Why can't I get into digital formats?

Going from the subject of digital formats, to specifically 'streaming' & licensed downloads: The other big deal for me on a lot of this stuff is that I don't want any more of my stuff up in 'the cloud', than I can possibly avoid. That includes 'bought-assets' and personal information.

We all know that the end-point plan, for any company with something to sell that can be fit in in a router, is to get _all of it_ stored at their place, and parsed out and rented to you bit by bit, month by month.

One of these day's no-doubt the email servers I run for a living will be outsourced to Bangalore. Our anti-spam and webmeeting infra have.

And I always wonder what "Our WebberNet Benefactor" Google, might do with all the personal info and ad tracking that they accumulate, down the road. Just got an invite for Google+ yesterday, and boy-howdy did I pause a lot longer filling a profile out, than I did for the same info on facebook. Google's reach is _scary_.

So naturally, I like to do my bit for obstructing the 'Good Little Consumer' system.

It may be convenient to rent your music from services. But for my tastes, I want little more than the deal my grandfather got: That the music I _bought_ (not licensed) will remain mine in perpetuity. Free to assign to my heirs, lend/trade/sell to friends, throw to the homeless dude on the corner, or otherwise fold spindle or mutilate as I please.

Streaming & Keeping a copy? Hmm...
"Yahoo Music to Shut Down Service, Issue Refunds to Customers"
"College Music Service Ruckus.com Shuts Down"
"DRM sucks redux: Microsoft to nuke MSN Music DRM keys"
"Wal*Mart shutting down DRM server, nuking your music collection"

Those were the product of 5 words run through google. Today's Spotify could be tomorrows Ruckus. I figure my lps, cd's & mp3's will play as long as the media they're on lasts.

I've found that more and more, my "should I buy this?" standard has come down to, "Will I have anything to show for the bucks spent in 5 years?". With a lot of these products, I'm not sure that's going to be the case.

Yea. I'm a retrograde throwback. Heh, I also play board games in preference to video games, have a vegetable garden & the wife raises honey bees (and wants *chickens!*). We may as well move out to Colonial Williamsburg. Hell, I'd bet the schools are better there...

Casey- You've got to be able to read the liner notes while the band is playing in order to appreciate the music. That's why you see all those guys standing their reading CD booklets and gazing lovingly at cover art while a band plays live.

San- I laundered my iPod once. Dead for two days. Came right back to life. Unbelievable.

I do miss cool packaging, of course. The Spiritualized record that came in the big pharmaceutical box with the CD in a pill blister. PiL's "Metal Box" that came in a giant metal box. The Giger poster in "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables". Shaped/colored vinyl, like the amazing bat-shaped Specimen record I paid way, way too much money for in the early 1990s. But all gimmicks, none of which affected the music or my enjoyment of it.

I totall agree that the "death of the album" is BS. Now, more than ever, you have more control over what you listen to and how. You don't have to pick and choose tracks. You don't have to have one giant playlist on shuffle. You set it up how you want. Sure, you should listen to some records start to finish because they're carefully considered and designed that way. But some records...not so much. Listening to Blondie records is a waste of time, they were a singles band and their records are really kind of crap. Psychedlic Furs are like that too. And Pet Shop Boys' best album is their greatest hits collection.

San Il Defanso wrote: I was in this place about 3 years ago, and I've since switched over to purely digital purchases. It felt like the end of an age back then, but now I barely mind at all. The ONLY time I listen to CDs at all is in the car, and that maybe accounts for about 15% of the music I listen to. I recently laundered my iPod, but if I still had that ol' girl around, I'd listen to even MORE digital music. My CDs now basically just exist as an object for my son to pull off of a rack in our apartment. I still use them, but man they take up a lot of room, they deteriorate, they are a big headache.

I do miss the days of cool packaging. Does anyone remember "The Information" by Beck? That album came with stickers with which you could design your own album art, as well as a DVD of music videos. Unfortunately, those didn't really move the physical version in any meaningful way. I don't think it was a particularly big hit. I also really CD sleeves like Tool has made in past. But really, the only big loss is that I don't know lyrics QUITE how I did before.

As for the death of the album as an artform, that's complete crap. You listen to music however you choose. I almost NEVER use shuffle features. No one is stopping you from listening to something beginning to end. What we do have now is the ability to shift an album's mood by reordering tracks, adding b-sides, etc. I have one playlist for U2's The Joshua Tree that adds about 8 b-sides and makes it into a completely different double-length album. It's not as good as the original, but it does let me listen to songs I really love in a different context, and that's pretty cool. Has anyone tried the Radiohead "OK Computer/In Rainbows" playlist? Look it up, put it in your iTunes, and try it out. Who cares if its not what the artist intended? We can still listen the old way, and that's usually what I do, since it's actually better. But don't say that the idea of the "complete album" is dead. We changed, the album didn't.

I don't think I said the album was dead. I did say something about play order and I suppose you could look at it that way but my intention was to say that for me I enjoyed the whole mugumbo of the album. All the details that went into it.

People have been able to mix and match songs for decades now, with mix tapes and what not, so no, I did not mean to say the album per se was dead, I just hope that the whole experience doesn't go away completley. I hope that somehow artists come up with something new but not less than what I enjoy.

Radiohead is a great example. Their last album, I might as well have bought digitally as there was next to nothing as far as packaging and to me, well, it makes me sad.

The album as an art form was a mistake anyway. People recorded 3 minutes songs because that's what fit on the cylinders and we got used to it. People recorded concept albums of about an hour because that was the length of an album and it was an easy way to categorize their thoughts into a set forumla. Not much different then Mozart and Hayden arbitrarily deciding how many movements should be in a symphony or string quartet.

The death of the album allows artists to choose their own length. Have a concept album that lasts 15 minutes or 5 hours? Now you have the perfect vehicle to release that. The digital revolution has freed musicians up to do anything they want at a reasonable price.

I just find that the culture in the city is much different now.

Local bands organize around facebook now and the groups seem much more cliquish and insular then they did 20 years ago. Things are changing and I know it's all the rage to act like nothing is being lost but I hope to god someone checks for a baby before they dump all the fucking bath water out.

Mike mentioned Prince. I am a huge Prince fan. I have everything I have ever been able to find by him including Madhouse, Mayte's album, etc., etc.,

Anyhow, do you remember Crystal Ball? It came out in a super limited version (which I have) that included the Kamasutra, it also came out in a more standard jewel case format. There was a website that had fantastic art and lyrics for the album as the limited version came in a "crystal ball" (i.e, plastic container thingy that didn't hold the cds for shit) - anyhoo, the web site was great. This was 1998 ish. I *printed* it out. I don't think I have a digital copy of it and AFAIK it is now totally unavailable. That sucks. I should scan in my print out.

Ok, It actually still exists! Whattaya know. Now pdferize that and put it on the iPlayerdohickey and I'd be happy. Well, less crabby anyway.

JJ- thought you were looking to unload a baby recently.

Ska_baron wrote: JJ- thought you were looking to unload a baby recently.

Shit yeah! I forgot about that. Send me all you C.D.'s and I'll hold a draw for the baby. I can store them all in the empty room left behind.

Punk/Hardcore and indie labels in general have (as usual, fuck you slow squares!) been on this tip for quite a while. More and more bands just do limited vinyl releases for all the cool "physical" aspects of an album and then release digital downloads. Who the fuck wants a CD anymore? Any of the CDs people send me get ripped and then never looked at again. When I was still putting out records, all the vinyl stuff way out sold the CD releases generally speaking. I've toyed around with putting stuff out again and if I do, it will be only vinyl with downloads.

For playing music in the house not through the turntable, we currently have a laptop that plugs in direct to the mixer and can run everything either through it's own hard drive or from the variety of networked locations available. It's great. Bonus points that if we're doing it right, we can use our iPhones to control everything as swanky little touch screen remotes.

I never download mp3s with the code I get with the record. I have the record, what I need mp3 for? Only music I've downloaded for keeps is oop stuff.

One Shellac album had CD as insert.

And fuck, singles are 45s. single is not any one song of an album. Side A track 4 is not a single. Single song, yes, but not a single.

ubarose wrote: Question for people that do use digital. What do you use for playing through your home stereo?

Well, I don't use the home stereo much anymore. But I use CDs in it, since I have a lot of old ones pre-2007, and I don't mind burning one if I download a new album.

ubarose wrote: Question for people that do use digital. What do you use for playing through your home stereo?

As someone with a hefty mp3 collection on a file server, I've been a fan of the Slimp3\Squeezebox since 2003. Logitec bought Slim Devices out along the way, but they've kept it up to date, and kept the backend app current (it's open source as I recall).

Looking at their site, Their latest version is the [url=ttp://www.logitech.com/en-us/speakers-audio/wireless-music-systems/devices/5745]Squeezebox Touch[/url].

They all leverage my file server (or pc), to store the music, and run a backend service (Win/Linux versions on MySQL) there. The hardware is a small head unit that has output jacks to feed into your A/V system. Current versions are wireless with a touch screen and menu system in the screen. My 2008-vintage current unit is hardwired on gbt ethernet. Big advantage of using a server-based solution is you're not going to top it out (as you will with an ipod etc). Want more music space, toss another commodity hard drive under it on your box.

Supports Pandora, Lastfm, etc. natively (including scrobbling). Has a raft of free plug-ins and addons folks are adding all the time.

I've had pretty good luck with the hardware: The first one, from the 1st year they made them, lasted 5 yrs (2003 to 2008). Current one is 3 years old. We have it going a fair amount of the time, if we're not watching the tube.

Unfortunately, they've never been cheap. And it looks like the feature creep on newer ones has driven the msrp up into the nutty range. But, if the features fit what you want, it's a pretty solid solution. If my current one died, I'd be pretty likely to buy another - I still haven't found anything else that hits all the sweetspots on what I want.

DC is about to roll out a new product line: digital versions of all their ongoing titles. To make for an easier entry point for all the new readers they hope to attract, they are doing a soft reboot of their continuity. It's controversial, because they plan to sell the digital comics for the same price as the regular version of those comics, $3.99 an issue. Retailers would probably freak out if they had to compete with a cheaper digital equivalent.

I won't be making the digital switch at that point, or any time soon. DC won't be handling the digital distribution themselves, they are outsourcing that function to Comixology, a company that hasn't even been around for five years yet. Since digital buyers can only read "their" comics by accessing the Comixology site, there is a legitimate concern about losing an entire digital comic collection if Comixology goes under.

I joined spotify.

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I like it! If it had the CD books it would be even better, but it is really cool to be able to check out so many albums for ten bucks a month.

I am listening to the Swans - had never really heard of them until MB was going on about them. Spotify is *perfect* for that. Check an album out and if you really really love it, and want the a copy with the full packaging you can go that route.