Digital has Killed Music both Recorded media and HI-Fi

[eltech]

17 hours ago, rantan said:

 Behold from 1973. Is this not crap?

The original is better

https://youtu.be/I1OYZ1PZtV0

[Eddierukiddingvarese]

Ok, here is my attempt at Dave Gilmore

Actually its a piece I came up with about 25 years ago, weird how it sounds like Pink Floyd from years after........... no pure coincidece 

 

Please excuse the idiot  who said he could put bass on it (not me). I do have a version without the  insanely bad bass................... it even has a not bad solo on it but this the mercifully short version.

https://www.kompoz.com/music/collaboration/697135

 

Edited September 30, 2018 by Eddierukiddingvarese

[eltech]

@Eddierukiddingvarese

You need to get a band together.

This public collaboration is holding you back.

[LHC]

On 29/09/2018 at 3:35 PM, rantan said:

Behold from 1973. Is this not crap?

 

Looking up this video on youtube it has 919K views, 4.5K Likes and only 134 Dislikes. The comments on Youtube are largely complimentary of the singer. So based on that statistics alone, it is hard to say objectively that clip is crap.

 

It has been my experience that on youtube music from early eras like '60, '70, '80 tend to have a large 'Like' to 'Dislike' ratio. It may be a nostalgia factor. Whereas the videos that attracted the most Dislikes are from the modern digital era, i.e. in the '10. Example below (2.5M Likes, 3.9M Dislikes).

 

 

[crisis]

On 29/09/2018 at 10:02 AM, metal beat said:

Funny thread.  another classic example of someone with their head in the sand as far as new music goes. I like the old stuff better than any new stuff 

 

  There is so much superb new music to choose from these days, its impossible to keep up.     

 

  I am struggling how digital is blamed for someone not being open to new music thou 

 

On 29/09/2018 at 10:25 AM, eltech said:

That's a key point. In the days of analogue, a good band would be given lots of "air time" on the radio, and the public would get time to familiarise themselves with the sound. But now, with such a large and ever increasing choice, good artists can fly under the radar and not build a large fanbase, because the next thing comes along.

In the days of analogue a **** band would also be given lots of air time. Payola!

On 29/09/2018 at 11:35 AM, Grimmie said:

All of the above is totally regardless of format or method, digital, analogue, makes no difference, good music is good music and there's still plenty to enjoy.

I have yet to see, read or hear the definitive definition of what good music is and how it is quantified.

[eltech]

30 minutes ago, crisis said:

In the days of analogue a **** band would also be given lots of air time. Payola!

Indeed.

I came across this band the other week called The birthday massacre

Its possible I have had my head in the sand. But I dont think they recieved much airtime in Australia. But I somewhat like their music.

I then tried to find out if they tour internationally and it seems they only play in North America.

And I deduced that they dont get airtime becuase they dont tour internationally, and so we see the capitalist machine at work. Only bands which tour promotors can make money from, get airtime? Am I wrong?

 

Edited October 1, 2018 by eltech

[sir sanders zingmore]

Nothing wrong with “digital”. We are just making excuses for the fact that our musical tastes are out of date. 

 

There’s plenty of great music being made.  We are are the ones with the problem of being stuck in the past

[LHC]

So, I wonder 'who' is actually 'stuck in the past'. I've read comments on SNA that all (what people today called) country music since 1970s are basically rubbish. Is that not a form of 'stuck in the past'?

[Guest Muon N']

39 minutes ago, eltech said:

Indeed.

I came across this band the other week called The birthday massacre

Its possible I have had my head in the sand. But I dont think they recieved much airtime in Australia. But I somewhat like their music.

I then tried to find out if they tour internationally and it seems they only play in North America.

And I deduced that they dont get airtime becuase they dont tour internationally, and so we see the capitalist machine at work. Only bands which tour promotors can make money from, get airtime? Am I wrong?

 

Heavily influenced by the likes of Evenescence, to my ears at least.

[Guest Muon N']

26 minutes ago, Sir Sanders Zingmore said:

Nothing wrong with “digital”. We are just making excuses for the fact that our musical tastes are out of date. 

 

There’s plenty of great music being made.  We are are the ones with the problem of being stuck in the past

There was a guy on here ages ago that viewed anything produced before he was born as rubbish, that was odd.

 

 

[keyse1]

30 minutes ago, LHC said:

So, I wonder 'who' is actually 'stuck in the past'. I've read comments on SNA that all (what people today called) country music since 1970s are basically rubbish. Is that not a form of 'stuck in the past'?

That would be me

And rubbish would be the politest thing I could say about it

Country music is so bad now that the young people that play country music in the traditional sense of the word dislike what it has become so much that it is now called Americana or Alt Country to distinguish their music from it

Nothing to do with being stuck in the past it is about way the term country music has been high jacked by people who wouldn’t know who the Carter Family or Hank Williams or Patsy Cline were 

Bottomless pit of sublime country music being made now but just not under that name

 

[Satanica]

59 minutes ago, Sir Sanders Zingmore said:

Nothing wrong with “digital”. We are just making excuses for the fact that our musical tastes are out of date. 

 

There’s plenty of great music being made.  We are are the ones with the problem of being stuck in the past

I buy new release (digital) music all the time. Keep me out of this "we". 

[eltech]

1 hour ago, Muon N' said:

Heavily influenced by the likes of Evenescence, to my ears at least.

I agree, similar sound. But am I right that its weird how Evanescence got promotion but the birthday massacre didnt? I think the latter is more to my liking.

[Guest Muon N']

24 minutes ago, eltech said:

I agree, similar sound. But am I right that its weird how Evanescence got promotion but the birthday massacre didnt? I think the latter is more to my liking.

Not really, there are likely heaps of various factors that contribute to one band getting picked up and others not. One big difference is that at the time Evenescence was kind of unique with their blend of heavy guitar and Amy's classical vocals.

[LHC]

So if it has nothing to do with 'stuck in the past', then why was that comment made in the first place?

Edited October 1, 2018 by LHC

[LHC]

3 hours ago, keyse1 said:

That would be me

And rubbish would be the politest thing I could say about it

Country music is so bad now that the young people that play country music in the traditional sense of the word dislike what it has become so much that it is now called Americana or Alt Country to distinguish their music from it

Nothing to do with being stuck in the past it is about way the term country music has been high jacked by people who wouldn’t know who the Carter Family or Hank Williams or Patsy Cline were 

Bottomless pit of sublime country music being made now but just not under that name

 

 

You have just given support to what I post earlier, i.e. the concentration of crap music is greater in the modern digital era. There are still good new music being made today, it is just that there are more crap music (as you have identified in your genre).

[keyse1]

20 minutes ago, LHC said:

 

You have just given support to what I post earlier, i.e. the concentration of crap music is greater in the modern digital era. There are still good new music being made today, it is just that there are more crap music (as you have identified in your genre).

That is not true except in the sense that there is a lot more and I mean a lot more music being made now than there was in the 60’s and 70’s Or any other given decade

As I said above there is a bottomless pit of great country music being made now but it has had to be renamed to seperate it from the appalling music now masquerading under the description country music

Personally most of the brand new as opposed to second hand CDs I buy is by contemporary bands 

Im too old to have a legitimate view on the quality of music being produced now but have enough views about music from the 60’s and 70’s To fill the Encyclopaedia Britanica

I also thought the argument was that the sound of music is worse in the digital age than before although I may be wrong about that

 

[Satanica]

18 hours ago, LHC said:

 

You have just given support to what I post earlier, i.e. the concentration of crap music is greater in the modern digital era. There are still good new music being made today, it is just that there are more crap music (as you have identified in your genre).

Correlation does not imply causation.

[LHC]

On 02/10/2018 at 12:40 PM, Satanica said:

Correlation does not imply causation.

That is true, but it takes too much hard work to try and prove causation. I am simply teasing out a line of argument so that the OP claim can be contextualised and made plausible.

 

BTW when I said 'digital' in this thread, I am not referring to CD or SACD. These are just evolutionary formats to try and replace vinyl and tape. I am talking about the digitalisation of music into 1's and 0's so that music can be recorded, processed, distributed and consumed in the digital domain, by anyone. While the concept is not new, we know of cassette bootlegs in the past, the ease of digital technology have transformed what was essentially an underground practice into the mainstream. Anyone can now record a 'musical' event on their device of choice, load it up on to the cloud, social media, youtube etc, and share it with anyone with internet access. That is the new disruption to the music industry; it ain't confined to the specialist studios and professional artists. Music has been commodified due to digitalisation. Traditionally recorded music has to compete for audience's headspace with a myraid of other diversified music. 

 

As audiophiles we all know what happens when something of quality becomes commodified: the quality inevitably drops. We see that with the so-called life-style and mass market hi-fi products. While they have their place and meaningful applications, their quality is below that of the dedicated hi-end products (due to less constraints). So if music is commodified by the massive uptake of digital technologies, it is natural to expect the overall quality to be diluted, and the concentration of crap music to be increased. This could lead to a perception that in the modern digital era (say last 10 years), music has been 'killed'. 

 

In a nutshell digitalisation has allowed anyone and everyone to participate in music production, and quality is no longer the controlling factor. If one couple this with Ed Sheeran's advice in his video (I posted earlier), then the OP claim is indeed plausible. 

Edited October 3, 2018 by LHC

[Satanica]

59 minutes ago, LHC said:

As audiophiles we all know what happens when something of quality becomes commodified: the quality inevitably drops. We see that with the so-called life-style and mass market hi-fi products. While they have their place and meaningful applications, their quality is below that of the dedicated hi-end products (due to less constraints). So if music is commodified by the massive uptake of digital technologies, it is natural to expect the overall quality to be diluted, and the concentration of crap music to be increased. This could lead to a perception that in the modern digital era (say last 10 years), music has been 'killed'. 

 

In a nutshell digitalisation has allowed anyone and everyone to participate in music production, and quality is no longer the controlling factor. If one couple this with Ed Sheeran's advice in his video (I posted earlier), then the OP claim is indeed plausible. 

Meh, it also means those who could not finance their music production but had something to give to someone now get much more of chance.

 

Not to mention the end user can now sample potential digital purchases (Internet Radio, YouTube etc.) at their fingertips.

This gives the consumer more potential to connect with artists who otherwise would have slipped passed them, thanks to digital distribution.

Think about how many vinyl, CD, SACD purchases are potentially made these days after online sampling by the consumer, thanks to digital distribution.

 

All IMO of course.

[LHC]

37 minutes ago, Satanica said:

Meh, it also means those who could not finance their music production but had something to give to someone now get much more of chance.

 

Not to mention the end user can now sample potential digital purchases (Internet Radio, YouTube etc.) at their fingertips.

This gives the consumer more potential to connect with artists who otherwise would have slipped passed them, thanks to digital distribution.

Think about how many vinyl, CD, SACD purchases are potentially made these days after online sampling by the consumer, thanks to digital distribution.

 

All IMO of course.

 

What you wrote are the positive opportunities of the digital disruption; while I was posting about the downside risks and threats. Both are captured to some extent in this SWOT analysis of the Australian music industry in 2017. http://musicinaustralia.org.au/index.php?title=SWOT_Analysis_Of_Contemporary_Music_Industry_-_2017

 

Under 'Opportunities' they listed 'Evolution of self-produced sound recordings (could be threat – quantity vs quality).' 

 

Under 'Threats' the first item was 'Process of recording and distributing music is changing rapidly (also an opportunity).'

[LHC]

44 minutes ago, Satanica said:

Think about how many vinyl, CD, SACD purchases are potentially made these days after online sampling by the consumer, thanks to digital distribution.

 

I hate to say this, but physical digital media like CD and SACD are heading towards obsolescence. 

 

I've discovered artists that I liked and followed on youtube and social media, but they ain't releasing any new CDs. They are focused on performing live shows and releasing some youtube videos. Some are dropping the occasional single that could be purchased as a download; but no sign of any physical CD or even an EP. Recordings of their live concerts range from high quality videos to poor sounding smartphone hacks. It is highly frustrating, but that is the new paradigm due to digital disruption. 

[Satanica]

1 hour ago, LHC said:

I hate to say this, but physical digital media like CD and SACD are heading towards obsolescence. 

 

I've discovered artists that I liked and followed on youtube and social media, but they ain't releasing any new CDs. They are focused on performing live shows and releasing some youtube videos. Some are dropping the occasional single that could be purchased as a download; but no sign of any physical CD or even an EP. Recordings of their live concerts range from high quality videos to poor sounding smartphone hacks. It is highly frustrating, but that is the new paradigm due to digital disruption. 

I do have a bit of sympathy for those who love physical digital; it really does seem like its destined to end and the end is looking in sight.

I've practically given up CD's, but I still insist my music be lossless download though.

When I hear something I like on from the internet I want to download (note: download, not stream) it straight away.

I've lost my patience at waiting for weeks and sometimes months sweating on those (sometimes) expensive CDs to arrive.

Edited October 3, 2018 by Satanica

[Eddierukiddingvarese]

My personal digital favourite is 4'33" 

Because it sounds the same on all media and bit rates

[crisis]

7 hours ago, LHC said:

 Traditionally recorded music has to compete for audience's headspace with a myraid of other diversified music. 

Well in that case music "these days" has more than it ever had to compete with. There is an avalanche of input available and in fact being forced on us every second of the day. I'm surprised anyone has time to "listen"" to anything.

7 hours ago, LHC said:

So if music is commodified by the massive uptake of digital technologies, it is natural to expect the overall quality to be diluted, and the concentration of crap music to be increased.

Ill keep asking because no one had defined what is "good" or "bad" music further than their own personal taste.

4 hours ago, Satanica said:

I do have a bit of sympathy for those who love physical digital; it really does seem like its destined to end and the end is looking in sight.

I've practically given up CD's, but I still insist my music be lossless download though.

When I hear something I like on from the internet I want to download (note: download, not stream) it straight away.

I've lost my patience at waiting for weeks and sometimes months sweating on those (sometimes) expensive CDs to arrive.

I don't pay any more than $20 and in most case less for my CDs. And I can buy second hand ones with little fear of them being damaged.