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Strange how corporations want then to fit the mould.
Appears that no one is allowed to resist change.
Brave new world...
Follow Ups:
If the middle classes continue to grow in numbers worldwide, it may be assumed that they will keep on buying music. If physical media were to become popular once again, we might have another yet environmental disaster on our hands.
Billions of new phones, computers, and listening devices are already destined to take their toll. Adding physical media to the mix again would become "The straw that broke the camel's back".
"If physical media were to become popular once again, we might have another yet environmental disaster on our hands."
With the progressivist mindset, the most harmless of entities become the most dire of problems.......
And as long as the problem is deemed dire, there is no need to prove that it's actually a problem.
And of course, the only real solution to the physical media problem is to ban its manufacture, purchase, and possession. With police confiscation of such products (and also the devices that play the physical media) whenever necessary.
This *hypothetical issue* has nothing to do with a progressivism. Rather, it has everything to do with numbers...*IF* billions more people were to demand their music on plastic or vinyl, there would be a problem. Most people living on earth right now can barely afford to buy second hand physical media, or even a simple radio for music playback purposes. If they were affluent enough to buy new stuff, and did do so, the "most harmless of entities" would not be so "harmless" any longer.
There are simply not enough resources to go around. Is it so hard to imagine what might happen if everyone on earth was able to do what we (or the Japanese) are doing?
We NEED a large pool of poor people to remain poor, so that we might maintain a high standard of living. We depend on it, and if they try to rise up to our level they would probably find themselves getting killed. If everyone on this earth were equal, we might all be living in tiny 8' X 10' cubicles equipped with tiny table radios - and we can't have that, now can we?
Edits: 09/18/14 09/19/14 09/19/14
Physical music playback media is the least of concerns in the scenario you describe. The bottom line is that there are simply inadequate resources on this planet to provide a "western" standard of living to all of its current inhabitants let alone future populations.
It might be assumed, of course, that demands for things like physical media and music playback systems would go hand-in-hand with demands for many other types of objects and amenities.But, suppose we were to provide every household on earth with nothing else besides a stereo playback system with physical media: A stack of CDs and records, disc players, amp and speakers. Furniture, lighting, and indoor climate control within a modest structure having solid walls and electricity. A power grid and access to it. All things considered, the environmental impact of this alone could be devastating.
It was not my wish to derail this thread, however. Central forum might be more appropriate.
Edits: 09/19/14
...communications and nergy and other infrastructure nec to run it all. Audio stuff not even on the radar. But yeah, let's not engage in threadjacking.
.
Living here in HK for the last three years and it is surprising to me to see the sheer number of vinyl and CD retailers. And not just some side street on the 10th floor (although there are plenty of those selling second hand LPs and CDs). Right in the heart of Central HK sits HMV that covers two entire floors and the top floor has a new HUGE vinyl section and Audiophile grade CD/SACDs etc important from Japan on various boutique remastering labels. A big couch is set up and you can buy you LP's, Record Cleaning machines, and all wood record storage racks not to mention record players (not great ones but still).
Across the water in Tsim Sha Tsui is another high rent area and HMV is there and selling vinyl in significant space - again along with the import CDs from Japan.
What is kind of starling to me about this is that both HK and Japan are SO tech savvy. Everyone is pounding away on their Samsung S5s and everyone has one of those Borg implants sticking out of their ears. Apartments are VERY small - I pay nearly $1800 a month for a 700 square foot apartment which is 1) very cheap for Hong Kong and 2) considered big for a family of four let alone 1. So why on earth would they be filling their space up with vinyl and CD? But they do.
The big Audio Note dealer in the heart of Wanchai doesn't even sell computer audio DAC. Although he has a lot of people trading them in for those stone age CD players (and a little extra stone age when you look at AN's NOS designs).
I don't think it can be explained away by saying it's retro - I don;t see a ton of other things people buy for retro. It's not like there are a bunch of old cars around or old phones or old cameras.
Perhaps it is the physicality - the actual ability to hold the thing in your hand - to open the package up and to read the contents or the artist's thank yous or even the perfume. I remember buying Madonna's Like a Prayer album and each one was doused with her perfume. You don't get that kinda thing from a download.
Perhaps there is a forced attentive factor with physical mediums that some respond to.
Hold your calls, please, we have a winner! Frankly, I am astonished at the popularity of downloads when you consider their *very* significant shortcomings:
1) You get nothing but a file. No artwork, no liner notes, *nothing* else.
2) Portability factor. It is so very easy to grab a CD, pop it into your car player, and/or head on over to a friend's house with a CD and then enjoy the playback there. Unless your friend AND your car are setup for file playback, you're SOL with a file.
3) You never own anything! That's right, when you purchase a download you are simply purchasing a "lease" on that file. You cannot re-sell it as you can a CD, SACD, DVD-Audio, etc. disc.
And yet, despite these very significant shortcomings, downloads usually cost as much or more than purchasing physical media. IMHO, the cost:benefit ratio is simply not there. I do have downloads, but rest assured that they will never comprise a significant percentage of my music library...
-RW-
big j.
"... only a very few individuals understand as yet that personal salvation is a contradiction in terms."
nt
C'mon man, you know better than that...
-RW-
Exactly what I was thinking...The LP now outsells the audio compact disc once again and it is rising each year in market share.
Honest amplification is better than excessive 2nd order distortion anytime.
"The LP now outsells the audio compact disc..."
You sure about that, Homes? Do you happen to have some honest figures that support this dubious claim? I'd be *mightily* surprised if LP sales amounted to even 10% of CD sales. Care to share with us the numbers that support your claim???
A few minutes later......
PS: The figures I found with a very cursory Google search showed (for 2013) LP sales of ~6 million units and CD sales at about 175 million units. This indicates that ~30 CDs are sold for every LP that is sold - LP sales equal about 3% of CD sales...
-RW-
Your statement is so wrong! LP sales represent 1 percent of the physical market. Sure LP sales are growing but it' s still just a niche market.
It's a bit odd the differences in these markets seems to surprise some, especially Japan.
You see the same thing elsewhere, why don't they bring back this or that, when anyone who is familiar knows the odds are enormously high that should they release top notch stuff it would be for the domestic market, especially first.
What they should be praised for is not becoming stupid in the head like eu and usa when it comes to speakers. They prefer large vol. systems/big woofers ... Tannoy, JBL, Altec, Sansui ...
If they were like us there would be no such thing as Tannoy Prestige speakers ... "modern" speakers sound like constipated junk no matter how many 10's of thousands they want for it. Anything less than 12" is just kiddin' especially when mated with low vol. box, and many are just that, even the moronic over the top internal bracing chews up vol.
Dodging bullets is the next best thing to not having to.
BJH proclaimed:> > "modern" speakers sound like constipated junk no matter how many 10's of thousands they want for it. < <
Pretty bold statement, son. Would you care to enlighten us on what are the really good speakers from those thrilling daze of yesteryear? And it is most interesting to me that speaker design and construction technology has, according to you, taken a marked step backwards in the past couple of decades. Can you back this up with even a shred of evidence or proof?
We all await with bated breath, the proof of speakers' untimely death...
-RW-
Edits: 09/18/14
You have to look at history. Japan in the 50's and 60's was still recovering from WWII. They drooled over the American GI's with their Macs and Marantz and big horn speakers. These items became a cult in japan particularly among the audiophiles and the audiophile wanna be's. they wanted these trappings of American manufacture but simply couldn't afford them.
They are essentially making up for lost time. The typical Japanese home is rather small and big Tannoys and Altecs and JBLs will overwhelm the rooms. You have to be considerably affluent to afford the space for such speakers and only a small percentage of Japanese can do so, although they seem to make headlines when they do.
The primary reason why the Japanese became converts to a 300b is that Japan after WWII had no phone system in real operation, The US Army came in and bought WE gear to replace the totally destroyed infrastructure in Japan. In the US WE was leased and never sold: after use the equipment had to be returned to WE. Not so in Japan: the 300B amps were dumped as Japan modernized and the local audiophiles snapped them up as being the only things they could afford (Macs and Marantz gear were relatively unaffordable for the typical Japanese.
The typical Japanese has a modest, to say the least, system. We tend to believe otherwise, but the average citizen is much like an American.
FWIW and YMMV
With most of the world abandoning physical media, a niche market has arisen for higher-quality CDs. Furthermore, because many of the licensing and copyrights are loosening or expiring, popular music titles are now being re-issued on supposedly higher-quality Redbook discs: BSCD2, HQCD, and SHM-CD. These are in addition to the gold CDs semi-popular here in the U.S.
The exciting thing is that these are indeed from pop, rock, dance, adult contemporary genres (as opposed to run-of-the-mill "audiophile" music). These include Sony Music Japan's back catalog, Warmer Music Japan, and even tiny labels such as Combat.
Go on over to our own Rocky Road forum, and see my posts about GTR (HQCD), Journey (BSCD2), and Testament* (SHM-CD). On Digital Drive, I mentioned Wham's excellent K2HD+CD, The Final . On my own Facebook, I've chronicled Metallica on SHM-CD.
Okay, so CDs don't have the large artwork as found on 12" vinyl. But CDs do take up less space, and are cleaner. We audiophiles are going to get our panties in a bunch, but many of these boutique CDs simply sound less distorted, inaccurate, and unlistenable versus their vinyl, cassette, and regular-issue CD counterparts.
The Audiophiles' DJ,
-Lummy The Loch Monster
* I recently received the SHM-CD of Testament's Practice What You Preach . One of these days, I'll have to blog about it.
Thanks.
PS: Check out AKB48 on youtube. Not great music but watching pretty Japanese girls dance and sing.... there are worse things to do with your time.
"The problem with quotes from the internet is that many of them are just made up."
-Abraham Lincoln
Edits: 09/17/14
When I was younger, I used to deliver the Hokubei Mainichi newspaper in and around San Francisco's Japantown. Even after the route(s) ended, I continued to frequent J-town. There, I started to see the posters and other mediums pertaining to AKB48. I was indeed impressive, to see 15 or so girls dressed alike, singing, dancing.
However, my wife likes the boy act, Kat-Tun, not the all-girl AKB48.
Strange how corporations want then to fit the mould.
Appears that no one is allowed to resist change.
Brave new world...
____
No the brave new world is not that corprations want all to fit their moulds - that is to be expected - hardly surprising.
What is pathetic is how willingly so many in the US and elsewhere are so ready to be moulded (I like British spellings, also).
What happened to "Question authority"? It has segued into worship authority. I fear the neighborhood indoctrination centers are responsible along with parents too lazy to take an interest in how their children were/are being programmed.
One wonders if Japanese schoolchildren are given introductory arts and music instruction? I mean real arts and not pop culture stuff the kids will get on their own?
I think Kandinsky one of the greatest 20th century painters. He could paint in any style but chose his style - he was not limited to his style. He could look forwards and backwards without effort due to knowing, intimately, how to paint. The experiments were in his head, what was committed to canvas was deliberate.
Trying to say the Japanese kids and hence adults make better decisions and are less influenced by foolishness because they are better educated. They spent their time in school learning about things, not having their self-esteem elevated and other nonsense. They are Kandinskys versus most US kids being Pollacks.
I have posted a bit on the Japanese Elementary SChool bands over on music. Google the Nakagurose Elementary School Band and check out their performance. A uniquely Japanese concert marching band, they play extremely well and with feeling and exhibit a lot of esprit.
And then remember, they are only an elementary school band: 7th graders at the most. Also I am told that these kids do not take any formal classes in music, meeting before and after school to practice and on weekends. They memorize their music and their level of competence , for me, is completely stunning. All this done voluntarily, too....
It used to be Japanese musicians had the technique but not the musicality. I believe these kids and other bands I have since listened to dispel that old adage. It is no wonder we see so any Oriental musicians in major orchestras in the West.
From an music and entertainment perspective, I think of Japan as the model of what America would have been with a far better mainstream media..... The media over there has never shielded its audiences from a wide range of music (like the American media prior to ~1968), and in contrast to the U.S., its standards in both music and audio were sustained, where they declined drastically in the U.S. over tha past 40 years.....
Maybe the biggest evidence of this is Tokyo's NHK Symphony Orchestra (link). Just go on YouTube and watch anything performed after the year 2000.... You'll think you've entered a time warp taking in America's great orchestras of the 1950s and 1960s. IMO, easily the best symphony orchestra in the world right now. (I've linked a lot of performances on Music Lane.)
I've always said that good music commands higher-quality audio playback. ..... And I've always contended that computer based audio has been a vastly inferior playback method compared to CD or LP ..... Hence this story does not surprise me at all. .... As long as there is a passion for music, the consumers will want to listen to it via the best means possible.
Excellent review! I will never stop buying CD/SACD(s) myself. Thanks! for sharing.
...This is what happens when you have been babysat for nigh on 70 years.
Smile
Sox
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