So, fast forward five years.
How do you want to enjoy your favorite band?
Do you want to go to the store on release day, buy a Coldplay album on vinyl, and find a code inside so you can download a digital copy?
Do you want to leave albums behind, and purchase a new Passion Pit single from iTunes whenever the band records a new song… assembling albums of your own invention from your favorites?
Do you want each act to have its own site, where you can listen to samples and decide whether to buy an annual subscription, which will give you access to all of their music?
I’m impressed with Sam Phillips new subscription approach. But I also want to hold a vinyl copy of her next record in my hand. And I don’t want record stores to disappear: I like browsing through used copies. There’s something exciting about browsing. I’ve made a lot of discoveries that way.
Here’s one thing that concerns me: I explore music with the help of the public library system. Every week I bring home five or six new albums to play on my commute from my Shoreline home to Seattle Pacific University and back. Will exploring music through the public library become obsolete?
Let’s imagine a way out of this present chaos of options. What do you see as an ideal resolution?
I simply want to keep buying “master” albums in CD quality. I’ve never bought a song from iTunes because they’re not CD quality. My entire CD collection is ripped to several iPods and computers, but the main stereo gets CDs.
I expect to keep buying albums. If a band or singer can’t put together 10 decent songs–or a solid EP, at least–they’re not worth my money.
There are a few bands that I will support via subscription, but not many.
Living where I have in the midwest and southwest, I’ve never had access to libraries with decent music collections or great record stores. I’ve relied on radio, NPR, friends, and other sources. I don’t see that changing.
I too, have avoided using iTunes unless the music simply isn’t available in any other format (which is in itself a disturbing trend). For example, I’m a U2 junkie, and iTunes offers a couple of live albums (Live in Paris 87 and Live in Milan 05) as audio downloads that are only available otherwise on DVD. So those are in my iPod now.
But otherwise, I want the physical CD with liner notes, etc. I know iTunes is going to start exploring the “digital LP” model now with accompanying digital booklets, etc, but it’s not the same as a physical copy.
And I really really hope record stores don’t go under. There’s a great indie store here in Colorado Springs that seems to be healthy, but I know most stores like this have closed their doors. That is a shame.
First, everyone who posts a comment for this one should probably include their age, as I believe different generations will have widely varying opinions. For example, I’m totally with Jon and Don on this (I continue, and want to continue, to buy albums on CD, being able to hold something physical, look at pictures and liner notes, etc.)…but I’m almost 50 years old. I’m guessing that anyone under 30(?) or under 25(?) might not value the “physical” as much as I do or people of my generation do.
(This makes me wonder…in the 80s, did the 50-year-old generation flock from vinyl to CD format as readily as I and my generation did?)
I’d prefer a physical album, vinyl or CD. It doesn’t matter which. This is primarily for sound quality reasons, although I’ll also vouch for the satisfying nature of lyrics printed on a piece of paper. And gatefold album covers, but that’s probably hoping for too much. And yes, I’m an album guy, not a song guy. I think something valuable is lost when the focus is on individual songs. It’s the difference between an op-ed piece in the newspaper and a novel.
I’m 54, so I officially qualify as an Old Fart. But I’ve weathered the transitions to new media all along (I can recall owning 78 RPM singles, and playing them on the hand-cranked grammophone; okay, I exaggerate slightly, but I do remember the 78 RPM singles.) Nevertheless, I love my iPod. I probably won’t support subscription-based services, available from artists’ websites. It’s too much to remember and track, and my feeble mind is already failing. I prefer one-stop shopping. Ideally I’d like to do it in a record store. iTunes will work in a pinch.
Rick’s point is well-taken. I worked in a Wherehouse records when CDs were 1st coming onto the market & many 50-year-olds were making the switch to digital. Many were skeptical, too, but most (it seemed) jumped at the chance to hear their favorite bands without pops & scratches. All the while lamenting the loss of LP covers.
Me? I gotta have something to open, hold, read – even if it’s microscopic. I have made purchases on iTunes, especially if the songs/album are not available elsewhere, & will continue to do so but it’s not my primary source of buying music at all and wont’ be in 5 years, if I can help it. I still buy vinyl occasionally. I have been buying fewer CDs in the last 5 years because I just wasn’t listening to everything I was buying as much as I would have liked. Plus my tastes changed. So I’ve made a strong effort to curb my impulse CD buying tendencies, focusing on my very favorite bands & very select new ones that I’ve been turned on to by trusted sources (thanks, Jeffrey, for turning me on to OTR about 5 years ago – I’m a true fan now). I’m buying less but I’m more choosy. I also find great new bands in brick & mortar record stores & I definitely do not want that to go away!
But it all comes down to convenience. I put what I want to hear on my iPod & go. That won’t change. The easier it is to take my music along with me, the better.
Rick, as far as I can recall, CDs didn’t really take off (or take over, at any rate) until the early ’90s. When I went to Bible school in ’87-’88, there was only one guy in the whole dorm who had a CD player; everybody else listened to tapes, and a few special people had turntables. I bought my first CD player (for $350 in ’88 dollars) within months of coming home, but it was common for a few years yet to see CDs packaged in long, tall boxes or in plastic cases that allowed them to be placed in bins that had been built for vinyl LPs; when some friends and I lived together in ’91-’92, I took these long, tall boxes and thumbtacked them to the ceiling in my bedroom. It wasn’t until a few years later that CDs no longer came with the extra packaging, and that the stores cleared out their LPs and put the CDs on regular shelves, just like cassettes.
Well, I’m 25, and I certainly value the ability to buy albums in vinyl — I love the feel, the sound quality, the awesome album covers. I really don’t want everything to go digital.
I’m nineteen and I don’t want everything to go digital (mp3/4 downloads etc.). Not so much for the purpose of sound quality. I am not that much of an audiophile to care. I have and will purchase songs from iTunes. But the reason I do not like the all download style is that it is not tangible. No matter how nifty the graphics on your digital download it is not the same to me as holding the liner notes from an album.
As a child of the ninety’s I see vinyl more as cool then a thing I would want to have all of my music on. Reasons being they are not as durable as a CD (correct me if I am wrong on that) and that it is more difficult to get them onto mp3, which is an irreversible trend.
So a physical, CD copy is still the way for me. Perhaps companies should just sell albums with a vinyl disc, CD and mp3 download code all bundled into one package.
I used to be a “I buy CDs because I need to hold them in my hand” kind of person. Within the last year, that’s changed. I have a child, and she and her stuff take up room in our house, too. It’s no longer reasonable to display/continue to cart around my 500+ CD collection.
I get almost all of my music digitally now. However, I flat-out refuse to pay much more than $5-7 for an album. (I still consume music in album-sized chunks.) I think it is foolish to pay the same price as a CD and get only mp3s. This is why I typically don’t buy albums from iTunes; I get them from emusic.com and Amazon MP3’s deals section.
If it’s an album I know I will love, or that I come to love, I’ll buy it on vinyl (especially if the vinyl comes with a digital download). Sometimes, I’ll even buy albums on vinyl that I already have purchased mp3s for. I justify the double-purchase-jeopardy by only getting albums that I love from bands that I support. I don’t buy many vinyl records, using them as a way to sort of curate my music collection for the future generation. The only time I have purchased CDs this year is if they’ve been cheaper than any mp3 options or with bonuses unavailable anywhere else (the Sufjan CD/DVD).