p2pnet - rss feed: ‘Product’ versus ‘music’
p2p news view / p2pnet: Organized Music members Sony BMG, Vivendi Universal, EMI and Warner Music are steadily losing ground on all fronts as they try to gain control of how, and by whom, music is distributed online.
Credibility? They’ve never had any.
Below, in a comment post to Big Music mp3 price fixing, a p2pnet reader remembers the good old days »»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
I remember buying records when they were vinyl. I loved nothing better than to set them up and listen to them on a good stereo and plow through the artwork.
There was something magical in that sense of it belonged to you.
I’d take off the wrapping, carefully slide it out of the wrapper, lay it on the turntable, clean it, and then carefully adjust the controls while it started playing, and then lay back with that artwork and just enjoy the magic.
That’s no longer part of the listening experience. The magic is gone. So is the artwork.
With the mp3, the ambience isn’t there and I can’t hear the stick hit the cymbol before it rings. Nor can I hear the guitar pick hit the string the moment before the string rings. What’s worse, the price for this junk has gone up and I can’t legally put it on the reel to reel to enjoy as a long playing tape that doesn’t need to be fooled with for a long time.
Mp3’s don’t do it for that sort of equipment. You always hear what’s missing and notice it’s missing. That’s not quality. Nor is it worth a dollar for that sort of sub-par product, even if the artists were as good as they were then (and they’re not for the most part).
I see nothing desirable in the music today. Not from the subject range, not from the artists, not from the quality. Worse, the majority of the music I see today that I might be interested in, I already have. I don’t need to buy Greatest Hits because I have the originals. Those originals are not hampered with any sort of anticopy. If I want a cassette, ok, if I want a CD, that’s ok too.
No hassles and no issues in how I want to use them.
Someone in the cartels has forgotten that how the buyer wants to use the music is everything. Without that, there isn’t much need in buying a rental limited edition that isn’t worth the money to begin with.
But let’s really make it good and give out free rootkits and spyware that you can’t cancel or refuse. Yeap, sounds like a real bargain to me.
December 26th, 2005 at 5:51 pm
The magic is gone because you became older and I am sure you do not have the same excitement about many other things the same way you had when you were a kid.
MP3 are not created for hi-fi equipment. They are for MP3 players or computers with cheap speakers. You have to know the difference. You do not wear sleepers outside on a snow day, right? Get some info before you complain about those things.
You want better quality buy a CD!
The artists were good in the past? No they do not. They are exactly the same today as they were in the past. It’s just many more of them now, so it’s harder to find something you like. And, of course, most of them are not good because they are never went to a music school, music college and never study composition on professional level. Even if some of them went to school most likely they are studied performance art and not the art of composition. As a result of it we get perfectly performed musical crap which most people mistaken for real art.
And yes, DRM sucks!
ViC Phoenix
December 26th, 2005 at 8:39 pm
Go and check out the charts some time for 10,20,30 years ago. Yup 90% of everything has always been crap. But to say that there’s no good music being made now is just to say you’re not putting the same effort in to finding it that you did then.
And as for Vinyl vs CD vs MP3. Well, CD was a huge advance. And if you take care, MP3s can be almost the same. So close that you usually can’t hear the difference. But if what you’re judging is the low quality crippled downloads from the commercial sites or the low quality codec that ships with the commercial music players then you’re right. Those MP3s aren’t worth the bandwidth.
December 26th, 2005 at 11:31 pm
“That’s no longer part of the listening experience. The magic is gone.”
It was chased out by payola. At radio, press, and elsewhere.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
December 27th, 2005 at 2:58 pm
maybe its just that your hearing aint as good as it was,you must have been listening to quality artists such as “Mr Blobby” or even “Joe Dolci” sing “shutupa ya face”.Yes there are still poor if not even terrible music now “Crazy frog” comes to mind but there are also top class artists such as “Coldplay”
I do accept that the excitement of a new release by a favoured artist doesn’t have me running around like a headless chicken trying to find it.but like you i have gotten older and slower and yet i still found the time to go get the “Rolling Stones” latest effort.
But what do you expect when all the music industry cares about is how much money they can screw us out of
December 27th, 2005 at 5:42 pm
I can’t believe that I am the only one that agrees with you in the decline in quality of musicians. Before, you could buy an album and love every single track to it (exmple - David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust) How many albums today can you listen and enjoy every track? You are lucky if there is one, maybe two tracks that are enjoyable.
Also looking at the Billboard top charts from the 60’s and 70’s, you can see a wide variety of music. The charts today show that most listeners are sheep and follow the prepackaged no talent generic garbage.
January 4th, 2006 at 5:07 pm
Right on. I couldn’t have said it better myself. You speak for many.