So just where is the recording industry heading? Guesses, anyone?

[Peter Tregear]

I wonder what is the sense among our community of what the immediate future will be for music recordings.

Norman Lebrecht's pronouncements aside, it seems that for commercial music in particular, announcements of the death of the CD have been exaggerated.

One recent report in Australia claimed that "aside from people actually wanting to buy the latest releases of the likes of AC/DC or Pink or the master recycler Andre Rieu, the global financial meltdown meant instead of people lashing out and buying big ticket items, the $20 CD was seen as good value"... That is, the economic downturn is actually good for the recording business, particularly if you are still trying to sell physical product, as opposed to just downloads.

But the nigh ubiquitousness of iPods and similar mp3-playing devices among the younger generations in particular can only mean that the gradual ascendency of music downloads is not, ultimately, likely to be threatened.

Or will we always want our prized music to have a physical embodiment?

[Joel Carnegie]

Oh don't you mean Andrew?? He is a stunner! Pity you can't hear him, although its what the masses want - so is it just fantastic marketing? There was a great article about the concert in The Age recently in the 'culture vulture' section entitled "Waltzing in Schmaltz" - Check it out!!

[Louise]

In our household of four musicians, a chronological inventory of recorded music starts with a battered pile of inherited 78s from the 1930s and ends with a modest 1000 mp3s on a 2007 iPod, with every imaginable format in between, born of advances in technology and driven by the demands of affordability, storage space, portability and the dictates of fashion. Using those criteria, the mp3 wins over the CD. and yet, for me the lure of the tangible is still strong. The aesthetic pleasure of handling a beautifully presented product with good design, artwork, sleeve notes.....mmm...
.
But the potential demise of the CD creates an interesting scenario. Without a physical product, we lose the attraction/distraction and camouflage of tactile packaging, leaving just the music and perhaps a screen image - not unlike the uniformly drab, utilitarian brown paper sleeves of the 78s impartially housing both treasures - such as Cortot's Chopin - and some complete disasters as well.

A quick chat with the nearest teenager reminds me that mp3s are cheap and instantly purchased; you can buy just the tracks you want ( what? no new discoveries?!), and play the entire contents of the iPod through the car music system. Aesthetic considerations? Not bothered. The tangible, the real, the genuine ? Too much fuss.

So there it is, we cling to the familiar, to what we know best. A chance visit to an Oxfam Books and Music shop in London revealed a veritable graveyard of vinyl LPs of startling scope and quality. There I came face to face with Volume 6 of the set of Brendel's recordings of Beethoven Piano Music (complete). A nugget of pre-loved musical and recording history.... now who could resist that?!

[Zubb]

The record industry is dead. But the music industry is in better shape than ever.

I think the record industry has been dead since about 2004 or 2005 - that's just an economic consideration: you can't sell a product for £15 if the rest of the world is downloading it for free.

The music has never been the product - it's the experience that people buy. That's why Louise is so moved by coming across the Volume 6 of Brendel's Beethoven! - the experience of the music and the packaging is organically connected.

But a teenager who is into Beethoven (or indeed Brendel) would not have that emotional connection with the box. They'd still appreciate the recording just as much, but for them, the connection... the thrill, would be not be so strong with the packaging. I'd even go so far to suggest that that is a 'purer' way of enjoying the music (not 'better', just 'purer' - more direct).

That doesn't in any way mean the engagement with the music is less intense. If anything it has the potential to be more so.

Plus, there will always be space for CDs or other physical products as mementos and gifts (how about a beautifully manufactured download voucher? Or a mini music brochure which is given to you at the end of a concert as you download an mp3 to your phone from the concert hall shop's bluetooth broadcast unit? - there's an idea!).

It's just a question of finding different manifestations of the experience of appreciating music. People who will win in the new music industry will do just that.

People who bang on about trying to give the CD a new lease of life, or take advantage of some temporary pause in the decline of CDs, just don't see the bigger picture!!

Z

[Louise]

Interesting thoughts, Zubb, especially re bluetoothing....



And here's an interesting way of funding a pop recording - via Bandstocks.com, where members of the public invest in advance in an artist’s forthcoming album in return for - a download, plus various other privileges. Can we foresee a time when classical artists will also be seen as an investment opportunity.... MusStocks.com , perhaps..

http://www.bandstocks.com/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/dec/11/patrick-wolf-album-shares



The bluetoothing idea reminds me of the band that sold its single in 2007 via a text message costing £1.50, whereupon a code was received to download the song on the computer....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6248535.stm

Is there a classical equivalent?



Thinking of the cost of making a recording, there's the instantly available CD, a live recording made during a concert in 2006 - Sir John Eliot Gardiner claims a first here - surely much easier and quicker with a download, which I could order through a website... or a text message...and I'll burn my own CD if I must...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/feb/07/arts.artsnews1


All food for thought. Perhaps a taste of things to come? :)

[sam saunders]

Yes, I think that CDs will stay for similar reasons that books will endure beyond the E -book, whatever those things are called! Know many folks who still collect CDs even if they download as well. Re.books, I think that there is a connexion made with the physical object that mnemonically has all sorts of gains, let alone emotional associations. I personally recall pages of a book, and which CD a special recording is on. I am thinking that there is something diminishing about having thousands of books on a computer or thousands of tunes on an iPod without having the real thing. We could be totally itinerant and have no possessions at all save a moblie phone, but, I just put out the idea, where/how would we learn to value anything? I`d really like to hear anyone`s thoughts on this.....Thanks,Best Wishes to all,sam

[Zubb]

Sam, I think you're both right and wrong.

There is no question for me that we sometimes have special relationships with physical books or CDs, but I find it's the exception not the rule.

At the same time, I find there's so much music to enjoy, that I much prefer having the ability to listen to things cheaply, easily and digitally. If a piece become very special to me, I might eventually seek out a physical copy, perhaps as a memento, or as a gift for a friend, or as a souvenir if I buy it after a live concert.

I sold all my CDs a couple of years ago, and keep all my music digital now, listening to it either on my MP3 player or on the computer. But I still buy one or two CDs a year, that are special to me for other reasons. My CD collectoin is between 20 and 30 discs. Generally these are special discs with nice covers or special packaging. I enjoy them for what they are, as well as the music on them. For the discs I had only for the music, I don't need them any more.

I'm happy with my 20 or 30 discs. I'm sure I'll do the same when books are finally digital too... I'll read many of them electronically (imagine the kind of stuff you buy at an airport before a flight - I'd so much prefer them to be digital!), but for special folios, nicely produced memento hardbacks, christmas gifts etc etc - there'll always be space on my bookshelf!

thoughts?

-Zubb

[Peter Tregear]

Here's the latest from the NY Times---it would not be a New Year without at least one major public pronouncement of doom and gloom in the recording industry!

Certainly, if the statistics are to believed, sales of CDs are in significant, and presumably irreversable decline.

[Zubb]

in a recession....... which will suffer more, a $25 CD or a $7 album download? i think I know the answer!!!

[sam saunders]

All good points....... I am not sure if I can get the baroque music stuff I want as downloads..Anyone tell me? I also wonder whether there`s a different uptake of CDs depending on the genre? Or would this idea simply reflect the general age range of the listeners? Personally I just love to HAVE the CD!!!!!

Has anyone any thoughts on whether there are parallels with general social trends? I haven`t thought this through, i just think that these sorts of things usually tie in with some other group phenomena. Society is often portrayed as shallow,"have it and throw it away". Do we value things less when they are cheap or free or plentiful?
Any thoughts?

[Martin Le Poidevin]

It's the old story of people not liking change. Am I right in remembering that when LPs gave way to CDs there was a lot of banter over which was better? Much as now there is over the quality of MP3s, and whether you can caress an MP3 file or not.

I've just done a story about the Berlin Phil delivering its concerts via online video. 9.90 euros per gig. They're not the first, and won't be the last (Bayreuth did it last year, as did the Opera House).

I reckon the sensible thing to do is to spend time making sure my PC and its equipment is up to the job rather than worrying about the decline of CDs.

[Zubb]

yes totally. people so often hate change. but when it finally comes, they usually - reluctantly - embrace it when it seems that everyone else is!

i think that webcasting concerts will become the norm, like orchestras will automatically have a webcast channel that relays concerts to subscribers. or something.

martin, where can i read what you wrote about the berlin phil?

regards,
zubb

[Martin Le Poidevin]

Zubb said:

martin, where can i read what you wrote about the berlin phil?

regards,
zubb

www.classicalmusictoday.co.uk. Not as detailed as I'd like, but it gives the basic facts.

You'll see that there's also a story about Part's new symph being available online as a score, BEFORE the first performance.

BTW Rattle agrees with you - his press release (which I've only just read) says, among other things: "We’ve all been thinking over these last years: How will people want to receive art in their own houses? And we more and more thought that it was people just expecting this to be there – like water."