new physical medium

[Kazrog]

i do however still have CDs that i bought 20 years ago... and they sound the same as the day i bought them.

James, you've been making this same case for CDs as an archival format for quite some time, and somehow your argument never really convinced me until now. I have CDs I bought 20 years ago that still work perfectly also, and that is worth something. Reliable backups still depend on people developing good backup habits, and culturally we're just not there yet. Everyone wants to put their CDs on their iPods because it's convenient - which inspires them to back up their CDs to drives in the process, and also the CD serves as a backup in case the drives fail - so it's win-win and it's an inspired use case rather than an encouraged one.

In other words I agree with you about this after all.

 

[JBroll]

There's 'archival' and then there's living forever. For fuck's sake, those CDs are older than ME. And I'm somehow legally an adult, or something like that. Those things have lasted from the time I was making weapons out of Legos to today, and will probably still be around when the only weapons I'm allowed around are Legos. Treat them well and they don't go bad - try saying that about any other modern physical format apart from stone tablets (which we are NOT making CDs out of, ever, period, end of discussion) and cave walls.

Jeff

 

[hoehlentroll]

what a brand new unique idea! lol

 

[Randyisgod15]

Because that new album will definitely sound freakin' sweet on speakerphone

 

[Sacha]

How is this any better then CDs? Costs the same for lower quality???

 

[egan.]

How is this any better then CDs? Costs the same for lower quality???

$7-10 is the same price as CD's? Again, a compressed format itunes album costs $10 and they are the #1 music retailer in the US.

Like everyone else here this falls well short of my ideal medium but lets at least consider the actual facts. I remember when most folks (me included) scoffed at the idea that anyone would pay for an MP3. We were very wrong. So I'm going to keep an open mind on this.
My hope for this is would be that we would start to see compressed and uncompressed formats on the same card. No reason this couldn't happen.

 

[Omega_Void]

I don't see much point in a new physical medium.
One beef I do have with CDs is the motor required to physically spin the disk. The electrical noise is an audible problem except for rather expensive units. My mp3 player is way quieter than my CD player.
Everyone now either buys CDs or downloads to USB devices. IMHO best solution to replacing CDs would be a stereo with a USB port compatible with .wav, AIFF, mp3, OGG, .cda files so you could just plug in a flash drive. Firmware could be made updatable from the flash drive also. Exact details of the interface would need some thinking out but in general I reckon that's the way to go.
For people who want to own a physicsal package, labels could sell an album on write-protected flash-drive printed with fancy band logo etc. in a box with leaflet etc. just like a CD. Everyone else could just pay for the music and download onto their own flashdrive.

 

[James Murphy]

Omega, if you'd read carefully you'd have noticed that we rejected already the flash drive idea because they do not have the functional life, by many years difference, as CDs. in light of this, your first sentence is dead-on.... there's isn't much point in a new physical medium.

there are however many things that can be done with a disc format..... DVD-A, SACD, DSD, BlueRay-A, etc. The first 3 on that list have been around and not made a mark though.... society at large seems determined to drop the bar on audio, rather than raise it.

 

[fatalforce]

This is a cool idea I just don't see it catching on. Why not have lossless or audio at a higher sample rate?

 

[Omega_Void]

Omega, if you'd read carefully you'd have noticed that we rejecred already the flash drive idea.

Sorry, my bad. In too much of a rush due to limited online time.