A Step Backwards?

[mosrite]

Sorry guys im sure this might have been bitched about before but I just gotta get it off my chest.

The priority in new products/mediums and technologies aimed at the general public now seems to be solely in convenience (at the expense of quality). Let me explain:

The MP3 culture is born out of the convenience of being able to download hundreds of songs and fit hundreds of these songs on your portable MP3 player/laptop/other insidious device. Does this not turn the music into air? Who cares if you can store 1000 or more songs on your tiny MP3 player, does it make your enjoyment of the music better? Apart from the obvious lower fidelity arguement to MP3 as a medium what about the death of the album as a musical journey? It now also seems that we have music servers gaining popularity that will store your billion songs in a nice silver box at home. Wheres the fun in that? wheres the physical satisfaction of taking a CD album out, absorbing the artwork, placing it in the player, reading off the lyrics or the credits. A tangeable object to accompany the music.

Then moving onto video. Im the first to say how much I like DVD as a medium but the new Televisions these days...please! Maybe its because I am in the business but LCD and Plasma have disgraceful image quality compared to a good CRT set. This is not matter of opinion this is fact. No grading engineer would grade a feature film on an LCD or Plasma and most editors choose to cut with CRTs too. The simple reason being that they are far superior in terms of contrast levels, colour reproduction and motion. Now its getting increasingly difficult to find CRT sets in the shops. And the reason for the LCD and Plasma dominance? The convenience of a smaller form factor...

And dont even get me started on media centers...

I really fear for quality. There was a report recently that certain UK regional news gathering producers were considering shooting on mini-dv cameras as opposed to the usual digi beta medium as it would be cheaper and more convenient and the public wouldnt notice the difference, depressing thing is that they are probably right.

Rant over,
Mosrite.

[jabney]

hi Mosrite,

There's a book that deals with this very issue: "The Innovator's Dilemma" by Clayton M. Christensen. You may not like the book's conclusions, but the author makes his case convincingly.

best,

john

[filterayok]

i think being music lovers, and probably surrounding ourselves with music lovers, have created this effect where it seems like music is way to disposable/accessable----but remember, i don't think alot of these 'listeners' are in it for the music---most just wanna hear the pussycat dolls song, and THAT is why the current situation could be considered good----artists that are manufactured, won't sell actual RECORDS----THESE are the cd's that will never be opened and have the artwork admired... look at artist that actually take some artistic role in their music---they ARE selling---kanye's doing just fine, tool is doing fine, coldplay, fine----bands that acutally get people excited will sell... 6-10 years ago, it was music industry heaven as shitloads of disposable crap was marketed toward little girls, and if they wanted to hear the songs, they had to pay for em---but napster showed us that a "hit" song doesnt always correspond to record sales, even a follow up single may not---you have to have an EXCITING act that has an original style or angle, and therin lies the paradox, cause labels tend to get scared by originality, so they keep releasing more disposable shit for the non-music lover, who'll never actually PAY for that song

[Dr.Wu]

I for one totally enjoy the fact that my iPod allows me to have every song i ever purchased on CD in my pocket.
I encode with 256 kbit AAC or 320 kbit MP3 which is impossible to distinguish from uncompressed audio at least when listening to music on the road, train, outdoors etc.
Having instant access to every song in my library actually makes me listen to music a lot more than before and certainly didnt take the enjoyment out of the process.

And for the videothing-i watch my DVDs with a beamer.
Its like having my own little cinema right in my living room and beats watching movies on a TV screen anytime no matter if CRT or LCD.

RU with me?
Dr.Wu