I have about 1000 CDs in my diverse and eclectic collection of 17 years, and still going strong.
They are not 'burnt' discs either ... I think the RIAA can keep their mouth's shut about me if I decide to download a handful of songs from time to time.

In any given month, I may only listen to about 2% of them.

If I had a large hard drive based system, I would be able to load like 15 to 20% of the collection and listen to more of it.

Yes.. $10 - $13 in the grand scheme of things isnt much. There is still the initial hardware cost (yes, as there would be for hard drive, or anything else for that matter). And believe me, before XM hit the market, I was looking forward to it.

But as I once explained to a friend of mine who has had XM for about a year, I like the idea.. but I dont like the application of it.

Having 100+ channels is great, but EVERY channel tries to differentiate. Why not have clusters of 3 channels that are exactly the same format, so when you hear something you dont like, you can switch into another channel of the same music sub-genre.

Who knows, I could change my mind at some point. But right now, I don't see it, it doesn't fit my listening style.