Thoughts on Music Distribution
Just read Porridge’s post: http://www.livejournal.com/users/perfectporridge/35655.html
There was a time I thought, “Oh no! The album format is dying!” But now, I’m really doubting whether this is true.
Here are some random thoughts on the subject:
-Back in the day, my Pentium-era laptop with 5GB of disk space could only hold a few MP3s (as it had to contend with Windows and other programs/data). So, I’d have to pick out my most favorite songs. Today, I haven’t even begun to fill up my 80GB drive on my Powerbook, yet I have 2,608 songs occupying 7 days, 15 hours, 32 minutes, and 17 seconds of play time and 11.33GB of space. I used to have 15GB of music prior to October ‘03. I keep songs that really annoy me because space is not at a premium.
-Back in the day, a 56k modem would take a half hour to download a single song. Now I can grab one in a matter of minutes.
-A common way that people shop is to buy in bulk from some place like Sam’s Club. You may not really need 5 gallons of mayonnaise, but people buy it anyway, because the cost per tablespoon is less.
-Back in the day, when going on a long trip, you’d bring a tape/cd player and your collection of your most favorite tapes/cds (because your tape/cd holder could only carry so many). Now, you can buy an MP3 player that’s smaller than a walkman or CD player, yet holds more than your entire music collection.
Now, let’s look at some historical examples:
-In ancient times, in order to record a story, one had to chisel letters into stone, or carve letters into clay or wood, or write on animal skins or expensive papyrus. Texts were very succinct and compressed, because space was at a premium. When the printing press and mass production of books came along, you could suddenly write very long novels, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and spic series’ with ease. So, we go from short descriptions of empires on carved stone and short legends like Aesop’s fables, to Shakespeare’s plays and Luther’s commentaries, to full novels, to long series of novels like Tom Clancy’s stuff.
-Similar trend in the movie business. Movies started out as short “peep shows” on the street and silent films. Later, color was added, stereo sound, surround sound, digital effects, and now fully computer-generated motion pictures. We also see long, epic movies being shelled out at a faster rate.
-And the music business is no different. We go from live sessions (very expensive and rare) to Edison’s wax cylinders (short recording time, fragile), to records, tape, CD, MP3, and now DVD and SA-CD.
The common trend is that technology enables:
-Larger works of art at lower cost
-Higher fidelity of the reproduction
-Increased democratization of creation of art
At the same time we also see the emergence of “instant gratification” entertainment:
-90 minute action movies
-Sitcoms
-John Grisham or Michael Chrichton novels (and other NYT best sellers)
-Pop music singles
Did any of these developments destroy the medium from which they emerged? (ie. does the release of Scooby Doo 2 prevent the release of The Lord of the Rings?) Does the latest Brittany Spears album prevent Radiohead from releasing a new album or keep the London Symphony Orchestra from performing Tchaikovsky?
No. I find that most of my time spent listening to music is while dodging traffic or pumping out computer code. For some, it also may be during this thing called “exercise”. Not times when I can sit down and analyze a work of art. While I watch the Simpsons most days, I still find time to watch a good classic or epic movie. While I listen to the occasional single from a popular band while I work, I still sit down at home and play through a good album.
I don’t think the album format will disappear, it will just change context. Instead of listening to songs from certain albums while I fly down I-66 at 75mph, I’ll be hearing a collection of like-themed songs from my favorite artists. When I get home, I can listen to an artist’s full album.
