Streaming ≠ End of Physical Media

Ha! Very interesting! True, there was a time when there was no radio, and if you wanted to hear music, you had to get a record for the Victrola or buy the sheet music and play it on the piano.

 

What would you do if the governments of the world just decided to wipe the Beatles music from the face of the planet? The Beatles became outlawed, their music was just gone from the world, the public forgot about them, their music no longer existed on any format, etc. How would you handle that? Would life be worth living after something like that?

Apparently the poster above cares if it's a physical media or not.

 

Some people embrace technology without reservation, they always want the latest thing, and other people are skeptical and resist it. I had a VERY bad opinion of mp3's for a long time because I was exposed to them back when people were downloading low, LOW-rez files via Napster. A friend of mine burned me a couple of CDR's (also a new thing at the time) and they were basically unlistenable. He couldn't perceive the compromised fidelity and I concluded that mp3 technology was for cloth-ears only. It took me a while to come around... 320-bit files are fine for me.

Similarly, a friend excitedly showed me the brave new world of music streaming a few years ago, all interfaced on the big screen in their living room. It was awkward to access or find things, my main impression was that it was another remote control annoyance. And I've never really liked radio of any kind so it's another technology that was stillborn in my own mind upon first exposure.

We're all creatures of habit and buying music, listening to records, keeping my collection organized... these are great pleasures in life for me. I'm sure the interface with streaming services is effortless now and will continue to improve. I wouldn't doubt that I subscribe to a service sometime down the road. But if there's ever an audio glitch or if there are promotional distractions, visual or audio, that will be an immediate deal-breaker for me. I'm not drawn to it, I don't find the idea intriguing or exciting.

 

Yeah, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. One's "personal reality" in terms of listening to music is the only "reality" that matters. Why should what hip young kids do in terms of listening to music have any impact on my life? You don't seem to be on the "CDs kill the planet" track, so who cares? What exactly are you arguing in favor of?

 

Bro, you're getting a bit weird here.

 

Dunno what you mean by "glitch" but zero playback methods are perfect 100% of the time. I've had streaming screw up and I've had physical media crap out on me during playback as well.

 

Not really. He interjected the Beatles into a discussion not related to them. Instead of just saying "physical media has value" he specifically brought "Beatles related physical media" up. I'm trying to understand the obsession.

 

He's just being a Beatles nerd. Doesn't make asking him how he'd respond to a world where Sgt Pepper's was banned less weird.

 

I'll show you "getting a bit weird!"

We'd just have to become OUTLAWS! UNDERGROUND BEATLES FANS UNITE! FIGHT THE POWER!

"duh duh duh duh duh dum dum duh.. if there's anything that you want..."

ARE YOU LISTENING TO THE BEATLES, CITIZEN?

Not guilty!

YOU CAN'T DO THAT!

Help!

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!

Have mercy!

THAT'S A STONES SONG - THEY'RE OK!

 

That said, I value physical media as a backup method and a way to own my music should the copyright holders ever pull it off the streaming services.

At this point physical media is cheaper for what you get vs a download as well and it's a built in backup for when you rip it. I buy physical media all the time and I stream all the time. I listen to playback from my hard drive as well.

It all works together for me.

 

"It's been Done" as George Harrison once said [on the Simpsons]. Starts at 16;52:

 

A few years back I knew people who had problems with streaming services, but that may have been due to bad Internet service in their apartment buildings or something. I understand these things are constantly changing and being improved (even if each new iteration of iTunes gets suckier).

I admit to being predisposed to a negative opinion, but I'm not trying to convince you or anybody else of anything. I really do think it's more about ingrained habit. I'm eager to buy a copy of the new Bryan Ferry album, I didn't order it on-line. If I had a streaming service I could hear it immediately for free, instant gratification! I could probably find a copy to stream on-line without having a service. But I know myself and I wouldn't find that gratifying. I want to sit down on the couch with my wife and pass the artwork back and forth (yes, even 5x5) and enjoy an inaugural listen.

I'm not saying that's a rational mentality, but it's how I feel.

 

But you must understand that your cold, heartless references to "physical media backups" is completely removed from the record collecting mentality. And that's what most people here are (the naysayers or whatever), they're collectors.

Why would anyone want a stamp collection or look at a stamp through a magnifying glass when you can do a Google search and find a huge enlarged image of the rare stamp on your computer screen? It's a different mentality.

There's a whole tactile, procedural, comfortfood thing that older music fans enjoy when they play records and CD's. I'm sure most younger people find it laughable, but some embrace it. I also like my iPod, but I enjoy music more when I'm interfacing with my stereo system. Interfacing with computers always has the scent of "work" for me.

I honestly get the chills when I think of how many thousands of hours I invested in iTunes in the past six or eight years. Technology is alluring.

 

Thanks, I'll have to check that out. I have read another book (I think it was called the History of Recorded Music) that also talked about the music industry slump in the 20's and 30's. Essentially the companies that created the phonograph technology had to relinquish the media business to a new generation of people who had a different approach to selling recording artists and records.

 

I think we're overstating the role that age has in this. Folks seem to be assuming that all old people "cling" to media and all young people stream from the cloud. Alongside this is a notion that the old people do this because they can't figure out technology, and if only they could they'd adopt it. And naturally, everybody under X age only streams because they know how.

I don't think its that linear at all.

 

I think you're correct. I'm 50, and I know people my age and older who ripped all their CD's to Mp3 and got rid of them several years ago. As soon as they knew they could do it, they did it. And of course there's lots of younger people who are getting into LP's. People do all sorts of different things for different reasons. If people here are ignorant about this format or that format, it's probably ultimately due to lack of interest and satisfaction with what they have, not just because they're "old."

 

I also know a lot of people in my age range, 40s and 50s, who've done the same thing - ripped their CD's into iTunes and sold / tossed their CD's. They never had a need for physical media, they just wanted the music. And, 30 years ago, there was no Spotify. These are the same people who would've bought cassettes in the 1980's because it was fairly cheap and very convenient at the time.

Are there more people in the older age range buying CD's than the younger demographic? I'm guessing there is. But I don't think there's a clear line there, there's likely a lot of crossover.

 

In Peter Pyle I trust!

 

A couple years ago I was working with a lot of recent college grads my company had hired, and I asked all of them if they'd ever bought a CD in their lives. Most said no, a couple had bought 1-2 total.

All had bought vinyl LPs recently.

 

Can we store it on the cloud when we're not using it?

Back to the topic. I'm an all-of-the-above sort. I have a huge collection of CDs, one which does sometimes crawl out of its assigned seats. So, sometimes it makes more sense to download, space being finite and all that.

And I generally use Rhapsody when I'm running because, well, I'm running and listening on ear buds. So, I don't need CD quality. When I need CD quality, I play a CD.

But that's how I listen to and store music. I don't have an emotional investment in how other people choose to do it. Now, if other people's decisions start to negatively impact my choices, we're having a different discussion. But right now, it's something of a Golden Age for boomers like me. I can get darn near anything I want, in any format I want, for generally affordable prices. I can live with that.

 

I thought CD's were uncompressed which is different than lossless? Isn't lossless compressed but no data lost...or something like that? I'm not too clear on the technology I'll admit.

 

When you listen to a FLAC file, you are getting the same exact quality as a CD. It just has a different file form.

 

You're correct - from Wikipedia:

Digital audio compressed by FLAC's algorithm can typically be reduced to 50–60% of its original size and decompressed to an identical copy of the original audio data.

 

It's certainly not black + white, but most people who I see buying music in shops are closer to my age than my kids' age. The vast majority of older people don't buy or seek out new music at all. I also know people who ripped and sold-off their collections. I don't know if they've come to regret trading their CD's for 128-bit mp3 copies.

I'm sure this thread was started in response to some "sky is falling" comments, so I understand where it's coming from. I'm not a Luddite; I got very good at doing finicky music projects on Sound Forge, I have a beautifully-managed iPod and there are men and women 15 years younger than me in the office who don't even know CAD, let alone Revit.

But I don't find interacting with computers as natural as breathing either. For younger people they're just a part of life; for me there's still a residual fascination/suspicion about the machines.

 

There's some new albums I want to get (Ariel Pink & Lucius) but I haven't had the time to go into town. Then I though, hang on, why don't I just download them from itunes, I won't have to leave the house and I'll have both albums in a few minutes. But no, I going to go out of my way to drive 25 miles into Dublin and buy them in one of the last remaining indie music shops in the city. I just don't feel like I own the album if it's downloaded.......