The Celestial Jukebox
There's an event coming up in September at the Natural History Museum called EconMusic, a half day conference on, I quote, 'the emerging economics of the tempestuous digital music business'.
It will feature speakers including Billy Bragg and representatives of Sony BMG, 7Digital, Last.fm and various other record labels and download services.
One of the discussion headers is: All You Can Eat: Is Music's Future In The Celestial Jukebox?
Quite interesting this one. I mean it's easy to see how with a user-freindly interface, a well organised, informative layout and a suitably low monthly subscription that such a service could kill off illegal filesharing for all but the most miserly music lover.
But then the idea of owning an album becomes a little hazy. If it costs no more to buy ten albums than it does to buy one then surely our sense of ownership becomes diluted and we begin to subconsciously value the product less.
Remember the days when you could only afford one or two albums a month and you'de wear them out with repeated listens? Wasn't that a richer experience?
http://www.contentnext.com/econmusic/
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I'm very much inclined to agree with you Niks
I think it's been said here repeatedly that *part* of the reason that a lot of us (well, okay, maybe just me) look back on albums from our youth with more fondness is that we weren't in a position to get a replacement product if the LP we'd bought was crap. Pocket money went so far, thus you bloody well *got* to like it.
Nowadays because we're more affluent (i.e. grown up) and have more means of getting more music more 'instantly' (if such a construct exists) i think a lot of us only skim the surface of an album, rather than allowing it to seep in over a period of time, like what one would have done back when it was gonna be 3 weeks until the next purchase.
I downloaded the Fleet Foxes album recently, on the basis of a lot of what i'd read here. I put it onto my Playstation 3, brewed up a pot of nice strong coffee and sat down one afternoon with an Irish Times Crossword intent on listening to the album. I couldn't believe how twitchy i got. I just found it hard to give it a chance and was immediately thinking "oh sod this, lets give Vampire Weekend a shot...i've not heard that either".
So obviously i'm not giving the album a fair shot. If i didn't have another 3 albums to 'road-test' i'd have stuck with FF
To tell you the gods honest, part of me thinks that the whole bloody lot of us should be only allowed 10 downloads a month and really get to love our music again as opposed to being just exposed to feckloads of it because we can...
Same subject
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/does-having-it-access-endless-new-...
phew...
thank god i said 'as has been said before'...
I think the danger we face now (i mean we the General Music Buying Public, as opposed to the Word Readership) is that a lot of those that make up the GMPB don't see there to be an intrinsic value in music and that we're entitled to as much as we want for bog all.
I mean, i know that record companies rode us silly for the last x years, but ultimately, the creeping disregard a lot of folk have for paying for music means that ultimately the musicians will lose out. Sure they'll make money on live performances, but it's a lot harder to guage whether the punters will bother to pay to see an artist, if the artist can't firstly figure out the general interest in the first instance.
Record sales, however vulgar a measurement they were, gave a good indication. (Unless of course, you're REM, in which case your last album sells 17 copies and you still book the Millenium Stadium...)
Too much
I've always had access to cheap music so I can't really comment. I can say that many potentially good albums have been heard once and then discarded when I buy another CD the very next day. Two years later you give it another listen, but it's still not enough as it really needs you to take about five listens to really get to the essence of it.
thats it...
Niks initially posited that perhaps we were seeing the end of the album or something. We're not. We're seeing, however, the end of the 'Grower'...
As discussed
What is easier.
Getting rid of vinyl records that have been lovingly lugged from all your addresses. Album sleeves pondered, grooves pampered, collector's values imagined and inflated.
Downloads. Delete.
Which came first. The development of "apartments" (bedsits) with no room to store anything. Ipods. Coincidence?
But
Would anyone really be able to resist a download service that offered an unlimited supply of all the songs ever released on DRM free MP3 for, say, £25 a month?
I'm not sure I could.
i'm not saying for a minute that you *could* resist
such a bargain.
I am, however, saying that you *should* resist such a bargain.
I think a lot of us 'consume' music nowadays in a manner not a million miles from those 'classic novels in few paragraphs' compendia that you often see sold as a toilet book (or, perhaps, a Loo Read). The surface gets scratched, but i'm not sure that the deep down appreciation happens in the same way, cos one is too busy making time for the next batch of downloads!
I have tried to peg back on how much I buy
When I was a young lad and bought my first ever LP (Sheer Heart Attack by Queen since you ask) it was the only album that I had for about six months. Which meant that I listened to that and only that for six months. And yes I am aware of others views on Queen but actually it is still a favourite album of mine and I know every word and nuance.
Now I don't download so still buy all my music in CD format usually online. At one time I was buying 2 or 3 albums a week and, if I'm honest, not much of it seeped in.
Now, I have a list of stuff I'm interested in. Some gets bought but some gets crossed off as I read more reviews and hear the odd track or clip - or increasingly the inital hype is seen for what is and we realise that the new REM album isn't up to much.
So I'm trying to limit myself to 1 or 2 albums a month which means some stuff does get missed but hopefully the quality and/or interest level goes up.