Blog
The recorded music experience is not what it was…
Written by Mundaka - Ricardo
…or is it that I’m getting old?
Digital is killing the music business, but not just for piracy. It’s just a plain worse experience.
– Size: vinyl records were also about art & lyrics that you could read. Now is a small box or nothing at all
– Duration: CDs are too long. Vinyl were 30-40min, now CDs 1hr and more. Same amount of talent, though 50% is crap.
– Convenience: buying music was a discovery and involved dedication. There were many shops and not all carried all types of music. You could sit down and listen before you could buy. For hours. Now is megashops where is extremely difficult to find anything, listening to 3 sec excerps or just even browse and click. Very convenient, but not very emotional.
– Sound: vinyl sounds great. MP3 doesn’t. CDs so, so.
– Availability: you can get music everywhere. It’s a commodity.
– Variety: what happened to the single? Now is record a CD or nothing. More difficulties for new talent to pop up.
The fact is that I also have succumbed to digital. I have around 50.000 songs in Apple Lossless in my hard disk on top of +2000 cds and +300 LPs. I play the music in my hifi system through a wireless link to my computer linked to a good DAC. So very practical, but…
No wonder recorded music is going down the drain but live music (i.e. the emotional experience) is thriving, even as prices for gigs are skyrocketing.
How to create a better recorded music experience?
Ps: a spanish advice. “Vetusta Morla – Un día en el mundo”. These guys are part Radiohead, part Travis & Coldplay. Brilliant self-financed debut CD. Went out in 2008 and was out of the radar screen of nearly everybody and slowly became a success in Spain over 2009. “Copenhagen” song is now an indie hymn.