| home | Stereophile Magazine Jon Iverson's laments on
SACD and DVD-Audio slow start in the heat of the MP3 battle got my attention this month. (It doesn't take much to excite us here in the
backwoods of New Hampshire.) Jon suggested
that access to vast, world wide libraries and zero cost of acquisition will continue to
win the battle against the MP3's poor audio quality.
Jon misses the point on the quality issue but he opened up a really is interesting
topic, namely the other implications of these new technologies. ON THE QUALITY ISSUE MP3 has kept my 3000+
records on the shelf for many weeks since I discovered Napster. Most of my listening is done in the
thundering cabin of a Land Rover, primarily over gravel roads. Quality is a very relative term. In our crowded
kitchen at dinner MP3's fine. (Can't
wait to put a skip less player on the tractor). Besides,
The Embers singing "Sixty Minute Man" is not what you'd call an audiophile
experience. WHAT'S THIS ALL MEAN? The intriguing
evolutionary battle being lost by the huge but prehistoric music consortium will probably
crush a few small, warm-blooded Napsters who get caught out in the open. However, they won't get all of 'em. My current estimate is about 4,278 more are
around. That's the number of users
signed onto Napster this morning at 7:20 AM EST. Multiply
that by a dozen other time zones and you get too large number for even Metallica to sue. Napster, you see, uses old
technology. GPulp, for example, is a Napster
like search technology that uses no central server !
All those ka-zillion kids will search each others' files without the vulnerable
central site. So what's this mean? Just a fundamental shift in the way we find and
listen to music. For example, try these on
for size: TALENT SCOUTING: You will no longer be dependent on a small
group of record/cd producers to find bring forward artists (a point of Jon's). New mechanisms are already available to find new
performers. Now you don't have to play it
safe & buy only what you know. Free is a
very liberating price, so being able to down
load an MP3 gives you a wonderful preview (more about this later) and is training us to be
comfortable with e-purchasing of music. Perhaps MP3 will reinvent music distribution to a
more share-ware like process? You like it
then you buy it. Should change radio's role,
too. DON'T NEED NO STINKIN'
ALBUMS: You will no longer buy $15 worth of second rate
cuts to get the one that rings your bell. You
just buy the cut. This is serious
margin bleed for the record companies and mega-hit artists.
But it will allow room in the market place for LOTS of new groups. One cut at a time. Major players will resistance and that will create
the next change. MONEY WILL BE MADE, LOTS
OF IT: A new, fresh and hungry breed of music
producer is already evolving (small & warm-blooded?).
They are tied to the large scale, limited artists approach but are building us a
new musical ecology. I'm just an old
dinosaur myself, so I haven't a clue on the
mechanics of the new cash flow. But I do know
that in this new musical eco-system, all those little furry entrepreneurs will find ways. Plus they will feed a population of new artists,
new music, new genres to produce those new profits. AUDIOPHILE FORMATS: No, I didn't forget about us antiques and our
search of the next best thing. A couple
things come to mind. Lots of us search
NP3-land to find wonderful but unavailable old stuff (when was the last time you saw
"One Mint Julip"? By the Clovers in
a music store?). Be nice to have access to a
good copy. With all the scratches on my
record, would I pay for an archival quality one? You
betcha. We also look and soon will
surf for new music. Don't know about you but
when I find a performer or group I love, I buy EVERYTHING they have on the market, in
EVERY FORMAT. Yep, I got every CD and record
ever produced by Los Lobos, Patricia Barber, Janis Ian, Miles Davis and so on. Duplicates of those, even. I don't care about how much is available in a
given format, just that it has my favorite players.
So the next best thing will allow me to download it to my music room onto some
archival format. Pay for it? You betcha. So where's the SACD and
DVD-Audio market? No clue. That's what we look to Jon to tell us and them. Go get 'em Jon.
|