Music is ALIVE!! Or is it?

Roger Daltrey said that “CDs have destroyed the music business and that vinyl sounds better”. After hearing Roger say this on television I got to thinking that although there are clearly other factors that deserve consideration in respect of the affect CDs have had on the music industry, maybe he’s got a point.

I have been buying CDs ever since they became available and at that time I remember thinking that this was definitely the future; they are cleaner/sharper sounding, more convenient, last forever etc. or so I was led to believe…It was a no-brainer. However, I recently acquired a Lin Sondek (LP12) turntable and with the aid of a well-to-do friend put together a relatively high-end bespoke Hi-Fi system so I could re-visit and hopefully enjoy that ‘vinyl experience’ once again.

Following this I set about trying to make contact with some of my old LPs. Unfortunately due to the interim years and fluctuating storage conditions they were not in the best of health. Notwithstanding, one or two did stand up to scrutiny and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with how good they sounded, this unfortunately gave me further impetus.

I then set off to see if I could buy some of the old stuff I used to have, and for me, here started the whole ‘vinyl experience’. To start with, when you walk into the shop you are confronted with an altogether different look/feel, obviously vinyl takes up more space but more importantly when you browse through a stack of vinyl LPs it just seems more natural, and easier to look at. To my surprise there was a ‘new’ section, I immediately turned to the shopkeeper “fuck me! NEW, when did this happen”? He replied that it had never gone away sir.

Anyway, I ended up buying David Gilmour’s new album ‘On an Island’ and a couple of albums that I already had on CD. The Gilmour in particular had a real feel of quality about it, thick cardboard construction foldout with a massive poster tucked in one side and a heavy duty 180g vinyl LP in the other. You really felt you’d bought something special with your money. Right from the moment you leave the shop the vinyl experience continued because you know you have to take care of the albums you’ve bought, this forms a certain bond/relationship as it were with the product as apposed to a CD which you can just throw in the back of the car and forget about it, you know what I mean.

On returning home I could hardly contain myself. The Gilmour sounded really good; I’m tempted to say amazing. If I had to choose between the LP and the CD, I don’t know. I would say that if I had to listen to music all day long the vinyl would have the edge because it’s warmer and more pleasant to the ear. In saying that, when I tried to directly compare, switching between the two formats the LPs, to my astonishment sounded much better. The CDs sounded thin and unsatisfying is the best way I can describe it.

I suppose the bottom-line is, CDs will always sound better on poor quality systems, which unfortunately is what most people have and as I’ve said they are more convenient. Size and convenience is a key factor when you consider that houses are getting smaller, so small in fact that they reckon in years to come they will be building houses with no toilets and we will all have to get in our cars and travel out to ‘World of Shit’.

This, uncomfortable segue leads me onto Daltrey’s main contention, that CDs have “destroyed the music business”. Of course at the time CD’s were first on sale it was not possible to duplicate CDs without a warehouse full of equipment. Now all it takes is a cheap computer with a CD writer, easy. It was possible however to record onto cassette which was the method of choice during the reign of LP’s. Cassette tape was always considered an inferior recording compared to an original LP or CD.

Because of the poor method of copying I nearly always ended up buying two or three legitimate copies of the same album. If you copied a friend’s album and liked it, in the end after the tape wears out you would just go and buy it anyway. Surely then it could be argued that the problem is the method and ease in which you can copy music rather than the medium itself, I suppose the two go hand in hand.

In the early years this ability to make an exact copy of any album was not envisaged by the powers that be. The major record companies have always been very uncomfortable with people being able to copy music, be it cassette or anything else. Because they feel it affects sales, hence copyright laws. The majors see the real threat in MP3 and the Internet. The free availability of music over the web via p2p Napster etc. has changed people’s attitude in that they expect music to be free, especially on the net. Look at Myspace, yes a wonderful way of direct marketing for free, but look at the consequences. It is a fact; music is very difficult to sell here on Myspace and perhaps it’s because it still perpetuates this idea that music is somehow free.

On one hand, yes it’s wonderful to be able to get yourself out there on the world stage but at the same time you have to shoot yourself in the foot by giving away what you’ve worked for! This makes life very difficult for any artist, let alone unknown artists who have spent great deals of money on recording an album in the first place.

It also seems to me that many of the major acts do not really bother with Myspace simply because they don’t need to be on it in first place and besides they already have mainstream worldwide distribution in place. Well, they do bother but in a very slippery way. Usually they are not giving you anything new and in the case of David Gilmour up to very recently he was only allowing just one track from his new album here on Myspace.

This tells us something. Maybe too much initial Myspace exposure leads to reduced sales? I mean if you have to give away half of your album in order to promote yourself why would this then induce anyone to buy it? Myspace is not quite the level playing field you might think it is. Already established acts will always have the upper hand.

Interestingly the Arctic Monkeys were originally purported to have gained all their initial exposure and indeed owe their success to Myspace. This is denied by the Arctic Monkeys who as I understand it claim that there were other more significant factors. Well of course! I would imagine it has something to do with being signed to a major and thereby getting almost ad finitum radio play and their product appearing in Tesco and Sainsbury’s?

I think the reason why Roger claims that CD’s have destroyed the music business is because CDs and the digitization of music have caused the music market to be flooded with product. Look at Myspace, there are two million plus musicians/bands on here trying to sell their stuff. The independent sector must have a dramatic affect on the mainstream. Whilst we all say that this is probably a good thing, the other side of the coin is that the money is then spread to thinly and thereby reducing the quality of music overall. I mean bands are no longer given carte blanche in an expensive recording studio as they were in Roger’s day are they, unless of course you’re backed by the Sultan of Brunei! Yes, it is possible to record an album in your bedroom, but you cannot compete with recording in a proper studio surrounded by audio engineers and producers, and this costs!

If you ask me the rot started with Punk. The reason why the majors latched onto that was that it was cheap to record! You did not have to be Alphonse Mouzon to play the stuff! Another point to ponder is that the Roger’s of this world keep flooding the market with re-releases, box sets and special anniversary editions. Pink Floyd have just released a 40th anniversary edition Piper at the Gates of Dawn box set and the very first Amazon review says, and I quote; Another anniversary of another classic album and once again, a record company decides that it is yet another opportunity to fleece the public. The major companies have huge back catalogues to sell, they leave literally no stone unturned when comes to marketing their products. Just the other day, I wandered aimlessly into a major shop retailer and discovered that they were giving away the new Jamiroquai album with every Hewlett Packard printer. Try getting that sort of deal as an independent. While larger record companies with bigger budgets may rely more on traditional marketing (videos/TV, print advertising, radio promotion, product tie-ups, cross-marketing), smaller independents must rely on continuous touring and online tools to get the most out of their tiny marketing and promotion budgets. It is still a risky business as less than 10% of all releases are profitable and less than 1% ever sell more than 10,000 units.

The internet still only accounts for 10% of worldwide CD sales. Clearly the majors are struggling but I still think that mainstream distribution is the best way forward. FACT; with non mainstream minority interest music you need to expose your product to millions of people. If that’s true for Pop music it’s doubly true for non commercial stuff. Take this relatively new phenomenon the X-Factor. The object is to make these people as famous as possible before they start recording, put simply it’s limiting the risk. This is not being done through the Internet, no it’s the television.

Let’s take Stings new Lute album as a case in point;

I think it’s fair to say that any Lute album would be regarded as a minority interest. Did Sting choose to promote this album online? No he did not. It may be online but his main objective over a number of weeks was to get as many people as possible to hear about it via traditional means, TV, radio interviews newspapers etc. He was all over the place! Of course, being a multi-millionaire helps.

I rest my case, for now…..

Higgs Boson