Crystal-ball Gazing Philly Article--& Reply!

FOR those inclined toward heavier reading, I came across an article in the Philly newspaper, linking through artsjournal.com. (Great for quick look at arts/music/publishing/media from around the country).

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/entertainment/6496528.htm

This story essentially says the record labels should get on board. Use the technology and stop whining. OK as far as it goes.

My reply follows--crediting him with a couple of good ideas, pointing out the inadequacy of mp3's and pointing him to this site''

TOM—

HAPPENED to hook in to your article through artsjournal.com. Nice piece, with some interesting insight and ideas. I'll take the liberty to offer a few comments, from last to first (big surprise, right?):

MP3 kiosks. Excellent concept, and one that would seem quite viable in the not too distant future. Similar to what Starbuck’s is doing with big stars doing CD’s of select tracks of a given genre.

Live digital radio. Another really good one. Not everyone is old enough to appreciate the real magic of live radio, though it hasn’t been eons ago that Springsteen did just that on a regional basis. Radio, of course, works beautifully with drama, comedy and other formats beyond music. Now, if these guys can get the business model profitable, they should do this!

The remix software and the ipod groove box—interesting, sexy but to my way of thinking, very limited appeal. A nice novelty once or twice, and something that a portion of the market (with the knack and patience for such gadgets) would eat up and love. But to me it reeks of the kind of “wow, I could do that” sizzle that Wired made a living off of through the Net boom. The future is a beautiful place when you only have to imagine it.

Your overall premise is on the mark as well. The music industry is missing the point—the upside of the technology. Hard to blame them when they see their business caving in, but eventually they will have to come to the table with real answers.

What’s really getting lost in almost all the coverage is how inadequate mp3’s are for a quality listening experience. Obviously, this point gets overly technical for mainstream media, but the fact is we’re looking at a new generation whose standard of pure recorded music quality may well be a highly compressed mp3 file through a boombox or cheap computer speaker.

We’re reverting to the sound of a 1970’s era TV speaker!

Why does this matter? Well, if the “general standard” for listening becomes that low, the market will shrink downward from the top. As you know, market demand drives product quality. (Just look at how difficult it has been to get a broad audience interested in a dramatically better TV picture—HD vs. standard broadcast.)

There are two high resolution formats that are qualitatively better than standard CD now on the market—SACD and dvd-a. But who’s willing to pay for those when their ears have been raised on really bad sound?

One more point and I’ll get off my soap-box: The record industry should look at what has happened with modern recording technology and engineers who are using noise reduction, compression and saturation of sound at the point of mastering in an escalating battle to sound “hot.’

If you ever want to look further into this, check out a site, stevehoffman.tv.com, hosted by one of the industry’s most respected remaster engineers who specializes in vintage recordings for high-rez formats and vinyl. (I am a member at the site, but have no interest or special relationship with Hoffman or his record label.)

It’s ear-opening reading!

Again, nice piece, Tom.

Best regards,

Douglas Cook