TheFreak hit on one reason why it may not. Some people like to collect the cases and liner stuff. I, personally, don't care about that stuff. I don't know how people would feel if they got a digitized version of the same thing. I don't think this is going to be that big a deal in the future because lossy formats are getting better and better while hard drive sizes are getting bigger and bigger. Lossless formats would be easier to store despite their larger sizes in the future because hard drive space will be cheaper. Also as networks get faster, the transfer of larger files, if necessary, will be more "do-able". Can you imagine transferring a 30-50 meg uncompressed .wav of your song on a dial-up a few years ago? Now 30-50 megs is dang near nothing on a high-speed connection.
great thoughts jeff. 1) has anyone considered artist's veiws on this? surely they would stand to lose money on only selling singles rather than entire albums. i cant imagine them getting a high enough points level on an mp3 to make up the difference. where as with some negotiation, you can on an album. 2) with the cr@p thats being put out today, i dont think the highest quality of sound is important to the artists, record companies or anyone. has anyone heard a puff daddy production? all the recordings sound flat and awful. hes made millions of dollars the past 5 or 6 years. personally, i dont really care if "insert pop artist here" takes the time to fine tune his/her mixes before they go to wax. for me being a studio nerd like yourself jeff, i get really excited about a good recording. ill even listen to some songs i really dislike on the surface just because i really like how something was mixed or recorded. we make up a small percentage of people though, so i dont expect that record companies would change anything to sway our opinions. wouldnt it be great if in a few years, underground bands with less contractual constraints had better recordings than pop artists? The only thing i find scary is the stoppage of mass production of cd's for MP3's or ACC's. The record companies might just hurt themselves flooding the internet with high quality MP3's and ACC's. file-sharing clients will not be going away anytime soon (legal or not). their best bet is to somehow find a way to protect their cds from being burnt. kinda how sony did with the purple coating on its playstation games. now before anyone corrects me, yes, im aware that you CAN burn those games with a dvd burner and a good software program, but it is still a deterrent. Brian
I still buy a CD...mainly because I've heard a few songs other than the 'designated' hit. Personally, I have never downloaded an entire album. But when I hear stuff I like, I go out and get the CD. I love having something in my collection actually worth buying.
i still buy cds even before this ish started. ive been buying albums of my favorite artists coz i want to show support to them and that it's part of their art that im fortunate to enjoy. now, to downloading. we have to face it, some albums just isnt worth buying. sure, there are good songs, but ish, 2 good songs on a 12-minimum song compiled album aint worth buying. so, i just download those good songs. i dont download the whole entire album. i still support our music artists the best way i can. and i use those mp3's for personal use ONLY!
To me, that depends heavily on the style of music and the quality of mastering. One of the downsides of the proliferation of technology is that EVERYONE has mastering software, but that doesn't mean everyone understands the subtle art of mastering. The other problem is that music that depends on warmth - singer/songwriter, blues, jazz, folk, classical, old school R&B - have a hard time acquiring that warmth in digital mediums. Like I said before, I really do think that digital is, overall, a really important and positive advancement for the music industry. I guess I just want any progress to be deliberate and thoughtful so we don't forget why we want the advancements in the first place - to make great music that sounds awesome.
Bingo, Jeff. You read my mind. That is why my LP collection consists solely of blues, jazz and old school R&B.
I keep hearing about the loss in music quality, but I really don't notice the difference when I listen to a MP3. Would you say that most people listening (and buying or burning) are like me? If the majority is in my shoes, then I guess musicians/the music industry are screwed since downloading programs have placed us in a consumers market. Personally, the ability to listen to one CD in my car which contains over 160 of my favorite songs far outweighs the loss of music quality (which I don't notice). I also appreciate the fact that I can re-arrange the CD once I get tired of the songs on there or when a new hot single is released. The idea of stores where you can listen to songs then create a CD sounds nice.
I thougth Blockbuster Music tried to do that with Kiosks. I don't think it worked very well. However, it may have been too expensive at the time to be feasible.
Jeff- Define "warmth" to a non-musician, please. I have never spent time in a studio, but I honestly cant say I have noticed the difference between my SGt Pepper LP and my Sgt Pepper CD. Of course I am not a musician, so my ears (heavily damaged from waaaaay too many concerts lately) may not be able to pick up the differences.
