Lets talk about Music

kennedy

kennedy

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With all due respect to the record stores and hipsters alike, iTunes is a hell of a lot easier and had a much wider selection than any record store I've ever seen.
 
Re: Kenmore Sq

kennedy said:
With all due respect to the record stores and hipsters alike, iTunes is a hell of a lot easier and had a much wider selection than any record store I've ever seen.
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DRM = yuck. Go with Amazon!
 
Re: Kenmore Sq

1. iTunes is almost entirely DRM-free, and uses encoding equal to or above Amazon MP3. There's hardly a difference, except...

2. ...I use Amazon MP3 on occasion, because of their album deals. Oftentimes, Amazon will have a better deal when buying the entire album.

3. Record stores can still work, they just need to evolve their sales model (like all businesses do).
 
Re: Kenmore Sq

What sales model would make record stores work?
 
Re: Kenmore Sq

I always wished I could listen to the songs before I bought it. Also I am moving these posts to a new thread.
 
Since the music business is basically on the honor system now, I think going forward music will have to revert back to what it used to be. More emphasis on live performances, less emphasis on reord sales. And thats bad for the music bussinesses wallets, but probably good for the listeners' ears.
 
You'd think with all this i-tune, etc. stuff, someone would market an inexpensive tube pre-amp to breath some life into these dessicated downloads. Call it "The Humidor".
 
I'm old school. I miss the totemic quality of vinyl, and the ritual of using a turntable. I miss album art, and gate-fold sleeves, and the slightly musty smell of cardboard.

A sold a ton of vinyl before college, half a lifetime ago. The money helped with books, and the bar bill, but I'll never replace the original pressings of Land Speed Record and Closer.

There's more to music than what you hear.

tobyjug said:
You'd think with all this i-tune, etc. stuff, someone would market an inexpensive tube pre-amp to breath some life into these dessicated downloads.
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Something like this, Toby?

I saw this model in Playboy with an iPod dock about a year ago. "Daddy, I want it!"
 
It's amazing how much audio resolution is lost in digital compression. You might not hear it over your iPod, but I've listened to two versions of the same song from astounding speaker systems - one compressed and one from the vinyl - and the difference always blows my mind. Our music has been physically dumbed down because we demand the ability to take it with us, as we walk, zombie-like, removed from the ambient noise our surroundings.
 
Agreed! Plus anything recorded pre-1970 was probably mixed in mono, and later stereo remixes, even on vinyl, are somewhat bogus and have a sound that is perhaps not what the artist intended. And then that becomes your starting point for the compressed stuff!

Vinyl on old McIntosh is great!
 
Each artist is suited to his respective technology.
 
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Interesting stuff!

I admit that solid state amps might be better for bass. Probably didn't matter much when everyone used flatwounds. (Still have some on the EB 2) Probably still doesn't matter much anymore because nowadays you likely just end up playing thru the house system. Guess it saves on the backache.
 
I don't know much about tubes and amps, but I do know that getting really high quality sound out of an iPod is possible, but expensive. File formats are always improving, as are compression technologies - eventually, digital sound will equal, and without a doubt, exceed analog sound.

There's truth to the idea that there's more to music than what you hear. That's why record stores need to cater to this aspect. Hire acoustics experts as well as music junkies. Sell rare album cover prints. Hold live performances of rising bands in-store. And so on.
 
Kennedy I can honestly say that you don't know anything about what you are talking about. Digital as one advantage to analog, convenience. Hang out with some audiophiles some time and it will open your mind. Or don't, cuz you will never listen to your iPod again.
 
Luddites!

Van, are you really going to deny that superior sound is simply impossible out of small, portable devices? Not at the moment, no. But I've got no doubt in my mind that it won't take long for the folks at various acoustic technology companies to reproduce awesome sound in a digital format. That's where the money's at, anyhow.

By the way, I don't own an iPod. Got stolen. So I'm limited to the CD-Rs in the six-disc of my trunk. I've listened to music out of sound systems that people spent tens of thousands of dollars putting in, but at the same time, the source was a computer. So I guess it doesn't count, because it was digital music.
 
kennedy said:
Van, are you really going to deny that superior sound is simply impossible out of small, portable devices? Not at the moment, no. But I've got no doubt in my mind that it won't take long for the folks at various acoustic technology companies to reproduce awesome sound in a digital format. That's where the money's at, anyhow.
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Yes I will simply due to the very nature of how sound works. With digital all you have are 1s and 0s but with analog you have the full spectrum of sound to work with. Keep in mind that MP3s work by subtracting sounds that are, arguably, not perceivable by the human ear. You can't tell me that digital is better when it is literally less sound than analog.
 
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