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The physical format is on its way out. This is apparent in many areas of life, not just in music formatting. Amazon is selling Kindles like crazy, while their glue-and-paper book revenues are tanking. Blogs are wiping the floor with magazines. People would rather download the HD version of a movie than buy a DVD. Even the United States Postal Service is in deep trouble.
We’ve heard plenty about the decline of album sales. The music industry was hit earlier and harder than just about any other business sector. Theoretically, it’s only a matter of time until no one even bothers to manufacture albums anymore. (I don’t think it’ll ever get that bad, but that’s another matter.)
I’m a young guy, so I have no real nostalgia for the halcyon days of record store scrounging. For me, the golden era of physical media lasted until I reached college and realized that buying a stack of CDs every week meant living off ketchup packets.
In spite of this, I wish that people still bought albums. Well-packaged albums- especially vinyl- are beautiful artifacts that simply can’t be replicated by 96-kbps downloads. And I wish that my favorite bands could make a living off their craft without having to tour until they lose their teeth to malnutrition.
Sadly, times have changed. Pandora’s Box is open, and we can’t put mp3s back inside. But all is not lost. We’re familiar with the various disadvantages of the digital format and the decline of the unified album. Here are some advantages that we, as metal fans, might derive from the rise of digital music.
1. Four minutes of brutal death metal at a time instead of 40
Let’s face it: some styles of metal just don’t work in longplayer-sized blocks. I like Devourment, but after two or three tracks of blasts and slams, my brain ceases to register what’s going on. Or take De Magia Veterum. Awesome band, but do I really want 40 straight minutes of some Dutch guy shoving a spiked cyborg dildo into my ear?
That’s not to say that hyper-extreme bands like these are incapable of producing an album’s worth of quality material. But in many cases, their work is best absorbed a song or two at a time. With digital media, it’s much easier to do this.
2. You never have to hear that intro track, ever again
Metalheads are often first-class nerds. We enjoy sprawling, complex pieces of art. That’s probably why the album format is such a collective hobbyhorse for us.
Unfortunately, nerdy people are often self-indulgent people. It’s a rare metal album that doesn’t involve at least some unnecessary baggage. Witness intro tracks. Almost nobody likes them, but countless bands use them. Worlds Beyond the Veil by Mithras is one of the better death metal albums of the past decade. But it starts with a six-minute intro. In the vinyl days, I would’ve been stuck with that lame intro every time I wanted to listen to the album. Now I can skip it or delete it. Easy peasy.
A lot of musicians would argue that in doing so, I’m failing to experience their art as intended. Perhaps, but I’m not convinced that the most complete version of something is automatically the best. Moby Dick does not lose its literary value if you skip the boring chapters about the whaling industry. The theatrical version of Apocalypse Now is better than the director’s cut. And Worlds Beyond the Veil is better without the intro track.
3. Mixtapes don’t take all day to make (and aren’t tapes)
I’m too young to have ever made a mix tape on an actual cassette tape. But my father is a die-hard music fan, and I watched him record quite a few mix tapes. It was usually an all-morning affair on the weekend- he’d spend hours in front of the tape deck, carefully splicing tracks together.
This lengthy process now sounds quaint. We can burn a mix to a CD in minutes now. It’s just a matter of choosing the right songs. This is effectively a corollary to the above process—not only can we edit out unwanted material, but we can also assemble a collection of the best stuff quickly and conveniently.
And therein lies the value of mixes as a way to disseminate music. Mixes can help us to focus on quality songcraft, that oldest and most endangered of qualities in metal.
4. There’s no such thing as an “impossible-to-find release”
A lot of people consider Gorguts’ Obscura a must-own classic. But not many people actually own it. The original Olympic Records pressing has been sold out for years. If you’re looking for it on Amazon, you can buy a used copy for $90, or a ‘new’ copy for $129.98.
Now, those who can’t find an obscure album for a reasonable price can simply download it. Downloading music raises a lot of ethical red flags, but I’d argue that it isn’t objectionable if the product itself is effectively not available for purchase. And if it helps you sleep at night, you could always mail Luc Lemay a check afterwards. I doubt he’d object.
5. Creative freedom is closer to free
The above advantages help fans, but nose-diving album sales unquestionably hurt artists. However, the same technology that led to the advent of internet music piracy also gave us unprecedented recording and distribution mechanisms.
It is now possible for independent musicians to conceive, record, and sell their music without outside help or significant start-up capital. Underground metal bands pride themselves on their artistic independence. Today’s cheap, hi-fi recording tech has helped many bands embrace that independence.
Ben Sharp of Cloudkicker, for instance, records his own material—usually in EP-sized blocks—and distributes it for free via Bandcamp. Money hardly figures into it. I’m not a fan of his music, but I like his model, and it’s becoming more prevalent.
Historically, music has been an avocation more frequently than a career choice. With the 20th century music industry boom succumbing to technological change, we’re seeing a return to that norm. Music may be less remunerative now, but it’s more accessible to both fans and aspiring musicians than ever.
These changes are irreversible. We can’t put .mp3s back in their box- they’re out in the world now. But let’s realize the fact that that box held hope too. Let’s take the good with the bad.
. . .
. . .
HEAR PYRRHON
. . .
Pyrrhon – Live at Lit Lounge
. . .
BUY PYRRHON
. . .
I like vinyl. It’s like a little aural merry go-round of metallic mayhem. And it smells like Freedom.
+1 for vinyl. To my ears it’s a superior sound and it helps with choosing what bands to listen to. If I can’t get it on vinyl, then I don’t listen. Unless it’s an absolute must have then I’ll buy the cd. I hate computers so there’s no way in hell there’s one in my listening room (okay it’s my bedroom too, but that’s where my audio gear is, tubes)
I have no interest in mp3s. Absolutely no interest at all. I will always buy physial product. When the day comes that I can no longer walk into my favorite record store and purchase cds or vinyl, well then I have plenty of music in my collection to sustain me for the remainder of my time on this earth and thus will cease purchasing music. I despise the “instant gratification” mentality that is inherent within mp3 culture. These “kids” have apparently never sat down and listened to an album in it’s entirety, let alone stopped to think that the whole experience might actually be worth spending money on. Go to shows! Go to a real record store! If you believe in an artist, help make it possible for them to continue making music, bottom line.
I have a feeling I know which “kids” you’re talking about, but you’ve gotta realize that not everyone is interested in digesting music the way you and I are: that’s to say albums at a time, with continued devotion to the same kind of stuff.
I’m not sure where I stand when it comes to physical media. I’m too young (21 in December) to have the same reverence for vinyl as lots of people, but I have a modest CD collection and believe in supporting artists. I also, however, believe that digital music is the way of the future, and provides many more opportunities for artists than physical media ever will; ease of distribution being the main advantage there.
Thank you sir. The “instant gratification” you speak of is, I think, a symptom of a deeper malaise inherent in our dying so-called civilization. I miss the days when buying an album felt and going home listening to it felt like embarking on an adventure.
i know its extremely obvious, but the biggest advantage is it potentially enables new/local bands to get their music out there for practically nothing, with little risk and none of the limitations of a physical release. i cant tell you how many local bands ive known of who rush to press up 1000 copies of an unbaked EP/glorified demo, even before they have hit the double digits of shows played, just because it gave a false sense of legitimacy. and guess what, many of those bands break up long before they even sell anywhere close to half of them, thus wasting a whole lot of money for nothing aside of the pleasure of having a bunch of boxes of worthless cds kicking around their homes for the rest of eternity.
I pretty much agree w/ everything Kent said above. I’m not a fan of the MP3 culture and the laziness it inspires in fans. When I first got into metal, it required effort and dedication on the part of everyone, fans, bands, industry folk, etc. Much of that has been wiped out. I probably wouldn’t be so opposed to it if there was a way to control the piracy. I’m not a fan of all these thieving hypocrites out there that actively steal from the bands they claim to be fans of.
I will say that one good thing about the digital age is that allows many musicians to be widely heard that might not have gotten a chance otherwise.
And oh yeah, Only Cassette Mixtapes Are Real.
I agree with most of these points.
I must say though that one of the biggest downsides of digital music is that it has allowed mediocre and/or green musicians to ‘release’ whatever the fuck they think is up to some standards. Meaning, the mountain of mediocrity is taller than ever these days, precisely because it is so much easier and ‘cheaper’ to get a ‘product’ out.
I agree wholeheartedly with number 4. I will not help line the pockets of price gouging collecters.
I also have a sneaking suspician that some of these indie labels that relase these limited runs on albums like Temporary Residence or Tree when they were around are encouraging this for a couple reasons. If they hold back a bunch of copies than the label itself can ebay the copies under various names and makes triple+ what they were selling for or they allow the band a certain number of copies to do the same. It’s a great scam if they are doing it.
IgnacioBrown brings up a great point about the effect of an almost non-existent barrier to entry, leading to an overabundance of crap. Cosmo and others have written about it here and elsewhere in the past about the infeasibility of listening to every metal release. The larger effect alluded to the by author is the overall decline in songwriting. Even the older, established, often legendary bands who actually wrote memorable songs back in the day put out forgettable dreck largely indistinguishable from the ocean of mediocrity that makes up the bulk of today’s metal.
It’s a real shame that one of the more memorable records of 2011 is that Morbid Angel debacle, and honestly the “good” songs are about as stock and generic as can be.
for me the top advantage of digital music is that it has replaced the ‘record store listening station’ for me, and that ‘only’ because i have been living in locations where A) there was no record store worth going to and B) if there was, the listening station was a bunch of pre-selected HOT records and not what i wanted to hear. growing up in switzerland, you’d go to the record store and there were listening stations, you could bring ANY cd in the store to the station and listen to it in it’s entirety and as many times as you wanted to.
i don’t want to hear a single streamed track, bands/labels often put up the strongest and least representable track of the bunch and you end up with a snoozefest, hence the full album download, three four spins and i know if it’s something i want to buy. in the 20 years i’ve bought records i ended up with too many stinkers to buy blindly without hearing first…. even bands that i thought could seemingly do no wrong.
MP3 is convenient, that is all. very convenient for out and about listening whilst on the move, but it is not a replacement format at home for me. kids can do what they want, not having grown up with physical albums might make people have a different opinion, but i resent the notion of just having some ‘record store nostalgia’ and not going with progress makes me some kind of old fart and physical album flat-earther type. sitting in your room starting at the sleeve of Realms of Chaos whilst listening to the album is important to me and music having become a 24-7 computer speaker background drizzle is abhorrent. shit quality MP3 does not represent the music we love correctly, it serves as a pre-lsitening entity, to me at least.
another digital horror is the decline of ALBUM ARTWORK into photoshop hell. even shoddily drawn shitty album covers of the 80’s are to me preferrable over the awful digital crap that graces sleeves these days.
that’s my 2 cents. to each their own, but it’s appalling that people feel entitled to receive music/art for free and artists are supposed to keep going. not even a buck for two packs of ramen noodles are thrown their way.
that would be ’staring at the sleeve’ not ’starting’ of course.
The notion here is not that mp3s should replace physical releases, or that you’re a ‘flat-earther’ if you still prefer the physical format. My own feelings towards mp3s are ambivalent. But this new technology isn’t going away, and we might as well enjoy the things it brings to the table.
I completely agree with every point you made
These “advantages” don’t even remotely outweigh the disadvantages, such as…
1. Decreased sound quality
2. No big, beautiful artwork and packaging to hold
3. A hard drive crash or computer virus can erase your entire collection
4. Too much shitty amateur music to wade through
5. Too easy to steal
I don’t think physical formats will ever vanish completely. There will always be people who want the real thing. Just look at how vinyl sales have been rising the past couple of years.
1. Use a lossless format. FLAC or ALAC play on a computer or iPod just as easily as an mp3. I usually listen to new stuff in a lossless format and then reduce the quality for my archive. Someday, storage will be so abundant that higher than CD quality will become the norm.
2. No big, beautiful artwork and packaging to store.
3. Fire, flood, earthquake, theft, etc. can wipe out your entire physical collection. That’s probably not as likely to happen as a hard drive crash but at least one can back up a collection of files relatively cheaply.
4. I agree, but this also allows for good musicians to produce their music affordably.
5. For both good or bad.
I have a RAID drive in my tower that can act as a backup in case of hard drive failure and I also backup on an external periodicly so that in case of emergency I can grab and go.
Can I honestly hope to to grab and go 2000 albums on various formats in case of fire or hurricane?
I disagree:
1. Decreased sound quality – Never heard of FLAC or higher bit rate encoded MP3’s?
2. No big, beautiful artwork and packaging to hold – I’d agree but my PC screen is 24″ so thats nice and big to display or I can look at it on my 50″ plasma TV. I could even get a LCD picture display.
3. A hard drive crash or computer virus can erase your entire collection – Backup onto BluRay or use a service like Spotify.
4. Too much shitty amateur music to wade through – Using services like last FM or Spotify helps you get what you want and even discover new stuff you might like.
5. Too easy to steal – I’d agree on that point but then I’ve not stolen an MP3 in 5 or 6 years now CD’s are a reasonable price and there are streaming all you can eat services.
“I don’t think physical formats will ever vanish completely. There will always be people who want the real thing. Just look at how vinyl sales have been rising the past couple of years.”
On that I’d agree. The current trend is for limited edition box sets and shiney special editions which also contain digital versions in th box.
If you check out the Sony, Warner and Universal online stores they are full of these box sets.
1. Yes, I’m well aware of higher bit rates and lossless file formats, but are those readily available for purchase? They weren’t the last time I checked.
2. After working all day in the digital realm, I’d much rather have something tangible to look at. Also, there are many printing and packaging techniques that can’t be recreated on a monitor.
3. With a physical collection, I don’t have to worry about backing anything up. Sure, it could be lost to a fire, natural disaster, or theft, but there’s a good chance my computer would also be gone in those cases anyway. And, I don’t trust Spotify or Amazon to save my collection. I doubt they would allow me to store my entire collection in a lossless format anyway.
4. I tried Last.fm for a while and was pretty disappointed by it. Online radio stations like SnakeNet and DarkSoul7 are much better for discovering new quality bands.
I’m not entirely anti-digital. It certainly has made it a lot easier to find out if an album is worth my money or not before I buy it. But, it’s not a satisfying end product for me right now. When the technology inevitably improves in the future, I might consider buying digital albums from bands that I’m more of a casual fan of, but I’ll always want physical copies of my favorites.
1. Yeah, most MP3’s and premium streaming services are 320 bitrate which is almost as good as FLAC and you can in many cases buy FLAC files which to be fair, do sound easily as good as DVD audio.
2. Fair enough. I guess its down to taste on that one.
3. I guess thats down to backing stuff up. I’ve never lost my MP3 collection because I have more than 1 harddrive which is an automatic backup.
Spotify won’t save you’re collection anyway and Amazon has limited time on your downloads which is a problem. But I really can’t complain about Spotify as a service, I’m using it right now on my work PC and I’ll be using on the way home on my smart phone. No copying/ripping of music required. Its a good service.
4. LastFM is weird like that. It depends on what you like and dislike on the service, what search terms you put in. There will always be crap on there but in the same token you’ll find allot of good music too. I have it on in the background, when I hear something I like, I mark it as such, when I hear a band I don’t, I block them.
As a general service though LastFM I think is really very good for bands and consumers alike.
I’d also agree that online music stations are worth listning to but then you have to ask yourself, where do they discover new bands? I’d hazard a guess though a digital medium.
Biggest disadvantage. Your hard drive will eventually fail and you will lose your entire MP3 collection. One of the reasons that I think 99 cents and higher for a singe track is robbery.
I love physical releases but I have no problems with MP3s. I just know that they are not permanent.
Like I said above. I am fully backed up.
Also, disc rot is showing that CD’s aren’t permenant either.
CD’s die. They get scratched, some are poor quality and flake.
The price of hard drives these days its cheap to back up terrabytes of data.
I agree with #1.
Number two I sort of agree with. I do get tired of most intros but on records you CAN skip tracks. Just put the needle in a different groove brah. Easy track skips. I ALWAYS skip “Snowblind” and go straight to “Cornucopia”. Your argument is invalid.
#3 is one I’m torn about. I’m only 25 but have spent 20+ hours making mix tapes for close friends, pretty girls and fellow bloggers. Sure I can make one in ten minutes on iTunes but if I link it to someone it doesn’t really mean anything. But when I sit down in front of my set up, pull out all the records I want to rip, and record/listen to each individual track in a specific order (that I can’t go back and change), write out all the bands and track names and give it to a person, it fucking means something.
Number 4 is mostly right. There are tapes/records/CDs that I have a hard time finding on the internet. But I think that’s more a problem with DIY crusties not being able to afford to rip their rare vinyl to a computer to upload. I’ll concede.
#5 is one I’m on the fence about. I love the DIY aspect you talk about, but at the same time a lot of self made recordings on Pro-Tools sound too clean and pretentious. Where’s the soul in triggered drums, effect soaked vocals and flawless sounding guitars? Having a professional record you lends to a better sound I think. But this really is all just personal preference, not a fact.
Why the shit would you skip Snowblind?
Just not my fave Sabbath song. Maybe it’s because I don’t like cocaine. *shrugs*
This is not a matter of opinion, you’re simply wrong.
That’s a very well thought out and concise defense, thanks for that.
It’s funny that people can’t separate their own niche feelings about a physical product and the business in general. Clinging to a format won’t make it sustain, and certainly won’t make millions of others fall in line with your way of thinking.
The physical format is about to perish, and the labels that resist it will suffer even more cratering of their business models. The paradigm has changed and labels can either embrace it or reminisce about the old days and complain that Spotify and iTunes don’t pay them while they get left behind.
The digital format introduces music to millions who’d otherwise have no access. Embrace and engage your fans and they’ll gladly give you their money. And no, simply having a FB page or crappy web presence won’t cut it. You need to give a fuck.
As much as I do think the mixtape vs. mix CD argument has some validity, I can’t help but fixate on the paradoxical love of such a shitty audio format by audiophiles who love vinyl. Tapes can sound pretty godawful, especially when played a bunch.
I also refuse to believe that the time you have to spend crafting a mixtape is the best way to prove that you give a shit. Yeah, it takes more time, but does spending a while physically making a mixtape really make it matter more than a mix CD that could have taken just as much thought to compose? If you really care about showing someone you give a shit, take the time to make some album art or write out some liner notes. Mix CDs aren’t the end of thoughtfulness.
I guess I could see your point(s) but I dont whole heartedly agree. I generally prefer anything that slows down your listening experience, and puts a barrier between you, and instant digestion of the material.
case in point:
1) While I only dabble in grindore, I agree: I cant take a full album of it. So i listen to a good 4-5 tracks over a couple of weeks, come back and hit up another portion of the album a few months later…I can always come back to an album and hear something new, whether it be a new song, or just an older one im revisiting. Cant really do this with an EP.
2) Intro tracks: again, i agree on not really being interested in the track PER SE, but it helps slow my descent into the album, and gives me a different perception of track 2, 3, etc than if i just jumped right in. Great example is Ghost (sorry)
3) I miss taking hours to make a mixtape! it gave me time to just throw shit on the table, rethink it, and get deeper into the process.
4) there is absolutely no doubt that the harder something may have been to find, the more i liked it. it entirely changed my perception of the song/album, and its something i miss dearly.
5) There is way too much shit out there! Though I wouldnt agree that the people running record labels should have been the ‘gate keepers,’ it did help keep the amount of new music to certain limit. Internet recording/distribution has flooded the envirnment with so much new and duplicative crap, its nauseating
I’m a lover of the physical format who also recognizes their disadvantages. Sure, I love checking out the CD liner as much as the next guy, but I also find that I’m pretty disappointed in the vast majority of them and never look at them again. Most useful information in them can easily be found online. Records are great but storing the damn things is not. Paying for them is even worse. If I were a rich man…
Mixtapes are total bullshit. I used to spend hours and hours making them (both on cassette and CD) and found that I would never listen to them. Also, I’ve found that people never listen to the mixtapes you make for them. I certainly never listen to mixtapes people make for me. There is too much easily obtainable music out there for me to rely on others to help me discover music. Most people who want me to try out their music fail to consider what kind of music I like. It’s a waste of time and resources. I’d much rather listen to music the way an artist intends. Albums.
I listen to albums, straight through, multiple times, in different places, on different stereos. I do this with every album I buy. I gotta give the artist a fair shot to impress me with the album. As long as I am selective about my purchase, this system pays off way more then is does not.
While I do enjoy the obvious advantages of streaming music and accessibility to songs via my computer, I still prefer vinyl. I’m disappointed to hear so many people separate the different artistic components of a release. I find most intros and outros to be an integral part of most of the music I listen to. “Reign in Blood” with out the thunderstorm? I hope not. With that said, some artists are better at intros than others.
Vinyl is also a visual experience, adding to the vision of the release. Nuclear War Now, Hells Headbangers, and Profound Lore are masters of this craft. Jpeg vs. gatefold? I’ll take gatefold every time.
I’m not going to take an anti mp3 or digital music stance, but I would like to murky up the waters with some interesting reads that question the quality of digital music (I also realize that these could be somewhat dated):
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/commentary/listeningpost/2007/10/listeningpost_1029
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122114058&sc=nl&cc=mn-20100102
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/business/media/10audio.html
Ensiferum’s intro track to “Victory Songs” is the only one I’ve ever liked and always pumps me up.
I’ve pretty much given up on physical product, which I never thought I’d do (A lot of it has to do with moving. CDs are fucking heavy), so I agree with a lot of what’s in the article. However, I can always be suckered into buying a disc if they include a 5.1 Surround mix. That’s pretty much my version of “I prefer to listen to vinyl.”
The problem I have with buying physical copies is the price. Why would I go to FYE and spend sixteen when I can log onto iTunes and spend ten? There’s also the portability. I can burn CDs but there’s no way in hell the music I have on vinyl is going running with me. I also hear very little difference in sound.
I agree with #2, totally. If there’s a song that has an overly long movie sample or something at the beginning that adds nothing to the piece, I’ll remove that as well, so I don’t have to “fast-forward” past it every time.
I’d really, really like to see #4 discussed more often, especially by bands and labels. It drives me insane that there are so many rare, out of print albums out there that are harder and harder to find on physical formats for reasonable prices. It used to be you could discover an obscure gem and find it on CD for $10 or less within an hour or so, but now bands that no one has ever heard of are selling on eBay, etc. for an easy $30+ (or maybe even $100 or more). Not a dime of that money goes to the bands or the labels, and so little of that stuff is available digitally via iTunes, etc. Why? Do the bands/labels care if listeners download that stuff for free? And if they do, why don’t they have it legally available in some form for fans to purchase?
Like I said above, most dudes that have those crazy rare albums don’t have the money to buy a sweet turntable to plug into a computer to rip it to high quality audio to distribute. There are plenty of people that do(praises to Merlin) but they can only do so much at a time. The internet is vast in knowledge and music, but not every single bit is there.
Doug, why did you neuter the Pyrrhon Bandcamp after getting signed? (I blogged about it here). That seems awfully non-digital of you.
I avoid CDs and don’t collect vinyl. “Just gimme the bits, and in a lossless format, please” (a quote from an IO commenter).
And the bla bla about the “instant gratification” mentality that is inherent within mp3 culture and the “kids” that have apparently never sat down and listened to an album in it’s entirety just make me yawn. I’m 46, so there.
Luckily there are enough good bands on Bandcamp to keep me happy, and more and more labels are setting up shop there. More self-promotion: I blogged about the new Candlelight Records Bandcamp here and here.
Max, Selfmadegod requested that we take most of the material off of Bandcamp. If we had our druthers it’d still be up there, but since they were nice enough to invest their resources in our music, it was the least we could do to oblige.
I suspect that we’ll self-release more stuff in the future using Bandcamp as the platform.
You could sell the album again and let the money go to a Selfmadegod PayPal (and get a cut from them)
@MaxR I agree with you that the “kids these days never sit down an listen to an album anymore” argument is bull crap. I frequently listen to albums in their enitirety on my IPod. And if I have the option to skip some of the filler that just improves the experience.
Do you honestly believe that metal bands write filler? Or is “filler” the term you use to refer to tracks which aren’t interesting to you ? After all “filler” usually refers to ordinary tracks released by pop groups to fill the space between singles. So I ask again: do you truly think metal bands write filler? And if so, why bother with them?
1. If a band can only create an album with only 10% good music, then it’s probably not worth supporting anyways, physically or digitally.
2. I like intro tracks (and “fillers” for that matter), but I do believe that it’s an art that requires mastering in itself because it doesn’t act as a song, but more as music/sounds/noises meant to achieve a cinematic purpose. I also believe that intro tracks/”fillers” are not for people addicted to Shuffle Mode. To each their own I guess.
3. Sure, technology is so advanced now that we can create killer hundred-song playlists in a decent amount of time, but actual “mixtapes” were fun to make too. If you weren’t having fun making one, then you were making them for the wrong reason.
4. I agree with this.
5. I’m all about artistic independence, but I believe that in order to truly flourish as an artist, you have to expand your horizons. The artists who are creating their own music without the aide of others and only on their DAW of choice… it just seems to me that they are in their own little bubble. I myself compose music in isolation, but nothing beats playing in a band – especially LIVE. I really hope the self-sustaining musician/artist takes this into consideration, because (most of the time) the only thing better than hearing your favorite song is watching it performed live.
I guess my overall point is that I prefer physical over digital because of the “tangibility” factor. Good music to me in many senses is like a good woman – I like to fully experience it with all my senses. Touch it, see it, smell it, and most importantly (in this case) hear it at its best quality. I’m going to despise the day that the Digital Revolution has evolved so much, that we’ll be sticking our dicks into computers than vaginas, and I’m pretty sure that that idea is already in pre-production.
Also, there’s something that smells very bullshitty about FLAC – it’s “lossless”, but it’s still compressed, which means that some of the digital information is still being taken away from it during the conversion from it’s actual source to digital during the compression.
Erm, you’re simply wrong about FLAC. Please read about it here.
If you zip a textfile or rip a CD to FLAC you’re using lossless compression. When you’re saving a raw image as a jpeg or ripping a CD to mp3 you’re using lossy compression.
The theatrical version of Apocalypse Now is better than the director’s cut.
Hell, more importantly, the theatrical version of Blade Runner is a thousand times better without unicorns.
(And on the downloading issue, I agree completely – there’s no ethical issue with illicitly (legally speaking) downloading an album that’s out of print.
This means you, every label and band that’s always releasing things only on vinyl in an edition of 200 I only even find out about after it’s sold out.
If you want me to pay you for it, it has to actually be for sale, either on physical media or via download.)
FM3: You don’t understand how compression works. Which is fine, except that you use that lack of understanding to come to a false conclusion.
Imagine, for example, “00000000000000000000″. This is some data – twenty zeroes, in this case. I can compress that to “20*10″, for example – and when I convert it back to “00000000000000000000″, nothing has been lost, because the input and output are literally identical.
In the real world, audio data is a lot more complex than a string of zeroes, but there are still repetitions and patterns in the raw data – and if you can find those, you can compress. Every second of silence, for instance, is very compressible.
If you like, you can read raw data from a CD to a .WAV or .AIFF file, FLAC it, un-FLAC it, and compare the output. They will be identical.
This is not bullshit, it’s the fact that audio data has lots of compressibility if you’re clever.
(Same reason you can compress a file on your computer that isn’t audio data, uncompress it, and still read it.
FLAC is just tuned to work very well with PCM audio data, rather than being for general data.)
Then again, I don’t use FLAC, myself. I can’t hear any difference between 192k+ MP3 or AAC and the original sources, especially with most of the metal I listen to – so why bother with FLAC? No reason at all.
I stand corrected. Thank you for the input. I once heard a comparison between a 320kbps Mp3 versus source material on some expensive speakers, and I was definitely able to hear the difference. That’s where the whole “bullshit” mentality eventually stemmed from when comparing digital to source. I can’t say I’ve done the same with WAVs, and I’m sure I’m less likely to tell the difference. Regardless, I’ll pick source material over digital any day… depending on how much money I have that day…
Some people like mp3s, some people like vinyl. Where’s the rest of the Metallica stuff?
@6810 Yes I honestly believe metal bands write filler. They don’t do it on purpose, but damn near every album has one or two songs that don’t need to be there. Sometimes it’s a boring instrumental or a song that just goes way too long. Being able to skip these or delete them from the album entirely is a good thing.
Technical question: if modern recorded music has to use digital mastering equipment and convert the music into digital data to put on CD, what are audio purists really complaining about? If an Engineer master places the master data online/on a server to distribute from, isnt that maintaining quality?
Every generation has to hate the newer one.
I was of that lame generation who got into metal when death metal has its brief flirtation with mainstream success and I could watch Morbid Angel, Entombed, and Death videos on TV after school and then bought from the paltry metal selection that the record store in the surburban mall had. But now I can look down my nose at the young people with their emm pee three players and what not.
Wasn’t there a geriatric on here who said that you can never really be into metal unless you were born before the first Sabbath album came out?
That said, I don’t know if it’s because the instant gratification culture of mp3 blogs and Youtubes of pretty much anything you could ever want or if it’s because I’m old, but music doesn’t have the magic that it once did.
Remember GISM before everybody had the internet?
I don’t know if anyone in the comments above has addressed this, but in my case Spotify actually sells records. I listen to spotify all day at work, where I don’t have any stereo stuff. Often, I will find a good album on Spotify and see if there’s a vinyl release. If not, I’ll see if I can get a shirt or something like that, just to throw the band/label a few bucks. (Buying cd’s just isn’t worth the effort to me; they’re kind of ungainly and difficult to store. Records, however, look great and fit easily on most bookshelves.) Moral: this whole issue isn’t as binary as it’s often made out to be.
off topic from the majority of these comments, but Moby Dick most certainly loses it’s literary value if you cut the chapters on the whaling industry (I’ll spare everyone an essay-in-a-comment-box). but it’s also a terrible object of comparison in this case, as it is one of the most complete and profound works of art we’ll have the pleasure of encountering within our short lifetimes. the vast majority of records/albums any of us will hear will fall terribly short of that standard.
that quibble aside, on a personal level I’ve found that my listening comprehension began to decline when I no longer had a relationship with physical albums. that’s just anecdotal, though, and I hesitate to generalize anything from it; I think digital formats have their virtues, but I’ll always prefer the tangible medium.
It blows my mind to hear of people never making cassette mix tapes. I was making them up until I was 31, and enjoyed every minute
of making them. There’s a dedication to craft present in making a killer mix tape that just isn’t present with a mix cd. Maybe I’m just old. Maybe only vinyl and cassettes are real.
@Shaun. 40 years old and still making mixed tapes. CDs too. But there’s a more complete sense of satisfaction after finishing a tape. Makes us into an artist in a sense, yes?
more so, i feel that the digital age has just taken some of the magic out of music. maybe that’s just due to age also, but the thrill of discovering an amazing album is different now than what it was pre-downloading.
I grew up in the pre digital/mobile era, buying vinyl and making cassette mix tapes for girlfriends. Yes, vinyl is much more beautiful and the listening experience is far superior … but then again I haven’t bothered in a very long time!
Being able to find digital music expanded my taste in music exponentially. If one of those bands has staying power, I’ll buy the next release. But digitally. The convenience far outweighs the downsides, especially if 95% of one’s listening happens on the iPhone.
Music gone digital, especially services like LastFM and Spotify have helped me find more music than I ever got in tape trading or even when MP3 piracy was the in thing.
While a physical product is nice, I can have Spotify on my work pc, home pc and phone and my bought MP3’s tied into that system. Its convenient and I’ve lost nothing.
One big disadvantage of digital music is that it doesn’t foster community in the same essence as going to an independent record store and buying actual records. Some people fail to realize that independent record stores are an important pillar to music and in the community in general. Sure, digital is ok for convenience and all, but nothing beats spending afternoons perusing through the racks of these stores, while hearing stories from the clerks, talking to fellow buyers, and maybe sharing a coffee or a beer (I’ve done the latter a few times as a loyal Metal Haven customer, RIP Metal Haven). I lament the loss of independent record stores such as Crow’s Nest, Rock Records, and Doctor Wax, as these stores helped me set the foundation for my music collection with their great selection of used cds and vinyl. The dudes who worked at Doctor Wax even taught me how to play vinyl records on a record player properly. Those small things do make a difference in a music lover’s life. Luckily, there are still some independent record stores where I live at that are thriving, such as Reckless and Permanent Records, as well as other stores in other parts of the country, such as Aquarius and Vacation Vinyl. Some more pros that independent record stores are good for is that when you buy records from them, that keeps people employed, the sales taxes that these stores collect go back into the local economy, it keeps the storefront occupied meaning rent goes to the landlord, landlord pays property taxes that go back to the local economy, surrounding businesses such as coffee shops bring in additional business from these record store buyers, and so forth and so on. By purchasing digital, you’re only putting money into Amazon’s and Apple’s coffers, adding to their already bloated profit margins. Besides, holding, feeling, and smelling a record in your hands has a more esoteric experience to it versus clicking files in your computer screen.
When I was younger, the guy with one hundred records in his collection was like a GOD in the neighborhood. Now, kids in high school have 10x that collection.
Are they as “in-tune” with the music on an intimate basis as you’d like them to be? Probably not. But you’re talking about an extreme niche.
Just as not many people lamented the loss of elevator operators, people can either adapt and seek out new revenue streams, or perish. It’s that simple.
Digital music affords access to music in ways never before imagined. It’s up to the artists to embrace and engage their fans. I love that my MP3 collections syncs seamlessly with Spotify and it follows me everywhere. Through these means, I’m able to turn people onto music that never would have been a blip on their radar.
I’m not discounting your views, and I loved aspects of Metal Haven as well, but it’s pointless to think the past is coming back. Embrace the now and make it better.
It is almost impossible for people from younger generations to appreciate what it was like going slow and dedicating time to devote oneself to doing something as rewarding as recording a “greatest hits” cassette. By the same token, it is difficult for the older generations to prefer an mp3 file to the physical cd / lp.
If anyone reading this Blog is ready to pay 90$ for my CD of Gorguts’ Obscura get in touch! Mine will obviosuly be for sale at such a price.
all kidding aside, that album is worth way more than $90 and it’s a goddamn travesty that those guys will never be properly remunerated for their work on that document.
I appreciate this article, although I wager that no.s 1-3 are NOT advantages. But I’m old.