In Defense Of The Old-fashioned Cd

[Mark Stayton]

Incidently, what has annoyed me recently is that almost all computer-based music players don't properly support organising music by composer.

I am similarly annoyed with the genre classification on CDs. Just about everything I own is either "folk" or "celtic" or "other" according to CDDB or freeDB. In other words, useless.

 

I've used one of the free mp3 tag editors to change the genres to things that make more sense (at least to me) for creating playlists, like "Northumbrian" or "Uilleann" or "Concertina". Heck, I've even got "Boermusik" and "Icelandic folk". You don't see those in the genre pull down lists!

[Jim Besser]

I am similarly annoyed with the genre classification on CDs. Just about everything I own is either "folk" or "celtic" or "other" according to CDDB or freeDB. In other words, useless.

 

GOod to see you back, Mark!

[JimLucas]

I don't get the point about the "danger" of splitting recordings up when buying/storing mp3s. If the music is suited to it, it will be done (singles have been selling for quite a long time now). If it's not suited to it, only people who don't care will do it.

Part of what I was wondering is what happens when the music (or whatever... can video be far behind?) is not suited to being broken up into short segments. Are any of the download services providing 60-minute offerings?

 

If not, maybe this will have positive (depending on your point of view ) implications for music's future. Maybe your grandchildren will be able to discover your old CD's of folk, opera, etc., while most of the evanescent pop stuff will have been forever deleted from historical record when some middle manager at an MP3 provider decides to erase old, little-used entries from their servers to make room for the new.

[Woody]

.......while most of the evanescent pop stuff will have been forever deleted from historical record when some middle manager at an MP3 provider decides to erase old, little-used entries from their servers to make room for the new.

Unfortunately, given the ever decreasing price of storage, any old tat that's pedalled is likely to stay around for ever. We look back on past ages and only tend to get to see/hear the best of what they created. That's all changed now. What are our decendants going to think of us?

[JimLucas]

Opera recordings like opera ticket prices are outragously expensive, in some cases as much as $40 US for a three CD set .

Americans are spoiled.

 

Here in Denmark standard prices for individual CD's are $20-30, with about $25 seeming to be most common.

 

Okay, 20% of that is MOMS (VAT, sales tax), but that still makes $20 per CD the most common before-tax price. Besides, in Denmark there's almost nothing that is not subject to that tax. I.e., no exemption for "necessities" such as food, and certainly not for "interstate" mail order. Order from outside Denmark (e.g., the US) and when it arrives you'll be charged MOMS not only on the purchase price, but on the postage.

 

(By the way, I think our price for regular gas right now translates to about $7.50 per US gallon.)

[JimLucas]

Unfortunately, given the ever decreasing price of storage, any old tat that's pedalled is likely to stay around for ever.

Only if somebody bothers to copy it onto "current" media.

 

Obsolete media -- floppies and even old hard drives -- get thrown on the trash heap, not donated to the local church bazaar. And if they did get resold, it wouldn't be for their contents.

 

Even if somebody in the future were to find grandma's old computer in their attic, how easy would it be for them to get it running and then figure out how to locate and read the love-letter emails from granddad? It's not the same as finding a box of old letters. Even with a carton of LP's or casettes, you don't need something to play them on in order to read the track listings.

[Mark Evans]

Americans are spoiled.

 

(By the way, I think our price for regular gas right now translates to about $7.50 per US gallon.)

 

 

Point taken. Yes, the $3.25 (high octane) a gallon I paid yesterday to fill up my Passat wagon is by world standards a deal. It's a shock to us, but few of my fellow travelers seem to be slowing down. Even the SUV behemoths that fill up for $100 a tank or better and get little more than 7 miles per gallon are still blasting past me as if I were in reverse.

[Roger Gawley]

Roger and all, I have a tale, which I suppose could also be taken as a suggestion. We have a small CD shop here in Elsinore that specializes mainly in jazz, folk, and classical. In business for many years, a couple of years back the owner was saying that due to declining business he would have to close. His regular customers were understandably upset. But then someone suggested that instead of closing, he should convert the place into a combination sales outlet and cafe.

 

Jim,

 

Thanks for this heartening tale. The idea of combining our CD shop with a cafe has been thought about. A very nice idea in many ways but we do not think that it would work in our present location.

 

We have also thought of moving but that has a whole different set of problems.

 

Next time I am in Elsinore . . .

[Theodore Kloba]

Unfortunately, given the ever decreasing price of storage, any old tat that's pedalled is likely to stay around for ever.

It's not just storage costs that keep the old stuff around, but the fact that production costs have already been recouped and little marketing is needed.

Even the SUV behemoths that fill up for $100 a tank or better and get little more than 7 miles per gallon are still blasting past me as if I were in reverse.

I think it finally has reached the point where some people are changing their habits. In the past few months, I have seen a dramatic increase in ridership on public transportation. I'm fortunate to live in a city with an excellent rail system, but lots of Americans live in suburban areas that are "planned" in a way that discourages public transportation and pedestrian/bicycle travel.

[Woody]

.......while most of the evanescent pop stuff will have been forever deleted from historical record when some middle manager at an MP3 provider decides to erase old, little-used entries from their servers to make room for the new.

Unfortunately, given the ever decreasing price of storage, any old tat that's pedalled is likely to stay around for ever. We look back on past ages and only tend to get to see/hear the best of what they created. That's all changed now. What are our decendants going to think of us?

Only if somebody bothers to copy it onto "current" media.

 

Obsolete media -- floppies and even old hard drives -- get thrown on the trash heap, not donated to the local church bazaar. And if they did get resold, it wouldn't be for their contents.

 

Even if somebody in the future were to find grandma's old computer in their attic, how easy would it be for them to get it running and then figure out how to locate and read the love-letter emails from granddad? It's not the same as finding a box of old letters. Even with a carton of LP's or casettes, you don't need something to play them on in order to read the track listings.

Interesting point Jim - I just don't see how it relates to my post. I was referring (as quoted) to your point about MP3 "providers".

 

It's not just storage costs that keep the old stuff around, but the fact that production costs have already been recouped and little marketing is needed.

 

Very true - it costs nothing (or almost nothing) to keep and who knows, you may make a buck or two off it per year.

[JimLucas]

Unfortunately, given the ever decreasing price of storage, any old tat that's pedalled is likely to stay around for ever.

Only if somebody bothers to copy it onto "current" media.

Obsolete media -- floppies and even old hard drives -- get thrown on the trash heap, not donated to the local church bazaar.

Interesting point Jim - I just don't see how it relates to my post. I was referring (as quoted) to your point about MP3 "providers".

Oops! Sorry for mixing up the contexts.

 

Still, I would go back to my earlier comment about managers. Too often they don't think in terms of utility or simplicity, but of demonstrating their ability to "manage". All that's needed is one, who decides to "clean house", especially if (s)he does it during a conversion to a new storage system, where the old system then gets discarded.

 

Not guaranteed, I admit, but I've seen similar things happen all too often.

[JimLucas]

I think it finally has reached the point where some people are changing their habits. In the past few months, I have seen a dramatic increase in ridership on public transportation. I'm fortunate to live in a city with an excellent rail system, but lots of Americans live in suburban areas that are "planned" in a way that discourages public transportation and pedestrian/bicycle travel.

No joke!

 

A few years back, someone I know -- an architect also actively involved in community planning -- had to wage a major battle to get a footpath of a couple hundred yards (meters) constructed through the woods between two new housing developments where folks would otherwise have had to drive several roundabout miles to get from one to the other.

[Woody]

....Still, I would go back to my earlier comment about managers. Too often they don't think in terms of utility or simplicity, but of demonstrating their ability to "manage". All that's needed is one, who decides to "clean house", especially if (s)he does it during a conversion to a new storage system, where the old system then gets discarded.

It can happen - a notable case with the Police in the UK comes to mind. However, in my experience working running systems, Managers get very nervous about taking such final decisions and so err on the side of caution - particularly when storage is so cheap - so when you migrate from one hardware to another you end up taking all the rubbish with you "just in case". Of course when you migrate from that "new" system to an even newer one you still take the garbage with you "just in case".

 

It then reaches a stage where you've got this data or software on your system, it's years old, nobody is around that really remembers what it's for, the documentation's been lost along the way, but it's obviously important because why else would it have been taken from system to system for all those years? What do you do with it? You'd better not touch it "just in case".

 

- W

[bellowbelle]

Got busy coping with the heat wave here and with 'stuff' to do and with my perpetual toothache going on....had meant to post more in this thread.

 

Anyway, nice pics, Jim. That looks like a great idea for a shop and a nice way to to keep CD appreciation alive.

 

We have stores like Borders (books, mainly) -- which have some headphones for listening to CDs but not in the region of the small cafe. That's about the only place that's at all slightly similar, as far as I know.

 

 

Re other coments...

 

I, too, think that an artist's work should be kept as a complete, whole work, if that's how he/she intended it. I like CDs for that reason, too. Nothing wrong with splitting up and picking out songs for the Mp3 player/ipod, but...it's not what I wish to do.

 

Also, as far as preserving something for antiquity --

Again, CDs win over electronic libraries, for me. My daughter might be apt to find and save a physical copy of a homely little CD I'd burned, but -- bother to search through my computer records and such? Naw.

(I suppose, that could raise the question of why I should care, in that case, but -- well, anyway, I speak theoretically.)

 

 

Well, off to deal with heat and toothache and more fun stuff today.