Digital music: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era?
- 4/24/08 11:47 AM
Record Stores
by JonMD - 4/24/08 5:13 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I'm 50 something, and perhaps it's a nostalgia thing but record stores were great places to go. Not the big chain ones, but the small local ones. You'd flip through the bins, read about bands you didn't know much if anything about, check out the names of the musician's..shoot the **** with whoever was working, maybe buy a new bong..check out the sweeties who were just hanging out,get a phone number, read the classifieds for local bands looking for a member,or the "will share expenses" ride offers. On a snowy afternoon you could easily kill an hour or two in one, they were truly social settings and this has been replaced with a "click here to download"
button, not what I would call an improvement
What do you miss most? nothing as I don't have an MP3 player
by rodneycs - 4/24/08 5:20 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I don't have an MP3 player and only record new CDs on Real PLayer and play them. I do not know anyone with an MP3 player maybe I am too old then!
what do I miss most about pre-MP3 era? "Other"
by macsie - 4/24/08 5:20 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I miss the lack of other old tech.s of my era that swapped Reel to Reel tapes. The sound quality was great, as good as your ears could detect, as long as you used quality equipment (much like today there). We didn't have the problems with DRM or everybody going "SUE" crazy because, then, it wasn't profitable to pirate and mass market with that technology. we freely swapped music, radio and TV sound tracks, and even sent, honest to God, real voice, voice mails. The cost of equipment was comparable to present time and you needed to be moderately knowledgeable as to how to operate it. Admittedly the portability wasn't the greatest....but in the proper arena with the mood set correctly you put on a 10" reel of good mood music and didn't worry about tracks, tags , just enjoying the music and company of choice....
68 yr old retired Navy tech.
Download What???
by wexmary - 4/24/08 5:25 PM In reply to: what do I miss most about pre-MP3 era? "Other" by macsieHas anybody noticed how little good jazz is available on download.
So I download little if any music.
To those rock and pop fans who complain they have to spend $20 for 2-3 decent songs, blame the artists. Maybe they do not have the talent, training or knowledge needed to write consistent good stuff.
Lps
by thebug - 4/24/08 5:25 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Cds just don't sound as clear as Lps in my opinion! Many may disagree but if you have a high end turntable and a good stereo amp you'd know that cds just don't sound as good. More bass maybe but nowhere the high end clarity.
Just my opinion though.
Pay less, get less
by finkerbell - 4/24/08 5:27 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Sure you pay less for MP3 downloads but you also get less. The very nature of lossy compressed audio means that the resulting sound is not as good as the original recording.
Even the best MP3 player or computer sound system does not have to meet the standards of a good home stereo system.
Missing the social aspect
by lilcrow - 4/24/08 5:28 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I'm going back a ways so bear with me. When I was quite young the scene was in the village in NYC. There I hung out and everybody knew everybody. You went to the clubs to hear the favorites and the newest and those who were just starting out. The Bitter End, Gaslight, Cafe Wha, Gerdes Folk City, just to name a few. That was the folk scene and it was an exciting time. If jazz was your thing, Monk was at the Vanguard every Tuesday and someone would always tell you where Coltane or Miles was gonna be at. I felt so in touch with the music and the people who made it. Later on East Village, someone was always playing somewhere. Zappa, Blues Project, Spoonful, they were neighborhood people. Out in California, music was interactive. All the bands played in the park, in the Carousel, Avalon and Fillmore ballrooms. Little clubs like the Matrix too. You had music all day and music at night.I'm talking all-time greats here; the Dead, the Airplane, Paul Butterfield, John Mayall, Janice, Buffalo Springfield, Santana,the list goes on and on. And when we weren't hanging out listening in person, we were home or at work listening to records or the radio. It was great; it was the background to a whole couple of decades. Allison Steele, the Night Bird on San Francisco KMPX! Writing this I just remembered that, even the call letters! You bought the latest album, listened a couple of hundred times, pored over the artwork, learned all the words and talked about it all. You brought the new album to someone's house so they could hear it or they came to your house to listen to it. I think it brought a whole generation together. You could have lively conversations with complete strangers! Of course, this was tied in with a whole lotta drugs and happy go lucky lifestyle, but it sure makes for great memories, chemically altered or not.I still buy music and I get alot from the internet, plus I glommed about a bazillion songs in the Napster heyday. I have a huge eclectic music collection that gives me alot of pleasure, but I don't think anything will come close to those days when music was such an integral, in person part of my life. One woman's opinion.
Sound quality
by Patrick Brown - 4/24/08 5:33 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
There's no way that MP3s sound as good as a CD played in a quality system.
Album artwork is lost
by scr33ner - 4/24/08 5:51 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Yeah it is a bit sad not seeing any artwork for albums nowadays. I remember I was in my high school art class, one of the projects was to design cover art for an album. This was in 1991- I'm old enough to have owned some vinyl back in the day.
I remember reading an article sometime ago that artwork on CDs don't compare to the artwork that was on vinyl albums. I would have to disagree- I have in my possession, Enigma's Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi 3. It is perhaps the best piece of CD art I have seen. The insert/sleeve is a transparent acetate that has been printed with opaque & transparent effects. This creates a translucent effect when viewed against a back light that revealed showed a different image- when compared to just looking at it.
This type of multifaceted album design is something that will never be seen again and is a dying breed. Nowadays all you get is a little bitmap.
i miss all of it
by maggiedev - 4/24/08 6:22 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
i don't do MP3 or music downloads. i still have my record collections and tons of cd's. as long as i can find players, i will continue to enjoy them.. the only time i download music is to copy a cd for use in vehicle so the original does not get scratched. when the copy gets scratched from vehicle dust and handling, i do it again. i am in the process of putting all my old records on cds. while it may suit others to download and keep on your computer, i don't want to lose what i paid for in a computer crash. to each his own. i wonder if being 60 has anything to do with my attitude.. hmmm
I miss the technology
by wa9guu - 4/24/08 6:24 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I used to have my record player, favorite LP's, TV, cassette tape recorder, all connected. I could tape what I wanted and take it with me. My wife and daughters thought it was ugly and shoved it in the back room shelves. With the new stuff we have to keep catching up to computer programs, Operating systems, styles, and compatability. What a mess.
Paranoid!!
by dlr6042 - 4/24/08 6:39 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I absolutely need a physical hard copy of the music. While I certainly appreciate the ability to fit thousands of songs into a digital media player with mp3's I certainly don't like the lossy compression when played over my home stereo. So I go the route of .flac. And in doing so I like to have my own "master" copy, hopefully a digitally remastered CD of an older album or the CD of a newer one. I have already had one 500GB HD crap out on me but was able to save all the music from it just before it completely went South. I shudder to think if that HD was full of downloaded mp3's and I was not able to save them. What then? Another aspect that just tweaks my wife is I love to browse through used CD's. I can spend at least an hour just looking. I might come across a band or artist that I had not thought of; whereas, today I just stare at iTunes store and not have any idea of where I want to go.
I still buy CDs
by peter5992 - 4/24/08 6:49 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Yes ... I do. Play them all the time in my car CD changer (which, being from 1999, cannot play MP3s). They are no more expensive than a digital download, and you get a nice little jewelbox with liner notes as well as pictures of your favorite artists.
I would have said I missed...
by freqdwnldr - 4/24/08 7:13 PM In reply to: Poll: What do you miss most about the pre-MP3-download era? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
the tangible aspect of actually owning something, but the more I bought CDs, the more I hated it - I don't miss any of it. I'm glad mp3s replaced 'em. I'd save my lunch money from time to time to buy an album just to find out that there were maybe 2 to 3 songs (I have picky ears) that I liked that I didn't have to force myself to & the rest was fair to straight mediocre. CD Singles just felt like a waste of a perfectly good CD.
I hated borrowing CDs just because I'd be as careful as possible with the stupid thing (never touching the shiny part, being gentle like a parent with the thing) just to have a "friend" swear I scratched it just so they could get $15 to $17 outta me (Mind you, I was SAVING lunch money). If I lent out a CD, I'd probably wouldn't see it again or in similar condition. In my opinion, CDs are only good for backing up stuff. My 2 cents
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