the future of the music...business

i know, who cares? that's my initial thinking seeing the record industry collapse & all it's dependents vanish. these guys really did it to themselves. along the way, they fucked us as often as they could, robbed the artists, & ignored the various plights of their dependents(radio, print, record stores, etc). no one should shed one tear. not one. steve knopper doesn't think so either. his book "appetite for self-destruction" documents the fall of the music business in great detail. this is a link to the nyt review of it:


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/books/07garn.html?ref=books


in the review, one sentence quoting the book rang so beautifully true in my ears:

there's a moment when producers & artists realize that cds "just sounded better than the lp, no matter how much its detractors complain to this day about losing the rich, warm analog sound."

though this isn't directly addressing the collapse of the music business(it's one of many moments that shape this particular historical account), it does address my firm belief that the new digital technology isn't ruining my experience of the music or somehow undermining the intentions & efforts of the artists.

i don't care that neil young thinks that when i listen to cds (or by extension an mp3)my "mind has been tricked but the heart is sad." there is nothing sad about being able to download the one listenable track from neil's latest w/o having to pay for the rest of the dreck on the album. & you can stop quoting all the scientific data detailing how the compression of the files must degrade the quality of the recording because what you can not bring me is the scientiful data detailing the percentage of human ears capable of discerning that degradation. & i don't mean personal testimonies from all those folks who SAY they can hear it.


the nyt's verdict on knopper's book is mixed(they mention two others, "hit men" by fredric dannen & "the perfect thing" by steven levy, as being more in depth & better written). i was just happy to catch that one sentence in passing.