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Doom & gloom

I was reading the post about the death of CD and it got me thinking.
Most of the people I know rely on ripping music off the internet. Nobody really bothers with a hard copy since the advent of the MP3 player or the i pod. This means that most people's music collection's lifespan is equivalent to that of their computer's hard drive. The convenience of physical format free music storage dicourages permanent archiving.
Music is becoming a disposable commodity. People lose their recordings when their computer goes blip and just start ripping again. As a result, the musical content of their hard drive is in constant evolution. Songs have a frequent habit of simply dissapearing (this may sound daft but I have observed the phenomenon on a regular basis amoung friends & colleagues - even those who have not suffered hard drive catastrophies).
You can still play your grand-dad's 78's, your dad's records & your son's CD's. Forgetting actual sound quality for a moment,what are folk going to be listening to in 30 years time and, more importantly, do they even care? Is there going to be a format capable of transcending generations in the future ? Is anyone ever again going to get so excited about a piece of music that he will actually want to pay real money for the priviledge of being to hear it at will? Even if they do, how are they going to keep it ?

Good greif, it must be monday.


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Topic - Doom & gloom - rocky raccoon 22:11:00 02/11/07 (14)


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