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Interesting topic, this. I'm doing a cartoon about a close topic this
week.
Especially on the heels of Sony's repeated flirtations with crappy
protection and spyware on their audio CDs, and the RIAA's increasing
claims
of how the CD is somehow doomed to the fate of the CD single.
Think about the fact that, when CDs came out, there was no anticipation on
the part of music companies that anyone would ever be able to play the
discs
in a PC. Optical formats for the PC didn't become semi-standardized until
the late 80s, and when the CD-R/RW format began to be used record
companies
were apparently caught quite by surprise. The RIAA had been caught up
with
trying to keep the DAT out of the hands of anyone not in the Big Five
record
companies; manufacturers of DAT technology eventually had to give up plans
to make the tape format into something for more than backups and
studio-class digital recordings, and the CD-R/RW sped ahead as an
uncontrolled medium for everyone, no matter what the RIAA tried to do.
The facts are, no copy protection scheme was ever imagined for CDs, and
MP3
and P2P was never anticipated. The RIAA/MPAA groups have concentrated
their
efforts on the DVD as it emerged, but no copy protection methods have been
attempted inside the US, but only overseas; no matter how incompetent they
are at handling formats, these folks understand that a big backlash will
occur against sales in the US if copy protection is used that gets in the
way of people enjoying the content. Outside the US all sorts of
experiments
with Macrovision etc have been foisted on the public, to not much effect
beyond not being able to have your VCR on while watching a pay-per-view
movie. Now Sony comes along with their BetaMaxThink ("our proprietary
tech
is the best, we don't need to open it up, the public will take whatever we
give them", and other invalid bits) and the Big Show is revealed for all
to
view.
Simultaneously and with a nearly infamous absence of finesse, pundits have
been sent out to shriek about the "end of the CD" in the same manner that
was used on the CD Single. Fortunately for everyone else the CD is not
dying in the least, but according to Neilsen, is enjoying the biggest
sales
in 10 years. So now that Sony's pulled a big one once again, everyone
else
in the RIAA will sit back and see how bad they get ripped for all this,
but
somehow I'm not sure they'll learn too much from it.
Recording technology is already in the hands of regular people, and out of
the control zone as far as the RIAA is concerned. Be assured that 2006
will
have some interesting noises emerging from big companies in the
entertainment biz, some of them quite alarming, though most I suspect will
be just silly.
From: "Travis Hartnett" <travishartnett@gmail.com>
> It seems that consumers vote for "convenience" over "fidelity" in most
> cases. Cassettes could be played in the car, didn't need to be
> flipped over every 20 minutes, and offered the option of getting a new
> album taped from a friend for the cost of a blank tape and an hour's
> time. Improved fidelity over vinyl didn't enter into the equation,
> although I suppose they did sound better than 8-track, but they were
> smaller and didn't have that track switch every twenty minutes.
>
> CD's offered higher fidelity, but were more robust than vinyl (in
> terms of cleaning and proper storage), and again could be moved to the
> car, and walkman as well as the home system. Plus, the ability to
> instantly skip over a duff track was appealing, particularly as the
> number of duff tracks seemed to be increasing...
Don't forget bumps in the road of course. I found an additional one
though - that of A&R people who always attempt to keep ones material out
of
a listening space by claiming that the predominant format "isn't listened
to
anymore". This ploy was used before CD-Rs came along, on cassettes, and
has
most likely just been rubber-stamped onto CD-R: "If they don't listen to
it
in the office, forget getting any further." The last time I heard that
one
most execs I worked for had DATs in their offices, the CD players weren't
used that much except for stuff already in their catalogues, and cassette
decks were just vacant of media. Now that every computer comes along with
CD audio at LEAST, but most often a full-on DVD player (if not a
recorder),
so this line of attempted deflection doesn't really work any more. I
wonder
what the excuse for not listening to new material is, now?
> MP3's offered much of the convenience of CD's with the added bonus of
> decreased cost: i.e. nothing with illegal downloads. The average
> listener doesn't really care about the difference between 128kps and
> 192, but they do appreciate $0 vs. $15 (or anything). Plus, they take
> up less space.
I believe that the ethics of listeners hasn't changed that much from 1995,
in that most folks don't copy or download with the intent to defraud; but
rather with an intent to either replace lost tracks already bought, or
listen before buying. Most people don't discuss this a lot, and the
RIAA/MPAA would prefer to keep their fairy stories about piracy
threatening
Western Civilization etc in the prominent position of view, in the belief
that over time we'll all succumb and just go along with what they want.
> Some people have suggested that switching to DVD audio would offer an
> added functionality (5.1 sound possibility, higher sampling rates,
> etc.) while making it difficult for the average listener to make
> digital copies (at least for the next year or so), but most car
> stereos won't play DVD audio, and if people just want to listen on
> their portable system (iPod or whathave you), then it's not much
> incentive.
I beg to differ on a couple of points here, though. How difficult it
might
be for the average listener to make digital copies, for instance. It's
fairly easy to do, without much technical knowledge, so long as you have
the
software and hardware set up right.
As for "most car stereos" not playing DVD audio, just wait. Five years
ago
CD players in cars were still quite subject to bumps in the road, now
they're much better. Given the capacity of a DVD one can imagine how
un-jarrable the drives need to be in order to play without error. Over in
the UK cars are being touted as being "MP3 ready", just because the CD
drive
plays MP3/WMA discs. So we've still got a ways to go before DVD audio can
be played flawlessly in a moving vehicle.
This brings up the brief memory of the Quad version of Kraftwerk's
"Autobahn", which came out in 8-track format in 1975, and was blamed for a
number of accidents in cars that had Quad music systems onboard. That bit
with the synth car sound that went between the speakers? In Quad it went
AROUND where the driver sat, and caused knee-jerk reactions to what was
only
happening on the tape.
> On 1/8/06, Per Boysen <per@boysen.se> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > 1) Should I bother to spend any more money on what the world can
>> > already
>> > get for free?
>>
>>
>> But compressed digital audio files is not the same thing as the CD, is
>> it?
>> Are you really shure the "downloaders" was going to buy the record and
>> now
>> changed their mind beacuse of those crappy mp3 artifacts on their
>drives?
>> ;-)
Let's face it, when it comes to burning MP3s and CD audio, most folks are
as
non-descriminating as they have been with tape recording. I'll bet that
everyone on this mailing list knows at least one person who doesn't know
how
to set the record level appropriately, resulting in one of two flavors of
audio: too soft with more hiss than music, or too loud with more
distortion
than music. This same lack of ability has transposed itself into the
MP3/WMA world, with just one example being that most people don't know how
to avoid making a bad copy. How many of us have used Windows Media Player
to rip from a CD while forgetting to turn off the EQ, resulting in an
over-EQ'ed set of tracks that rivals the old tapes?
End result? People eventually buy the legit copy to either have the legit
copy, or to have a copy that sounds like it "should". Unless the RIAA
starts having us searched upon entering or leaving a retail establishment,
whereupon it will be necessary for consumers to revolt. Again.
Stephen Goodman
* Cartoons about DVDs and Stuff
* http://www.earthlight.net/HiddenTrack