[Dixielandjazz] FW: MP3s or CDs or vinyl?

[Hal Vickery]

IMO this discussion is looking in the wrong direction as to the future of
recording media.  How things were recorded will be determined by the
marketplace, and that means it's going to be determined by the people doing
the buying, which is mainly people under the age of 30.  They've already
voted, and the winner is mp3.

I doubt if the CD will end up going the way of the cylinder or the 78 in the
near future, but the trend is definitely towards mp3, regardless of sound
quality because that's how consumers want it.  They like the convenience of
being able to download from their home or work computer or their laptop.

As for the LP, how many people under the age of 50 still play their old LPs?
How many places sell turntables?  How many places sell needles?  I have yet
to find the advantage to vinyl over digital for one simple reason:  the
needle wears the record out.  A vinyl record never sounds as good again as
its first playing.

Posterity?  There may be one percent of the population that actually gives a
damn about prosperity.  (Okay, I may be exaggerating a bit.  It might be as
high as ten percent.)  To most music isn't art to be preserved.  It's
entertainment to be discarded like yesterday's newspaper.  

I have a feeling that the only reason we see any commercial releases of
classic jazz recordings is that the record companies must make at least a
small profit from their release.  I recently took a look at Rhapsody.  It
appears that nowadays the vast majority of pre-1940 recordings (now PD) are
being released by independent labels, not by the original copyright holders.
Those might be the current crop of preservationists, and they're putting
them out as CDs and mp3 files.

Hal Vickery

-----Original Message-----
From: dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com
[mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com] On Behalf Of Jim Kashishian
Sent: Sunday, November 05, 2006 6:11 AM
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] FW: MP3s or CDs or vinyl?

 
MP3s are fine as samplers and for advertising but for jazz posterity they're
a big No - No.
Brian Harvey


........and, I've been wondering, as I read all these emails on MP3, has no
one thought about quality?  MP3 is "squashed" audio, not near CD quality,
and just at the time when the recording industry is working at more than
double the sample rate of CD's...and, some are even going above that.  CD =
44.1 Khz, but many are recording their music at 96 Khz, and some movies are
now being recorded at 192 Khz.

Why do they record at higher rates when the music must be "brought down" to
44.1 to go on the present CD?  Well, there are the DVD's which handle the
higher rates, and others are just doing it to have it done at the higher
rate (for posterity!).

Which brings us back to Brian's remark above.

Jim


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