to JayKeeley

[Ars Magna]

Regardless of where I stand on the issue, you should both be commended for your well thought out posts.

However, since I know you're all simply dying to know where Arse Magnet stands, I'll tell you...I am a collector. I simply love everything about the album. Buying it, waiting for it (if it is mailorder...and most are), opening it, flipping through the booklet, etc. However, I can also see some of the benefits of ripping things. You have to admit that it's mighty convenient to have a device that fits in your pocket and holds hundreds of albums.

With that being said, no matter how much I begin to buy into technology, I will always obtain the physical media because that is what I love. It is who I have been all my life. While convenience can be nice, it is also a good part of the cancer that is spreading across humanity. As things become more convenient, people become impatient and lazy. Their sense of entitlement also grows. They begin to cherish less and expect more. That's never a good thing.

Anyway...

 

[skyrefuge]

To each their own, but that seems extremely sterile to me.

Yeah, it is.

But the Compact Disc is extremely sterile too, when compared to the vinyl LP. And the vinyl LP is extremely sterile, when compared to a live performance.

So the switch to electronic distribution is really just one more small step along this path of sterilization that everyone has already accepted. Clearly there are tradeoffs in these transitions, and the transitions occur because consumers are happy with the tradeoffs. When we lost LPs, album artwork took a huge blow, but no one demanded CDs in LP-sized boxes just to make up for it (well, there were those silly long-form boxes for a while!) That would have destroyed the convenience factor that everyone loved so much, so the tradeoff was accepted.

Electronic storage of music increases convenience by another order of magnitude (yes, while also increasing the sterilization). It sounds like most here are already aware of the convenience benefits, so I won't preach on that. Instead I'll repeat a possible benefit that can be gained from electronic *distribution* of music in addition to electronic storage:

Electronic distribution severely cuts out the middle-men, which either reduces prices, or delivers more money directly to the artists. So you can either spend less money on the same amount of music, buy more music with the same money, or support starving artists much better with the same money, so that they can go on to make more excellent music. It sounds like for most of you guys, that's not a tradeoff you're interested in making, but it will be interesting to see what the mainstream music consumer thinks.

I guess what I'm hearing is that if music does eventually shift away from physical distribution, there may be a market there for 3rd-party packagers, who could burn the mp3s onto CDs to revert them to physical form, make up their own cases, and sell them so that collectors can still have something to collect.

At least that will work until this generation of music-buyers dies off and is replaced by those who never knew what CDs were, and are thus too dumb to even miss them.

Neil

 

[Evil?]

To each their own, but that seems extremely sterile to me.

I agree with this. As convenient as electronic media can be, it is extremely sterile. I love getting a good slip case album in the mail and feeling the texture of the slip case cover, flipping though the high quality booklet. One of my favorite things about my old books I read time and time again is how they smell. The smell of certain books is very comforting. For me, no amount of convenience will ever replace the feeling I get from the real deal.

 

[JayKeeley]

However, I can also see some of the benefits of ripping things. You have to admit that it's mighty convenient to have a device that fits in your pocket and holds hundreds of albums.

Right. I own a 30Gb iPod and it is exactly what you say it is: "convenient". I commute approx 3 hours a day on train and the iPod is my best friend. It is a beautiful thing, and so are my racks stacked with CDs, boxes filled with vinyl, bookshelves filled with music 'zines and old copies of Terrorizer. I have wooden beer crates filled with old cassette tapes (which happen to fit perfectly amazingly enough) and even my dining table offers further real estate for all such things, to my wife's dismay.

 

[JayKeeley]

oh and I must stress this: I specifically bought a turntable so that I could go buy the vinyl equivalent of CD albums I already own. I actually hunted high and low to find as many Empyrium vinyl releases I could find, with "Where the woodgrouse...." 2 x 7" picture records being some of my prized possessions.

And I'll add that I bought much of this vinyl even when I did not own a turntable.

 

[Demilich]

oh and I must stress this: I specifically bought a turntable so that I could go buy the vinyl equivalent of CD albums I already own.

I specifically nagged my dad to set up his old turntable so that I could buy all of my absolute favourite albums on vinyl! From Manilla Road and Slough Feg to Cream to Mahavishnu Orchestra to Agalloch and Primordial ... fuck, it all rules!

 

[Evil?]

I did the same. I went out and bought a turntable and then sought out a bunch of vinyl of albums I already owned.

 

[Demilich]

Never mind Colour Haze, one of my favourite bands to listen to in any format, but on vinyl they are simply heavenly.

 

[skyrefuge]

@skyrefuge: I see what you're saying, and I can recognize that you view things rather differently, but I imagine it just boils down to a rather simple difference in opinion.

Yeah, or even more specifically, a difference in degree of opinion. I *do* like nice packaging, just not nearly as much as you. Certainly not to the point where I would compare the effects of packaging on a listening experience to the effects of seeing the Sistine Chapel in person. But I get what you're saying.

I have wooden beer crates filled with old cassette tapes (which happen to fit perfectly amazingly enough) and even my dining table offers further real estate for all such things, to my wife's dismay.

Ah, I see, if I want to make any headway in my bizarre crusade, it's your *wife* that I need to start working on!

Neil