical media.
Their might not be a mass market for neither, but these are not available in the same scale at all. You maybe can find blu ray audio somewhere on the internet, but I've never seen them, while the the music store has hundreds of CDs and every street musician and band sells CDs.
I honestly do not know what the selling point of a Blu-ray disk is. The form factor is exactly the same and nobody needs the capacity. The capacity of a DVD is already too large, why should anyone use a Blue-ray disk? Neither want the musicians produce and sell more than some hours of music, nor do consumers need music for days without interruption. There simply is no kind of music which takes more than a few hours.
So the only difference is that the disk is more expensive and the player is likely incompatible, so hardly a benefit.
> So do I - they're in a box somewhere.
I was only talking about players in use.
But a) there is no mass market for any physical format any more. It's driven by nostalgia. And b) There's more nostalgia for Vinyl than for CDs simply because they were the main medium for much longer. Of course CDs are less fragile and bulky than Vinyl, just like SD cards are less fragile and bulky than CDs, and streaming on existing devices is even more convenient. But that's not the driving factor. It's all fun until someone leaves their Vinyl record collection in a hot car for a few hours.
What hasn't changed is the fact that vertically integrated distribution-and-promotion with large market share has all the leverage, all the information, and all the legislative influence. In any time period where that exists, the same result plays out through different media.
That is to say, in terms of negotiating power, free market economics, and political influence the artist is not just strongly disadvantaged, but artificially so. It's not a David and Goliath, it's more like David and the Death Star.
When Roger Fischer, Adam Smith, and Jack Abramoff would all agree that one side probably needs some extra support, it's a good bet that "fair" lies so far on the other side of the scale that we don't have to worry about precision or philosophy of "fairness" to make a big improvement.