Stereo is the prevailing form factor for almost all audio these days.
That is, almost all music is presented in a stereo format and there are only a handful, when compared to stereo, that are available in surround. Even then, many of the surround mixes are reviewed as being subpar. So, only a few people in the world really seem to know how to mix music correctly for surround sound.
I would also say that there is also a very limited number of people who really care about surround sound with musical performances. It is nice when done correctly, but really, most people listen in their cars or while working out in the gym. A lot of people want music as background instead of as a pure listening source. So the deamand for surround sound with music is not that great and the industry isn't stepping up to force it on an unwilling public who are already happy with headphones and the speakers that come stock in their car.
Movies are a completely different story. Movies that go to theaters have soundtracks that are mixed for surround from the beginning. There are lots of very good sound mixers for movies and they have been doing it for quite a while. Movies in surround are not a new thing and having surround sound available in homes is not that new either. The ability for new video formats to include better audio and more surround channels has really opened up the floodgates for surround to be a defacto standard for media rooms. These days, if you go into Best Buy/Circuit City or any A/V store you will find A/V receivers of which 9 out of 10 are surround sound receivers that are all set to be hooked up to any DVD player and pump out 5 channels (+1 sub) of audio. Some of the nicer receivers take it further with 6.1, 7.1 and companies like Yamaha add front effect speakers for an additional 2 channels of audio.
The idea is to immerse viewers into the movie experience and it begins in theaters and getting people through the door. In today's movies with loads of special effects and budgets that are typically multi-millions of dollars, the sound budget is just a small part of that, yet it is far more than your typical CD recording artist will have available to put out an album.
Surround sound is not a prospect, it is a reality for lots of people. There are also newer headphone and amplifier designs that allow surround effects to work through headphones. FM radio reprodroduces everything in stereo (2 channel) and while I am not aware of any surround broadcasts, the possibility exists that it may eventually be available with some of the newer satellite radio formats from XM or Sirius. I would not expect FM stations to ever broadcast in surround, or the technology to be researched to heavily.
If you find the prospect of surround exciting, you can pick up complete surround packages with a built in DVD player for just a few hundred dollars if you want to try it out. Then get a good DVD and go from there.
