|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
71.136.70.155
In Reply to: you can thank the crappy digital format for that posted by akai m8 on March 28, 2007 at 15:50:40:
About 35% according to this RIAA chart. Music sales are down on digital because it's too easy to download from the web, CD's WAAAYYYY overpriced, and the overall quality of rock music sucks.
Follow Ups:
the United States isn't the world.These are U.S. sales.
Anecdotally, at least, SACD seems to be pretty strong outside of the U.S.
The important question isn't the trend; the important question is: at what levels can the sales of these formats still support manufacturers of equipment that plays the equipment back?
Given the huge "legacy base" of both LPs and CDs out there and given that both media are pretty durable, it would appear that a low level of current production and sales would be sufficient to support manufacturers of playback equipment for those media. There are certainly more people making turntables and tonearms than was the case 10 or 15 years ago.
Stats for final qtr '06"paid for" digital downloads are up 54%
CD sales are down 20%
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=CD+sales+down&fr=yfp-t-501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geu4tVpgtG.JQAd1dXNyoA?p=CD+sales+drop&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-501&x=wrt
CD sales have an even steeper drop because their sales were higher to begin with- they drop another 20-40% each year practically.
do a search in yahoo or google, entitled, "CD sales drop" or "CD sales down"- or just use links posted above
they are saying NOW that the standard CD 44/16 is dead meat
FWIW, I saw a Technics CD changer in the thrift store last week, for $15-
we're coming full circle again
180 gram vinyl sales, now exceed SACD and DVD-A disk sales
As I was reading the issue of Rolling Stone with Pink Floyd, I thought that once upon a time many bands worked on the album as a whole, a 'concept album' so to speak. The whole thing as a work of art. Seems like sometime from early 90s the majority of the rock artists became sort of commodity. LIke a cheap paperbacks. Paperback readers just consume them, thoughtlessly. So lots of half-baked rock musicians making mediocre music, 'just to keep new albums coming', with each album containing a couple of catchy tunes, and the rest is a filler. Naturally, as soon as consumers had a chance to download a few of those 'catchy tunes' and ignore the rest, they did just that. That was pretty much the end of 'rock album'. Not the end of music in whatever form (digital or analog). However rock albums is what made the majority of sales. To summarize, the music industry was after quick bucks, and ended up shooting itself in a foot.Personally, I'm not longer interested in any new rock artists. The latest band I have in my collection is Morphine Instead, I'm listening more and more classical music, and some jazz as well, but still mostly classical music. The albums are still put together rather well. My latest discovery: Tallis Scholars sing Josquin. I wish more people would realize there is still some real good music around and lots of great recordings to get.
at that time, the LP's were a real work of artgo back to the 70's
CSNY- 4 way street
Jethro Tull-aqualung
Pink Floyd-dark side-wish here-animals
Zeppelin IV (great at its time, but in retrospect full of dark inspiration)
Bad Co. debut
Boston debut
Foreigner debut
Edgar Winter-only at night/frankenstein
Black Sabbath-master of reality
Skynyrd-one more from road live
Frampton comes alive
carole king-tapestry
Neil Young- rust never sleeps, harvest
James Gang- live
McCartney/wings-over america 3 LPand the list goes on and on- the thing is, these all came out within a few years of each other- we were literally swimming in rock talent.
this isn't even mentioning the 60's Beatles, Stones, Airplane, Hendrix, Doors stuff
so if somebody has this vintage analog vinyl/tape collection- what incentive is there, to go out and buy it all again on CD ?
it would cost me $50,000 at least, to replace my analog collection- if I could even FIND it in CD- and the sound would be INFERIOR in CD
44/16 CD is low rez digital, believe it or not. MP3 is like listening to an AM radio with the bass turned down. To be anywhere near to even mid-fi analog, digital needs SACD DSD 192/24 rez. Then again, I'm a child of the 70's receiver wars. If we had a record or receiver back then, that sounded like a 44/16 CD or MP3, it would be considered junk. But we had the analog formats to compare it to as a benchmark. We knew what good sound was, and we took it for granted.
afdg
music from that period. You've begun with a wonderful choice....lots more good stuff ahead.
I'd disagree with your wholesale dismissal of rock, however.
Radiohead, Oasis, and Wilco are terrific bands with much good music. If you like to hear music which stretches the genre to the breaking point and is brilliantly innovative, I'd include Helmet and Butthole Surfers---but be prepared for something very different and new.
My first wife sang and recorded with an early music group hence my immersion and life-long affection (for the music!).
I'd recommend as absolutely essential: Tallis Scholars, Brumel's "Missa Et ecce terraae motus;" Tallis, "Obrecht "Missa maria Zart;" Schola Discantus, "Ockeghem "Missa De plus en plus;" Hilliard Ensemble, Josquin "Motets & Chansons."
> I'd disagree with your wholesale dismissal of rock, however.Yes, there must be some real good contemporary rock bands. However figuring out what's good and what's not is like trying to find a golden nugget or a diamond in a mine. I guess I just don't have enough energy for that. Nevertheless I'll be checking out every one you've mentioned. I did hear of Butthole Surfers and Wilco. I also heard Nick Cave is pretty good, so I'll be checking that as well. Regards,
If you're going to investigate Nick Cave you should be able to discern that these 'there is no good music these days' arguments is utter nonsense. His Best Of is a great place to start.Then there's Tom Waits. Wilco circa Being There. The records Johnny Cash has made with Rick Rubin. The past 3 or so Bob Dylan albums. Beck records like Mutations and Sea Change. The White Stripes, especially the last record. I could go on, but the exercise is far more tired than the argument that leads to it in the first place. Me, I'm not much on Helmet, and the Butt Surfs' catalog must be carefully mined to find the odd gem amongst much experimental & often nonsensical material, but then I'd recommend the first Muffs album, Big Sandy & the Fly-Rite Boys, the Big Star live album Columbia, maybe the first Strokes album, the Electric Six, Little Killers, and, if you can tolerate rap, Eminem, with the greatest hits album probably being the best bet.
I'm glad that at least you're willing to not do the ostrich thing & may actually even listen to something that doesn't fall under the loose confines of what constitutes good rock music, as brought to us by the general outline of a Rolling Stone-ish guided worldview on rock music.
...for several years for the same reason. It could be argued the reason CD sales were healthy to begin with, was because people with large vinyl collections replaced them with CD's. Once we acquired music that will "last forever", combined with the dearth of decent new artists, there was no reason to buy many CD's.
He wont buy these new CDs I am sure.. We wont either.
exactly...in my case, I bought a CD player and Technics rack system in 1986, and (2) CD's- Aerosmith and Rolling Stones.
I listened to them, and was not impressed !
My vinyl and analog tape sounded better ! For the next 10 years, I only had those 2 CD's.
What most don't realize is this- if someone already had a mid-fi to high-end analog system, digital CD was a step DOWN in music quality, to them. CD's are not as enjoyable to listen to, as analog is, on a good system.
CD's worked for people who had crap all-in-one AM/FM/phono/8-track systems, and the phono played too fast, and the 8-track ate tapes and needed a belt.
If one had a dedicated Pioneer, Technics, Sony, Sansui, Kenwood, etc. system, with separates, they knew that CD was no big deal- less background noise, but loss of soundstage and depth with a CD.
CD basically takes music, breaks it into digital bits, then reassembles it with a D/A converter- but what it reassembles it to, is not what the master tape had- or what a vinyl record or tape has.
was over 75% of the music marketplace when cd was introduced. killing the lp was already in the works before cd came along. the industry got two for one....excuse me, one for two
> CD basically takes music, breaks it into digital bits, then > reassembles it with a D/A converter- but what it reassembles it to, is > not what the master tape had- or what a vinyl record or tape has.You should keep in mind that in most of the cases the 'master tape' is a digital tape, albeit at a higher resolution than the Red Book format.
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: