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Digital music: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era?
- 4/24/08 11:47 AM
Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era?
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 4/24/08 11:47 AM
Read CNET editor Donald Bell's MP3 Insider blog: '98 to '08: What we lost along the way, to get a better feel of this poll:
What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era?
Album artwork. (Please explain.)
Liner notes. (Please explain.)
The social aspect of it. (How so?)
Tangible aspect of actually owning something. (How so?)
Going to music stores. (Please explain.)
The new album "smell." (Please explain.)
Potential resale value. (Please explain.)
What are you talking about? Buying music online is all I know. (Do you even own a music CD?)
I don’t miss any of it. (Really? Why not?)
Other (What is it?)
I don't miss much
by ktreb - 4/23/08 7:02 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I guess the only thing I really miss is going to the record store and searching through bins for artists I've never heard of. I'm kind of still mourning the loss of Tower Records. Not too much, I suppose. I really haven't bought many cds in the last 5 years and most of what I did buy I got from Amazon.
What I definitely don't miss: spending $11.99-$17.99 plus tax for one or two (if I'm lucky, three) tracks I really want while the rest of the cd worthless. Now I can pick and choose which songs I want. Every once in a while, I will buy an entire album download and even a cd. I have more options now.
Tower records! I spent more time there than in class ;-)
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 4/24/08 11:51 AM
In reply to: I don't miss much by ktreb
I loved Tower records and Rasputins! It's too bad Tower folded, it was one of my favorite music store! When Tower records folded, I knew it was the sign of the times of online music eventually dominating the music industry... ah the good old days. 
Tower records vs MP3 players
by GR_MIMI - 4/24/08 6:09 PM In reply to: Tower records! I spent more time there than in class ;-) by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I doubt that there are many operas or classical piano concertos available on MP3. The joy of browsing through Tower Records was the discovery of a composer I had never heard of. Yes, we can still order classical records from Amazon but it's a lot more difficult just to browse. After Tower closed, we still had Virgin Records. Had, but now they are gone too, unless we want to go to London. At least, I assume they are still open in the U.K. Pop music is fine but very few of the artists and their songs last as long as something by Ravel or Purcell.
Grandma Mimi
Classics on MP3
by LawrenceHare - 4/25/08 7:48 AM In reply to: Tower records vs MP3 players by GR_MIMIAh - but there are! Classical and operatic options on mp3s, just about anything you want! I invested in SONOS and have never regretted it. It hooks to the internet and I get great selections of on-line radio and so on, but what is really the most amazing thing is Rhapsody! Just about everything I have ever wanted is there, and usually with multiple artists, performers and locations. SONOS is hooked to a network drive with all my own personal music on it, and it is hooked to my home theater which has a turntable so it can play all my LPs, CDs and our old tapes. SONOS is expensive, and it has taken a number of years to finally get the system I wanted - but, by gum, is it worth every penny!
Lawrence
I miss gatefold albums, Albums that clock in at 45 minutes..
by drjudsjr - 4/24/08 3:44 PM In reply to: I don't miss much by ktreba SQUARE FOOT of artwork on the front... that feeling of anticipation when you hear the needle touch down for the first time, then the RECORD takes you off to another place...
oh and I also miss my 1200 MkII's...
the cool thing about mp3's though is just letting it go on shuffle for days... yet still being able to hear a whole album, (minus the crap that gets shoveled on in the era of 70 minutes being normal length)
yes, I bought CD's, I Bought Tapes, I buy Mp3's, and I still Buy records... I remember thinking people were nuts when they said we could store music on a chip...
I also miss Free Form FM (not JACK or BOB or Hank or whatever radio) when the DJ got on and played a basically a set opening up our ears to new music and old...
I miss Radio Doctors, a place where one day I bought Ronnie James Dio, Kraftwerk and Chicago at the same time, and I never heard Kraftwerk before I walked into the store...
There really is a simple beauty about hearing something new that blows you away especially when you already are looking for something new...
sound quality
by stevenstlou - 4/24/08 1:59 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I may sound ol but you can't beat the sound of a good old Album! The true bass and the warmth. Rock n Roll doesn't sound as good on CD or mp3 but that is what we have today.
Miss the tangible owned product
by killianred - 4/24/08 2:14 PM In reply to: sound quality by stevenstlouI do miss the record stores. I still have all my albums, but no record player. No MP3's. I do buy CD's when I find them for my car's 6 cd changer, oh how I do love that little machine. I listen to the 60's-70's via my DirectTV subscription and today is the 60's. Great listening on XMradio...I get lots of housework done. I still have a big stack of cassettes, and listen to them on the patio when working outside really loud too....I miss a lot of what is gone, and going to be gone. Shoot if the gasoline keeps rising, we all will be riding bicycles to get around...LOL
Exactly! The sound quality!
by robwired - 4/24/08 3:03 PM In reply to: sound quality by stevenstlouMP3 sound quality is inferior to a hard-copy CD, so I still buy CDs. Now, I may not buy so many of them, but that has more to do with the formula for success: to sound more like everyone else than everyone else does. But that goes for the music as online digital media, too. I do have iTunes on my computer, but Lou Reed said at SXSW that if you want a sound you can listen on your computer, you've got it:
"You have the world open to you now; you can get almost any song in the world as an MP3, and I suppose if you like it you can go out and try to find a version you can actually listen to -- if you like good sound. If you don't like good sound, none of this matters for a second."
sound quality
by Steven8557 - 4/24/08 9:04 PM In reply to: sound quality by stevenstlouI agree! I have a great media player (iriver clix) but it doesn't come close to the sound of a great old stereo using records or CD's. It seems even the best downloads don't come close to the sound reproduction, even with SRS, WOW, or adjustments available on media players. Sometimes I miss the old school bass, treble, and balance knobs.
Re: sound quality -- Yes!
by doremifaso - 4/24/08 10:34 PM In reply to: sound quality by Steven8557I wholeheartedly agree with you that the sound quality of vinyl is superior to that of digital. The warmth of the music is indeed sadly missing on CDs and mp3s. Neil Young once explained this phenomenon during an interview, mentioning how with digital all you have are 0's and 1's, whereas with vinyl you get everything inbetween. (Or something like that...I'm no expert but it makes total sense to me!) :- )
Quality?
by Wordman1 - 4/25/08 12:13 AM In reply to: sound quality by Steven8557Ask the guys in the studio what they listen to. They're used to the best sound, that's what they sink their time and money into, and stake their reputations on. At the end of the day I don't hear anyone who raves about the latest mp3 they've downloaded.
Physical media
by boatboy_srq - 4/24/08 2:12 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
What I miss most is the anticipation of a new release, and actually making the effort to go and pick it up. Ownership of the disc/tape/whatever wasn't so much the big deal: it was the level of effort required to obtain it. Admittedly, the effort was only driving or walking to the music store and picking it out, but in comparison to today's download-it-now simplicity that's a substantial difference.
Also, obtaining physical copies meant that one interacted with the shop staff and with other buyers in the same space. Having a human to discuss one's listening preferences is substantially different from having a computer guess by genre: there's a subjective quality in the comparisons a human could make that a computer will never hear.
I think I blame iTunes and Amazon most for killing off so much of the ability to do this. Even the few remaining music shops (outside Virgin) rarely cater to a discerning listener out to explore and not necessarily shopping for a specific artist or title. Without that interaction, one either falls into the trap of staying with what one knows, or submitting to what the search engine computes might be "interesting" to you. That's a very cold method of expanding one's music library.
Sound Quality
by electron2002 - 4/24/08 2:15 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The glaring thing that is missing from this list that is more important than anything else is sound quality. Isn't the entire reason you listen (and buy) music is for the audible enjoyment?
For me the inferior sound quality of downloaded music has actually caused me to buy music almost exclusively on CD. After I get an album I typically rip it to 320kb MP3. If they can bring up the quality of downloads to match that sound quality, I'd consider them. But for now, I'd rather pay the couple extra dollars for the superior quality.
Sound Quality is All About the Music
by paoconnell - 4/25/08 3:42 PM In reply to: Sound Quality by electron2002I also buy all my music on CDs. Downloads just don't have the sound quality that CDs do, even if they're saved as MP3s. I still have my music on clean CDs. That quality is still there if someone invents a music player format that's better than MP3. I also have about 50 albums left out of 300 I used to have, and now have an Ion turntable to move those albums to digital format (many of them are no longer in print).
Incidentally, I miss the art of many LP covers, which are far larger and more detailed than CD covers of course.
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