P2P-Zone - View Single Post - Media: Thoughts on The Future of Sharing Music

JackSpratts · 27-01-03, 09:34 PM

The turning point for the industry may have been the 8-track tape, where for the first time the listener was locked out of the roundelay between medium and sound. Once that occurred and sales didn’t suffer it emboldened the labels and opened the way for the cassette, (you could at least see little things turning) the CD (ditto), DAT, mini-disc and ultimately the computer file (WAV, MP3, OGG, WMA), where we no longer have access to the medium or to the thing the medium comes on (flash memory, hard drive, broadband). It’s now possible and common to download a song, using a Real player for instance and hear it without it ever entering a part of your system that moves, making final the mechanical divorce between consumer and artist. It is this that I feel the industry has to address if it ever hopes to continue as a going and relevant concern. If anyone can copy - and anyone can, and we’re getting really good at it, then what’s the point in paying for it? One is as good as another. Indeed the industry goes to great pains to broadcast their complaint that digitally, they’re indistinguishable. You can make a conceptual case, maybe, that paying for it is morally good, and it may be true. On the other hand I can make the case that paying for it supports the RIAA, their international lobbyists and all the disturbing immorality that implies. It’s an argument I ’ll leave to others for the moment.

No, if the media companies hope to re-engage the modern consumer they will need to find a way to rekindle the magic that was once inherent in the discovery of a new song or film. Selling "copies" just ain’t going to cut it anymore more.

I hold my hand over an unexposed paper in a darkroom, flash the lights and watch as a silhouette appears in the liquid. That’s my hand – I did that.

You could trace the movie the same way. Light from those massive Hollywood arcs bounces off a movie star, shoots through a camera lens and burns into the film. It gets developed and by and by more Hollywood light is shone through that film and then through another to expose the very print you hold in your hand. A direct connection exists between the creator of the dreams, physically through that film, and you.

Same with records and in particular 78 rpm recordings. The artist, say Armstrong, blew his horn and the air coming out caused the physical movement of a blade which cut the shellac platter used to mold the stamper that pressed the very disc you held in your hand. You trace those grooves under your fingers and you could feel the power of Armstrong himself in there, and know he did that and somehow you now have it, this thing he carved, like he made it for you to feel.

Get a 78, listen to it. Turn down the lights, touch the grooves, you’ll find yourself involved in a much larger event than hearing a song. It’s a chain of creation that goes back the creator, and helped make the record* worth it’s high cost to us. I think it may go someway toward explaining why a recording might be worth so much less today.

Yes, when we let that go we got perfect sound and it’s everywhere now, in movies, on the net and even in the supermarkets. It feeds the head. It’s free. But with nothing to touch and nothing to feel maybe along with it being everywhere ultimately it’s really nowhere.

- js.

* The process which essentially ended in the 1950’s was improved and revived with a vengeance for all sorts of recordings in the 70’s by Sheffield Labs and others. Listeners swore the one-take sound was incomparable, better than anything they’d ever heard, with startling dynamics and transients that were glisteningly pure. It’s all but forgotten today although the technique still pops up in unexpected places. At the Audio Engineering Convention in NYC for instance, the creators of the audio technologies of the future take the time to pay homage to the past and perform a labor of love – cutting a few great sounding discs the old fashioned way, live to a lathe. Here’s a page on last years session, along with an MP3 excerpt. http://www.auldworks.com/AESDD/dd1.htm
It is a seductive experience that’s ensnared its share of devotees.

27-01-03, 09:34 PM	#4
JackSpratts Join Date: May 2001 Location: New England Posts: 10,018	The turning point for the industry may have been the 8-track tape, where for the first time the listener was locked out of the roundelay between medium and sound. Once that occurred and sales didn’t suffer it emboldened the labels and opened the way for the cassette, (you could at least see little things turning) the CD (ditto), DAT, mini-disc and ultimately the computer file (WAV, MP3, OGG, WMA), where we no longer have access to the medium or to the thing the medium comes on (flash memory, hard drive, broadband). It’s now possible and common to download a song, using a Real player for instance and hear it without it ever entering a part of your system that moves, making final the mechanical divorce between consumer and artist. It is this that I feel the industry has to address if it ever hopes to continue as a going and relevant concern. If anyone can copy - and anyone can, and we’re getting really good at it, then what’s the point in paying for it? One is as good as another. Indeed the industry goes to great pains to broadcast their complaint that digitally, they’re indistinguishable. You can make a conceptual case, maybe, that paying for it is morally good, and it may be true. On the other hand I can make the case that paying for it supports the RIAA, their international lobbyists and all the disturbing immorality that implies. It’s an argument I ’ll leave to others for the moment. No, if the media companies hope to re-engage the modern consumer they will need to find a way to rekindle the magic that was once inherent in the discovery of a new song or film. Selling "copies" just ain’t going to cut it anymore more. I hold my hand over an unexposed paper in a darkroom, flash the lights and watch as a silhouette appears in the liquid. That’s my hand – I did that. You could trace the movie the same way. Light from those massive Hollywood arcs bounces off a movie star, shoots through a camera lens and burns into the film. It gets developed and by and by more Hollywood light is shone through that film and then through another to expose the very print you hold in your hand. A direct connection exists between the creator of the dreams, physically through that film, and you. Same with records and in particular 78 rpm recordings. The artist, say Armstrong, blew his horn and the air coming out caused the physical movement of a blade which cut the shellac platter used to mold the stamper that pressed the very disc you held in your hand. You trace those grooves under your fingers and you could feel the power of Armstrong himself in there, and know he did that and somehow you now have it, this thing he carved, like he made it for you to feel. Get a 78, listen to it. Turn down the lights, touch the grooves, you’ll find yourself involved in a much larger event than hearing a song. It’s a chain of creation that goes back the creator, and helped make the record* worth it’s high cost to us. I think it may go someway toward explaining why a recording might be worth so much less today. Yes, when we let that go we got perfect sound and it’s everywhere now, in movies, on the net and even in the supermarkets. It feeds the head. It’s free. But with nothing to touch and nothing to feel maybe along with it being everywhere ultimately it’s really nowhere. - js. * The process which essentially ended in the 1950’s was improved and revived with a vengeance for all sorts of recordings in the 70’s by Sheffield Labs and others. Listeners swore the one-take sound was incomparable, better than anything they’d ever heard, with startling dynamics and transients that were glisteningly pure. It’s all but forgotten today although the technique still pops up in unexpected places. At the Audio Engineering Convention in NYC for instance, the creators of the audio technologies of the future take the time to pay homage to the past and perform a labor of love – cutting a few great sounding discs the old fashioned way, live to a lathe. Here’s a page on last years session, along with an MP3 excerpt. http://www.auldworks.com/AESDD/dd1.htm It is a seductive experience that’s ensnared its share of devotees.