The intangible quality of digital music has led the majority of people to forget that unless stated otherwise, it is protected under some form of copyright or license. In that respect, it is the same as a CD, vinyl record, or whatever example you will. Downloading from torrent sites, ripping music not labeled "for free download" by means of recording from soundcards or the use of software "grabber" programs is theft.
The musicians I count among my friends, along with their colleagues, are primarily independent. The money to record comes from their pockets, directly or indirectly. Thousands of downloads generally lead to the loss of sales. Unlike the recent "mainstream" artists who apparently can afford to give away excess material, these gifted, independent individuals cannot.
Having worked in an old-fashioned record store many years ago, I know the protocol for anyone attempting to walk out of the door without stopping at the cash register. With the advent of digital music, consciences have been reprogrammed.
For the individuals who find other means of acquiring digital downloads with virtual price tags, I have a name: THIEF.
Jules
BRN Communications
I don't miss having any of it as I had to get used to not having music that I could only get on LP's. Like all of Lynn Anderson's Chart music. I was running out of room to store the stuff and then have to locate it when I wanted to hear it. Now I can save it digitally and just magically call the song up.
I don't miss CDs because I haven't left them. What is an MP3? What I would miss is the physical liner notes. I still play LPs and cassets. I don't want to spend the time learning about digital downloads, etc. when I am happy with what I have.
Like Bageech I have never left them. My collection is of classical music which does not date. I can enjoy them for the rest of my life. MP3 quality is so inferior and DRM is so restrictive that rather than be a criminal I just stopped buying music.
I know, I'm really old. I still have vinyl, reel to reel tapes, cassette tapes, CDs and I also have some MP3s. I can still play it all except the reel to reel. My tape deck needs a new belt. The sound of the vinyl was great but nothing could beat reel to reel. MP3s (and even CDs) still sound tinny to me, even though I have been listening to them for awhile. But the vinyl albums were superior at showing off the album art. Someday I'll convince my wife to allow the old electronics stuff back in the house. It'll probably take a year just to do the maintenance on it all so it'll sound good again.
I have to admit I don't buy music online but when I transfer a CD to my mp3 player I do notice the sound degradation. I've tried many different formats but any that provide reasonable compression don't give consistent results even across songs on the same CD. The other thing I miss is the concept of an album as an entity -- when you can buy just a few songs I think you tend to miss some of the best songs on an album. Some of my favorites are songs that I had to listen to several times before I really appreciated them, and if I base my download decisions on a 30 second sample I know I would miss songs like these.
I just miss the nice, state of the art, turntables!
Mp3's just do not sound very good, but they do allow for easy sampling of the music. If I like the album I go buy it because the sound quality is so much better. I don't use mp3's on my particular portable, I made sure it played flac files because the quality of sound is so much better. I use a Cowon Iaudio F2, in my opinion it is one of the best sounding I have heard and it plays flac files.
What do i miss? I miss "the search". "The hunt". The experience of driving all over town (or across state lines) in search of something obscure or rare or that you didn't even know existed by one of your favorite artists. I miss going and traveling to various record stores and chatting with the KNOWLEDGEABLE sales clerks that would turn me on to other artists I might not have been aware of otherwise. The move to the 'convenience' of shopping online has taken the joy out of browsing record store bins. Mom and pop stores can no longer afford to stock a ton of cd's by lesser-known artists, nor can they afford to carry much of a back-catalog. There's something to be said for having to WORK and make an effort to track down your favorite music, and the thrill of cracking the seal or holding it in your hand for the first time. That can never be replicated.
With vinyl you were getting a package - a multimedia experience with what was often excellent creative artwork on the over, the liner notes with background stories, pictures and lyrics to the songs. Think about Electric Light Orchestra "Out of the Blue" with the snap-out mobile. Just because the media got smaller with CD's, doesn't mean that they had to make the packaging smaller and lose all the neat extra goodies. You feel like you're getting less with CD's and digital music, why should they not charge less than they did for Vinyl?
I keep hearing that vinyl will make a comeback and CD's will die off, leaving digital for the mainstream consumers and vinyl for the audiophiles, but they want to see sales go up they need to upgrade the purchase experience with more physical extras and a more appealing packaging.
Well said.
I can't agree more. I used to drive to center city Philly to go to 3rd Street Jazz, a great record store (all types of music) with knowledeable clerks who introduced me to a lot of great music that I would otherwise ignore. And just getting home with a new album, sitting back and reading liner notes, something missing in today's instant download, mp3 world. Too bad.
mas
boynton beach fl usa
Although my freinds laugh at my 220,000+ miles truck, that plays cassettes and doesn't have power anything, and they laugh when they realize the cases of cassettes I still have, besides the cds,
nothing replaces the memories that I have that came with that music. And although I bought my first computer somewhere around 1879 (Atari 400, soldered the memory up to 48K or ram), and still have computers all over and would be lost without them -
nothing takes the place of the music that is on them, or the memories of getting them, enjoying them - and making special tapes (or cds) that were the perfect mix. OF just listening to music, instead of dong it while multi-tasking (as a middle school teacher, there isn't any other state in my life)
AND I OWN them. and see no reason to replace things that still work perfectly well.
While I admit the MP3s sound cleaner, and I don't miss the pops and the hiss, I really miss the individuality and personality of the stereo system. At one point I had a stack of power amp, preamp, tuner, cassette deck, cd deck, A reel to reel, huge speakers, and my beloved Denon Turntable. I miss the careful hand placement of the stylus, the respect you had to show for the fragile vinyl records. Except for obnoxiously expensive equipment today (and I challenge anyone to honestly hear the difference) everything else is sonically transparent - it all sounds the same - all good, but all the same, probably as it should. I miss the magic, but I respect the technology.
Bruce Kaplan
New York
But I'm not gonna go out and pay a grand for a two ton Tessie to drop a record on... oh and I still have to restore a Victrola, if ya wanna talk about tinny...
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