As the great John Miles once wrote "Music was my first love, and it will be my last".
My twitter feed today is full of people commenting on the sad likely demise of the HMV chain of music stores. Yes I do think it's sad regardless of my views on the company's prices! It's sad for the employees but it is also sad for the fan of that fast disappearing medium - the CD.
I will not buy downloads as it stands at the moment. People look at me like ive grown a second head when I say I don't have itunes installed on my computer. I hope this blog explains my reasons behind it.
1. Pricing
For this i am using the new "Les Miserables - Highlights From The Motion Picture Soundtrack" release as an example.
iTunes (i am informed) is charging £8.99 for the 'album'. Amazon are charging £9.00 for the CD. That's only 1p less for the 'convenience' of a download?
2. Quality
An average mp3 is 3-4mb in size. This is horribly compressed from the approx 30mb size of a file in a lossless format. This may sound fine for pop music on a ipod with tiny little in-ear headphones, but try playing an acoustic based song via a decent quality hifi.... the sound quality is awful when compared to the equivalent CD. Artists pay for producers and studio time to make their music sound the best it possibly can, so why should we listen to it in the poorest quality possible? Surely there is no point in having a producer or a xx track studio? Surely we want to hear it as the artist intended? Until lossless downloads are standard (and reasonably priced), this is a major sticking point for me!
3. Global Rights
I like Country Music! There! I've said it! For those of you who are still reading after that announcement, I will explain why that is relevant.
I live in the UK. One of the top country artists at the moment is Jason Aldean and his latest album is called "Night Train". I can buy (and have done) "Night Train" from Amazon UK for £11.77 with free delivery. Now, just say I had an ipod and wanted to listen to it on the train. With the archaic laws in the UK, I believe it is still technically illegal to convert this CD to mp3/m4a as you buy the rights to the album in the format it was purchased in (this was being reviewed so apologies if it has now been abolished). So assuming this law still stands, I would have to pay again to buy it in mp3/m4a format.
However, here we hit a problem. iTunes does not have the album in the UK store. Nor does Amazon offer a download. This is apparently due to 'global rights issues'. If you change iTunes to the US store, its there for download but your Apple id is only valid in the country it was set up. To buy the download, I have to paypal the money to someone who lives in the States, get them to download it and email me the files.....
So although I can buy the CD (totally legally via import), I cannot buy the download due to 'rights issues'. As a normal person on the street, I don't see how it can be different whichever format you wish to buy it in. I thought the record industries wanted us to go digital? It can't be that it is due a UK release as his music has never been pushed in this country.
Are the record industry telling me I can only buy the music they want me to hear in the UK? Whatever happened to freedom of choice?
4. Different Mixes For Different Countries.
A lot of Country artists albums are remixed for the UK release. This is because "the UK doesn't like country music" so the record company removes all traces of fiddles/steel guitars from the album, even adding dance beats in the case of Shania Twain. Shania's UP was released with 3 different mixes - a country one for the US, a pop one for the UK and also a 'world music' version. If there were no CDs and only downloads, with the rights issues as they stand, I would only be able to buy the pop version because I live in the UK. I like the country version but that would be tough luck. The record company has decided that because I am English, I don't like the country version and have to put up with the pop one. (for those wondering, I have the country CD which I bought totally legally).
5. Packaging
I love the whole package. Yes, I read the liner notes, I read the thank-yous in the sleeve. It is an integral part of the album in my opinion just like lyric booklets! There is nothing better than having the full package in your hand, not just a collection of files on a hard drive.
6. Individual Tracks
I grew up in what is now known as the 'Classic Rock' era. To me (and a lot of people who grew up listening to Pink Floyd, Queen, Emerson Lake & Palmer etc), an album is exactly that - an album and not just a collection of individual songs. To me, the idea of cherry picking your favourite songs from an album to download, and not discovering the non-singles is horrifying. If Pink Floyd's classic "The Wall" was available digitally, most people would only download the solitary single - "Another Brick In The Wall". This is a double 'concept' album that needs to be listened to in it's entirety. Agreed, not all albums are concept albums but the fact remains the same - albums are albums. Think of all the songs people are missing out on simply because 'radio didn't play them'. Some of my favourite Queen songs are album tracks. Just because the record company didnt class them as commercial doesn't mean they aren't beautiful works of art. Try "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)", "You Take My Breath Away" or "Life Is Real (Song For Lennon)" - all beautiful songs but because they weren't released as singles, radio didn't play them so the majority of the general public wouldn't have heard them if the album came out originally on iTunes only.
To me, cherry picking the singles from the album is not giving you the full picture. This may sound over the top and irrelevant but its like going to buy the Mona Lisa and saying "I only want the face part as thats the only part i like".......
Anyway, i'm sure I've bored you enough with my rantings/ramblings for today so I'll leave it there and will bring the next blog sometime in the near future.....
Steve
Tuesday 15 January 2013
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