Wes Phillips wrote an interesting article about the future of audio being shuffle. He basically asserts that being able to freely access any song or track in any CD of any genre allows a freewheeling spontaneity & the ability to juxtuposition genres really opens your mind up musically. Bach, then Johnny Cash, followed by Stone Temple Pilots? NO problem!
Just imagine, you're having a few brews with some buddies, listening to a song. You get to talking and someone mentions another song, which you instantaneously can play. That reminds you of another song, maybe in another genre- but you can play that instantly, too. I think it's more about convenience & interactivity than simply being lazy.
And think of the organizational advantages. It'd be like a giant jukebox that could tell you how to find what you're looking for. Imagine a database where you could enter the first line of the lyrics to a song who's name you couldn't recall & having the PC call it up. Or search by year, genre, artist, etc.
Not to mention that as the technology gets slicker, we might get better sound. A PC solution can pretty nearly eliminate jitter completely, for one thing. And just imagine a system set up to play each song from a memory buffer? A 1 GB DDR stick would hold more than a whole CD, with no moving parts, no transport noise or vibration or speed variations...Pretty interesting stuff.
