The Demise of the CD Album

[admin]

In the 50s it was the rage, the 45 single. The pop-music industry was born out of the frenzy produced by one-hit wonders and the teenagers that fueled the demand. The singles-market reigned supreme at the cost of quality. Disposable artists were as good as the next big hit and the budding music industry didn't care or want to know about artist development or quality; it was truly an assembly line operation. LPs were by and large ignored by the mass-market, selling in miniscule numbers compared to its sibling the 45.

Discuss "The Demise of the CD Album" here. Read the article.

 

[JackT]

I don't agree with this vision of what the digital music revolution means for the availability of quality music. In fact, I believe it quite possible that it means the opposite.

The production and distribution of music will no longer be dependant on the marketing goals of record labels, or on radio. Both, I believe, will become increasingly less relevent.

What will become more and more common is artists and bands pursuing their own visions without requiring ANYONE else (labels, producers, recording studios, engineers etc.) to be involved. (Of course they could opt for such relationships when they choose.)

So now you have bands that allow you to listen to their albums for free on their websites, and I have purchased a number of excellent albums that would likely NEVER HAVE EXISTED prior to the advent of online digital music. Just two off the top of my head: www.au4-audio.com, www.thelostpatrol.com. There are, of course, countless more, and this will likely only become more and more common.

 

[majorloser]

Cavemen Can Write?

Very good article!!

Must have been tough getting all of that transcribed over from cave paintings.

CD's have been on a down slide for many years. In fact, the whole recording industry has been falling back on their heals for years. The "digital age" has been hurting the income of artists by allowing free exchange of music easily to the masses. And not nesessarily high quality as in MP3's. But it's what the masses want. Will it ever be the same, NO. Does it need to be, NO.

Let's just see what other schemes they can come up with.
Like maybe quality live performances......

 

[Lady Phoenix]

Yeah, it's funny how the single has made a return, though I feel that this has increased my exposure to more artists than it would have if you still had to buy only the LP or full CD of the artists the big labels decided to put out there. I suspect the reason for this is partially due to having the option to only shell out $0.99 to own a new song by a new artist, and partially because, like JackT said, now you can get music from artists who never would have been signed to a big label.

But the same ability to have lots of digital recordings from lots of different artists also equates to a lot of disk space, and that's why compressed MP3s are all the rage. It's a question of quantity over quality, unfortunately. And though I don't think quality is dead, I think those of us who appreciate quality over quantity are in the minority. I say, with the cost of disk space so cheap and the physical size so small these days, why not have both?

 

[Tom Andry]

Must have been tough getting all of that transcribed over from cave paintings.

It's a pain. We get all his submissions on stone tablets. And his handwriting is atrocious!

 

[Joe Schmoe]

I have seen (and purchased) more excellent new CDs in the last couple of years than in the previous four or five. My impression is of both quality and selection increasing.

 

[stratman]

I don't agree with this vision of what the digital music revolution means for the availability of quality music. In fact, I believe it quite possible that it means the opposite.

The production and distribution of music will no longer be dependant on the marketing goals of record labels, or on radio. Both, I believe, will become increasingly less relevent.

What will become more and more common is artists and bands pursuing their own visions without requiring ANYONE else (labels, producers, recording studios, engineers etc.) to be involved. (Of course they could opt for such relationships when they choose.)

So now you have bands that allow you to listen to their albums for free on their websites, and I have purchased a number of excellent albums that would likely NEVER HAVE EXISTED prior to the advent of online digital music. Just two off the top of my head: www.au4-audio.com, www.thelostpatrol.com. There are, of course, countless more, and this will likely only become more and more common.

Hey Jack,

Although its true that bands are accessible online they are miniscule numbers and without the record label's promoting arm (tours, public relation, promos, etc) those band, sadly to say, will be just that, internet bands. For now the greatest number of younger consumers still like their music from the download services. Artists that have staying power and sell records over years and not months are few and far in between with the biggest bulk coming from the 70's and early 80s. As for quality of recording process, it takes money to produce and develop a good record. The internet makes it financially easier for bands to get their music out, but as I said the numbers are small and it's hard to reach a broad audience when you're depending on word of mouth promotion. And unless you plan to do it as a hobby, it's hard to survive on sporadic internet sales.

 

[stratman]

Tom and Major,

You guys are a tough bunch! Ok, so I learned how to write, my cave wife was getting tired of the drawings in the living room. Of course I blamed it on my kid, but she didn't buy it....he can write better than I.

 

[t2surfer]

Full Circle ...

Before records or CD's, musicians made a living playing live music. Then technology came along and created the recording industry, giving employment to a large number of non-musicians. First the 78, then the 45, finally the CD were the media of choice. At some point many musicians stopped giving live performances, because the money rolled in from the sale of recordings. Now technology has advanced to the point where recordings in the form of MP3's can be had for free, so the industry technology enabled is now being destroyed by it. And the musicians now need to make their living giving live performances once again. We've come full circle.

 

[stratman]

The only way your record sells is through mass exposure and that takes money lots of it, in the last couple of decades the industry was caught red-handed in payola scams, radio stations were paid to over-expose certain music, labels, etc. It used to be that as an artist or band performed in bars, jukes, dives of all sorts they developed a local following (provided they were good enough) with the hope of landing a recording contract and put out a record, then through promo tours you would boost sales of your hit or album and hopefully you would have a break-through hit. Without touring you were at the mercy of radio stations, hence payola (record labels making sure their investment in the artist pays off, illegaly of course.) Today the net lets you put out a "free" record, but again without a p.r. machine behind it, it will be destined to be just that: a net song. The odds are against it becoming a "super-hit."

 

[fresno1232001]

DVD-As, as in Aix Records DVD-As

I bought ~15 DVD-As and all of them sounded horrible. That's because most were made by taking old tapes from the 70s and making a DVD-A. Then in fall, 2006 I bought the Beatles "Love" DVD-A and it sounds great. Then I tried an Aix Records DVD-A. BINGO! The owner and chief engineer, Mark Waldrep, PhD in Music from UCLA told me his sound better than most, and is he ever right! They are just fantanstic. He records every performance live and uses hard drives to do it. No artificial reverb, no over-dubs, no heavy digital EQ. So now we see that the DVD-A lossless format CAN be fantastic, when done right. www.aixrecords.com. Try Nitty Gritty Surround, Brand New Opry and Surf City Allstars I get Surround. Also Bach, Brandenburg Concerto. You'll be stunned by the fidelity! So, whole albums are back! I still like LPs best of all and have always thought CDs were utter and complete CRAP. They sound like hell. They are 44.1 kHz, 16 bit word length resolution. DVD-As are 96 kHz, 24 bit word length and far superior to CD. The Aix Records DVD-A are dual disks- DVD-A on one side and DTS 5.1 surround on the other, so they will play in any DVD player. Now, Dr. Waldrep is "migrating to servers" he says. He is starting www.itrax.com summer, 2007. You will be able to download one track at a time. A new phenom. is the "home server". It has a huge harddrive, and you download movies and music into it. It sits in your media room. They are expensive still, $3,000 and up, but prices will fall. They will probably spell the end to disks for movies and music. Dr. Waldrep feels that both BlueRay and HD will fail, and they should due to the stupidity of the makers putting out competing formats. With a home server, you won't need either one. But try an Aix DVD-A. You will hear the true potential of your system for the first time ever. And if you buy one, you get his award winning sampler thrown in for free. About 18 tracks on it. If you buy over $100 worth, shipping is free.

 

[KC HiFi]

I agree something needs to be done on the part of the music industry to improve quality. HDCD, SACD, DVDA, etc, etc. Aren't working for the mainstream.

There are thousands of us who demand quality. But the pure and simple fact is that there are millions out there who care nothing about quality only quantity. How many songs can I stuff onto my ipod? Why can't they compress them more so I can fit more on this thing? those are the questions my 13 year-old son asks.

At this point we are outnumbered by the masses. I only hope that soon the trend does go back to quality. Maybe HD radio can help this out. When you get a chance to hear music in it's pure form it is hard to listen to poor quality ever again.

 

[MichaelJHuman]

I would have some citations. Like some sales numbers from CDs.

I do BELIEVE that CDs are at least somewhat in decline; my own music buying has shifted more to online buying.

But there are some real issues with buying from a source like the iTunes store such their DRM (I believe that might start to change.) Also, while MP4s are great from size perspective, they are a pain in the butt due to the fact I can't play them on all my devices.

The need to manually backup your purchases is annoying. CDs create a nice archive, and sometimes come with interesting liner notes as well.

 

[UFObuster]

Quality...please!

..most of what I've read in this thread I agree with...MP3, etc have a place...but not in a high-quality playback system...If the CD isn't going to be the transport of choice for least-best playback..then we need to know what it will be: SACD? DVD-A?..newer versions of DTS or DD?....I don't know, but please bring it on.
Interestingly, after I did some upgrades to my system, I found that I never really appreciated how good CDs really sound if produced well. Go figure...then I might start listening to vinyl again too!

 

[WmAx]

I bought ~15 DVD-As and all of them sounded horrible. That's because most were made by taking old tapes from the 70s and making a DVD-A. Then in fall, 2006 I bought the Beatles "Love" DVD-A and it sounds great. Then I tried an Aix Records DVD-A. BINGO! The owner and chief engineer, Mark Waldrep, PhD in Music from UCLA told me his sound better than most, and is he ever right! They are just fantanstic. He records every performance live and uses hard drives to do it. No artificial reverb, no over-dubs, no heavy digital EQ. So now we see that the DVD-A lossless format CAN be fantastic, when done right. www.aixrecords.com. Try Nitty Gritty Surround, Brand New Opry and Surf City Allstars I get Surround. Also Bach, Brandenburg Concerto. You'll be stunned by the fidelity! So, whole albums are back! I still like LPs best of all and have always thought CDs were utter and complete CRAP. They sound like hell. They are 44.1 kHz, 16 bit word length resolution. DVD-As are 96 kHz, 24 bit word length and far superior to CD. The Aix Records DVD-A are dual disks- DVD-A on one side and DTS 5.1 surround on the other, so they will play in any DVD player. Now, Dr. Waldrep is "migrating to servers" he says. He is starting www.itrax.com summer, 2007. You will be able to download one track at a time. A new phenom. is the "home server". It has a huge harddrive, and you download movies and music into it. It sits in your media room. They are expensive still, $3,000 and up, but prices will fall. They will probably spell the end to disks for movies and music. Dr. Waldrep feels that both BlueRay and HD will fail, and they should due to the stupidity of the makers putting out competing formats. With a home server, you won't need either one. But try an Aix DVD-A. You will hear the true potential of your system for the first time ever. And if you buy one, you get his award winning sampler thrown in for free. About 18 tracks on it. If you buy over $100 worth, shipping is free.

This sounds like nothing more than an ad. I don't know if you are a shill, or an insanely enthusiastic customer....

-Chris

 

[UFObuster]

This sounds like nothing more than an ad. I don't know if you are a shill, or an insanely enthusiastic customer....

-Chris

....my thoughts went to shill....