The end of owning music

[Ilja]

Dear all,
Rolling Stone published an article that I felt might resonate with our community, "The End of Owning Music". Of course it is not focused on "classical" music, but I saw quite a few things we have discussed over the years.

[Santo Neuenwelt]

It is an interesting article and the subject, I think has been raised here somewhere before. The Classical Music market is only a small percentage of the CD market as a whole and it is surprising that CDs of classical music continue to come out, and not just with the works of the famous of which there already so many in existence. In White's article, he ponders who is buying CDs and comes up with Walmart customers. Of course, he is talking about the pop market, which for all intents and purposes is the market. But, very few classical music fans are buying their CDs from Walmart.

One has to wonder though how companies like Hyperion, Chandos and even Naxos, not to mention the smaller companies can make a profit. Will CDs disappear in the next decade as White suggests. Perhaps. Owning CDs may be a generational thing. People under 30 are probably used to getting their music or listening to it on Spotify etc. And CDs require a dedicated player, even in a car or computer...streaming services do not.

But owning, will that disappear. Maybe not. While there were many reasons why Communism as it existed has often failed, certainly one was the desire of humans to own property for themselves and not communally. It may be that CDs as a delivery format die. But one can buy mp3s. Not of every work, of course, but as CDs start to die out, perhaps the delivery system for those wishing to own will be to buy the MP3s and the player will be the computer, the tablet and the smartphone.

There is a certain convenience to owning. A certain comfort to knowing you can hear the music whenever you want and not just hope you can get it on a streaming service. Communal bicycles have existed in some cities with a fair degree of success but they have not killed off the desire of most bicyclists to own their own...

[semloh]

Interesting, Ilja.
As noted many times on UC, we are enjoying a 'golden era' for the Unsung Composers, Unsung Music and the odd and off-beat, principally through CDs and/or downloads, and I would guess that few of us on UC use streaming services for this type of music, if at all.

I hate being forced to use services that I don't want! I never use streaming services, and any new car I buy must have a radio and CD player, even if it's an added extra, rescued from the "obsolete" bin!
Long live the CD, I say!   

[Mark Thomas]

I'm very happy with abandoning the CD, and have digitised getting on for 2/3 of my collection now. The prospect of regaining a whole room previously dedicated to CD storage and replacing it with a server not much bigger than a large, fat paperback is very attractive, not to mention that I can stream the music it contains to any room in the house or even, potentially, anywhere in the world I happen to be. I rather resent having to buy a CD nowadays - it gets digitised immediately. Loss of sound quality (I've settled on 320kbps mp3s as standard)? Well, my old ears can't really hear any difference now between a good CD and a good mp3 I'm afraid. That said, I'm not ready to abandon ownership, and I do think that is something which separates my generation from my son's. I still want the security and, I suppose, pride of ownership and I wouldn't be happy relying solely on streaming services, although I have been exploring Spotify recently and have been impressed with the diversity and depth of unsung composers' works on offer there - but the coverage is very patchy and comes nowhere near matching the collection I've built up over the years.

[Richard Moss]

I agree with Mark - there are 2 distinct threads here but intermingled (i) the future of the CD format 'per se' and (ii) the trade-offs between owning music in your own domain and owning or streaming it on demand.

For many people,  I suspect it is access to the music that is the priority on an 'as, when and where you want it' basis. For me, good accompanying notes (which I believe you don't get with streaming) are also v. desirable, though just short  of a 'must'.  I have little attachment to the CD format as such - I'm quite happy with mp3 downloads, but I do find the CD album much more convenient to grab and play, rather than select some tracks from a large library and then arrange to play them in a particular sequence.

There is also the added consideration (risk?) that by relying on streaming services, you no longer have assured listening.  If you 'own' the music but leave it 'on the cloud', the firm delivering the service could go bust and take all your music with them.  Even if you only stream, not own, you might still have the inconvenience that if you have found a particular service that, say specialises in providing 'unsungs' or whatever and they go bust, that source of pleasure has potentially gone unless you can hunt it down elsewhere.  Imagine the world's grief if YOUTUBE ceased operations!

The world IS going inevitably, I suspect , down the 'download or stream' route and, of those two, I'd choose download every day for the above reasons.  What value do other UC members place on booklet notes, ownership issues etc?

Just a thought or two!

Richard

[Mark Thomas]

What value do other UC members place on booklet notes?

I've written the odd booklet note in my time, but I am surprised at how little I refer again to CD booklet notes once having read them. Libretti are a different matter, there's no doubt that sitting down to an opera with the libretto in hand is a real immersive pleasure, and so I do generally retain them, but otherwise the notes go the way of the CDs themselves.

[TerraEpon]

I love having the notes 'on hand' if I need them for some reason. The big issue is the lack of notes in the first place for a lot of digital DLs which often have things including 'official' track times which I like to add to my database and stuff like arrangers, and other stuff such as occasionally noting the instrumentation for thinly scored orchestral stuff.

For the CD space issue I found a solution eight years back to use the plastic sleeves from Bags Unlimited combined with protective CD holders from Sleevetown for all 'standard' 1 and 2 CD jewel cases. It decreases the space a CD takes up by probably 65%.

[dhibbard]

I still like something in my hand and reading the booklet.   I still have a CD player in the car and enjoy that on the way to work.

[Richard Moss]

I appreicate Mark's pooint bu t because I don't have Mark's in-depth knowledge of composers, their works or music, I like the notes to tell me about the lives of the composers and the background as to how a work came to be written.  Sometimes (e.g. CPO) they go into too much detail, sometimes (e.g. ZYX) cheap labels from yesteryear say virtually nothing. l also like the notes where they cover the structure of the music, as I am not an 'educated' listener.

Whilst much of this info for many works is available by trawling the web, it becomes a lot of effort for little reward. Oh for a central  database on composers and their works (but then every notes writer seems to take a different tack, so who would have the courage to edit that lot anyway!)  And also, much of the interest of UC members is NOT documented out there on the web -I've tried all too often to find details on unsungs without success and have to rely on whatever UC members themselves have been able to post.

Keep up that good work, folks - it is really appreciated by us 'incognescenti'

Best wishes

Richard

[Mark Thomas]

I'm not evangelical in any way, I'm only reporting what 's important or unimportant to me and the way I enjoy music. It happens that the digital download model suits me very well, but it won't do for everyone I know.

[Martin Eastick]

I am most strongly of the opinion that having the printed notes available and to hand immediately when listening is desirable at the very least, but of paramount importance when applied to the neglected and forgotten repertoire as frequently dicussed on this forum. IMHO, having the booklet is surely a valuable marketing tool in the endless battle in promoting such music and encouraging a much wider dissemination to an otherwise unsuspecting, but music-loving audience! I can certainly echo the above sentiment from my own relatively limited experience as a writer of booklet notes etc., and would like to think that providing this extra dimension enhances the listening experience and encourages further exploration away from the all-to-well-trodden paths of the so-called "established classics"!

[Justin]

Since CDs can be ripped onto a computer, if one plans to listen on a CD player, in addition to a portable device, then it is still the best value.

I only ever listen to digital files which I purchase, unless the classical piece is on a decent sounding vinyl (analog quality has its advantages). Having all of one's music on a publicly shared server kind of devalues the meaning of a "collection," in my opinion. Yes, you can categorize what you like, but I think there's a difference between adding a song to a cart and adding a song to a playlist.

[Alan Howe]

With thousands of CDs, how on earth would I find the time to rip them? I'll continue to buy them until they aren't made any more and then switch to downloads. Simples...

[Justin]

With thousands of CDs, how on earth would I find the time to rip them? I'll continue to buy them until they aren't made any more and then switch to downloads. Simples...

Well if you do some for a few hours every weekend Alan, you may be done in as little as 50 years. 

As Mark said, if the booklet has useful info that can be continually referenced, such as a libretto, it is a nice item. But many downloads offer digital files of the liner notes anyway.

[Alan Howe]

you may be done in as little as 50 years

I'm looking forward to being 115! Not!

Seriously, though, I've got far more important things to do than worry about this. I just don't care enough...